Archinect - News

The lessons we’re still ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ after 50 years

2023-01-27T16:32:00-05:00

What struck me when I went back to reread the book is how deliberately it works to collapse the distance, and therefore the distinction, between enthusiasm and skepticism, and ultimately between documentation and critique. Above all, “Learning from Las Vegas” argues for a curious and open-minded anti-utopianism, for understanding cities as they are rather than how planners wish they might be—and then using that knowledge, systematically and patiently won, as the basis for new architecture.

Yale’s new visiting critic Christopher Hawthorne considers the lasting inspirational qualities and history of Steven Izenour, Denise Scott Brown, and Robert Venturi's seminal 1972 text, whose origins can be traced to a studio the young newlyweds taught in New Haven in the fall of 1968. Hawthrone places it alongside Reynar Banham’s Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies — published the year before — in an antiquated canon but says its impartial tone should be emulated by a new generation of high-minded designers hoping to dismantle or improve the pernicious social and environmental ramparts of our young century.

Related three-part feature series on Archinect: Learning from 'Learning from Las Vegas' with Denise Scott Brown, Part 1: The Foundation; Part 2: Pedagogy; Part 3: Research

“'To tear down Paris and begin again' is not so far, in spirit, from the current mood, even if the political goals of many young architects are quite different from those of the right-leaning Le Co...

Denise Scott Brown says she's not pleased with Selldorf Architects' Sainsbury Wing redesign

2022-11-28T15:19:00-05:00

A considerable row has sprung up concerning Selldorf Architects' controversial revamp of the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing after one of its original co-designers, Denise Scott Brown, made comments over the weekend indicating a disagreement and lack of support for the currently under-review proposal.

"She’s making our building look like a circus clown," Scott Brown told The Guardian's James Tapper without elaborating on which specific elements the already widely-opposed plans she has an issue with. "There are elements of tragedy – circus clowns are made up to look happy, but they’re not. This is a circus clown wearing a tutu."

Selldorf had previously mentioned in an April New York Times preview of her MOCA San Diego makeover and in another Architects Journal update from August that she had spoken with Scott Brown about both projects. During our coverage of the Sainsbury Wing in October, Seldorf said, "she has been counseled by the wing's original co-architect Denise Scott Brown ...

Denise Scott Brown remembers John Rauch, long-time partner and influential driver of postmodernism, who passed away aged 91

2022-08-25T12:18:00-04:00

An influential figure in the development of American postmodernism has been lost after news that former Venturi, Scott Brown partner John Rauch passed away in Philadelphia last week.

Rauch was born and raised in the city and educated at Wesleyan University and UPenn before entering the profession following his service in the U.S. Army. He was an early champion of the work of his partner Robert Venturi and would, through their combined efforts under the then-moniker Venturi and Rauch, contribute to formative projects including the influential Vanna Venturi house and Fire Station #4 that defined the scope and trajectory of architecture for another thirty years.

Fire Station #4 in Columbus, Indiana. Image courtesy Library of Congress

The practice continued to evolve after the addition of Denise Scott Brown in 1969 and publication of Learning from Las Vegas in 1972. Rauch would again be instrumental in the selection of major higher-ed commissions for Yale, Princeton, and Ohio State Unive...

Annabelle Selldorf goes inside her long-awaited Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego design

2022-04-29T12:06:00-04:00

“People always think we do sensitive historical renovations, but that’s not all we do,” “It matters a great deal because it’s new,” Ms. Selldorf said of the San Diego museum. “It’s my biggest new-built institution. And it stands on its own two feet.”

NYT writer Ted Loos went to San Diego for a visit to the just reopened Museum of Contemporary Art with the doyenne of the typology who talked about the renovation’s overarching mission to “greater clarity across the history of all the building types” and her personal desire to leave Irving Gill’s original 1916 structure “completely unencumbered.”

Image courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Selldorf acknowledged the early preservation effort championed by Denise Scott Brown indicating that it was a major focus not to alter her 1996 design as much as possible, adding that it was her “only regret” that they didn’t meet before the project was inaugurated in 2015. She described the end result as “a space that is well-balanced, well-proportioned, calm, focused and not about gesture” and closed by mentioning its intention in the context of the development of the museum's audience.

“I thought about how I can bring people in, and make them feel like they are welcome there,” she said...

