Vincent Scully

Abstract

The renowned architectural historian and critic, beloved Yale professor, and outspoken public activist Vincent Scully (1920–2017) emerged in the 1950s as a guiding voice in American architecture. This intellectual biography of Scully’s life and career traces the formative moments in his thinking, charting his relationships with a constellation of architects, artists, and cultural personalities of the twentieth century. Scully charted an unlikely course from postwar modernism to postmodernism and New Urbanism, overturning outdated beliefs and changing the face of the built environment as he went. A teacher for more than 60 years, and a figure of immense importance in the field, he was central to an expansive network of associations, from Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, and Robert Venturi to Robert Stern, Harold Bloom, and Norman Mailer. Scully’s extensive body of work coalesced around the core belief that all architecture shapes society, and responds, above all else, to the human need for community and connection. This timely appraisal provides a platform for reassessing the legacy of these values, as well as raising fresh questions about how we write and think about architecture in the twenty-first century. The renowned architectural historian and critic, beloved Yale professor, and outspoken public activist Vincent J. Scully (1920–2017) emerged in the 1950s as a guiding voice in American architecture. He charted a firm if unlikely course from postwar modernism and mid-century urban renewal to postmodernism and New Urbanism, overturning outdated beliefs and changing the face of the built environment as he went. A teacher for more than 60 years, he forged an extensive body of work whose subject matter, while spanning centuries and civilizations, coalesces around two core beliefs: that all architecture shapes and is shaped by society, and that the best architecture responds, above all else, to the human need for community and connection. A product of his formative experiences, temperament, and specific moment, Scully wasn’t content to simply document and narrate the past. Rather, he seemed compelled to find a way of interpreting architecture, new and old, in light of the changes he experienced in his lifetime, in terms of the profession, the built environment, and the culture and politics of the postwar era. Scully’s desire to do more than what was expected of historians drove him to engage with architects, communicate with the public, nurture students, defy disciplinary boundaries, extend his areas of expertise and—perhaps most importantly—change his mind. In our turbulent times, this book creates a valuable platform for reassessing architectural priorities in today’s built environment, the legacy of the values of community and connection in the twenty-first century, and what it means to write history.