James Stirling (1926–1992) was one of the most influential architects of the late 20th century. His formally inventive yet historically informed designs inspired a generation of architects in his native England and throughout the world. James Stirling: Revisionary Modernist is the first in-depth, book-length analysis of the architect's work. Amanda Reeser Lawrence focuses on six of Stirling's projects from the early 1950s through the late 1970s, offering detailed formal analysis of the buildings and drawings while also mapping his relationship to a broader architectural and cultural context. Though it is widely held that Stirling took a mid-career turn toward postmodernism, Lawrence shows that he was undeniably modern throughout his career. She clarifies the ways in which Stirling understood modernism as inextricably linked to the past and placed his own work in what he termed a "dialogue with architectural tradition."
The publication of this volume has been supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Few leaders of the new American nation had more influence than John Jay (1745-1829), or could match his contributions in all three branches of government, at both state and national levels. A leading representative of New York in the Continental Congress, Jay became one of the American commissioners who negotiated peace with Great Britain. He served the new republic as secretary for foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation, as a contributor to the Federalist papers, as the first chief justice of the United States, as negotiator of the 1794 'Jay Treaty' with Great Britain, and as a two-term governor of the state of New York. In his personal life, Jay embraced a wide range of religious, social, and cultural concerns, including the abolition of slavery. This volume launches a new annotated seven-volume edition of selected correspondence of John Jay. The work consists of a wide-ranging selection of the most significant and interesting public and private documents and letters, written or received by Jay. The edition is designed to revise and complete work begun in the 1950s by the eminent Columbia University professor Richard B. Morris, who supplemented the major collection of original Jay Papers at Columbia with copies of Jay documents secured from archives throughout the world, and with his staff published two volumes covering the era of the American Revolution. The new project is administered by the Rare Books and Manuscript Room of Columbia University Libraries. The Selected Papers of John Jay, 1760-1779 begins with Jay's education and training as a socially elite, Anglican, King's College - educated lawyer. Although such a path led many into Loyalism, it brought Jay, and such friends and correspondents as Robert R. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, and Alexander Hamilton, into the front ranks of New York's moderate revolutionary leaders. Jay's marriage to Sarah (Sally) Van Brugh Livingston in 1774 tied him to the influential Patriot family headed by William Livingston. Jay soon found himself a leader of New York's revolutionary committees and a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he sought reconciliation with Great Britain but promoted war preparedness, and applied his much-admired writing skills to drafting major congressional reports and addresses. With his state facing invasion, he returned to New York to help organize the new state government and to combat 'plots, conspiracies, and chimeras dire' as a member of committees dealing with loyalty and security issues, including the notorious Hickey Plot. He then helped to organize Hudson River defense and to draft the state constitution of 1777. In 1778 Jay returned to Congress, where he supported New York's claims to Vermont and served as president until he was appointed minister to Spain in September 1779. The volume closes with John and Sally Jay's eventful voyage to Europe, including a brief layover at Martinique after their ship was dismasted and rendered virtually rudderless.
How do we create the new from the old? The Architecture of Influence explores this fundamental question by analysing a broad swath of twentieth-century architectural works--including some of the best-known examples of the architectural canon, modern and postmodern--through the lens of influence. The book serves as both a critique of the discipline’s long-standing focus on "genius" and a celebration of the creative act of revisioning and reimagining the past. It argues that all works of architecture not only depend on the past but necessarily alter, rewrite, and reposition the traditions and ideas to which they refer. Organized into seven chapters--Replicas, Copies, Compilations, Generalizations, Revivals, Emulations, and Self-Repetitions--the book redefines influence as an active process through which the past is defined, recalled, and subsequently redefined within twentieth-century architecture.
