"There's a secret trapdoor, a kind of magic key into every project," says Bartholomew Voorsanger, whose life and work are chronicled in UNFOLDED, How Architecture Saved My Life". The book, by award-winning author Alastair Gordon, is more of a personal memoir than a conventional monograph, tracing as it does the architect's picaresque journey from an orphanage in the Bronx to an adoptive family in San Francisco, to the ivied halls of Princeton and Harvard, to an apprenticeship with architect I.M. Pei and the establishment of ...
Read More
"There's a secret trapdoor, a kind of magic key into every project," says Bartholomew Voorsanger, whose life and work are chronicled in UNFOLDED, How Architecture Saved My Life". The book, by award-winning author Alastair Gordon, is more of a personal memoir than a conventional monograph, tracing as it does the architect's picaresque journey from an orphanage in the Bronx to an adoptive family in San Francisco, to the ivied halls of Princeton and Harvard, to an apprenticeship with architect I.M. Pei and the establishment of an independent practice in 1978. A signature sensibility--minimal yet elegantly crafted, with a jeweler's attention to detail--evolved through early commissions--a private barge on the Hudson River, a master plan for the Brooklyn Museum--in which he explored the inherent mysteries of form, scale, and light. A glass-and-steel addition for the Morgan Library (1992) was hailed by the New York Times as an artful "combination of intimacy and grandeur". For the Asia Society in Manhattan, Voorsanger created a luminous garden courtyard and a serpent-like staircase which was based, in part, on a Ming Dynasty flask that the architect found in the museum's collection. Undulating trajectories of work and life intersect throughout the story. In many of Voorsanger's projects there are suggestions of a pilgrimage across space, a sequence of opening and closing, turning and unfolding, as with a series of pavilions designed for the World War II Museum in New Orleans, the wing-like roof of a mountain retreat for Russian oligarch Roman Abromovich, a twisting control tower for Newark Airport, or the highly sculpted interior of a bachelor's loft in Tribeca. In some of the later work there's an unsettled Dr. Caligari geometry of axial rotations and splintered spaces. Walls tilt back and overlap. Natural light penetrates the outer membrane. Multi-faceted roofs engage the sky. Voorsanger's architectural practice served as an emotional anchor through trying times and helped to bring a sense of ceremonial order to life's messy uncertainties. There was the adoption of two Iranian orphans; divorce from his first wife; a broken business partnership; the loss of his second wife to cancer; and a near-fatal embolism. In 1987, Voorsanger's twenty-nine-year-old daughter, Roxanna, was senselessly murdered. As a form of eulogy, the architect designed a new kind of housing prototype. It was an elegiac gesture from father to daughter in which deep, personal loss was transformed, somehow, into healing space. "I don't give a damn about myself, but I care deeply about my work," he says, acknowledging the number of times that his art has rescued him from a nagging sense of despair and existential dislocation. "Architecture has literally saved my life".
Read Less
Add this copy of Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $20.85, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio.
Add this copy of Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $24.14, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill Industries rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miami, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio.
Publisher:
ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio
Published:
2017
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
18077354391
Shipping Options:
Standard Shipping: $4.99
Trackable Expedited: $9.99
Two Day Air: $29.99
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. Books may have damage such as dents creases and folded pages. Some books may have writing or highlighting inside. Extras or accessories are not guaranteed. Digital codes and CDs are not tested and may not work.
Add this copy of Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $35.96, good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio.
Add this copy of Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $51.18, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vri.
Add this copy of Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $87.13, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vri.
Add this copy of Unfolded How Architecture Saved My Life: Bartholomew to cart. $2,470.00, new condition, Sold by BWS Bks rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Ferndale, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio.
Publisher:
ORO Editions and Gordon de Vries Studio
Published:
2017
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
15791012518
Shipping Options:
Standard Shipping: $4.99
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New. 1939621437. *** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request ***-*** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT-Flawless copy, brand new, pristine, never opened--with a bonus offer--
