Sight Lines

Résumé du livre

One of today's leading architecture and design critics, Adele Freedman has been influencing readers of such diverse publications asARTnewsandProgressive Architecturefor years. Her article on mavarick architect Peter Dickinson forThe Globe and Mail(where she is a staff critic)--a revised and expanded version of which begins this book--won the prestigious National Newspaper Award for feature writing.
Sight Linesbrings together the best of Freedman's work, from theNew Yorker-style profile of Dickinson, through articles on other internationally renowned architects and designers, to specific projects like the National Gallery in Ottawa and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. She offers fascinating insights into the work of such figures as Jane Jacobs (author ofThe Death and Life of Great American Citieswho left America for Toronto during the Vietnam War), Frank Gehry (the Los Angeles-based Canadian who designed the famous Loyola Law School), Gae Aulenti (who converted an abandoned Paris railroad station into the fabulous Gare D'Orsay museum), and Prince Charles (whose "monstrous carbuncle" speech, assailing the "arrogance" of the architectural profession, will never be forgiven by post-modernists). She also offers a tribute to Ada Louise Huxtable, the most venerable writer on architecture in this century, and in a final section asseses a wide range of modern archictecture, from the futuristic Canadian Museum of Civilization to more utilitarian co-op projects. Enlivened throughout by Freedman's vibrant writing, and illustrated with thirty-five black and white photographs,Sight Lineswill interest anyone who cares about modern architecture and design.