Festival dell'Architettura Magazine (Mar 2018)
Perspecta and the Mediatic Manufacture of a Postmodern American Architecture
Abstract
The journal that would have the most lasting impact in establishing a coherent movement of Postmodern American architecture was a student-edited journal named «Perspecta», no. 9/10, published by the Yale School of Architecture and edited by Robert A.M. Stern. Stern, accomplished architect and former Dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University, assembled a cadre of author-architects to contribute to the journal, a group who would go on to shape the U.S. architectural scene for the next 20 years. His editorial objective was to present new emerging ‘talent,’ which consisted of young architects who defined a new American movement in architecture. Three significant contributors of this particular «Perspecta» issue were ‘undiscovered’ Robert Venturi, Charles Moore, and, most interestingly, Romaldo Giurgola, who was an Italian architect and academic but had immigrated to the U.S. after receiving the Italian Fulbright scholarships. Looking back at this moment, it is intriguing to discover what defined the work featured in these magazines as ‘American,’ especially since one of its central figures, Giurgola, established his reputation as an educator teaching architectural history and theory subjects based on Italian precedents and treatises at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
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