Albert Speer, Antonio Gaudi & Architects on Architects

Albert Speer: The Final Verdict

Albert Speer is a great enigma. An unemployed, mediocre architect when Hitler came to power in 1933, Albert Speer was soon designing the Third Reich's most important buildings, developing grandiose plans to turn Berlin into "Germania, capital of the world," and stage-managing the Nazi Party's Nuremberg rallies.
In 1942 Hitler appointed him Armaments Minister and he quadrupled production, an astonishing achievement that kept the German Army in the field and prolonged the war.
Yet Speer's life was full of contradictions. The only member of the Nazi elite with whom Hitler developed more than a purely functional relationship (he has even been called "Hitler's unrequited love") Speer was always an outsider in Hitler's inner circle. Albert Speer saw himself as an artist, above the crass power struggles of the roughnecks around him, but his enormous ambition made him oblivious to the crimes of anti-Semitism and the devastation of Europe. Spared the death sentence at Nuremberg, Albert Speer went on to rehabilitate himself in the public eye, becoming for many a symbol of German exoneration.
Speer: The Final Verdict by Joachim C. Fest
Harcourt, 2002

Antonio Gaudi: A Biography

At the time of his death in 1926, Antonio Gaudí was arguably the most famous architect in the world. He had created some of the greatest and most controversial masterpieces of modern architecture that were as exotic as they were outrageous. But little is known about the shadowy figure behind the swirling, vivid buildings that inspired the Surrealists. A fervent Catholic with an unstinting love for Catalonia, his homeland, an innovator who was profoundly orthodox, and a hermit who chose lifelong celebacy, having been rejected by the woman he loved, Gaudí was both brilliant and eccentric.
This illustrated biography captures the power and importance of Gaudí's work and the unique spirit of Catalan culture.
Gaudi: A Biography by Gijs Van Hensbergen
HarperCollins, 2001
Antonio Gaudi Biography

Architects on Architects

With the passion of first discovery, today's most notable architects share their most moving and formative encounters with the art and influence of mentors, models, and heroes. Full of spellbinding meetings with legendary figures and outstanding works, told by those most touched by their greatness, this grand voyage among the pinnacles of architecture gives you intimate access to the most original structures and minds of our time. Often you will sit beside geniuses at the moment storied works came into consciousness. Frequently you will share seminal exchanges between great mentors and gifted students. Always you will be entertained by true tales of the origins and transmutations of brilliance.
Diana Agrest on Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein Tadao Ando on Le Corbusier Henry N. Cobb on H. H. Richardson Norman Foster on Paul Rudolph Mario Gandelsonas on Mies van der Rohe Michael Graves on Le Corbusier Vittorio Gregotti on Peter Behrens Charles Gwathmey on Louis I. Kahn Hugh Hardy on William van Alen Arata Isozaki on Le Corbusier Carlos Jimenez on Luis Barragan Sumet Jumsai on Le Corbusier Ricardo Legorreta on Jose Villagran William S. W. Lim on Le Corbusier Richard Meier on Frank Lloyd Wright William Pedersen on Rockefeller Center Cesar Pelli on Eero Saarinen James Polshek on Louis I. Kahn Antoine Predock on The Alhambra Raj Rewal on Fatehpur Sikri Richard Rogers on Maison de Verre Der Scutton Paul Rudolph Robert A. M. Stern on Paul Rudolph Hans Busso von Busse on Paul RudolphHere's a profound, stirring study of how the world's greatest architects influenced the lives and work of others, told in the disciples' own dramatic and awe-filled words. They discuss the career-inspiring achievements of their mentors, designers of some of the most famous structures on Earth. The contributors delve into their mentors' design philosophy, and tell you how the genius of the masters affected their careers, their goals, and their lives.
This candid personal testimony imparts the emotion, inspiration, and wonderment of architecture and vividly demonstrates the power of mentorship and the potential it can unleash. Each original essay is beautifully illustrated with photographs (most in full color) of both the architect's work and that of his or her mentors, providing a visually stunning forum for comparison and learning. In these pages you will hear from Richard Meier on his fruitful association with Frank Lloyd Wright. You will share Diana Agrest's appreciation for the cinematic and structural genius of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. You will read Tadao Ando's account of his enthrallment with Le Corbusier, and the Chappelle Notre Dame du Haut.
Open this book and meet masters of architecture, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Kahn, William van Alen, H. H. Richardson, Eero Saarinen—and their admirers, Cesar Pelli, Michael Graves, Hugh Hardy, Charles Gwathmey, William Pedersen, and 19 more of the great names of today's architecture.
In addition, Architects on Architects lets you appreciate great work and great architects from contrasting perspectives. No fewer than four of today's leading architects, Norman Foster, Der Scutt, Robert A. M. Stern, and Hans Busso von Busse, share awe (and differing reactions) before the mastery of Paul Rudolph. You will also view the highly influential work of modernist Le Corbusier from more than one window.
An ideal book for architecture aficionados, Architects on Architects captures the soul, inspiration, and majesty of architecture. On architects and by architects, it is a work that builders, developers, and architects themselves will feel compelled to own.
Architects on Architects by Susan Kimberly Gray, Paul Goldberger
McGraw-Hill, 2001

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