The Ronchamp Chapel is a boldly expressive free-form structure that says as much about enlightened patronage as it does about the genius of Le Corbusier, a seminal figure whose work usually celebrated pure rationality rather than the mystery and emotion on conspicuous display there. While the church hierarchy supported Corbu's poetic vision wholeheartedly, local inhabitants and bureaucrats at first hated this masterpiece enough to deny it water and electricity. Only when architectural tourists came in large enough numbers to bolster their economy did they relent. The chapel is just one of the modernist icons that preeminent architectural photographer Ezra Stoller documented in a career that spanned more than half a century. Now retired, Stoller has been reassembling his work for permanent (rather than periodical) publication. The Ronchamp Chapel is one of a series published by Princeton Architectural Press that presents individual buildings in depth in a small-size volume. The photographs are not only stunning, they have particular documentary value in that Stoller shot them when the buildings were new--in this case, 45 years ago.

The series has been designed for relative affordability, and its subjects are well chosen. Each volume includes a very brief preface by Stoller setting out his relationship to the building and a fairly short critical, historical, analytical essay. Buttressed by about a dozen endnotes, the essays occupy a middle ground between informal and scholarly writing. They are followed by 50 to 60 duotone photos and a few plan drawings. This is an expert look at an extraordinary building and well worth readers' serious attention. --John Pastier


House & Garden
"Ezra Stoller is the Annie Leibovitz of modern architecture."


Metropolis
Ezra Soller, perhaps the most famous photographer of Modern architecture, is know for his ability to capture not only the heroic qualities of buildings but their complex personalities as well. Many of his photographs have been gathered by Princeton Architectural Press in a new series of books called "Building Block," each one the cumulative portrait of a different structure, complete with a foreword from Stoller, who is now retired. The buildings, photographed by Stoller just after they were finished, have become most familiar to us through his early take on them. The central meeting room in Wallace Harrison's United Nations (1952) appears futuristically theatrical to our eyes, as it must have to Stoller's; a black-robed priest stands in contemplation among the textured gray curves and angular windows of Le Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp (1954); the sinuous landscape of Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal (1962) glows through a window into the night. Stoller collected defining moments in the lives of these buildings. Today, after many of his subjects have been debased by the surrounding clutter of parking lots and condominium towers, his photographs keep the initial promise of their hopeful, pristine Modernism alive.


Elle Décor
Architectural photographer Ezra Stoller's stunning oeuvre forms the basis for Princeton Architectural Press's "Building Block" series of books saluting landmarks of 20th-century architecture. The first titles: The TWA Terminal, The Chapel at Ronchamp, The United Nations, and The Yale Art and Architecture Building.


House Beautiful, July 2000
Each compact volume in this impeccably curated series is devoted to a single, seminal work by a modern master.


Interior Design, June 2000
Handsome and well-priced; based on the brilliant photography of Ezra Stoller.


Book Description
The Building Blocks series presents icons of modern architecture as interpreted by the most significant architectural photographers of our time. The first four volumes feature the work of Ezra Stoller, whose photography has defined the way postwar architecture has been viewed by architects, historians, and the public at large. The buildings inaugurating this series--Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal, Wallace Harrison's United Nations complex, Le Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp, and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building--all have bold sculptural presences ideally suited to Stoller's unique vision. Each cloth-bound book in the series contains at least 80 pages of rich duotone images. Taken just after the completion of each project, these photographs provide a unique historical record of the buildings in use, documenting the people, fashions, and furnishings of the period. Through Stoller's photographs, we see these buildings the way the architects wanted us to know them. In the preface to each volume Stoller tells of his personal relationship with the architect of each project and recounts his experience photographing it. Brief introductions reveal the unique history of each building; also included are newly drawn plans.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One of the most influential buildings of modern architecture and a landmark in the work of the celebrated architect Le Corbusier, the Chapel of Ronchamp has been a pilgrimage site for architects, students, and tourists since it first opened to the public in 1954. Situated on a hilltop near the Swiss border of eastern France, the famed building replaced an earlier chapel destroyed in World War II.. "Le Corbusier intended the chapel to be experienced by visitors following a promenade around and through the chapel as if it were a freestanding work of sculpture. Ezra Stoller's photographs present the building just as the architect wanted it to be seen. Originally created for the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, Stoller's extraordinary images have become icons in their own right, indispensable documents of the chapel as it first appeared.

FROM THE CRITICS

House Beautiful

Each compact volume in this impeccably curated series is devoted to a single, seminal work by a modern master; introductory essays reveal intriguing tidbits.

Interior Design

Handsome and well-priced; based on the brilliant photography of Ezra Stoller.

Architects Journal

The books are pocket-sized but Stoller's images, well-reproduced, are still effective in this small format. Not just his eye and technique impress but also his tolerance and apt inclusion of people.

Elle Decor

Architectural photographer Ezra Stoller's stunning oeuvre forms the basis for Princeton Architectural Press's "Building Block" series of books saluting landmarks of 20th-century architecture. The first titles: The TWA Terminal, The Chapel at Ronchamp, The United Nations, and The Yale Art and Architecture Building.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING