Michael Rotondi

One of my favorite things to do in undergraduate architecture school was attend lectures, often by architects from other parts of the United States (or even the world) who made the trek to the middle of Kansas. While I enjoyed it, once the lights went down the lack of sleep often caught up with me, until I'd find myself roused out of my nap by the house lights going up again. This did not happen every time, but missing out on a lecture for this reason (rather than the lecture being boring in any way) made me like the idea of lectures transcribed in book form. Nowadays, with YouTube available, it's easier to watch a lecture after the fact, but important lectures can merit the expense and effort of books.

For years the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning made small books for its lectures and exhibitions, including this one on Michael Rotondi's RoTo Architects, which held an exhibition and symposium at the school in Spring 1996. A handsome mini-monograph — with, of all things, a hole going through it (through the last "o" in RoTo) — the whole book can be found on Issuu (https://issuu.com/taubmancollege/docs/map1_roto?e=1469865/1585273), hardly a substitute for the real thing.… (mehr)