On Denise Scott Brown: Learning from her Life
by Kate Mazade
Fifty years from the original publication of Learning from Las Vegas, Denise Scott Brown has a book that's just for her.
Denise Scott Brown In Other Eyes: Portraits of an Architect recounts the life of the renowned architect as far more than the determined woman standing hand-on-hip in front of the Las Vegas strip.
Edited by Swedish-Swiss architect and historian Frida Grahn, the anthology was published by Basel-based Birkhäser in 2022 as part of the Bauwelt Fundamente series.
Denise Scott Brown in the Las Vegas desert, off the Strip. Photo by Robert Venturi, Las Vegas, 1966. Courtesy of Denise Scott Brown.
Rather than presenting Denise as Robert Venturi's sidekick in the form of a spouse and partner—the arrangement that has often colored their collaboration for the last 50 years—the work lauds Scott Brown's individual story, interests, and innovations. It lets her be the main character of her own life for what feels like the first time.
Organized in three parts based on eras of Denise Scott Brown's life and career—1950s: Learning, 1960s: Teaching, 1970s-2020s: Designing—the anthology is composed of twenty-three essays.
Las Vegas signage, 1966. Photograph by Denise Scott Brown. Courtesy of Denise Scott Brown.
The book features text from those who knew her both personally and professionally, rather than solely those who studied her work, making it more of a living memorial than a biography. The chapters range from vignette stories and personal memories to academic essays and interviews. The epilogue even features emails that Scott Brown wrote in 2022 about the production of the book—her 90 years dulling none of her mind's sharpness that defined her career.
The inclusions trace the life of a pioneer and often focus on the intersectionality of Scott Brown's identity: being female, South African, Jewish, and an immigrant. Meanwhile, her personal life is interlaced with her professional accomplishments. The texts speak fondly of the dreams she had with Robert Scott Brown, hint at the grief that altered her course and prompted her nomadic quality, rise again with her individual explorations, and end with her partnership with Robert Venturi and the body of work they built together.
Denise Scott Brown, Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia, 2019. Photograph by Carl C. Paatz.
Interspersed with photographs both of and by Scott Brown, the essays dive into the architectural theories that drove her work and those that resulted from it. Scott Brown's ingenuity is put on display, particularly in the work-smarter-not-harder description of her composing course curricula so detailed that they could be easily transformed into publishable manuscripts.
Throughout the book, perhaps resulting from the many authors, is the repetition of "Learning from ________" and "On ______" in titles, subtitles, and copy that, when read from start to finish, turns the thoughtful essays into a sort of Scott Brown-inspired Mad Libs. But that doesn't stop the collection from honoring the architect with the credit she deserves—in no less than 300 pages.
Through her writing, teaching, and designs, Scott Brown has touched generations of architects and urbanists. With this publication, her story will inspire many more to see beyond their initial perceptions and appreciate everyday design as a testament to popular culture.
Denise Scott Brown In Other Eyes is available in paperback and digital forms.