Phone Booths by Famous Architects

Book excerpt: Following architect Steve Schaecher's groundbreaking Outhouses by Famous Architects and Mobile Homes by Famous Architects (Pomegranate, 2000 and 2002), we present his new array of historical inquiries. In deft ink-and-watercolor illustrations and knowledgeable prose, Schaecher informs each of his twenty-nine booths with the sensibility of the architect who supposedly designed it.Schaecher's books are not mere parodies. While he envisions humorous applications for the talents of Palladio, Le Corbusier, Wright, and other giants, his watercolors are true reflections of the architects' styles; e.g., Erik Gunnar Asplund's phone booth, the Stockholm Dialibrary, clearly exemplifies Asplund's design precepts, and the concise text explores the Swede's architectural principles—as well as the assertion that music by the Swedish 1970s supergroup Abba is piped into the Dialibrary to ease the pain of being on hold.Schaecher brings a generous sense of humor to analyses of building styles from classical Egypt through Renaissance mastery, Enlightenment engineering, and Modern uplift before arriving among the competing theories of today. His past performance has won accolades from the likes of Robert Venturi, and Phone Booths keeps up the good work.