Five Architects , originally published in 1975, grew out of a meeting of the CASE group (Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment) held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1969. The purpose of this gathering was to exhibit and criticize the work of five architects--Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, and Meier--who constituted a New York school, and who are now among the most influential architects working today. The buildings shown here have more diversity than one might expect from a school, but share certain properties of form, scale, and treatment of material. Collectively, their work makes a modest claim: it is only architecture, not the salvation of man and the redemption of the earth. No matter how varied their individual theories and visions, all five architects simply share a passion for the art of architecture. Providing complete drawings and photographic documentation, this collection also includes a comparative critique by Kenneth Frampton, an Introduction by Colin Rowe that suggests a still broader context for the work as a whole, and two short texts in which individual positions are outlined. Now back in print, Five Architects serves as a reference to the early work of some of America's most important architects and provides us with a glimpse back at the direction of architecture as they saw it twenty years ago.

About the Authors:
Peter Eisenman is founder of both Eisenman Architects and the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. He is the 1984 recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Michael Graves is founder of the Michael Graves architechtural firm in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the recipient of numerous AIA National Honor awards as well as several Progressive Architecture Design awards. Charles Gwathmey is founder of Gwathmey, Siegel, and Associates, Architects in New York. His recent projects include the design for The Science, Industry, and Business Library branch of the New York Public Library. John Hejduk is Dean at the School of Architecture at Cooper Union. BRichard Meier is founder of Richard Meier and Partners in New York.