1 comments about Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design.

1. I purchased this book because I was looking to buy an house very similar, has a structure, to the ones covered in this book.
   In fact is interesting because are reported many different project, in different Brooklyn areas. Mostly like Brooklyn heights and in anycase of a very similar kind each one to the other: a narrow house with a small narrow yard in front and in the back.
   The edition is good with well made picture and for most of the project there are plans and section views.
   Now I'm not interested any more in the purchase of the house but I own a good book!

1 comments about Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture.

1. Detailing is difficult for young design professionals. College education does not cover enough detail design, the only ways to learn how to develop details are: 1) learn through working experience in design offices; 2) teach yourself by reading good books.
   
   "Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture" can alleviate this problem. It is a book on design details, not construction details. It has color interior photos and sections and plans drawn to scale. It can help young design professionals to understand design details by comparing photos to drawings. It is also a good collection of details of 40 well-known projects, which can inspire you to develop your own design details.
   
   If you want to really learn more about construction details, you can simply find a good set of construction drawings and reading it word-by-word from beginning to end, and try to understand it. You may need to read the set several times and seek answers from more experienced colleagues to completely understand it.
   
   "Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture" has 192 pages. It is a useful resource for design details.

5 comments about John Fowler: Prince of Decorators.

1. I bought this book as a companion to the one I have on Colefax and Fowler. Have always admired the work of the firm. Enjoyed reading more about John Fowler and the projects he worked on.



2. Book's pictures are of poor quality and worse still, small in frame. Not worth the asking price.



3. I was dissapointed with the lack of quality "full page color photos" inside this book. One can not get a sense of the cozy details in Fowler's designs, in the pics represented within. I found the book mostly a biographical story rather than an inspirational journey through Fowler's career. Don't be fooled by the intimacy presented on the cover...once inside you might be surprised by the lack of warmth.



4. John Fowler has and will continue to inspire the way I decorate my home...this book is full of lovely illustrations and photos and a very interesting read



5. I'm addicted to "house books", just as I'm addicted to houses. John Fowler has always been someone whose work I admire, and this book does an excellent job of charting his background and development as a designer. It's not necessarily a book you'll buy to get ideas for curtains from - but you'll understand better why his rooms were more comfortable, suitable and attractive than anyone else's before or since.

5 comments about The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book.

1. This is the best book I have read on alternative buildings. The author is very sensible about the whole project without being to much of a hippie. If my wife hadn't threatened divorce I would be building one of these houses right now. I HIGHLY recommend it!



2. First off, the reason for four stars instead of five. It's because the author was very narrow minded in what he thought you would be reading the book for. The title makes it very clear that it's going to be a cheap house, but it still came as a surprise to me that it is not about making a modern house. The most modern thing in the houses described in this book is a polyethylene layer for waterproofing. He does not describe the use of anything that cannot be found on site (excluding polyethylene). This has its merits, but I quote him out of the book saying "cement has no soul" And his total refusal to see the use in a design he dubbed the "first thought design" which would easily work as well as his own "basic design" if only you use a slanted roof. (a method he chose not to consider mentioning.
   
   Now, what this book did cover I thought it did very well at. It describes with photos and clear instructions how to make a house with natural or easily obtainable supplies at a low cost. He has some very good ideas like his uphill patio which eliminates the force of the hill pushing down on your home and puts the load on a much easier to maintain retaining wall. Also, a feature he calls clerestories (basically windows that are put in a sudden drop of ceiling height) make the interior much brighter.
   
   All in all it's a very good book on how to make your own fallout shelter or summer cabin, but not a good manual on the finer points of making an underground home. The houses in this book exhibit many features that you would need in a modern home, but they are not a replacement for your current house.



3. I bought this book based on other reviews and was disappointed in the author's narrow mindedness and intolerance for anyone who thinks even a little different than he does. The author gives ammunition to the very people he despises to rightfully call him a "wacko". It's sad that he can't just let people see this for the beautiful idea that it is and not a political statement. Still, if you look past the seriously disturbed rantings, this is an interesting "how I did it" book with some consideration for how you can do it too.



4. I enjoyed this book very much and used it as a basis for designing an underground building for my plantation resort in India. Mike goes into good detail concerning how to build an inexpensive home using his techniques and there are plenty of pictures to help you understand the procedures. I haven't seen anything else out there as good as this for underground building...if you do please let me know.
   
