"Perspecta 32" examines contemporary "resurfacings" represented by the return of many forms and values associated with mid-20th-century modernism. By 1950, a plethora of architectural practices were adapting earlier modernist experimentation to the changing times. Numerous buildings of this period employed sleek surfaces of glass, metal, and stone to provide primary stylistic unity. More generally, much architectural activity involved the quotation, manipulation, and modification of past appearances (surfaces) and discourses (spaces). Exceptional architecture of the last decade - not only built work, but also historical and theoretical research - has again been informed by such imagery and actions. For this reason, "Perspecta 32" explores the prospects of mid-century modernism in a postmodern age. The issue invokes three different meanings of "resurface": the reappearance of aspects of the past as well as the layering of new meanings and interpretations onto accepted conventions, and the peeling away of accrued patinas associated with modernism.