This book contains a selection of 18 projects completed in North America by American architects and offers the broadest possible overview of the vast and complex architectural output of the 1990s.
This decade marked an important transitional phase and the metamorphosis of the work of the American masters of the 1960s and 1970s (e. g. Robert Venturi, Cesar Pelli, Charles Gwathmey) with the full affirmation of new masters (e. g. Frank Gehry, Steven Holl and Peter Eisenman) and the emergence of new generations represented by Asymptote, William and Tsien, Ro. To. and Erik Owen Moss.
This journey through contemporary American architecture also tries to tell of a new geographical complexity no longer restricted to the major urban centres - the traditional locations for avant- garde architecture e. g. New York and Los Angeles. It has thus been extended to show the work of the Patkau group in Canada, Will Bruder in Arizona and Antoine Predock in New Mexico as new examples of research attentive to traditional production and to the context. Also of interest are the various building types represented, ranging from new museum complexes (e. g. Richard Meier's Getty Center, Robert Venturi's ethnographic museum in Seattle and Frank Gehry's Weisman Art Center) to residential projects (e. g. Erik Owen Moss's Samitaur, a New York residence by William and Tsien and the Carlson- Reges residence in Los Angeles by Ro. To.) and a number of public works such as Bruder's new library in Phoenix, the extension of the New York Stock Exchange by Asymptote and Steven Holl's chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle.