If you care for some architectural readings in your life, I’ll share with you what I have been reading recently.

I just finished reading “S,M,L,XL” by Rem Koolhaas of OMA. Koolhaas has some of the best and most realistic ideas about cities-where the went wrong, where they contiune to go wrong, and where they will go wrong-and of course his solutions. His books are a trip in terms of their bizarre layout and design but I was captivated through the 600+ pages overviewing his views on different projects his firm did and his views of society. Incredibly fascinating person and I wish someone in Buffalo commissions OMA to do work in Buffalo.

Another firm I love following is Morphosis-headed by Thom Mayne. Although their buildings aren’t always the most elegant or pleasant to look at (am I the only person who doesn’t think the new San Fran Fed Building doesn’t look good?), Mayne has some really fascinating ideas regarding urban issues and society in general and how architecture does/can/should play a role in it all. This reading is a bit dense at times and the portfolio layout is avant-garde to say the least but an interesting read nonetheless. Another firm I’d love to see do some work in Buffalo.

Both of these minds are regarded as some of the best minds in the world of architecture and have some brutally honest views of cities and where they are going.

A different kind of read that I have only read bits and pieces of is “Up from Zero” by Paul Goldberger. A book about all the chaos behind the planning for the new development to stem from ground zero. The bureaucracy and exhausting amount of input into major developments will ring familiar in any Buffalonian’s ear. Its an interesting look at the process of planning and the competion that comes with it in what is probably the most important project in America’s history.

Although not nearly an exciting a read, Gordon Bunshaft’s biography is an interesting read. Buffalo-born and quintessential modernist, he has a mysterious and simplistic persona that is reflected in his work. No one really knows much about him and that is probably what makes him somewhat interesting. He left a wonderful mark on Buffalo’s built environment with his Knox extension to the Art Gallery…a great example of high quality modernism.

I’ve been reading Gunther Grass’ “The Tin Drum” and the last thing I would expect to see in a book known as one of the best pieces of German literature in the post-war period would be multiple references to Buffalo.

In reference to the whereabouts of his missing grandfather:

Nor would I give a plugged nickel for the reports of the eyewitnesses…who claim to have seen my grandfather shortly after the 1st world war in Buffalo, USA…said he was importing lumber from Canada, big stockholder in a number of match factories, a founder of fire insurance companies. That was my grandfather, a lonley mulitmillionaire, sitting in a skyscraper behind an enormous desk, diamond rings on every finger, drilling his bodyguards, who wore firemen’s uniforms, sang in Polish, and were known as the Phoenix guard.

Do it for your grandfather…the lumber king of Buffalo, USA

I find it facsinating to think that this writer thought to himself “Hmmm..what American city would make sense for me to mention…Buffalo!” Thinking of it as a land far away in which simple men can come from Poland and make it big…sitting in a…”skycraper”.

On January 2nd, Mark Goldman (author of “High Hopes” and “City on the Lake” as well as the man who almost single handedly turned around Chippewa to what it is today) has his third book about the plight and potential rise of our fair city titled “City on the Edge” coming out.

PS notice the increasing lack of confidence in each title…
80’s “High Hopes”
90’s “City on the Lake”
00’s “City on the Edge”

They say never judge a book by it’s cover but damn the cover looks too sexy to say no to. So I pre-ordered it.

If you love Buffalo and have a strong stomach, I suggest you buy Diana Dillaway’s “Power Failure” about the government and business corruption that brought Buffalo from thriving metropolis to the current state it now lives in. It goes into great detail without naming names about why UB’s new campus was not built downtown, why the Bills Stadium was built in Orchard Park, and why Buffalo never evolved with the rest of the country-sticking to a manufacturing economy as the rest of America turned towards knowledge-based economies.
Even though a lot of this stuff is easy for most Buffalonians to figure out, to read it is a real wake up call and erases any questions as to why Buffalo has become such a stuggling, impovershed city after once boasting it had the highest per-capita of millionaires in the US.

Buy it, and hope that the remaining chapters in Buffalo’s history do not resemble the ones in this book.