Boris Podrecca

Architect Podrecca, a native of Vienna, has rejected modernism's drive toward a unified style and instead opts for individual solutions that combine the old and the new. Influenced by the mid-19th century Viennese architect Gottfried Semper, known for his reworking of Renaissance ideas, Podrecca has completed projects that contain curved forms that lend a ""floating'' effect to the structures, as is apparent in the multiple, curved steel frames within the Viennese Neuropsychological Institute. Often the bridge between old and new occurs at a ``crucial juncture,'' as Wang puts it, and an example is the weaving steel ribbon of the Humanic Shoe Store, also in Vienna, that connects the preexisting structure to the new gallery space. Illustrations. (October)