Cynthia Davidson

Architecture & culture writer & editor extraordinaire Cynthia Davidson's expert book series Any brings architects and theorists on the subject of time. As is usual for Davison publications the design is stunning. A must have beautiful book-object. Out of the entire series of Any books the Anytime is one of the best with deep ranging essays on theory and design and culture and architecture and of course because it's Cynthia Davidson - the city. The city / the project of the city looms large in her editorial work and the crafting organizing of the essays is very well done and makes for a well-paced read.

Its deep its architecture its obtuse and not easily accessible for those outside of the field of architecture. Is that a bad thing? Possibly. It does not however make this a terrible book. Its a good read but its academic and its made by academia for academia and professionals.… (more)

This book documents Peter Eisenman's Aronoff Center, completed at the University of Cincinnati in 1996. It is a book I've discussed a couple times on my blog, A Daily Dose of Architecture, first in relation to Eisenman's later City of Culture of Galicia, and then in a short post about skinny books. What I said in those posts still holds true, basically that I like the book because the building was influential during my studies (regardless of its shoddy construction, which I now consider important but not overriding), I like books about buildings, and I like skinny books. Sure, it's a bit obtuse at times, but that is Eisnman and his circle of architects, academics and writers. But as a distillation of the building, the book does a great job. I just wish Charlie Rose didn't pull from his site the episode filmed in the Aronoff Center that focused on the building and contemporary architecture at a time of great technological change. Combined with the book, the two go together really well.… (more)