I have a problem with the word post modernism  

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Alessandro Mendini, Kandissi sofa, 1978
Alessandro Mendini, Redesigned Wassily armchair, 1978
Ettore Sottsass, Seggiolina dining chair, 1980

Wow, SDR, all that just kind...
Wow, SDR, all that just kind of makes my teeth ache, but still, while I admit it might be pretty darn fun - and I think I can understand the rage - I'm not so sickened by it that I'm going to see if I can knock the chicken off the top of the Graves tea kettle with the old 12 gauge shotgun.
I've really enjoyed the discussion generated by this thread, all the good voices here. The 'post' of postmodern was, as most everyone has stated, a very unfortunate choice in a temporal sense. It's probably kind of important though to remember context when considering the history of design as it might pertain to any genre.
Finally, whether or not one identifies postmodernism as a reaction (tantrum might be a better word) to modernism or as superseding modernism is probably not that important of a distinction. As the kids are fond of saying, and it actually might apply here: it is what it is. Somebody may think - and somebody might be right - that it could have turned out a little better had it been sent off to boot camp, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
As a child of the disco era, I'm forever thankful - even if my appreciation has waned - for the presence of the counterculture: early Aerosmith, the Talking Heads, Saturday Night Live... I have this feeling that even in the late 1500s there may have been a small group of stoners kicking around whatever was the equivalent of the hackey sack who weren't real jazzed with Shakespeare. And it makes me glad for all of us.

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Frank O Gehry, "Little Beaver," 1980
Robert Venturi Collection, 1984

you had to put my favourite...
you had to put my favourite chairs in didn't you?
Its a shame Venturi didn't fall into the plywood press.
Thanks for re-confirming my prejudice, but I will admit to trying to challenge it...what about the Sydney Opera house? Where does that fit in?

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Furniture photos from "1000 Chairs," Taschen, 2000
I'll pause to collect my thoughts regarding the provocative title at the top of this picture gallery. In the meantime, Michael Graves' gorgeous colors and delightful sketches, and some of the other pretty stuff above, stand on their own merits.

In what ways
could the Sydney Opera House be considered PoMo ? There was lots of non-PoMo work being done in the late 'seventies and early 'eighties. . .

pomo do
and here's some nice postmodern hair to go with it all...

omigod
Tell me that isn't you. . .
What's the year ?

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I included Robert Sterns's unfortunate drawing of a residence in East Hampton because I found the shingled precursor for the oversized pierced detail. Other drawings of this house reveal that the conical roof has a flat back surface; a half-cone roof (with a nice snow-trap behind it) ! Horrifying -- and the perspective from his office is hardly a professional performance.
Stanley Tigerman was a respectable if uninspired corporate modernist until PoMo hit. I believe he's come back to earth since. His wife, Margaret McCurry, is a crackerjack architect reminiscent perhaps of Julia Morgan: highly disciplined and reserved.
The Venturi office has produced some lovely presentation drawings. I'm sorry this one is so small. Maybe I'll insert an enlarged detail.
Gehry's Easy Edges dates from 1972. By 1980 he was getting bored ?

SDR,,,
When I look at Stern and Emerson's circa 1980 houses above I am reminded just how much early post modern resembled early Frank Lloyd Wright. Compare Wright's first house he built for himself and his family in Chicago and the connection seems unimpeachable, not only superficially, but in philosophy about the relationship between traditional forms merged with modernist forms and ornamentation. I wonder if Stern was intentionally referring to Wright's first house for himself, or not?

A link to Wright's first personal residence
in Chicago.
http://www.oprf.com/flw/H&S.html

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Interesting observation -- as usual ! I can't say, but Stern has done a number of Shingle-Style residences on Long Island and elsewhere, each a seeming homage to that 100+ year-old tradition. In fact, they are often heavy-handed and poorly -composed examples of the style -- which for all I know he claims to be intentionally "ironic" exercises.
I certianly hope he doesn't have a Wrightian "phase". . .!
This man has been selected to design George W Bush's Presidential Library. A fitting cap to his career ?

nothing greater than Robert...
nothing greater than Robert A M Stern
go back 100 years to Stanford White he built many long Island homes with the shingles just like Robert A M Stern has ( I have a feeling since Stern is from the NY area and grew up seeing those sights on a daily bases and those homes many times he
sorta helped him self to some of those great old Sandy White homes designs in Long Island, and the Hamptons mostly.
White was a hell of a character and architect
I feel he never got t he recognition that Lewis Sullivan or Frank Lloyd Wright got who were his contemporaries in the Architectural world . what do you think was he a Baux Arts man?

this is where i use to...
this is where i use to play golf when i was a golfer
and loved the club.
It looks so much like shinnycock country club on the shores of Long Island that building was designed my Stanford White this building was designed in the early 80s but so much like the work of White and Stern

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Bruce Price, Kent House, Tuxedo Park, NY, 1885-86
Frank Lloyd Wright, own home, Oak Park, IL, 1889
It is likely that Wrght saw this house in the publications of the day.