This manuscript, titled “The Crisis of Architecture” and serving as the basis of a lecture titled “The Contemporary Situation in Architecture”, surveys what Robin Boyd considers the two major streams of contemporary architecture at the beginning of the 1960s: “a search for new richness on the surface and a search for new excitement in form.” Boyd positions two architects as representative of these two streams - Edward Durrell Stone as chief architect of the surface, and Eero Saarinen as leader of excitement in form.

Boyd, in line with other critics of the period, is largely dismissive of Stone, painting his work as a “little by road” of architectural history, “The International Style gift-wrapped”. In contrast, Boyd is clearly sympathetic the Saarinen’s quest for new excitement in form. Boyd highlights the MIT Kresge Auditorium Kresge Auditorium, Yale Hockey Rink and TWA Terminal as key examples of Saarinen’s expressive, structurally ambitious turn away from main-line ‘glass box’ modernism. Boyd quotes Saarinen approvingly and at length, clearly sharing his enthusiasm for a more evocative and artistically ambitious alternative to the status quo.