   Michael Skowronski
   Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story



5. If you are looking for DIY instructions to build a basic inexpensive underground structure, this should fit the bill nicely.

5 comments about The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day.

1. My professor introduced this book to us when I took a History of Landscape Architecture course in University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It was only available in hard cover at that time and was very expensive ($98.00). I did not buy the hard cover version and waited many years later and bought the soft cover version at a great price. It has many powerful images to illustrate the gardens and architecture in many different cultures. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be.
   
   What is a "Landscape of Man"?
   
   "To qualify as a `landscape of man,' an environment must be deliberately shaped at a specific time." "Art is a continuous process..." Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and his wife Susan wrote, "All design therefore derives from impressions of the past, conscious or subconscious, and in the modern collective landscape, from historic gardens and parks and silhouettes which were created for totally different social reasons..."
   
   "The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" includes 28 sections and they are separated into two parts, Part One is "From Prehistory to the end of the Seventeenth Century." It covers landscape from pre-history to 1700 AD and includes 17 sections covering Origins, the Central Civilization (Western Asia to the Muslim Conquest, Islam in Western Asia, the Western Expansion of Islam: Spain, the Eastern Expansion of Islam: Mughul India), the Eastern Civilization (Ancient India, China, Japan, Pre-Columbian America) and the Western Civilization (Egypt, Greece, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages in Europe, Italy: the Renaissance, France: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries). The text for each section follows a standard format of Environment, Social History, Philosophy, Expression, Architecture and Landscape. Case studies have striking black-and-white photos, paintings and plans and a brief description.
   
   Part Two of the book is "The Evolution of Modern Landscape." It covers landscape from 1700 AD to present and includes 11 sections covering the Eighteenth Century (Western Classicism, the Chinese School, the English School), the Nineteenth Century (the European Mainland, the British Isles, the United States of America), and the Twentieth Century (Europe, The Americas, the Western Hemisphere: the New World, the Eastern Hemisphere: the Old World), and Worlds Trends in Landscape Design. The text follows a standard format of Environment, History, Social, Economics, Philosophy and Expression for each Century and then a standard format of the Home, Landscape, Comments and case studies for each section.
   
   "The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" has 408 pages, 746 illustrations and 6 maps. It is a great book for architects, landscape architects and urban planners!



2. The book is great, easy to understand and great images.



3. Beautiful gardens and parks don't simply settle themselves on sites. They are planned, developed and planted by caring human beings. Those of us who are amateur gardeners and landscapers are influenced by the great public gardens and parks of the world. And the public gardens and parks didn't just appear out of thin air. All of what we find beautiful was influenced by something older or from somewhere else. And this wonderful book takes us back in time and on the highways and byways to times and places where man first came upon natural scenes and imagined the possibility of recreating at least the impression of what his eye beheld.
   
   This beautiful volume with its fine black and white photographs and drawings makes everything seem simple. It takes us down two main roads, the formal and informal. What could be more basic? Yet over half a century or more of shaping the land around half a dozen houses and reading dozens of books, some very useful and beautiful, I do not recall seeing an explanation of how these two main roads came to be trod. But in The Landscape of Man, it is all here from the beginning, from the time when farmers gathered on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates gazed upon the fields spreading before them and other such early independent beginnings.
   
   We are the descendants of those who sought beauty and consolation in gardens large and small in the great civilizations of the past. Each of these, over great time frames, came to influence and cross pollinate with one another. And the Jellicoes trace all of these rivulets and streams from their headwaters down to the well established gardens of the world to which we are heirs. The writing is simple and direct, the photos illuminate their points, and their site drawings are clear and useful.
   
   This is a book for gardeners to enjoy over the winter so that they may dream about how they might shape their little spaces and understand a little more of the shoulders on which we all stand as we place our first trees and shrubs in the bare ground before us. It is a great book, and I recommend it not just for professionals but for those whose gardens lie far in the future. It is the best book I have ever come across in explaining the history and possibilities of landscaping.
   
   I have owned my copy for years. Hundreds of sentences are highlighted and notes fill the margins. I should have reviewed this fine work many years ago.



