As I Was Saying: Recollections and Miscellaneous Essays

edited by Alexander Caragonne Colin Rowe has achieved legendary status as one of a handful of outstanding studio teachers of architecture and urban design to emerge within the last two generations. The publication of his first essay, "The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa" (1947), has commanded the attention of legions of students and colleagues who came to question, as did he, the eternal verities of modern architecture as propounded by the giants of the early twentieth century. Rowe's writings reveal a powerful insight and a dispassionate, authoritative intelligence that mark him as one of the preeminent architectural thinkers of this perplexing half century. Divided into three books, in more or less chronological order, As I Was Saying includes articles, essays, eulogies, lectures, reviews, and memoranda; some have appeared only in obscure periodicals, and many have never been published at all. Also included is a retrospective view of selected work of the Urban Design Studio at Cornell and other projects by Rowe and his students and colleagues. The first volume, Texas, Pre-Texas, Cambridge, comprises those items written during Rowe's first extended introduction to the United States (1951-1958), prior to and during his two-year tenure at the University of Texas in Austin, followed by those written while at Cambridge University (1958-1962). The second volume, Cornelliana, contains writings on architecture he prepared while teaching at Cornell University from 1962 until his retirement. The third, Urbanistics, deals primarily with urban design.