Case Study Houses by Elizabeth A T Smith, Peter Gssel (Editor)

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Synopsis

Special bestseller price. The Case Study House program (1945-66) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which concentrated on the Los Angeles area and oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, sought to make available plans for modern residences that could be easily and cheaply constructed during the postwar building boom. The program's chief motivating force was Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza, a champion of modernism who had all the right connections to attract some of architecture's greatest talents, such as Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen. Highly experimental, the program generated houses that were designed to re-define the modern home, and thus had a pronounced influence on architecture. With comprehensive documentation, brilliant photographs from the period and, for the houses still in existence, contemporary photos, floor plans and sketches.

Biography

Elizabeth A.T. Smith has been Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, since 1998. Previously, she was curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she curated exhibitions and public programs in art and architecture since 1983. Her many noteworthy projects include co-curating Cindy Sherman: Retrospective and At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture.