Brilliant theorists who have changed the course of architecture more than any other living architect(s), Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown (or "Robert Venturi" as they are usually collectively called) also design buildings. It is unfortunate that their designs (while often individually strong) have yet to capture populist realities as well as their writings. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture and Learning from Las Vegas remain as important as they were when first written, still required reading for anyone who takes the profession seriously.

Vanna Venturi House
(1964) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Just two years after Saarinen's TWA Building and Alvar Alto's Finlandia Hall opened (and while Mies' Neues Nationalgalerie and Kahn's Salk Institute were still under construction), Robert Venturi was undercutting modernism in ways that took decades to fully understand at his Mom's house at Chestnut Hill, in the same neighborhood as Louis Kahn's Esherick House but definitely a world away.

Fire Station #4
(1968) Columbus, Indiana, United States

The people who work at the Columbus, Indiana Visitor Center consider themselves fans of architecture, living in a town lucky enough to have buildings completed by at least two Saarinens. Still, try asking them about the little fire station out of town and they'll tell you they just don't get it. The brick pattern is irrespective of the window locations and then there's that great big four on the building. What's up with that?

Click here to go to the Columbus, Indiana architectural visitor's site. Fire Station #4 is just out of downtown, the people in the visitor's center will be happy to tell you how to find it.

Gordon Wu Hall
(1983) Princeton, New Jersey, United States

As Post Modernism raged (virtually) unchecked in the mid 80s, Robert Venturi's Gordon Wu Hall quietly proved the difference between what he meant in his books and what everyone else thought he wrote. A telling sign is the ornamental graphic keystone with the control joint running right down the middle. Think about that one.

Click here to go to the Butler College site at Princeton University. The campus is worth a visit, besides Gordon Wu Hall there are also a few buildings by Rafael Vinoly, a good museum and (eventually) another Frank Gehry building

Sainsbury Wing
(1991) London, United Kingdom

A big functional, modern building on the corner of Trafalgar Square, the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery at first glimpse looks like it has always been there. The facade of the new building echoes the National Gallery's facade and columns, but if you look closer its playful enough to reveal itself as the billboard it is at just about every corner.

Click here to go to the National Gallery site. The collection is good (if you're into old paintings that all seem to look alike) and the museum is free anyway. What more do you want?