Recorded: October 22, 1987
California architect Craig Ellwood (1922-1992) lectured at The Architectural League in 1987 as part of a three-part series called “Three Modern Architects.” Known as much for his exuberant lifestyle as for his work — which included three Case Study Houses (No. 1953, 17, 18) — Ellwood was one of the most visible faces of California modernism. At the time of this lecture, which he claimed was his first in ten years, Ellwood was living in Italy and working as a painter and sculptor, although the lecture announcement indicated that he had “recently begun to practice architecture again,” more than a decade after having closed his firm.

More information at http://www.archleague.org.

Craig Ellwood: Mid-Century Masters

Recorded: April 17, 2006 
Does “green architecture,” as currently conceived, go far enough? The League’s Architecture and Environment lecture series presented big-picture views of architecture in the context of man’s relationship to nature, and within a reframed understanding of the role of natural capital in economic success and failure. Writer Bill McKibben (The End of Nature) discussed how climate change and peak oil may shift our idea of what constitutes a desirable and workable ­city. Focusing on possibilities generated by emerging local economies, McKibben discussed examples from around the world, including Curitiba, Brazil, Reykjavik, Iceland, and China, as well as the United States.

Bill McKibben: Deep Sustainability — Building Communities that Actually Work

Recorded: May 16, 1985
A lecture by James Stirling on the firm’s recent projects at the time, centered around an extensive discussion of the Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive series of presentations held at the Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners of 1980s post-modernism. More information is available at http://www.archleague.org.

James Stirling: The Monumentally Informal

Recorded: November 17, 1980
Charles Jencks’ first lecture at the Architectural League on postmodernism is a strong and witty argument for what he calls “the consensus of postmodern classicism.” Jencks builds his argument through a comprehensive series of case studies ranging from the classical to the (then) contemporary. He begins his lecture with an extended analogy, equating Modernism in architecture with the Christian Reformation.

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive series of presentations held at the Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners in 1980s post-modernism. More information is available at http://www.archleague.org

Charles Jencks: Postmodern Classicism

Recorded: April 5, 1982 
In his second lecture at the League on the subject of postmodernism — presented two years after the first — Jencks proposes seven rules (or “crutches”) for a freestyle classicism in architecture, including urbane urbanism, anthropomorphism, and amplification.

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive series of presentations held at the Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners in 1980s post-modernism. More information is available at http://www.archleague.org

Charles Jencks: Freestyle Classicism

Recorded on November 30, 1982
Michael Graves gives an extensive presentation of the Portland Building, one of the icons of postmodernism, in this lecture presented shortly after the building’s completion.

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive series of presentations held at the Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners of 1980s postmodernism. More information is available at http://www.archleague.org.

MIchael Graves: The Portland Building

Recorded: October 22, 1985

Organized in 1985 in conjunction with the publication of Jencks’ Towards a Symbolic Architecture (Rizzoli, 1985), the lecture makes the case that “some of the formal and linguistic problems of architecture” have been met and that architects must now move into the next stage of postmodernism: symbolic architecture. Features an extensive discussion of the design of the Thematic House, Jencks’ London townhouse designed by himself and Terry Farrell.

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive series of presentations held at the Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners of 1980s post-modernism. More information is available at http://www.archleague.org.

Charles Jencks: Symbolic Architecture

October 29, 1987 
Architect Natalie de Blois joined Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM) in 1944, less than ten years after the firm was founded. As the first woman at SOM to reach the level of senior designer, de Blois worked on some of the firm’s most significant projects, including Lever House, Pepsi Cola, the Union Carbide Building, and the Connecticut General Life Insurance Headquarters. Nathaniel Owings, one of the firm’s founders, wrote of her in his autobiography that “her mind and hands worked marvels in design–and only she and God would ever know just how many great solutions, with the imprimatur of one of the male heroes of SOM, owed much more to her than was attributed by either SOM or the client.” (Women in American Architecture, 1977) In this conversation with architect Françoise Bollack, recorded at the League in 1987 as part of a series called “Three Modern Architects,” de Blois discusses the full scope of her career.

Please note: The audio is difficult to understand at some points. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Natalie de Blois: Mid-Century Masters

Audio from a reading of the winning essays from the 4th annual Urban Omnibus writing competition, As Seen On [  ], at Greenlight Bookstore. Visit urbanomnibus.net/asseenon to read the original call and winning essays and to secure your own copy of the book collecting the winners. 

Beleaguered Backstage by Andrew Renninger | Read by Peregrine Heard

The Wandering Women by Maya Sorabjee | Read by Xandra Clark

As Seen on the 6 Train to Heaven by Rishe Groner | Read by Emily Stout

A Wanderer in the Unwired City by Nick Tobier | Read by Casey Worthington and Lauren LaRocca

Leslie Koch, President of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC), discusses the ideas and efforts put into envisioning New York City’s future island oasis: the outreach methods they employed, the challenges of identifying an audience for a park on an island with no existing constituency, why designers need to engage with the public, and how Post-it notes and hammocks can lead to the thoughtful design of public space.

Leslie Koch on Governor's Island, June 2010

The Architectural League of New York nurtures excellence in architecture, design, and urbanism, and stimulates thinking and debate about the critical design and building issues of our time. As a vital, independent forum for architecture and its allied disciplines, the League helps create a more beautiful, vibrant, innovative, and sustainable future.

The Architectural League

Popular tracks