HOW FAMOUS BUILDINGS WORK:  THE REAL TRUTH
ABOUT MODERN ARCHITECTURE IS IN THE DETAILS

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 26 -- The architecture of the
20th century has changed the face of the world dramatically.  A
forthcoming book by a University of Virginia architect reveals how
the creations of some the century's best-known architects progressed
step by step -- some more successfully than others -- from vision to
reality.
	"The Details of Modern Architecture, Vol. 2:  1928 to 1988"
by U.Va. associate professor Edward R. Ford and scheduled to be
published this summer by MIT Press, is the concluding volume of a
groundbreaking study of the development of modern and postmodern
architecture through a close examination of the precise details used
to carry the original designs through the realities of the
construction process.  Ford's previous volume, treating the early
years of the modern period and published in 1990, received
international acclaim as a unique blend of technical detective work
and architectural history presented for architects and general
readers alike.
	Ford, himself an award-winning and widely exhibited
designer, searched archives and architectural offices throughout
this country and Europe over a 10-year period examining thousands of
behind-the-scenes technical drawings and documents related to
masterpieces by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Rudolf
Schindler and others.  The new book focuses on the work of Eliel and
Eero Saarinen, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Richard Neutra, Alvar Aaalto, Le
Corbusier, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Michael Graves,
Buckminster Fuller, Louis Kahn and others, as well as the Case
Study, High Tech, Postmodern and Deconstructivist movements.  It
includes more than 500 illustrations and line drawings, many of them
skilled interpretations by Ford himself, to explain the technical
and aesthetic aspects of modern building and to show how the
architects dealt with obstacles in attempting to carry out their
original visions.
	Architects may have sweeping visions to begin with.  But
grappling with the details of construction is "the means by which
they realize their ideas," not always totally successfully, said
Ford.  Details are how "abstract thoughts become realities, by the
selection of materials, the ways those materials are shaped, joined
and processed, and the degree of craft and skill with which they are
engineered and joined."  Ultimately, detailing is "what does the
most to separate average, adequate buildings from those that are
truly exceptional."
	Because detail drawings and blueprints are rarely published
or made public, "reading the details is almost like following the
process of somebody writing a novel," Ford said.
	Many of the century's well-known buildings were not only
exceptionally well detailed but experimented with new materials and
procedures.  Ford unfolds the detail-by-detail design and
construction process of such experimental works as Le Corbusier's
Chapel at Ronchamp, Eero Saarinen's Dulles Airport, Louis Kahn's
Kimbell Museum, Exeter Library and Salk Institute, and Buckminster
Fuller's Dymaxion house.  His research has uncovered a wealth of new
information revealing how these and other innovative buildings were
actually constructed, in many cases contrary to what is commonly
accepted.
	Most of the modern movements in architecture have identified
some paradigm of good construction and have also been based on a
"utopian impulse," Ford said.  Twentieth-century architects have
argued that buildings should be built like Gothic cathedrals,
airplanes, ships, automobiles, or primitive dwellings.  Ford looks
at how closely these models were followed in spirit or form.  A
unique feature of the book is the 230 original drawings he made and
130 original photos that parallel and illustrate the text.
	One of several important experimental buildings that Ford
believes succeeded in its aims is the Eames House in Los Angeles, an
innovative steel frame structure by Charles and Ray Eames.  It was
designed as part of the post-World War II era Case Study House
program that attempted to use the latest technology and industrial
know-how to help meet post-war housing needs.  Charles Eames, a
designer who had been helping create training airplanes of
light-weight materials, sought to use the minimum of materials in
his steel-frame house prototype.
	Through close study of construction drawings, Ford shows how
parts of the Eames House are actually inspired by aircraft design
and how Eames chose to play up some aspects of the steel structure
and to hide others.  Although Eames is sometimes seen as an apostle
of pre-fabricated housing, Ford concludes that Eames's true interest
lay elsewhere.  "His primary interest was not in the
industrialization of building but the determination of an abstract
idea of 'good' building under a given set of circumstances."
	Ford, who has taught architectural technology and design at
U.Va. since 1986, worked in the early years of his career for an
architecture firm, primarily in the production of the detailed
drawings needed to build buildings.  As his technological expertise
grew, he was encouraged to teach in that field by Robert Geddes, the
former Princeton University architecture dean, whose firm Ford
worked for.  His interest in details as a way to fully grasp design
led him to start researching how the some of century's most
influential architects had actually carried out their works. "I
meant it to be a little book," Ford said of his two-volume project.
"I didn't know what I was getting into."
	Although Ford himself favors certain styles more than
others, architecture, he says "is a little like music.  There's
something good in every category."
	While architects may at times be open to charges of simply
pushing new fashions, Ford endorses true innovation in architecture
of any style.  Despite problems and failures, he says, "the
tradition of innovation" in architecture is ultimately enriching for
everyone.
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June 25, 1996                   
	Reporters and Editors:  For interviews Edward Ford may be
reached at (804) 924-6429 or 293-3747.  For information about
obtaining a copy of "The Details of Modern Architecture," scheduled
to appear in bookstores by late July, please contact Lisa Godfrey at
MIT Press at (617) 253-5643 or by e-mail at godfrey@mit.edu.
Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804)
924-7550.