BELLAS ARTES

Originally from Vienna, Richard Neutra came to America early in his career, settling in California. His influence on postwar architecture is undisputed, the sunny climate and rich landscape being particularly suited to his cool, sleek modern style. Neutra had a keen appreciation for the relationship between people and nature; his trademark plate glass walls and ceilings which turn into deep overhangs have the effect of connecting the indoors with the outdoors. His ability to incorporate technology, aesthetics, science, and nature into his designs brought him to the forefront of Modernist architecture.

Amid the ravages of the Great Depression, the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) was first founded in 1935 to address the country’s rural poverty. Its efforts focused on improving the lives of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, with resettlement and collectivization programs, as well as modernized farming methods. In a parallel documentation program, the FSA hired a number of photographers and writers to record the lives of the rural poor and “introduce America to Americans.”

From sunrise to sunset, New York City is the most photographed city in the world. No other city is captured more each year, anywhere. Award-winning photographer Paul Seibert takes us on a breath-taking journey high above New York, from sweeping panoramic views to details of the architecture that make the city a photographer's dream. Seibert's years as the official photographer for FlyNYON helicopter tours allowed him to know where and when to be for the most extraordinary light. Seibert brings his unique and unmatched aerial vistas of New York City to life--every angle, every moment, every season. Tourists and native New Yorkers alike will see New York for the first time, all over again.

From the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, the slums of the Lower East Side to magnificent art deco skyscrapers, New York’s remarkable rise, reinvention, and growth is not just the tale of a city, but the story of a nation. This beautiful book lays out the streets, sidewalks, culture, and crowds of the greatest city in the world—in all the greatness of its extremes, contradictions, energy, and attitude. With vistas of Central Park alongside Coney Island and the sleaze of Times Square, this city portrait champions the complexity and chaos of New York—its architecture, culture, fashion, and ethnic diversity. More than just a tribute to the metropolis and its civic, social, and photographic heritage, New York. Portrait of a City also pays homage to the indomitable spirit of those who call themselves New Yorkers: full of hope and strength, resolute in their determination to succeed among its glass and granite towers.

Norman Foster. Networks offers a rare first-person insight into the ideas, influences, and connections that have shaped one of the world’s greatest architects. Penned and curated by Foster himself, it brings together eight immersive essays in which he explores architecture not as a professional pursuit, but a nexus of passions, disciplines, and lived experience. In Roots, Foster examines his modest start in Manchester alongside his lifelong fascination with aviation, tracing the formative threads that underpin his work. Flight emerges as both obsession and metaphor, informing his pursuit of lightness, efficiency, and technical elegance. His deep attachment to the Alpine landscape―where he lives in a self-designed home of the future―reveals how place, climate, and topography continue to shape his thinking. Nature, Art, and Making are explored as essential creative partners to his architectural practice. The essays on Place and Cities widen the lens, considering memory, identity, and civic life, and how buildings collectively shape the public realm. Illustrated with nearly 1,000 photographs, sketches, artworks, film stills, and other cultural references, this extraordinary book is both a visual atlas and an intellectual framework―a self-exploration of the thinking behind such iconic works as Apple Park in Cupertino, the Reichstag in Berlin, the British Museum’s Great Court in London, the Millau Viaduct in France, and the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi. It brings into focus the ideas, curiosities, and connections that define this colossus of modern architecture.