4. This book as a classic. It is not only for those who want to study our changing perceptions of our landscape and our moves to define it over the past few millennia, but also to architects who build 'buildings'. This tome takes us through man's history, and outlines our aesthetic evolution with our landscape as a changing canvas that represent our different social conditions. A must-have if you are a student, an architect, or just a person who wants to see how we became what we are!



5. The original edition, hardcover with beautiful dust jacket, was printed in 1975 in England. It is one of my favorite all-time photo books, since in includes shots of Borobudur, the Ziggurat, the Red Fort in Delhi, Angkor Wat, Ctesiphon in Iraq - lots of photos hard to find even on the net. History all the way to the opera house in Sydney. A most fascinating book. Large: 9 1/4 x 11 3/4, 383 pages, a sound minimal text with each plate numbered and easily referenced - to me this is one of the great books. Everyone who has travelled, or who wants to travel, will enjoy this tremendously. (Many of the areas shown are difficult and often dangerous to visit, now.) Try it. You'll like it.

5 comments about Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail.

1. I receipt the book very quikly and in excelent conditios of use, as a new book.



2. THE BOOKS GIVES A LAYMAN A GENERAL IDEA ABOUT STRUCTURES, ELASTICITY, STRESS AND STRAIN WITHOUT TOO MUCH MATH. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND THE CONCEPTS ARE CLEAR AND CONCISE. THE BOOK IS EASY TO READ AND VERY ENJOYABLE.



3. I am not an architect or engineer, but I found this book really fascinating. The authors explain things so that those not in the field could understand, but sometimes get too technical. The illustrations were great, but there should have been more, and some color photos would have been nice.
   
   One thing the authors did not point out, is that hindsight is 20/20. It is almost as though they believe they would never make any errors like those they describe (though some designs they discuss really do sound irresponsible), that buildings they designed would stand forever regardless of environmental factors like earthquakes, floods, etc.



4. I'm a young Civil Engineer from Portugal. Some months ago I went to New York and I found this fantastic book. I've also bought the book "Why buildings stand up" which is, again, amazing. The descriptions are in such a simple way that even lay people can understand easily the functioning of structures.
   It was a pleasure to read such interesting books.



5. I'm hopeful that the authors will produce a new edition of this book, with the forensic explanations of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers explained in detail.
   
   It is, nonetheless, a worthy sequel to Prof. Salvadori's great work, "Why Buildings Stand Up." It's best to buy both and read them in sequence.
   
   It's also fun to cross the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia (as my son and I did last summer) and think about Galloping Gertie...
   
   :)

No comments about The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York.

5 comments about Portfolio Design, Third Edition.

1. It's curious that this book is touted as "the bible of portfolio design." Although it passes as an intro, it's value drops off the face of the Earth afterwards.
   
   What "Portfolio Design" is, is a reproduction of outdated portfolios and examples of templates you can find in any page making tool. It lacks any meaty, substantial analysis you'd expect to find in a "bible" of portfolio design:
   
   -nothing on the theories behind print design.
   -no explanation on the "whys" and "hows" of presenting your work.
   -little analysis on proper organization of a portfolio.
   -insufficient info on photography, cropping, margins, etc.
   
   If you've never put a portfolio together, you might get some use out of it in the initial stages of your portfolio. Once you iterate to a certain level, however, "Portfolio Design" makes a better coaster than a guide. Advice: buy it used, if you buy it.



2. lo recomiendo ...es el mejor libro de portfolios a la venta y esta muy bien dirigido al campo d ela arquitectura,,..sus fotos e ilustracion son magnificas..claras y explicitas...comprenlo....vale la pena increiblemente



3. First off, this is a great reference for people/architecture students who are starting up or refining their portfolios. It is packed with some excellent, helpful written guidelines and decent imagery of a wide variety of portfolios. The professional commentary/critiques of the case-study portfolios are worth the price of the book alone. I received the 2nd edition of the book 5 years ago as a gift as I was applying to architecture school (after I'd submitted my portfolio however!) and, after leafing through the book in detail at Borders, I picked up this 3rd edition today as I am preparing to graduate and enter the work force.
   
   Now, with that out of the way...
   
   Several of the negative complaints I've read on here have focused on the "poor presentation" of the portfolios and the quality of the images of them, etc. While those comments are not without merit or completely off-base, they are in fact quite silly with regard to the subject matter of this book. Linton is providing samples of portfolios that were created by various students who volunteered to have their work featured and the fact is that many of the portfolios are quite elaborate fold-outs, spiral bound books, or printed plates...there is really no way for the author to present the images of the portfolios themselves (not their content!) other than photographing them.
   
