In the first volume of Makers of Modern Architecture (2007), Martin Filler examined the emergence of that revolutionary new form of building and explored its aesthetic, social, and spiritual aspirations through illuminating studies of some of its most important practitioners, from Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright to, in our own time, Renzo Piano and Santiago Calatrava.
Now, in Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume II, Filler continues his investigations into the building art, beginning with the historical eclecticism of McKim, Mead, and White, best remembered today for New York City’s demolished Pennsylvania Station. He surveys the seemingly inexhaustible flow of new books about Wright and Le Corbusier, and continues his commentaries on Piano's museum buildings with an essay focused on the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles.
Filler remains, in these nineteen essays, a shrewd observer of the pressures on architects and their projects—money, politics, social expectations, even the weight of their own reputations. But his focus is always on the buildings themselves, on their sincerity and directness, on their form and their function, on their capacity to bring delight to the human landscape.
Praise for Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume II:
"This work is a wonderful introduction to 20th-century architecture.... The result is magnificent from start to finish. Filler writes elegant prose that captures the feeling of these buildings in a way that makes illustrations almost unnecessary. He also discusses architecture in a way that will be satisfying both to specialists or practitioners and accessible to nonspecialists. No matter the level of previous experience with architecture, anyone with an interest in the subject will find Filler’s work rewarding."—Publishers Weekly
