Stanley Tigerman (1930–2019)

Archeworks was founded in 1994 by Stanley Tigerman and Eva Maddox as "an alternative design school with a difference." Ten years later, according to Tigerman in the school's first Paper, Archeworks found a trajectory, a purpose it could call its own. That direction is expressed in this book in a transcript of a lecture given at the school by design scholar Victor Margolin, accompanied by responses by Doug Garofalo, Maddox, and Tigerman. This structure should be a familiar one to those who follow Tigerman; he took a similar approach with The Chicago Tapes, among other books he has edited. Only four more Papers were published by Archeworks, all part of Volume 1; the last came in 2008 when Tigerman and Maddox stepped down. It appears that the school's publishing efforts ceased in 2011, which is not surprising given the effort required to publish. Therefore these little books have become little collector's items, alternative ones at least, just like the school.… (mehr)

Like the earlier "Charlottesville Tapes," this book documents a conference where two-dozen architects presented projects that were critiqued by the other assembled architects. The Hull House at the University of Chicago in 1986 replaced the Rotunda at the University of Virginia in 1983, but many of the names were the same (Robert A.M. Stern, Frank Gehry, Cesar Pelli, Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas, etc.), and while I haven't seen the predecessor, I'd wager many of the issues were the same, since we're talking about a three year difference in the middle of the 1980s, as architects were grappling with Postmodernism. The diversity of the architects is refreshing, given that the above names are accompanied by Thomas Beeby, Leon Krier, Michael Graves, and others; most interesting to read are the lively back-and-forth comments on projects that were just completed or underway. Unfortunately the series didn't continue, perhaps due to the impending rise of Deconstructivism and the inaccessible theorizing that accompanied too much of it; this book and conference points to a more open and accessible way of discussing architecture.… (mehr)