Architecture's Evil Empire?

From Chicago to Toronto to Shanghai, cities around the world have sprouted &quote;iconic&quote; buildings by celebrity architects like Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind that compete for attention both on the skyline and in the media. But in recent years, criticism of these extreme &quote;gestural&quote; structures, known for their often-exaggerated forms, has been growing. Miles Glendinning's impassioned polemic, Architecture's Evil Empire, looks at how today's trademark architectural individualism stretches beyond the well-known works and ultimately extends to the entire built environment. Glendinning examines how the global empire of the current modernism emerged-particularly in relation to the excesses of global capitalism-and explains its key organizational and architectural features, placing its most influential theorists and designers in a broader context of history and artistic movements.            Arguing against the excesses of iconic architecture, Glendinning advocates a vision of modern renewal that seeks to remedy the shattered and alienated look he sees in contemporary architecture. Mingling scholarship with wry humor and a genuine concern for the state of architecture, Architecture's Evil Empire will raise many heated debates and appeal to a wide range of readers, from architects to historians, interested in the built environment.