Tyler School of Art and Architecture presents Learning to See: Denise Scott Brown exhibition through September 18, 2021

2021-07-19T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University

This summer, Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University presents Learning to See : Denise Scott Brown, an immersive show examining Denise Scott Brown’s defining views on architecture and urbanism understood through her photographs of cities and landscapes taken throughout her life, and largely during the 1960s and 1970s.

The exhibition is open to the public through September 18, 2021.

Denise Scott Brown, who has based her architectural practice in Philadelphia since the late 1960s, says, “I have never thought of myself as a photographer, only an architect and urbanist, but for seven decades I have taken photographs and use photography to illustrate the ideas behind what I teach, design and write. These reflect so much of who I am.”

Learning to See : Denise Scott Brown is a parallel storytelling of Scott Brown’s iconographic legacy with her thoughts on architecture and the environme...

Postmodern pioneer: Manga biography celebrates Denise Scott Brown

2021-02-04T12:38:00-05:00

I had to experience European buildings through photos. For me, photography became a critical way to understand architecture...

The Vilcek Foundation has partnered with artist and illustrator Hiroki Otsuka to create a series of manga – graphic comics in the Japanese tradition – about our prizewinners. The first manga centers the life and work of Denise Scott Brown, recipient of the 2007 Vilcek Prize in Architecture. “Denise Scott Brown is one of the most influential American architects of the twentieth century. A pioneer of postmodernist thinking, her designs are rooted in a highly theoretical framework,” says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. “We are delighted with the way Hiroki captured these elements of Denise’s life and work for this manga.”

Documentary explores the lives of 4 innovative women in architecture

2020-08-10T12:16:00-04:00

City Dreamers is a Canadian documentary directed by Joseph Hillel that looks at the lives of Phyllis Lambert, Denise Scott Brown, Cornelia Oberlander, and Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, all notable powerhouses in architecture and design who were among some of the first women to rise to prominence within the male dominated industry of the time.

Founding and creating the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal is probably one of Phyllis Lambert's greatest feats. Apart from working with the likes of Mies van der Rohe and receiving honorary degrees from roughly 26 universities, Lambert has also built a commendable career as a philanthropist.

Denise Scott Brown's work along with her husband, Robert Venturi is often regarded as some of the most influential amongst twentieth century architectural discourse. Learning from Las Vegas is a favorite. But, perhaps even more notably, Scott Brown grew to become a powerful advocate for Women in Architecture and continues to be a symbol for equality...

Hawthorne and Wagner on Robert Venturi's theory impact

2018-10-01T14:01:00-04:00

The idea of the “both-and” suggested a new pluralism, and maybe a new tolerance, in architecture. But the phrase turned out to have its limits. To the extent that Venturi was making an argument in favor of a kind of big-tent populism in architecture, it was a space for new styles instead of new voices, new forms rather than new people. In fact, tucked inside Complexity and Contradiction is an argument for a renewed insularity in the profession [...].

Christoper Hawthorne, former LA Times architecture critic and now Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, dissects Robert Venturi's 1966 book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (which famously scoffs at the Miessian classical Modernism with the "less is a bore" tagline), and argues in his piece in The Atlantic that the array of new choices the book offered also limited architecture's broader access to the public and diversity in the profession.

Meanwhile in another publication of the Atlantic network, McMansion Hell blogger Kate Wagner is out with a CityLab article on how Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour's 1972 Learning from Las Vegas influenced an entire generation of architects, and her personally: "I came from Anywhere, U.S.A., far, far away from any great works of architecture," she writes. "Venturi’s elevation of everyday buildings made me feel seen, made me feel like the places I had observed, and my appreciation for them, were valid and me...

Architect Robert Venturi dies at age 93

2018-09-19T16:03:00-04:00

From VSBA Architects:

Trailblazing architect, and 1991 Pritzker winner, Robert Venturi has passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife and life-long business partner Denise Scott Brown.

Their firm Venturi Scott Brown Associates, now VSBA Architects & Planners based in Philadelphia, has published a brief statement:

Robert Venturi, one of the world’s leading architects, has died at the age of 93. He passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday after a short illness.

An expanded statement about Bob’s incredible life will be coming in the next few days. For now, Denise Scott Brown and James Venturi have asked that we respect their wishes for privacy while they grieve.

All of us at VSBA are heartbroken. Viva Bob.

