A House for My Mother:

Architects Build for Their Families

by Beth Dunlop

Princeton Architectural Press, $34.95 (paper)

Talk about a project fraught with psychological baggage! Imagine an architect taking on her parents as clients, the task being to replace the childhood homestead. Beyond dealing with all those childhood connections and considering, perhaps for the first time, who one’s parents are and how they live, designing a home for one’s parents also means confronting their aging and the very real possibility of role reversal. This is an engaging book, not just for those who love to flip through pictures of architectural houses and have a look at the career-launching house that Robert Venturi built for his mom, Vanna. Dunlop includes illuminating interviews with the architects and their families.

This article appears in December 31 • 1999.

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