The Tip of an Iceberg: Stanley Tigerman’s Book List
By Steve Kroeter January 10, 2012Stanley Tigerman |
Architect Stanley Tigerman: Tigerman McCurry Architects (Chicago)
Stanley Tigerman—recently the subject of a retrospective at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery honoring his long and varied career as architect, iconoclastic theorist, and educator—freely admits that he became an architect because of a book. It’s a book whose individualistic main character has elicited a wide range of reactions since its first publication in 1943 (and in the past year was included on four other Designers & Books lists): Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead. Tigerman includes it on the book list he sent us and says about it: “I read The Fountainhead when I was 13 years old in 1943, put it down, and decided to become an architect. One may question Rand’s politics, even the ideology of the self, but her gripping tale of an architect unapologetically motivated my prepubescent psyche.”
Books have mattered to Tigerman throughout his life—he says in his book list introduction that years ago he realized that “ . . . ideas were the source of a flame that I wished to be near”—and this perspective is certainly reflected in his choice of titles.
His Designers & Books list encompasses critical writing on architecture from Fritz Neumeyer (whose book The Artless Word, on Mies van der Rohe, is “the only book on that outstanding architect that isn’t sycophantic”) and Joseph Rykwert (one of the few who “have written about architecture with a small ’a’”—in On Adam’s House in Paradise).
A large portion of Tigerman’s book list is devoted to theological and philosophical topics—an interest he shares with his wife and partner in his architecture firm, Margaret McCurry (also a Designers & Books contributor).
The books devoted to theology include The Holy Bible, meditations by medieval theologians, and also works by contemporary writers. Tigerman calls The Holy Bible “an invaluable resource for most things that I think and write about.” Included among the medieval works he cites is The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas—but Tigerman also expresses admiration for St. Augustine, too (“St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine are the yin-yang of theo-philosophy”). Karen Armstrong and Iris Murdoch are among the contemporary writers on Tigerman’s list. About Armstrong’s work Tigerman says he’s read it all—and in his opinion she is “one of the best living writers in theology.” He appreciates her “passionate point of view.”
Schlepping Through Ambivalence, 2011 (Yale University Press) |
Tigerman describes the ten books on his list as “the tip of the iceberg that helps to define who I am in the autumn of my life.” Consistent with the idea of reading as being important in his life, it is no surprise that writing has been an important part of his career, too. He is the author of seven books (and the editor of many more)—two of them published in 2011. Schlepping Through Ambivalence is a collection of previously unpublished essays spanning his career—and variously described as “engaging,” “humorous,” “biting,” and “cantankerous.”
Designing Bridges to Burn, 2011 (Oro Editions) |
Designing Bridges to Burn is his architectural memoirs—in which he says, “To this day, I persist in interpreting rather than having faith in any particular set of rules or regulations that would define or, by extension, constrain architecture. ” Clearly, in the “autumn of his life” Tigerman retains elements of the “prepubescent psyche” that were attracted to the spirit of The Fountainhead’s protagonist, Howard Roark.
Note: “Ceci pas une reverie,” a retrospective of Stanley Tigerman’s work presented at the Yale University School of Architecture in August 2011, will be on view in Chicago at the Graham Foundation, Madlener House, January 26–May 19, 2012.
View Stanley Tigerman’s Profile View Stanley Tigerman’s Book List
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.
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.
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.
Popular NowWeekMonth
- The Book We Need Now: New from Stefan Sagmeister
- Quote of the Day: Witold Rybczynski & Paradise Planned
- Summer Reading for Design Lovers: The Story of Architecture
- One Book and Why: Design School Dean Frederick Steiner Recommends . . .
- One Book and Why: Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister Recommends . . .
- Book List of the Week: Milton Glaser
- Imagining Information: Symbols, Isotype, and Book Design
- “The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn” To Be Reissued in a New Facsimile Edition
- Do We Need a Completely New Approach to Marketing Books?
- Question Everything: A Conversation with OK-RM’s Rory McGrath