No comments about English Neo-Classical Architecture (Studies in Architecture).

2 comments about Architecture Tours L.A. Guidebook: West Hollywood - Beverly Hills.

1. Very very useful! Every building has a short description of its history and main features. I'm not from L.A. and this book help me find buildings I wanted to see but didn't know how to get to without finding myself driving cluelessly in some dangerous neighbour. A must have before (and during) your trip to L.A.



2. This book has been a valuable resource in getting to know the West Hollywood-Beverly Hills area. We have made many trips from our home in N.Y. to L.A. and each time we use another of these books as a guide to seeing the city and getting to know L.A. through its architecture and history. A great guidebook to
   have. There are great photos and excellent detailed directions.

No comments about Modern Architecture in Czechoslavia and Other Writings (Texts and Documents Series).

No comments about The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 25: The American Hotel (Journal of Decorative & Propaganda Arts).

No comments about British Built: UK Architecture's Rising Generation.

No comments about As I Was Saying, Vol. 1: Texas, Pre-Texas, Cambridge.

No comments about The Cultured Landscape.

3 comments about Structure, Space and Skin: The Work of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners.

1. This book has a bunch of interesting projects that use designed enginnering to solve issuses. There are also some really nice an innovative details and some great looking drawings.



2. A very good description of this particular period of grimshaw's work. Concentrates on the select projects with plenty of images, drawings and most importantly details. It is these details that grimshaw and partners are known for and form a valuable resource



3. This is the first volume of Grimshaw's work and it's very impressive. Shows his most chalenging projects in the period between 1988-93, with texts, model shots, sketches and computer-generated images.

No comments about Story of Architecture in the 20th Century (Compact Knowledge).

4 comments about The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries.

1. This is an exhaustive history of the Prairie School although it is somewhat academic and dry. Its primarily about the people clustered around Louis Sullivan and Frank LLoyd Wright and their diverse work in a couple of decades around the start of last century.
   
   It is not limited to domestic architecture that most now would consider to be 'Prairie Style' as it includes other domestic styles and structures such as banks, schools, churchs undertaken by these people.



2. Award-winning architecture scholar and former president of the Society of Architectural Historians H. Allen Brooks presents The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries, an in-depth discussion of the American architectural development and the "Prairie School", a regional manifestation of a forward-thinking reform movement in the visual arts. Inspired by Louis Sullivan and brought to fruition by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Prairie School sought to reinvent methods of architectural expression while retaining practicality, and often featured angular forms (much better than flat-topped forms in lands with heavy snowfall upon local roofs) and intricate interior designs. Illustrated with a copious amount of black-and-white photographs and diagrams, The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries draws heavily upon previously unpublished material, original documentation, and interviews to recount the course of the movement, including how and why it came into existence, its achievements, its foibles, and its unfortunate end. Highly recommended for architectural scholars and enthusiasts.



3. 
   If you want a basic overview of the Midwestern architects who, along with Frank Lloyd Wright, were bringing about an entirely new kind of architecture in the early years of the 20th Century, then H. Allen Brooks' book is precisely what you need. Brooks takes time to explore the friends, associates, students, rivals, imitators and admirers of Mr. Wright's architectural idiom. There is also a fine overview of Louis Sullivan here.
   
   Many of them got it ... (one cannot resist the pun)... Wright. Many of them created homes and buildings that ought to be better known than they are. Many of them solved problems dealing with space and its enclosure so creatively that these buildings are still most pleasing, aesthetically. As the Century progressed, the Prairie School architecture met with a mixed fate. Some of these brilliant architects flamed out. Others sold out to the mock Tudors of the Twenties and the white Colonials with the picket fence. If one has ever wondered why, Brooks has an answer for that. One that may surprise you.
   
   The book is profusely illustrated. Please understand that the many fine illustrations are presented in black and white. This will whet your appetite. Once you buy this book, you can use it as a research tool. For instance, you can then go on line and find color photos of many of the buildings represented, or additional information about specific architects. You will want to do that, because like a good smorgasbord, Brooks' book makes you hungry for more.
   
   And here is another idea. If you live in one of the places which were fortunate enough to have Wright or Sullivan or their followers at work...do what you can to make sure that these homes and other buildings are preserved. A shocking number of Walter Burley Griffin houses have been disappearing of late. If you have a voice speak up. If you have the wherewithall, why not buy and restore one of these gems?
   
   A dear friend of mine, a smart and engaging lady who has now gone to her eternal rest, was an original F LL W client and she told me more than once that the best education she ever had was living in her Wright house. Wright may be beyond your budget...but some of these other architects' buildings can be had for what you would pay for a new four bedroom place in your town that looks like everybody else's house.
   
   Okay, commercial is over.
   
   If you live in the Midwest, get this book and use it as a "destination guide" for day trips. What fun!



4. First let me say I am not an architect. I am interested enough in this design form to want to learn more about the history and designs of the Prairie School, and its impact on American architecture. I came across this book while looking for just such a review, yet I wanted to avoid wading through textbooks. What I found was a very readable and seemingly comprehensive review of the students of this movement, its background, and its philosophy. The history seems reasonably complete, well presented and ultimately interesting. The book's weakness is its inevitable superficial treatment of each individual's portfolio and their evolution; the student of architecture will want to have more detailed reference materials at hand. For the non-architect, this did create some difficulty in understanding how each of these creators related to each other. This then occassionally creates some dry reading. Overall, however, I have not yet found a better distillation of the Prairie School history. I enjoyed this book, and look forward to a trip to Chicago to investigate some of these architects' works.