Main entry:

Temko, Allan.

Title & Author:

No way to build a ballpark : and other irreverent essays on architecture / by Allan Temko.

Publication:

San Francisco : Chronicle Books, ©1993.

Description:

271 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes index.
Introduction: Activist Criticism -- I. The Evolving City. San Francisco's Changing Cityscape. Reshaping Super-City: The Problem of Los Angeles. San Jose's Grand Plan for its River. Working in the Suburbs. The Dilemma of Berkeley's Shore -- II. Urban Centers. A Giant Drawn Concrete Bow. Misgivings. A Chance for Greatness. A "City of Tomorrow" Today. A Fountain Deposited by a Dog with Square Intestines. San Jose Center Sets Standard in Public Architecture. Architecture in Small Towns Yields Big Results -- III. Work Places. San Francisco's Newest Tower. The Rich New Temple in the Financial District. Bold State Offices to Save Energy. Levi's Choice -- Be Good or Be Great. GM's Fremont Plant -- The Beauty of Function. An Architectural Joy in Silicon Valley. IBM's New Palace of Technology.
A 27-Story Collection of Architectural Errors. Eighteen Decent Floors of Art Deco Revival -- Then Pow! -- IV. Architecture of Transit. Let's Build a Splendid Bridge! Colossal Boondoggle: S.F.'s Airport Mess. Architecture in Transit: BART. The Expensive Errors in the Ferry Business. A Poetic Conquest of Space. A Work of Engineering Art on the Bay. Southern Pacific Depot in Jeopardy -- V. Schools, Jails and Churches. The Right Architecture for an Acropolis. A Winning Pavilion at Santa Clara. Finding Form Once Again on the Farm. A Campus that Went Astray. Inventive, Generous Design for San Francisco Sheriff's Lockup. Cathedral Plan -- A Good Start. The Restoration of a True San Francisco Monument -- VI. Retail Shopping. Wright's Jewel in Maiden Lane Defaced. After the City of Paris.
Shopping Centers -- New Visions in the Suburbs. The Nut Tree -- An Oasis of Good Taste. The Port's Architectural Fiasco -- Pier 39. Theatrics Packing 'Em In. Rincon Center -- Overblown, but It's Fun -- VII. Hotels, Hospitals and Housing. It's Designed for the Good Times. The Marriott Debate: A Hotel Architects Detest and People Are Crazy About. Resplendent Palace Hotel Reopens. Two Hospitals Too Big for Their Blocks. The Social Art of Architecture for the Poor and Sick. Italian Look for Delancey Street -- VIII. Stadiums and Museums. No Way to Build a Ballpark. A's Coliseum an Architectural Marvel. A Still-Remarkable Gift of Architecture to Oakland. Davies Hall -- Prose, Rather than Poetry. SF MOMA: An Extraordinary Work for San Francisco. Blowing It on Wilshire Boulevard.
What to Do with the Presidio -- IX. Books and Exhibitions. Architectural Theater of the Absurd: The Work of Frank Gehry. Wright's Monumental Contributions: Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas. The Mystery of Julia Morgan. The West's First Modern Architecture.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

With a rare combination of insight, wit, and candor, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Allan Temko has been looking at the world we are building. His provocative essays examine and challenge the architecture of skyscrapers, factories, schools, hotels, shopping centers, mass transit systems, and other structures, as well as raise the larger issues of urban planning and politics. Not content just to stand aloof and review finished buildings, Temko has made criticism a tool for social activism, speaking out before ground is broken and fighting to shape the bridges and convention centers and public spaces that shape our environment.
Regardless of the prestige of the architect or the grandiosity of the project, the author unblinkingly castigates buffoonery, pretense, and blunders, making him one of the nation's most respected advocates of excellence, integrity, and the public interest. These articles and reviews, which have been selected from more than thirty years of writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Architectural Forum, the AIA Journal, and Harper's, analyze the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Morgan, Frank Gehry, Bernard Maybeck, and many other noted and lesser-known architects. In his fight for environmental consciousness and architectural greatness, Allan Temko has given us a new way to look at the world.

ISBN:

081180352X
9780811803526
0811802965
9780811802963
0081182065

Subject:

Architecture California History.
Architecture Californie Histoire.
Architecture.
Architecture California 20th century
Architecture California
California.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 111409
Call No.: ID NA730.C2.T46; ID:94-B749
Status: Available