1100 Architect: 1998-2006

For more than twenty years, David Piscuskas and Juergen Riehm, principals of 1100 Architect, have honed a distinctive architecture informed by proportion, materiality, light, and detail. The firm's designs do not adhere to any specific stylistic codes but do share an understated architectural signature: an elegance of proportion, an innovative yet direct use of materials, a meticulous execution. A sequel to the best-selling 1100 Architect (1997), this new monograph includes twenty recent buildings and projects, notably Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School and the Irish Hunger Memorial, both in New York City, and the Naha City Gallery and Apartment House, in Japan. The firm's work encompasses cultural, institutional, residential, and commercial work. In addition to a perceptive essay by a long-time observer of the firm's work, the partners discuss five design elements essential to their practice: detail, materiality, effortlessness, permeability, and recognition.

Donald Albrecht is an independent curator and curator of architecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York. He has organized exhibitions for the Library of Congress; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; National Building Museum; and the Getty Center. Among his books are Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies and The Work of Charles and Ray Eames.