Mies van der Rohe once commented, "Only skyscrapers under
construction reveal their bold constructive thoughts, and then the
impression made by their soaring skeletal frames is overwhelming." Never
has this statement resonated more than in recent years, when
architectural design has undergone a radical transformation, and when
powerful computers allow architects and engineers to design and
construct buildings that were impossible just a few years ago. At the
same time, what lies underneath these surfaces is more mysterious than
ever before.
In Architecture under Construction, photographer Stanley
Greenberg explores the anatomy and engineering of some of our most
unusual new buildings, helping us to understand our own fascination with
what makes buildings stand up, and what makes them fall down. As
designs for new constructions are revealed and the public watches
closely as architects and engineers challenge each other with
provocative new forms and equally audacious ideas, Greenberg captures
penetrating images that reveal the complex mystery--and beauty--found in
the transitory moments before the skin of a building covers up the
structures that hold it together.
Framed by a historical and critical essay by Joseph Rosa and
including an afterword by the author, the eighty captivating and
thought-provoking images collected here--which focus on some of the most
high-profile design projects of the past decade, including buildings
designed by Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, Daniel Libeskind,
Thom Mayne, and Renzo Piano, among others --are not to be missed by
anyone with an eye for the almost invisible mechanisms that continue to
define our relationship with the built world.