Preservation groups urge to save Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown-designed postmodern Abrams House from demolition

2018-09-07T15:36:00-04:00

With more and more buildings of the postmodern school regaining media attention—either by entering the realm of heritage protection or by getting contemporary makeovers (essentially taking the Po out of PoMo)—we've now learned about another threatened structure, designed in the late 1970s by Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown (DSB was awarded the 2018 Soane Medal earlier this week).

The Society of Architectural Historians and Docomomo US have issued a joint statement calling for the protection of the Abrams House in Pittsburgh, calling it a "landmark of American architecture" and a "significant example" of American postmodern architecture on a par with the AT&T Building and the Portland Municipal Services Building.

Image: realtor.com, via docomomo-us.org.

Here's an excerpt of the statement:

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) and Docomomo US express strong opposition to the demolition of the Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown-designed Abrams House, 118A Woodland Road, Pittsburgh...

Facsimile of the first hard cover edition of Learning from Las Vegas published by MIT press

2017-10-03T13:16:00-04:00

Now, decades after the original hardcover edition sold out, the MIT Press is publishing a facsimile edition of the original large-format Cooper-designed edition of Learning from Las Vegas, complete with translucent glassine wrap. This edition also features a spirited preface by Denise Scott Brown, looking back on the creation of the book and explaining her and Robert Venturi’s reservations about the original design.

45 years after its first publication, the groundbreaking book, Learning from Las Vegas, is still read, purchased and studied by architecture and urban planning students, thinkers and practitioners around the world.

Last year Archinect spoke with Denise Scott Brown about the Learning from Las Vegas on three themes: foundation, pedagogy, research.

MIT press is republishing a facsimile of the long discontinued, first hard cover edition of the book. The facsimile is sold for 100 dollars, much more than the paper back, but still much cheaper than the few remaining originals sold on the rare book market!

Denise Scott Brown awarded the Jane Drew Prize

2017-02-07T12:33:00-05:00

Denise Scott Brown, one of the most influential architects and architectural writers of the second half of the twentieth century, has been awarded the Jane Drew Prize. The Prize recognizes an architecture designer responsible for elevating the role of women in the profession.

According to Architects Journal, the awarding is, in part, a result of a grassroots effort to see Scott Brown recognized equally for her role in the work produced by Venturi Scott Brown, the studio she founded alongside her husband, Robert Venturi. In 1991, Venturi was awarded the discipline’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, while Scott Brown was snubbed—an omission largely credited to internalized or structural sexism.

A petition was launched in 2013 to award Scott Brown the Pritzker alongside her husband, but the organization would not budge. Eventually, they decided to allow recognition of partners with the awards, but wouldn’t retroactively change the awarding.

Last year, Archinect conducted a three-part i...

Read an excerpt from the new “Where Are the Women Architects?” book

2016-04-11T20:08:00-04:00

As the stories of Hadid and Scott Brown show, the pairing of architecture prizes (or at least the big ones) and women raises hackles. Hadid won the Pritzker Prize amid talk that she did not deserve it; Scott Brown did not win the prize amid talk that she did not deserve it. No solo female architect has won the Pritzker Prize since Hadid, nor has a husband-and-wife architectural team ever been honored. Indeed, to date, of the 39 Pritzker Prize laureates, only two (or about 5 percent) are women.

Excerpted from her new book, Despina Stratigakos sheds some light on the Pritzker's lack of awarding women architects in their own right.

Golden Years: Saluting joint creativity with Denise Scott Brown, on Archinect Sessions #45

2015-12-10T18:55:00-05:00

On the happy and historic occasion of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi being jointly awarded the 2016 AIA Gold Medal, we speak with Brown about whether this could be a watershed moment for architecture, and the long road that she and Robert took to arriving here. We last spoke with Brown on episode #39, when the Vanna Venturi house hit the market.

If we accept that accolades like the Gold Medal have the influence to (potentially) nudge the profession in certain directions, then this time – the first the award has been given jointly, and to a living woman – could signal a movement towards increased inclusivity, and a reevaluation of collaborative agency.

Listen to episode 45 of Archinect Sessions, "Golden Years":

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Denise Scott Brown wins AIA Gold Medal

2015-12-02T19:48:00-05:00

Along with her husband and partner-in-design Robert Venturi, it was announced on Twitter that 84-year-old Denise Scott Brown has been awarded the 2016 AIA Gold Medal. Denise Scott Brown, who spoke to Archinect earlier this year, did not win the Pritzker when it was awarded to Robert Venturi back in 1991, a glaring omission that has consistently been called out for redress in the architectural press (to no avail).

