On architecture: collected reflections on a century of change

The joy of architecture Pt. I. The way we were: The Sixties: modernism USA, World of the absurd ; The Seventies: Forward, backward, sideways ; The Eighties: Breaking the rules ; The Nineties: The new architecture Pt. II. The way we built: 20th century icons and images Pan Am: The big, the expedient, and the deathlessly ordinary ; CBS: Eero Saarinen's somber skyscraper ; The Whitney's bold new look ; General Motors: a mixed marble bag ; Boston's new City Hall ; It's so peaceful in the country ; The building you love to hate ; The Meier superstyle ; Order in the courthouse ; Libraries in London and Paris Washington The New House Office Building ; A look at the Kennedy Center ; Full speed backward ; A beurocratic behemoth of a library Museums The Sixties: What should a museum be? ; Misalliance on the mall ; The Eighties: The Guggenheim Bilbao ; Art and architecture as one ; Hot museums in a cold climate ; Museums: making it new Skyscrapers The tall building artistically reconsidered ; Skyscraper art rides high ; The myth of the invulnerable skyscraper ; Tall, taller, tallest Pt. III. Modernism and its masters: Le Corbusier: Bold Harvard structure ; Architect of today's world ; The changing "truth" of Le Corbusier ; Flexible enough to endure Mies Van Der Rohe: The soaring towers that gave form to an age ; The making of a master Alvar Aalto: Alvar Aalto, Finnish master ; A library in Oregon ; Where they do it right ; An enduring legacy Louis Kahn: Exeter Library: paean to books ; The meaning of a wall ; Seeking the father, finding the architect Walter Gropius: The future grows old Frank Lloyd Wright: Wright mythology ; Fallingwater: a marriage of nature and art Pt. IV. Modernism and its discontents Mutations in the Modern Movement Rebuilding architecture Reinventing architecture: Moving on ; Don't call it kookie ; The case for chaos ; Plastic flowers are almost all right ; The Venture antistyle ; Michael Graves's personal language ; The austere world of Rossi ; John Hejduka mystic and poet ; Philip Johnson: clever tricks or true art? ; The man who loved architecture ; Reflections on the glass house ; Remebering architecture's dream team ; Going Dutch ; Architecture: the bold and the beautifula tale of two Franks ; French elegance hits midtown Manhattan ; Too much of a good thing? Rewriting history: Mackintosh: a genius to be reckoned with ; Peacock feathers and pink plastic ; Beaux Artsthe latest avant-garde ; Rediscovering Chicago architecture ; Sir Edwin Landseer Luytens and the cult of the recent past ; Discovering Ivan Leonidov ; The first hundred years: McKim, Mead & White ; Holabird and Root ; Resurrecting a prophetic ninteenth-century practitioner ; Born-again modernism ; Modernism in perspective ; The man who remade New York

Pt. V. New York

Adding up the score ; King of checkerboards ; Manhattan's landmark buildings today ; Huntington Hartford's palatial midtown museum ; Columbus Circle: a project without a plan ; The best way to preserve 2 Columbus Circle ; MoMA's big, new, elegantly understated home ; The Morgan Library's cool new building

World Trade Center: Who's afraid of the big bad buildings? ; "The New York process"

the World Trade Center site ; The art of the deal: six dreadful proposals devoid of artistry ; Rebuilding lower Manhattan ; The next great city center ; Death of the dream ; The disaster that has followed the tragedy

Pt. VI. Failures and follies: A vision of Rome dies ; How we lost lower Manhattan ; Where did we go wrong? ; A conference on cities ; The great American Flag scheme ; The way it never was ; The Hudson Yards: plenty of glitz, little vision

Pt. VII. Taste and style: The melancholy fate of Danish Modern ; Conquering clutter ; Battling the bulge ; Send in the clowns ; When the outrageous became mainstream

Pt. VII. Strictly personal: Growing up in a Beaux Arts world ; Personal landmarks along the highways ; No place like home.