Crossed Histories - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Developing the postwar city as seen through the eyes of three women in the field of architecture, from New York to Montreal, Paris and Milan

The book focuses on the impact of women on the postmodern city. To do so, it follows the personal and professional trajectories of three protagonists who, each in their own way, shaped the intellectual and physical environment of their city: Ada Louise Huxtable (1921-2013), through her articles in the New York Times architecture column; Gae Aulenti (1927-2012), with her conversion of Paris' Gare d'Orsay into a museum and the Piazzale Cadorna in Milan; and Phyllis Lambert (born 1927), with her founding of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal in 1979.
Through documentary and archival images, this catalog documents a turning point in architectural history, when modernity returned to the architectural values of the past and the existing built environment. It also takes a more individual and biographical approach, crossing the paths of three women who played a major role in the construction of the city as we know it today.

Review Quotes

A dual-language study of three pioneering women, Gae Aulenti, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Phyllis Lambert, showing how they redirected architecture toward cultural meaning, civic value, and lived experience. Explore Aulenti's transformative museum work, Huxtable's era-defining criticism, and Lambert's preservation leadership, revealing how each reshaped the modern city from a different front.--Ben Yamin Schmidt "The Interior Review"