The AIA chose to recognize Scott-Brown and Venturi's work on The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London and the Franklin Court Independence Historic National Park in Philadelphia as some of the numerous groundbreaking works that have rightfully placed Scott-Brown in one of architecture's most prestigious registers.

Latent Complexity: Denise Scott Brown and Katherine Darnstadt (Latent Design) on Archinect Sessions #39

2015-07-23T20:24:00-04:00

We're very excited to have Denise Scott Brown on this episode, to share some family history behind the Vanna Venturi house – the house that her husband and collaborator, Robert Venturi, built for his mother in 1965, and helped set a new tone for 20th century architectural history. The house is now for sale, listed at $1.75M.

Also joining us on this week's episode is Katherine Darnstadt of Latent Design in Chicago. A native Chicagoan who trained and practices as an architect there, Katherine shares her reflections on building a practice and connecting to a city. We met Katherine back in May at the AIA National Convention, and have been itching to have her on the podcast since.

We also touch on the bonkers news item that is Japan canceling the Zaha Hadid designs for its Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, citing overwhelming construction costs.

And finally, we're nearing the end – of Archinect Sessions' first season. This episode is our second to last, and after #40 we'll be taking a short break, ...

Robert Venturi, Prince Charles & that false Corinthian column

2015-05-05T13:53:00-04:00

Today it houses one of London’s best permanent collection displays, but the 1991 Sainsbury Wing extension to the National Gallery in London was almost scuppered when Prince Charles and the other trustees opposed the architect of the new building, Robert Venturi. The row was over a false Corinthian column that the US architect wanted as a decorative feature on the Trafalgar Square façade of the new extension.

Learning from Las Vegas: a look at the Strip through urban planning lenses

2015-02-10T14:07:00-05:00

Al describes CityCenter as the product of “the Bilbao effect: the notion that buildings designed by celebrity architects bring in tourists, and in particular a higher-end type of visitor”. MGM’s version was to bring in name-brand architects such as Daniel Libeskind, Helmut Jahn and Norman Foster [...]. “It goes against the casino design convention,” Al says, “by having towers that let in natural light and meet the street the way buildings do in other cities” – with retail spaces, not gaming.

Editor's Picks #338

2013-10-22T11:45:00-04:00

Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning...Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (perhaps both?), Darkman criticized "The BLDGBLOG type inquiry walks a fine line between futurism and self-indulgance"

For the latest edition of the In Focus series, dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better, Archinect spoke with Stockholm-based English photographer Robin Hayes.

Plus, Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Therein he explains "The exhibit seems to argue that the site of misbehavior and appropriation is shifting from the tagged surfaces of graffiti to aberrant spatial practices of collection and documentation...The show is a mixed bag, displaying everything from a metaphoric play on US intelligence procedures to a pragmatic consumer drone kit. Notably absent is any attempt at using drones for the fabrication of habitable spaces".

Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (per...

Denise Scott Brown and the myth of individual creativity

2013-10-17T21:43:00-04:00

Modern architecture, despite breaking with the past stylistically, nonetheless maintains this image of the gifted architect as a lone autonomous genius who overcomes gravity and prevails over his client [...] Rather than an inner activity done in solitude, it has been found that people often discover their thoughts and ideas through interactions with others [...] The centrality of collaboration in architecture is often overlooked in a culture celebrating and branding “starchitects.”

Referring to recent statistics concerning women in architectural practice and the Denise Scott Brown Pritzker controversy, architect Esther Sperber calls for an overhaul of how we think about creativity and authorship in architecture. Her piece for Lilith, "Revising Our Ideas about Collective Inspiration", argues that what is perceived as "creative genius" relies on cultural and social affirmation, and is therefore a necessarily collective act.

Endorsing D.S.B.'s demand that the architecture community "salute the notion of joint creativity", Sperber's piece recognizes issues of gender inequality within the practice, but is more concerned with the whole notion of individual intellectual ownership -- creativity just doesn't work this way, and prestigious awards shouldn't either.

As creative industries adapt "orchestrated serendipity" strategies to capitalize on collaborative processes, the presumption that intellectual production belongs to any one individual dissolves. Sperber'...

