Seattle-based architect Jim Olson blends straight, clean architectural lines and curving natural scenery with such ease that one forgets they weren’t always in harmony. Over the course of a career spanning nearly fifty years, in collaboration with his partner Tom Kundig, Olson has established a reputation for thoughtfully considered buildings, evident in projects that suit and enhance their locations in Mexico, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Northwest.
This up-to-date survey of Olson’s work, focusing chiefly on his buildings for art-collecting private clients and large-scale resorts, offers a stunning look—by way of plans, sketches, and photographs—at the career of a great American architect. The accompanying text includes an introduction by architecture critic Aaron Betsky as well as Olson’s own reflections on the medium.
Contributors
Jim Olson
Author
Jim Olson is the founding principal of Olson Kundig Architects and has received numerous honors for his work as an architect, from the Seattle AIA Medal of Honor to Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame. Since the 1990s, Olson Kundig has been continuously included in Architectural Digest’s AD100 list of the world’s top architects and designers.
Aaron Betsky
Introduction By
Aaron Betsky is a critic and teacher living in Philadelphia. Previously, he was professor and director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech and, prior to that, president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin. A critic of art, architecture, and design, Betsky is the author of over twenty books on those subjects, including 50 Lessons to Learn from Frank Lloyd Wright, Making It Modern: The History of Modernism in Architecture of Design, Architecture Matters, and The Monster Leviathan: Anarchitecture.
