chitects to consider innovative configurations for
offices and to provide wiring and space for comput-
ers and other electronic devices in home design.
As technology supplanted the manual creation of
plan designs, many established architects moved
from designing structures to project management,
while architecture graduates found jobs scarce, less
creative, and more institutionalized. Some young ar-
chitects turned to a new field to display their creative
talents: computer games and films. Because their
training had prepared them to manipulate complex
software packages and also envision intricate, inno-
vative forms, they were valued for their ability to cre-
ate inventive buildings and streetscapes for games.
In the world of games, an architect’s imagination
was not limited by cost, usefulness, or structural in-
tegrity. As an added bonus for the architecture grad-
uate, the pay in the gaming industry was higher than
at an architectural firm: At the end of the 1990’s, the
average pay for a new architectural intern was about
$40,000, whereas in the gaming world $50,000 was
more typical, with pay in the film and television in-
dustries even higher.
Other architects moved in the opposite direction,
specializing in historic preservation. They were en-
couraged by the National Historic Preservation Act,
first passed in 1966 and amended in 1992; federal
and state tax credits for historic preservation; and
the desire of many communities to maintain a dis-
tinctive central core area instead of pushing com-
mercial businesses to outlying cookie-cutter strip
malls and shopping centers. Many cities established
historic districts to preserve the unique characters of
older neighborhoods. Architects who can create up-
dated, contemporary interiors without sacrificing
the historic character of a building’s exterior be-
came popular with clients and found greater respect
within the profession.
Impact The 1990’s saw many shifts in architecture.
Growing numbers of people lived in suburban
tracts, but custom-built homes and downtown con-
dominiums and apartments also saw an upturn in in-
terest. As technology altered the basics of architec-
ture, professional architects moved into related
areas. There was waning enthusiasm for the severe
modernist look that had previously dominated the
design of large buildings, and a few architects of
unique structures became celebrities.
Further Reading
Friedman, Avi, and David Krawitz.Peeking Through
the Keyhole: The Evolution of North American Homes.
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.
Specific to residential design in Canada and the
United States. Interesting discussions of the
changes in home design between the 1950’s and
the 1990’s, including chapters on adapting
homes to accommodate older persons; the de-
gree to which widespread adoption of electronics
has influenced home architecture; and what may
evolve in the twenty-first century.
Handlin, David. “Looking Backward and Forward.”
InAmerican Architecture. 2d ed. New York: Thames
and Hudson, 2004. The final chapter of Hand-
lin’s comprehensive book examines the state of
U.S. architecture in the last quarter of the twenti-
eth century, with discussions and illustrations of
many significant buildings from the 1990’s.
LaBlanc, Sydney.The Architecture Traveler: A Guide to
250 Key Twentieth-Centur y American Buildings. Rev.
ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000. Includes dis-
cussion and illustrations of more than fifty U.S.
buildings from the 1990’s. Provides indexes of ar-
chitects and of locations as well as maps of build-
ings by regions.
Roth, Leland M. “Responses to Modernism, 1973-
2000.” InAmerican Architecture: A Histor y. Boulder,
Colo.: Westview Press, 2001. A detailed discussion
of various styles and subsets of styles and the archi-
tects and buildings associated with them. Also
offers extensive notes, a comprehensive glossary,
illustrations, and an index.
Susanka, Sarah.The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for
the Way We Really Live. Newton, Conn.: Tauton
Press, 1998. The first of several books by Susanka,
a well-known residential architect. She argues
that most new homes are larger than needed and
that quality is more important than size, offering
examples of compact homes that meet a variety of
needs and provide distinctive amenities.
Venturi, Robert, and Denise Scott Brown.Architec-
ture as Signs and Systems for a Mannerist Time.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,- An extensive analysis of architecture, with
many examples from the 1990’s, from two of the
most influential architects of the late twentieth
century.
Irene Struthers Rush
50 Architecture The Nineties in America