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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. — The New Yorker
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
“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.”
— The New York Times
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
I had to experience European buildings through photos. For me, photography became a critical way to understand architecture... — The Vilcek Foundation
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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 [...]. — The Atlantic
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — MIT Press
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — Despina Stratigakos
Excerpted from her new book, Despina Stratigakos sheds some light on the Pritzker's lack of awarding women architects in their own right.More on Archinect:Despina Stratigakos on the emerging "third wave of feminism" in architectureWhy Zaha Hadid's gender and ethnicity mattered so muchWhy... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