Editor's Picks #320

2013-06-19T12:19:00-04:00

For the latest edition of the Student Works: series Archinect featured the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) library pavilion, located on a sloping lawn on the temporary Dover Campus. The gridshell structure designed by City Form Lab had to accommodate three mature trees and forms a noise barrier toward the Ayer Raja Expressway in the north. Especially noteworthy we read "The pavilion is designed to be dismantled and recycled after two years". For his part TED liked what he saw writing "Nice stuff - well done"...

News
American Public Media’s Marketplace examined the resurgence of Midtown, a small pocket of Detroit that is thriving.

observant believed "There is such a dichotomy between Bloomfield Hills et. al. and the decaying part of the core...The city is probably more in need of urban designers, planners, sociologists, and economists at this point than it is starchitects producing concepts for individual buildings".

The NYT reported that the Pritzker Pr...

Kazy Varnelis says, "Good riddance, Pritzker"

2013-06-15T14:12:00-04:00

The sort of patronizing language used in the letter by Lord Palumbo is all too familiar. It is the voice of money and authority, the same sort of voice that spoke out against the rights of the women, the poor, and minorities. It is, alas, the voice of what Brown describes as the "sad white men's award."

Pritzker jury will not revisit decision to exclude Denise Scott Brown

2013-06-14T19:28:00-04:00

“Insofar as you have in mind a retroactive award of the prize to Ms. Scott Brown, the present jury cannot do so” -Peter Palumbo, the Pritzker chairman

No Pritzker Prize for Denise Scott Brown and no more pretzels for you guys! Boooooooo!

Unforgetting Women Architects

2013-06-03T17:15:00-04:00

A historian might spend decades undertaking research in archives and writing up discoveries in scholarly journals, but if the work does not have a presence online — and, specifically, a presence that is not behind a paywall — it is all but invisible outside academia. As Ridge states, “If it’s not Googleable, it doesn’t exist.”

Over the decades women architects have received scant attention from historians and prize juries. On Places, Despina Stratigakos writes, "The painful cancellation of Denise Scott Brown in the awarding of the Pritzker Prize solely to her husband and collaborator, Robert Venturi, is an important but hardly exceptional example of how female partners are written out of history by a profession suffering from Star Architect Disorder, or SAD." Stratigakos argues that it's time to write women back into history — and that the place to start is Wikipedia.

Robert Stern refuses to sign petition for Pritzker to grant joint prize to Denise Scott Brown

2013-04-18T14:25:00-04:00

Robert A. M. Stern, the dean of Yale’s Architecture School, said he declined to sign the petition because he objected to its use of the word “demand,” but that he backed it in principle. “It would be wonderful for the Pritzker committee to review the situation and to offer her the prize,” Mr. Stern said. “The nature of the collaboration was so intense on every level.”

Denise Scott Brown discusses her "unusual situation"

2013-04-05T16:30:00-04:00

Naturally, there were some projects that Bob worked on more and others that I worked on more. Sometimes our collaboration was more close than others. But I think our best projects were when we worked together. I remember so many real tousles—and those were the projects that worked out best.

The co-founder of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates (now VSBA) talks to ARCHITECT about a petition to put her name on the 1991 Pritzer Architecture Prize, about sexism in architecture, and about her career in design.

h/t Ana María León

Editor's Picks #309

2013-04-02T11:00:00-04:00

Archinect was excited to announce a competition we're co-hosting with Designer Pages and the LA Film Festival. This competition seeks proposals for the interior design/layout of the VIP Director's Lounge for this year's LA Film Festival. The winner will have their design executed, with a cash prize and an "Industry Badge" pass to the LA Film Festival in June. The winner's designs will also be on display in the director's lounge throughout the festival.

News
The Architect’s Journal reported that Denise Scott Brown has called for her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 win to be acknowledged retrospectively as a salute to "the notion of joint creativity" and retrospectively acknowledge her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 Pritzker Prize during an AJ Women in Architecture luncheon in late March. Since, nearly 2,000 advocates have passionately rallied in Brown’s support by signing an online petition created by Harvard’s GSD Woman in Design Group. Among the signatures include architects Zaha...

Call for Denise Scott Brown to be given Pritzker recognition

2013-03-25T17:18:00-04:00

In a speech prepared for the AJ Women in Architecture lunch, Scott Brown called on her role in Robert Venturi’s 1991 win to be acknowledged retrospectively. Describing it as a ‘very sad’ situation, she said: ‘They owe me not a Pritzker Prize but a Pritzker inclusion ceremony. Let’s salute the notion of joint creativity.’