Introduction -- Pt. I. A history of the curtain wall as concept and construct. The Chicago frame and the dilemma of the wall -- Visions of a transparent future -- The mid-twentieth-century curtain wall -- New directions and new priorities -- Pt. II. Performance and technique. Curtain wall system design -- Building envelope as selective filter -- Pt. III. Case studies. Introduction -- The new 42nd Street studios / Platt Byard Dovell White -- Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall / KieranTimberlake Associates -- One Omotesando / Kengo Kuma and Associates -- William J. Clinton Presidential Center / Polshek Partnership Architects -- Green-Wood Mausoleum / Platt Byard Dovell White -- LVMH Osaka / Kengo Kuma and Associates -- Seattle Public Library / Office for Metropolitan Architecture and LMN Architects -- Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research / Architects Alliance and Behnisch Architekten -- Torre Agbar / Ateliers Jean Nouvel -- Torre Cube / Estudio Carme Pinos -- Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision / Neutelings Riedijk Architects -- Skirkanich Hall / Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects -- Trutec Building / Barkow Leibinger Architekten -- Biomedical Science Research Building / Polshek Partnership Architects -- ATLAS Building / Rafael Vinoly Architects -- Blue Tower / Bernard Tschumi Architects -- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art / Steven Holl Architects -- The New York Times Building / Renzo Piano Building Workshop and FXFOWLE Architects -- Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies / Krueck-Sexton Architects -- United States Federal Building / Morphosis -- Yale Sculpture Building / KieranTimberlake Associates -- The Cathedral of Christ the Light / Skidmore, Owings and Merrill -- Eleventh Avenue / Ateliers Jean Nouvel -- Perry Street / Asymptote -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration credits -- Bibliography -- Index.