From Ecofuturist Skyscrapers to Committed Criticism, Michael Sorkin Set a Standard for Moral Conviction in Architecture

Architecture critics are not, as a rule, individuals of uncompromising scruple. This isn’t so much a character judgment as a statement of professional fact. Since architecture lacks anything like true artistic autonomy—constructing a significant building requires capital and capital “P” Power—its critics are always a little wrong-footed, always in danger of amplifying the discipline’s intrinsic flaws. If, as Philip Johnson famously declared, architects are &ld