PERSPECTA 9 / 10
THE YALE ARCHITECTURE JOURNAL
Robert A. M. Stern [Editor]
Robert A. M. Stern [Editor]: PERSPECTA 9 / 10: THE YALE ARCHITECTURE JOURNAL. New Haven, CT: Departments of Architecture and Design, Yale University, 1965. Square Quarto. Perfect-bound and side-stitched stiff brown chipboard wrappers. Printed dust jacket attached at spine [as issued]. 336 pp. Text and illustrations. Trivial rubbing to glossy black jacket. Beautifully preserved copy housed in the original, matching mailing box. A fine copy of this early issue of the influential journal.
9.5 x 11.75 journal with 336 pages heavily illustrated with original artwork, photography, plans and diagrams with a few trade advertisements. Issue design and typography by Jerry Meyer. Limited circulation and uncertain financial backing have combined to make the early issues of Perspecta notoriously difficult to locate. A significant piece of American architectural history. First appearance of sections from Robert Venturi's 'forthcoming book: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture'.
- In Memoriam: Robert Ernest [9 pages with 19 black and white illustrations]
- Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture: Selections from a Forthcoming Book by Robert Venturi [17 pages with 81 black and white text illustrations followed by a portfolio of Venturi et al.'s work (23 pages with 11 projects and approx. 60 black and white illustrations)]. Venturi published his "gentle manifesto," Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture" in 1966, described in the introduction by Vincent Scully to be "probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier's 'Vers Une Architecture', of 1923." Derived from course lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, Venturi received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 1965 to aid in its completion. The book demonstrated, through countless examples, an approach to understanding architectural composition and complexity, and the resulting richness and interest. Drawing from both vernacular and high-style sources, Venturi introduced new lessons from the buildings of architects both familiar (Michelangelo, Alvar Aalto) and then forgotten (Frank Furness, Edwin Lutyens). He made a case for "the difficult whole" rather than the diagrammatic forms popular at the time, and included examples -- both built and unrealized -- of his own work to demonstrate the possible application of the techniques illustrated within.
- You Have to Pay for the Public Life by Charles W. Moore [37 pages with 120 black and white text illustrations and a fold-out map of Disneyland followed by a portfolio of Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull & Whitaker (9 pages with 45 black and white illustrations)]
- Reflections on Buildings and the City: The Realism of the Partial Vision by Romaldo Giurgola [24 pages with 43 black and white illustrations]
- Aalto vs. Aalto: The Other Finland by Henry-Russell Hitchcock [36 pages with 138 black and white illustrations including the work of Raymond Hood, Eliel Saarinen, H. S. McKay, Otto Wagner, C. L. Engel, Viljo Rewell, Arne Ervi, Alvar Aalto, J. S. Siren and Brygmann]
- Whence and Whither: The Processional Element in Architecture by Philip Johnson [12 pages with 25 black and white illustrations]
- Some Remarks on Architecture by Peter Millard
- The Office of Earl P. Carlin by Robert A. M. Stern [16 pages with 48 black and white illustrations]
- Henry Hobson Richardson: Some Unpublished Drawings
- Replication Replicated, or Notes on American Bastardy by G. L. Hersey
- Paul Rudolph: Proposed Expansion of the Architect's Office/The Architect's Apartment [14 pages with 34 black and white illustrations]
- The New City Hall at Boston: A Portfolio of Sketches and Drawings by Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles
- Doldrums in the Suburbs by Vincent Scully [10 pages with 45 black and white illustrations including the work of Walter Gropius, Harwell Hamilton Harris, William Wilson Wurster, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Clarence Mayhew, Marcel Breuer, Paul Klee, Le Corbusier, Pietro Belluschi and Mies van der Rohe among others]
- Remarks on Continuity and Change by Edward L. Barnes [8 pages with 14 black and white illustrations]
- What Can Historians Do for Architects? by George A. Kubler
- Youth and Age in Architecture by Adolf K. Paczek
- Remarks by Louis I. Kahn [33 pages with 52 black and white illustrations]
Founded in 1952, Perspecta is the oldest student-edited architectural journal in the United States and the first that devoted its pages to the artistic, historical and theoretical aspects of architecture. From its earliest issues, essays published in Perspecta changed the way people thought about architecture. Highly recommended for both form and content.
"The publication of Perspecta marked the beginning of a new kind of critical discourse about architecture," said Robert A. M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. "Although Perspecta was never a mass-market publication, its impact on the field has belied its numbers. The journal was -- and continues to be -- an intellectual showpiece for the Yale School of Architecture and an important presence in the design community."