Out of the Ordinary: Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates

Hardcover and softcover
288 pages, 8 ¾ x 11 ¾ in.
270 color + 184 b/w illus.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001
Hardcover ISBN 9780300089950
Softcover ISBN 9780876331484

The extraordinary architectural achievements of Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and their associates have left an indelible mark on the history of architecture. This engaging book provides a critical retrospective of their architecture, urbanism, and design, ranging from the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London to the revitalization of Washington Avenue in Miami to the group of historically inspired chairs for Knoll. Filled with handsome color plates, many illustrating a variety of energetic drawings, the book shows the diversity of the firm’s creative output and the singularity of the architects’ vision. This book accompanies the exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and includes two critical essays on the firm’s architecture and planning projects, a historical reconstruction and analysis of the decorative arts commissions, an illustrated checklist of projects and buildings, and a chronology of significant events in the lives Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and the evolution of their firm.

David Brownlee is the Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th-Century European Art at the University of Pennsylvania. David G. De Long is professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Kathryn B. Hiesinger is the J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.