#vsba

[archiveofaffinities]

Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Muhlenberg, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2002

[noosphe-re]

I have suggested that the star system, which is unfair to many architects, is doubly hard on women in a sexist environment, and that, at the upper levels of the profession, the female architect who works with her husband will be submerged in his reputation. My interpretations are speculative. We have no sociology of architecture. Architects are unaccustomed to social analysis and mistrust it; sociologists have fatter fish to fry. But I do get support for my thesis from women architects, from some members of my firm and from my husband. Should there be a star system? It is unavoidable, I think, owing to the prestige we give design in architecture. But the schools can and should reduce the importance of the star system by broadening the student’s view of the profession to show value in its other aspects. Heaven knows, skills other than design are important to the survival of architecture firms. The schools should also combat the student’s sense of inadequacy about design, rather than, as now, augmenting it through wrongly authoritarian and judgmental educational techniques. With these changes, architects would feel less need for gurus, and those they would need would be different—more responsible and humane than gurus are asked to be today.

Denise Scott Brown, Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture, 1989

[ofhouses]

393. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// Betty and Irving Abrams House /// Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA /// 1979

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © Ezra Stoller/ESTO, VSBA, Donna Baker.)

[ofhouses]

390. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// Carl Tucker III House /// Katonah, New York, USA /// 1975

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © VSBA. Source: Progressive Architecture, October 1977, pp. 64-66; L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui , December 1971 - January 1972, pp. 84-104; Frederic Schwartz, Carolina Vaccaro, “Venturi Scott Brown & Associates - Works and Projects”, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 1997, pp. 96-98.)

[ofhouses]

392. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// Brant-Johnson Ski House /// Vail, Colorado, USA /// 1977

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © VSBA. Source: Progressive Architecture, October 1977, pp. 60-63; Frederic Schwartz, Carolina Vaccaro, “Venturi Scott Brown & Associates - Works and Projects”, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 1997, pp. 99-101.)

[ofhouses]

391. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// Peter Brant House II /// Tuckers Town, Bermuda /// 1976

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © VSBA. Source: Frederic Schwartz, Carolina Vaccaro, “Venturi Scott Brown & Associates - Works and Projects”, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 1997, pp. 102-104.)

[ofhouses]

389. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// Peter Brant House /// Greenwich, Connecticut, USA /// 1972

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © VSBA. Source: Progressive Architecture, August 1976, pp. 50-53; Frederic Schwartz, Carolina Vaccaro, “Venturi Scott Brown & Associates - Works and Projects”, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 1997, pp. 84-86.)

[ofhouses]

388. Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown /// George Wislocki House /// Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, USA /// 1971

OfHouses presents ‘Venturi & Scott Brown in the 70′s’. (Photos: © VSBA. Source: Progressive Architecture, May 1973, pp. 86-89; Dwell, June 2008, pp. 197-200; Frederic Schwartz, Carolina Vaccaro, “Venturi Scott Brown & Associates - Works and Projects”, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 1997, pp. 80-83.)