   You can easily understand the IDEAS that are on display and how they are being graphically represented. That is the essence of what you need for composing your OWN portfolio featuring your OWN work. If you're looking for step-by-step instructions on how to create a slick portfolio, look elsewhere. I will say that the book would strongly benefit from more color imagery, but as for the reviewer who said they simply gave the book away because it was so disappointing and worthless, well, we don't see eye-to-eye on this one.



4. This book is so often mentioned and recommended that I bought it. I have produced some hand-built portfolios of my own, and was looking for more inspiration and practical advice. Instead, I found poor images, much of it in black and white, and the work in the portfolios is more interesting than the portfolios themselves.
   
   This is heavily geared to architects and also to those with the means to have professional printing and a huge cash outlay for materials, cases, etc. I think some of the advice is good, but really for the un-initiated student, not professionals. A professional already knows that if the portfolio is sloppy, that it will not speak well of the designer and that a well-designed portfolio is an extra endorsement for the designer above and beyod the contents. There is little better advice/information in this book than that.
   
   The portfolios showcased are very similar to each other, and there is little that can be produced by someone at home with a computer and a printer. I can tell you from my own experience that there is a lot you can do with a little elbow grease and less reliance on professionally assembled pieces.
   
   A little advice of my own: A portfolio must showcase the work, must not detract from the quality of the work, and must be either changeable or expendable. Your portfolio should not be stagnant, but evolving with the new wonderful things you're doing and adding! Too few of the examples in this book provide for leave-behnids, inclusion of resumes, and the evolution of the contents.



5. "Whether you work in architecture, urban planning, landscape design/architecture, or interior design, a finely tailored portfolio is the most important element to include in your application for graduate school, a design grant or competition, or bring to a job interview. In addition to showing you how to assemble a portfolio that will display your talents and qualifications to the best advantage, the third edition of Portfolio Design adds a chapter on digital strategies, discussing all the elements necessary to bring your work together in a digital format. Also new in this edition is commentary and analysis of selected student portfolios by three experienced professionals who offers unique insights to help you develop your own portfolio.
   
   From formats, bindings, and cases to reproduction techniques, content, style, sequencing, multimedia, and the latest in promoting yourself on the internet, Portfolio Design addresses every aspect of portfolio plannin gand production."
   
   ~Excerpt from inside cover of Portfolio Design, Third Edition

3 comments about Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles 2008 Price Guide (Antique Trader Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide).

1. I really liked this book. It really opened my eyes to see what treasures my antiques really are!



2. Excellent book with lots of pictures. Easy to use and the shipping time was speedy.



3. THE BOOK IS JUST WHAT WE WANTED. IT IS UP TO DATE AND EASY TO LOCATE ITEMS

5 comments about Sketching and Rendering of Interior Spaces.

1. As an architect, this book it's been so helpful to me to visualize my ideas, and allow me to express what I see, feel and want to show to other using drawings.



2. I really like this book because it's not that "technical" and it's filled with practical advice for producing graphics! One of the only complaints that I have is that the materials suggested are a bit out-of-date (e.g. marker colors) but that is really it. I'd suggest this book for anyone looking to make fantastic graphics in a short amount of time.



3. The quality of the renderings in this book are horrible, if I had things like this in my portfolio or submited work like this, I would get nowhere very fast. Some look as if he put markers through a paper shredder and let them just drip randomly on the paper, then smeared it around a bit. All of the Case Studies are of things he (the author) has done, so there is absolutly no diversity in this book. Try some of the more expensive alternatives, you get what you pay for I assume.



4. I found this text very frustrating. There is no instruction in technique beyond some simple perspective lessons. If you want to know how to accurately render different materials you will have to find another book. You can tell there are many more steps he uses to achieve his renderings, possibly even the use of other materials or media with his markers, but there is no information about it in his book. It is the text our professor uses for our Intro to Color Rendering class and I think there has to be something better than this!



5. An excellent reference text for both the student of design and professional. Beautifully illustrated with step-by- step instructions explaining the mediums and techniques in their use to acheive maximum results!
   Ira S. Friedman
   College Instructor,Interior Design/Graphic Techniques/Drafting