Kurt W. Forster studied art history, literature and archaeology at the universities in Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Florence and London. He taught at Yale University (1960-67), Stanford University (1967-82) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1982-84), and then became the first director of the newly established Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Santa Monica (1984-92), where he inaugurated a broadly based programme of research and publications. After that he taught again, now at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich (1992-99). Before achieving his present position as director of the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio he was director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal (1999-2001). Ralph Richter studied at the Fachhochschule Dortmund. He rapidly made a name for himself as an architectural photographer. He also took the photographs for Opus 21: Norman Foster, Commerzbank, Frankfurt am Main.
