I'll be the first to admit that reading Colin Rowe is not an easy task. His writing is not only dense, it is circuitous and meandering, not always easy to follow. While that certainly applies to Collage City, which he co-authored with Fred Koetter, the more bite-sized chunks of his many essays are an easier task – and worth every difficult minute. Of course, the older I get and the more I read, the more bearable and understandable Rowe's writing becomes. Reading one of the nine essays in this collection in college was an ordeal, much different than rereading the "Chicago Frame" essay recently. I found myself applauding his unique perspective on the "Chicago School," which has been viewed in a singular way since historians like Carl Condit wrote about the city's architecture in the late 19th century. And that's the thing about Rowe's writing: he explored issues in a way that led to new insights and new perspectives on history. The essays here are just about all classics, and understandably so. Any architect should have this book in their library, making sure to pick it up every now and then, give it some effort, and be better off for it. ( )