A. Lawrence Kocher

delves into the complete body of work of a figure that warrants recovery from obscurity, remaining undervalued by most critics who have analyzed only his works alongside the Swiss architect Albert Frey, thereby overlooking his profound contributions to American modern architecture.

The book offers a new conceptual and historical framework for the study of Kocher’s body of work that relocates it within the history of American modern architecture. Kocher’s work as an independent designer has gotten very little critical attention. The book devotes several chapters to this little-known part of Kocher’s practice and resituates him as one of the main protagonists in the history of American Modern architecture and reveals the profound relationship between Kocher’s designs and existing American domestic traditions.

Some of his architectural works can be seen as manifest os that would later further develop in the articles of Architectural Record. Some others are the direct and material demonstrations of industrial systems and materials previously explored in his articles. Even other works are conceived and executed as part of a pedagogical activity. It is rare to find an architectural design in Kocher’s body of work that does not demonstrate a multitude of interconnections among his pedagogy, his editorial work, and his scholarship.

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