Victoria Meyers
Victoria Meyers’s Book List
I selected my books for many reasons. Some books have followed me around for a very long time (I started reading Frank Lloyd Wright’s writings when I was seven or eight.). Some books on the list were given to me by relatives whom I was close to (The Poetry of Robert Frost, given to me by my aunt). Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo catalogues a life that I can relate to—suffering because of the design process! Some books got me through dark times with good advice, others with their amazing humor (John Cage and Andy Warhol).
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This book gets you through rough times. The Dalai Lama has a lot of very sound advice. He never gets ruffled. He always puts things into perspective. A lot like reading Warren Buffet, actually.
Great physicists put our lives on this small planet into perspective. How many people could live with Hawking’s disabilities? He does it and he thrives as the greatest living physicist. I find Hawking an incredible inspiration.
One of my all-time favorite holiday books. Written with great flair, poetic, and really gives a sense of what it was like growing up as a child in Wales, on Christmas Day.
Not that I see myself as anywhere near his equal, but I can relate to his struggles. I know how it feels to ruin dinner with your family because you’re struggling with clients who have not paid, or who demand too much. I know how it feels to write notes to clients, asking to be paid, or asking for more time. It all makes perfect sense to me, and is somehow very reassuring to think that Michelangelo struggled with so many of the mundane aspects of design that plague me as well.
I followed many of the bits of advice given by Wright in the five volumes of his collected writings and elsewhere, including getting an undergraduate degree in civil engineering (Wright never studied architecture. Instead, he took courses in engineering.)
I see this as a perfect architectural monograph. It uses few words, and very clearly describes a series of attitudes toward form, materiality, and space.
Rosalind Krauss wrote many of the best essays on contemporary art in the 20th century. I love her writing, and I especially appreciate that she’s a woman.
This is much like John Cage’s book, Silence. A great book by a great 20th-century artist, written with a bitingly funny sense of humor. It puts it all into perspective.
The aunt who gave me this book was my favorite relative. She was my great-aunt, and still tied to the family’s older traditions. She even had an old horse-drawn sleigh in her garage/barn! She was the family matriarch, and my family spent every Christmas Day at her house, until she left us. I cannot read Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” without thinking about her, or getting a tear in my eye. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and the works of Frost and the painter Andrew Wyeth had a strong influence on my development as an artist.
A great set of essays. A must to have on your shelf if you plan to teach architecture. Each essay renews your vision about the true basics of design. What is a dome? What is proportion? Robin Evans lays it all out, with engaging prose, and doesn’t miss any of the relevant points. He’s a genius.
John Cage is one of my heroes, and he’s incredibly funny. When I need inspiration, when I need to laugh, I read this book.
What can I say? Le Corbusier is “the man.” I regard this book as a primer for the future architect. There is one part of the book that has always stood out for me. Le Corbusier advises young architects to travel to Rome, and to get a “‘letter of permission” to pass through the Vatican Gates, in order to see the back of St. Peters (“the only place where you can see Michelangelo’s handiwork”). I did so, and it blew me away. The book gives a lot of great advice that you can’t get anywhere else.
Announcements
Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister
Now is Better
By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023
Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future
By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022
Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.
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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People
By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022
Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Milton Glaser: POP
By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023
This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.
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Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022
Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)
By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023
This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.
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