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MAS Context Spring Talks 2023

Denise Scott Brown: In Other Eyes

January 11, 2023 at 12PM

Online talk by Frida Grahn with a response by Elizabeth Greenspan and observations by Denise Scott Brown.

Contributors

From the bustle of Johannesburg to the neon of Las Vegas, Denise Scott Brown’s advocacy for “messy vitality” has transformed the way we look at the urban landscape. Unconventional, eloquent, and with a profound sociopolitical message, Scott Brown is one of our era’s most influential thinkers on architecture and urbanism.

The anthology Denise Scott Brown. In Other Eyes—marking the fiftieth anniversary of the seminal treatise Learning from Las Vegas—paints a portrait of Scott Brown as seen through the eyes of leading architectural historians and practitioners. It features new scholarship on her education on three continents, her multidisciplinary teaching, and her use of urban patterns and forces as tools for architectural design—a practice documented in a new comment by Scott Brown, noting that sometimes “1+1>2.”

The book includes contributions by Mary McLeod, Joan Ockman, Sylvia Lavin, Stanislaus von Moos, Jacques Herzog, Robin Middleton, and Denise Scott Brown, among others.

During this program, architect and architectural historian Frida Grahn, editor of Denise Scott Brown. In Other Eyes (Birkhäuser), provided an overview of the career of Denise Scott Brown and her influence in the profession. Philadelphia-based writer Elizabeth Greenspan served as a respondent to the talk. We were also joined by Denise Scott Brown who provided a series of observations.

Mas event 2022 denise scott brown in other eyes book

You can purchase the book from its publisher or your local bookstore:

→ Denise Scott Brown. In Other Eyes (Birkhäuser, 2022).

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Las Vegas style and Denise style, 1966. Photo by Robert Venturi. © Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.

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© Courtesy of VSBA.

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Denise Scott Brown. © Ingrid von Kruse. Courtesy of VSBA.

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Venice canal, 1956. Photograph by Denise Scott Brown. Courtesy of Denise Scott Brown.

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South Street, 1960s. Photograph by Denise Scott Brown. Courtesy of Denise Scott Brown.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Denise Scott Brown, “Invention and Tradition,” MAS Context, 2012
mascontext.com/issues/ownership/invention-and-tradition

Denise Scott Brown, “Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture,” MAS Context, 2015
mascontext.com/issues/debate/room-at-the-top-sexism-and-the-star-system-in-architecture

Denise Scott Brown, “Studio: Architecture’s Offering to Academe,” MAS Context, 2021
mascontext.com/observations/studio-architectures-offering-to-academe

Denise Scott Brown, “1 + 1 > 2: Letter to Biljana, Notes to Frida,” MAS Context, 2023
mascontext.com/observations/1-1-2-letter-to-biljana-notes-to-frida

Elizabeth Greenspan, “Star System,” Culture
culture.org/elizabeth-greenspan-star-system

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Contributor Bios

Contributor

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Frida Grahn

Frida Grahn is an architect and architectural historian. She holds a Master of Science in Architecture and a Master of Advanced Studies in the History and Theory of Architecture from the ETH Zurich. She has worked for E2A Architekten and Caruso St John Architects and has published in architectural periodicals such as Werk, Bauen+Wohnen and Archithese. She taught architectural criticism at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA) at the Accademia di architettura Mendrisio. Her doctoral thesis “The Swiss Reception of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 1970–2000” centers on the history of postmodern architecture and transatlantic exchange. She is the editor of the anthology Denise Scott Brown In Other Eyes: Portraits of an Architect, which was published in Birkhäuser’s Bauwelt Fundamente series in 2022.

Elizabeth Greenspan

Elizabeth Greenspan writes about cities, politics, and design. Her articles and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, Architect, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and Places Journal, among others. She is the author of Battle for Ground Zero (St. Martin’s Press, 2013), about the politics of commerce and commemoration at the World Trade Center site. She speaks regularly about cities to a range of audiences and holds a PhD in anthropology and urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia, where she teaches urban studies and creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Denise Scott Brown

Denise Scott Brown is an architect, planner, urban designer, theorist, writer, and educator whose projects and ideas have influenced designers and thinkers worldwide. Working in collaboration with Robert Venturi, she guided the course of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates by serving on the broad range of the firm’s projects in architecture and as Principal-in-Charge of urban planning, urban design, and campus planning. Her experience in interdisciplinary work, teaching, and research contributed to VSBA’s breadth and depth in architectural design.