Ada Louise Huxtable was born in New York City in 1921. After her work for the New York Times from 1963 to 1982, she is known as the "American architecture critic" and the founder of contemporary architectural journalism. Huxtable has written numerous books discussing her work. In 1970, she was the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize for literary criticism. Other distinctions include, being a MacArthur fellow and the architecture critic of The Wall Street Journal.

"The art of architecture is the greatest of the arts. Frank Lloyd Wright called it the mother of the arts. But it is the art that absolutely cannot be avoided, that expresses everything that any civilization creates or leaves behind it."

A great deal can be said about Huxtable from the lines above. She believes in the idea that architecture is a huge part of our daily lives for it not only tells the past, present, and future but our moods. In the 1960's, when over 100 acres were bulldozed and Washington Market was moved, she lead a protest with many other people. Her belief was that the Georgian and Greek revival buildings that had told a great deal of New York were being lost. Interestingly, Huxtable's beliefs are very diverse; she accepts the fact that old architecture that have no use should be recreated to be new. However, the price should not include the total demise of architecture that has a historical purpose.

Books by Ada Louise Huxtable:

Frank Lloyd Wright
The Unreal American
Unreal America Architecture and Illusion
Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard
Goodbye history, hello hamburger
Kicked a Building Lately
Pier Luigi Nervi
Inventing Reality
Making Architecture
Built in the U.S.A.
TALL BUILDING ARTISTICALLY REC
Architecture, Anyone? Cautionary Tales of the Building Art
Interview: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/interview/huxtable.html

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