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The story of modern architecture is told here through the lives and works of three men who changed the face of the cities we live in.

Le Corbusier gave to progressed design a sure and brilliant sense of form; Mies brought an closely Gothic discipline of structure; and Wright heralded a new and dramatic conception of space and freedom. Through this triple focus, Peter Blake provides a perspective on the entire range of twentieth-century architecture. 129 photographs and 22 drawings

About the AuthorThe late Peter Blake, an architect, once served as head of the architecture and design division of the Museum of Modern Art, editor in chief of Architectural Forum, and chairman of the section of architecture at Catholic University.

Most helpful client reviews

11 of 11 humans found the following review helpful.
The author plays favorites.
By S. Turner
This book seeks to profile three architects of international influence, each of whom has profoundly influenced the built environs we experience today. It provides rich glances into the architectural environs of the early 20th century, and tells a compelling tale of three architects who each shook off the vine-covered frippery of art nouveau in their own way. It's a good book, but upon re-reading it last year, the author's clear bias towards (almost hero-worship of) Le Corbusier came through much more strongly than when I was a neophyte in college. The book paints Mies Van der Rohe as a cold German technocrat with a talent only for efficiency; Frank Lloyd Wright as a pure iconoclast and egomaniac whose vision was so ideosyncratic that it had only fixed influence; and Le Corbusier as a genre-defying revolutionary hero who singlehandedly rescued and reinvented architecture as art. In my opinion, at least, each of these judgments are almost altogether wrong. Even if you kind of agree with Blake's pantheon, the hagiography of Corbu gets a bit embarrasing in places. A great book for the history and context, but I would surely hope that this book wouldn't be the last thing you read in regards to any of these men.

4 of 4 humans found the following review helpful.
Touches the 3 pros topically
By A
Maybe the only book that attempts to compare (rather...state) the big 3. However I think that it degenerates to being a history book that just states facts that are already available in any monograph on each. There is less commentary and more facts. I guess it is a biggeners book to grasp who these men were and what projects they did in their lifetime. The only good thing is that this seems to be the only place where you may read with regards to them as a kind of a time-line.....realizing how each one affected the other.

I wish there was a more discussion and comparison/differentiation of the kind of space that these 3 were talking in regards to and a more exhaustive analysis of their ideologies. Guess we have to wait for an individual else to take that hazardous venture.

3 of 3 humans found the following review helpful.
R. Hunsaker review of: The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright
By Robert Hunsaker
For those fascinated in the development of American architecture, this is an splendid source. It spans the works of the 3 great architects who laid down the guiding principles for modern architecture in the United States and shows the evolution of each. Many of their pretty works are pictured and described by the author, a former architecture school dean. The principles involved and aesthetic calibers are elaborated. It gives an appreciation of how a lot of current architectural styles evolved and also remarks briefly on galore of the failings of today. It also traces the interplay amongst artistic movements - Art Noveau, Cubism, Impressionism, de Stijl - and architecture.

The book is well written, highly literary and often times humorous. It is pleasurable and instructional for any person with an interest in contemporary architecture and the artistic geniuses who developed it as it came in regards to in the United States thru the 20th century.

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