Case Study Houses. the Complete CSH Program 1945-1966 - 25th Edition by Elizabeth A T Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

An unprecedented event in architecture history, the Case Study Houses program gave America new models for residential living. This comprehensive account of the project presents each of the 36 prototype homes through floor plans, sketches, and photographs, and explores how architects like Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen redefined the Los Angeles landscape and the modern home.

Book Synopsis

The Case Study House program (1945-66) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which concentrated on the Los Angeles area and oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, sought to make available plans for modern residences that could be easily and cheaply constructed during the postwar building boom.

The program's chief motivating force was Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza, a champion of modernism who had all the right connections to attract some of architecture's greatest talents, such as Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen. Highly experimental, the program generated houses that were designed to redefine the modern home, and thus had a pronounced influence on architecture--American and international--both during the program's existence and even to this day.

TASCHEN brings you a monumental retrospective of the entire program with comprehensive documentation, brilliant photographs from the period and, for the houses still in existence, contemporary photos, as well as extensive floor plans and sketches.

Review Quotes

"If buildings were people, those in Julius Shulman's photographs would be Grace Kelly: classically elegant, intriguingly remote."-- "ARTnews"

"Once you hold it in your hands, you immediately want to get a martini and sit by one of the pools."-- "Literaturen"

"The complete CSH program portrayed in stunning photos, detailed drawings, and clear essays."-- "Architectural Review"

"...long and lean, just like a cantilevered Koenig or an elegant Ellwood."-- "Wallpaper"

"The large book lushly renders each project in colour and in gorgeous black, sepia and white."-- "The Architectural Review"

"Thirty of the projects from the magazine's Case Study program are portrayed in stunning photographs, detailed drawings, and clear essays."-- "The Architect's Newspaper"

"Lavishly produced, handsomely illustrated."-- "Los Angeles Times"

"You need a California workout to lift it, but the book, an exhaustive homage to the houses, is worth the effort."-- "The New York Times"