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365 watercolor sketches, some went on to serve as the basis for buildings.

A critical assessment by architectural historian Jeffrey Kipnis, a generous selection of the architect's preliminary watercolour studies, and breakthaking photography make this volume an essential reference.

Steven Holl is revered among architects and students for his quiet and consistent modernist buildings. His reputation among generations of students was cemented during his early tenure at Columbia University and his founding of Storefront for Art and Architecture, a gallery dedicated to the promotion of young architects in New York City. With his embrace of computer technology, Holl made a smooth transition from the 1980s into the digital design era of the 1990s. At the same time, his practice expanded globally and his housing projects in Japan opened to international acclaim. Recently, the ultramodern design of his Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art earned high praise for its revitalizing influence on Helsinki's city centre. This monograph is the only book on the market today to document Holl's full career, from his early houses of the 1970s to his latest designs for museums currently under construction.

Internationally recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity, architect Steven Holl achieves his award-winning designs by beginning each commission with a small watercolor exploring light, color, and form. Paintings help Holl create a concept-driven design that showcases the unique qualities of each project. This collection of watercolors, which are works of art themselves, includes his most recent projects, from the JFK Center for the Performing Arts expansion and Hunters Point Public Library to University College Dublin.

"Following Written in Water (2002), this is the second publication devoted to Steven Holl's legendary watercolors. Four hundred watercolors represent the creative process of this renowned and influential American architect and reveal his highly personal method developed over many years, containing preliminary ideas and sketches of all major projects. Holl is known for his sculptural architecture and his virtuosic use of light, and watercolors are the ideal means to visualize these characteristic aspects of his work. At a time of rapidly changing technology in the service of architectural design, these watercolors become spectacular examples of a low-tech method. The results are invariably original works of art. The water colors are juxtaposed with photographs of the built architecture and emphasize the crucial aspect of scale"--OCLC.

Using site as a starting point, readers can follow Holl's entire creative process. The text contains watercolours, photographs, renderings, plans, and sketches for houses in New York, Arizona, Texas, Washington D.C., and Martha's Vineyard.