The architect, historian and critic Detlef Mertins examines Walter Benjamins transformative readings of the histories and theories of modern architecture through the lens of Paul Scheerbarts 1914 utopian treatise Glass Architecture. Mertins is Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and previously taught at the University of Toronto and was a visiting professor at Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University and Rice University. His books include The Victory of the New Building Style; The Presence of Mies; and Metropolitan Mutations: The Architecture of Emerging Public Spaces.