An interesting and worthwhile monograph of this unfairly maligned architect. The book looks at the huge amount of work R Seifert & Partners undertook, especially in London with several hundred buildings. The Case Studies section of the book considers twelve of them in detail.
Seifert ran an extremely successful company that was always in demand by commercial property developers because he had a deep understanding of building regulations and local council planning departments took him seriously. A succession of high-rise buildings in the sixties and seventies established his style of a sculptural look to the window areas unlike the more conventional International Style upright matchbox look with flat front, back and curtain wall sides which Seifert avoided by frequently curving them so the building has no corners.
His close relationship with the structural engineering company Pell Frischmann allowed buildings like Centre Point and the NatWest Tower to have their distinctive look and height. The precast sculpted concrete forms are so evident looking at the photos in the book of Space House, Park Tower Hotel and the International Press Centre (which was unfortunately demolished) plus making them even more distinctive Space House and Park Tower are circular structures.
The NatWest Tower is considered Seifert's finest achievement and, of course, it does look quite stunning. Completed in 1980 with forty-two floors though various other parts of the building (basement, podium, lobby, plant space, etc) actually make it fifty-two levels and the top was engineered to allow for a sway of seven inches. In later years the Tower is now part of a growing number of skyscrapers in this part of London.
The book is divided into two parts. Five illustrated essays come first (with an eight-page section of colored architectural renderings) followed by a detailed analysis of twelve Seifert buildings in Birmingham, Brighton, Croydon and London, these all have whole-page black and white photos. The back pages have a work chronology, bibliography and index.
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