Architecture

As one of the biggest names in contemporary architecture, engineer-cum-architect Santiago Calatrava is internationally famous for the conception and masterful execution of structures akin to high art. Taking inspiration from nature, his work mimics the shapes and motions of organic entities, as can be witnessed in the Turning Torso skyscraper in Sweden, the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin, and the recently completed World Trade Center Transportation Hub in downtown Manhattan. This elegant and graceful structure, derived from some of Calatrava’s work as a painter and sculptor, is likened to a bird taking flight, a phoenix rising from the ashes of 9/11. With original texts from the man behind the Oculus, legendary New Yorker architectural critic Paul Goldberger, and George Deodatis, Columbia University’s department chair of Civil Engineering, Santiago Calatrava: Oculus is the authority on the already-iconic building, sure to be canonized as one of the most beautiful public buildings of the twenty-first century.

Oscar Niemeyer one of the fathers of modernist architecture, is remembered through Assouline’s handmade limited-edition Ultimate Collection volume. One of the most considerable influences on 20th- and 21st-century architecture, Niemeyer’s legacy is acknowledged and honored in Assouline’s complete and lavish exploration of Niemeyer’s 104-year life and career. Niemeyer rose to prominence at Le Corbusier’s side but ultimately swerved from the hard, straight lines of traditional modernism. Instead he forged a parallel track that mimics the crescendos and denouements of human feeling through swooping curves, graceful arches, and sensuous lines. Using reinforced concrete, he elevated the everyday to the sublime. Sketches and original photography, alongside contributions from Tadao Ando, Santiago Calatrava, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid, make Oscar Niemeyer a testimony to the fantastic, artistic journey he led for the past century.