From Vanna Venturi House to Learning from Las Vegas, a look at the designer and theorist?s most important works Robert Venturi?s passing yesterday at age 93 bookends the life of an extraordinarily influential architect and scholar. Working in tandem with his partner and wife Denise Scott Brown, he helped not only create many of the uber-texts of postmodern architecture theory, but also designed masterpieces now seen as cornerstones of the movement.
The Philadelphia-based, Pritzker Prize-winning architect became famous for his mid-?60s ?gentle manifesto,? an idea that, in part, chided modernist architecture for being too staid and set in its ways. An examination of his career highlight shows how he lived up to his ideals of a more eclectic, playful, and personable style of architecture, one that had vision while respecting vernacular design. Here are some of the important works that helped define Venturi?s career.
Guild House: Callowhill, Pennsylvania (1964)

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The first major work by Venturi, this senior housing complex was also an early example of postmodern architecture. Topped with a Palladian window, the 91-unit brick structure incorporated humble, everyday elements and flourishes, such as brick walls and a block-letter sign. Don?t say architecture can?t be funny; the structure was originally topped with a gilded antenna, both a reference to the religious spires that dot the Philadelphia skyline and a sly wink at the most pop...