Modern Classicism

This book handsomely displays the work of some 30 post-modernistsarchitects who call on classical principles for inspiration. Succinct text and carefully selected photographs, nearly 200 in full color, outline each architect's approach and position in the classical spectrum. Among those included are Michael Graves, Philip Johnson, Mario Botta, Kevin Roche, James Stirling, Aldo Rossiand Stern himself. Stern sets the context with a scholarly, if polemical, history of classicism and a discrediting of modernismthe streamlined, ahistorical style that has shaped many U.S. urban centers. He divides the new classicism into five areasIronic, Fundamentalist, Latent, Canonic and Modern Traditionalism. It's a lot to cover in one book, especially one that makes lavish use of illustration. But Stern succeeds in providing not only a good introduction to the subject, but an apologia for classicism as a rich and supple tradition that promises a return to grace and humanism in architecture. (Dec.)