When we first began assembling this guide

to contemporary American architecture, we

were faced with two enormous questions: why

produce such a document in the first place and how

to go about doing it?

The first question was easy to answer: no such

guidebook currently exists. Although there are travel

guides, regional guides, congratulatory guides

produced by local architectural societies, guides to

historical architecture, at this writing there is no

guidebook intended for use in the field by the

traveler with a particular interest in contemporary

architecture.

This guide does not pretend to be encyclopedic. It is

selective, portable and is perhaps most useful

because it gives the exact address of listed buildings

and shows a picture of almost every one. The reader

can judge in advance whether the building is of

interest. In the case of major cities, locations are

shown on street maps, allowing the traveler to group

his site visits efficiently.

The book gives an overview, representing important

contemporary buildings throughout the country and

provides a bibliography of local guidebooks in the

event the traveler wishes to examine the architecture

of a city or region in greater depth.

This is a pocket book-a field manual for people in

search of those architectural trends which have found

realization during the last forty years. Convenient to

use and simple to read, it provides the first clues to a

more detailed quest.