1 comments about Cinemetrics: Architectural Drawing Today.

1. Computer Assisted Design (CAD) is now a vast prison for young designers, a tool for seniors to censor discourse and suppress creativity. The seniors don't know how to do CAD, crow about their inability and disparage those who do know CAD as contemptible "CAD operators."
   
   What the narcissitic fogies do love, though, is stab their greasy fingers at the screen, yell do this or do that to the operator, then swoon at the capability of computers to generate glorious images to peddle inept design, even though computer-generated structures have evolved to appear to be the work of morticians out to make carcasses appear better dead than alive.
   
   In delicious contrast to the moribund illusion of the design profession, what computers in the hands of the truly creative can do is what Brian McGrath and Jean Gardner wonderfully demonstrate in "Cinemetrics: Architectural Drawing Today."
   
   They use cinemetrics to show bountifully diverse alternatives to the static monoclic rendering intended hypnotize the viewer with a command to sit there, shut up and admire this newborn-dead.
   
   Cinemetrics invites engagement of participants in the forever difficult design process, to be never sure of a perfect outcome, to not settle for the easy-greasy solution lifted from the magazines, to refuse the irresponsible deception of the ghastly rendering so favored in property development brochures.
   
   Realtors offer 360-degree walk-throughs for prospective buyers. None offer a chance to design the property to fit imagination.
   
   With liberating cinemetrics the CAD shackles on those who produce construction documents, and in particular lying computer renderings, will be unlocked.
   
   Design may then be freed to be as variable and exhilirating as computers are to those who know what's phony in the colored output.
   
   Creative cinemetrics, not CAD manuals, and never ever CAD standards tailored to productivity.

No comments about St. Louis Plans: The Ideal and the Real St. Louis.

4 comments about The Essence of Santa Fe: From a Way of Life to a Style.

1. What a great picture book, full of pretty pictures of what is the perceived essence of Santa Fe. This book is a poor mixture of bad editorial and inacurate historical tongue in cheek comments. Photo's taken by some very prominent photographers have not been credited. Remarks by the author seem to be his and her's personal opinion, however they are attempting to present themselves as authorities. Read this book with a realization that the facts here are mearly a dialougue of one person's opinion, but the historical photo's saved this from just being another coffee table book about pink howling coyotes, or chitzy overpriced homes.



2. As a long time visitor to this city, this is possibly one of the best books on the subject that I have seen. It gives a great overview of the history and importance of the city and the surrounding area to the culture of the United States. Highly recommended.



3. The Essence of Santa Fe: From a Way of Life to a Style is an excellent pictoral history of a beautiful city that has transitioned from its pioneer days, as depicted by Willa Cather in Death Comes to the Archbishop, to one that greets thousands a year who come to listen to opera and visit its 300+ galleries. The book is informative and interesting. After buying our copy, we ordered two more to give to dear friends who are enthusiasts of Santa Fe. This should attest to our opinion of it!



4. The historical information on Santa Fe was very well researched and presented in an entertaining manner. The characters who shaped Santa Fe came alive to the reader. My only frustration was that most of the archived photographs were not dated although most of them came from the museum. It seemed to me to be a serious oversight on the part of the author.

1 comments about Empire Style Designs and Ornaments (Dover Pictorial Archives).

1. Captures over 900 hundred of the French Empire Style period designs in delicate outline form suitable for use by the architectural or interior designer.

   A must for any serious designer.

1 comments about Architectural Journeys.

1. This book, from the outset looked like a scrap book. In fact, it contained drawings (sketches, probably a better word), clay models made by Antoine Predock during his many trips overseas over the years. It also contained sketches of architectural buildings designed by him. FYI, the sketches were more like outlines composed by a confident individual rather than technical drawings. Artists would relate more to those. Antoine wrote a brief introductory essay mentioning that it was essential to get both the feel of a place & what he had read about it before undergoing with the design. The end result, ie. the building would remain pertinent to its environment. Antoine is well known for his sensitivity & his inclination towards the spiritual aspect of the place & it showed tremendously in this scrap book. Antoine also stated that he had to sample collages of the place so that his colleagues would utilise them onwards for the design. I can't say I learn a lot about this great architect from this book but I suppose readers who are fond of him would find this book complementary to other architecture books about him.

No comments about Inventing American Modernism: Joseph Hudnut, Walter Gropius, and the Bauhaus Legacy at Harvard (Center Books).

1 comments about The One-Hour Watercolorist.

1. I have been painting watercolors my entire life, but I picked up this book because of the title. One of the great secrets of watercolor painting is NOT to overwork a painting; hence, one hour (more or less) is enough. If you begin to overwork the painting, you run the risk of ruining it.

   This book has no drawing instructions; if you are weak in drawing skills, pick up a drawing course book (they can really help) or use the suggestion in the book to project slides on a wall or to use an opaque projector. If that sounds like "cheating" be comforted that many professional artists use these tools to help, especially when doing large super-realistic paintings. Don't worry that this is "tracing" because the work of putting paint to paper takes skill and practice. It is NOT coloring book work.

   This book also gives important advice about paper and paints; this is helpful as using the wrong paper will just frustrate you. In addition it helps to copy some of the exercises in the book and follow the stages of putting the layers of paint on. This again isn't "coloring book" copying; copying work is a very good artistic exercise to learn technique.

   In short, if you are starting watercolor, this is an excellent book to try.

No comments about Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary (Architecture).

No comments about Medieval Allegory and the Building of the New Jerusalem.

5 comments about Country Houses and Seaside Cottages of the Victorian Era (Dover Books on Architecture).

1. A nice little book on the subject. Gives the reader a basic covering on a variety of dwellings of the period but unfortunately rarely gives more than one or two floors of a design that uas three or four without providing a full set. Also doesn't provide scale for some designs.



2. Though these houses purport to be "country houses and seaside cottages," there's little reason they couldn't have been built in any Victorian small town. They range from a tiny three-room structure to a rambling 10-bedroom Dutch Gambrel mansion (called in those days a "villa") to a "club house" (easily altered to private use), a lakeside pavilion, a Baptist chapel, a "stone rectory in Iowa," and a couple of apartment blocks, one of which eerily reminds me of a building not far from my former home. These buildings are primarily of the Eastlake or Queen Anne style, the original book having appeared in 1883, an era when the front stair-hall was often as big as any other room and used as such. You'll need a magnifier to make out some of the details, but if you have any interest at all in late-Victorian domestic architecture, you need to have this volume on your shelves.



3. Is a great visually informative book. It gives the reader a better idea of the way homes were built in the late 19th century. The book covers a wide variety of victorian styles and includes plans, perspective views and elevations from a small 4 room cottage, to a huge 36+ room mansion in the Caribbean. I recomend this book to anybody interested in late 19th century victorian architecture.



4. is a wonderful book that shows how homes were designed and built in the late 19th century. It covers a variety of victorian styles and has floorplans along with perspective views and elevations from a small 3 room cottage to a 36+ room mansion. This is a great way to learn about victorian architecture.



5. This book has great illistrations and floor plans with elevations. It's a great way to learn about the way homes were built in the late 19th century. It also includes specifications for the builder. It contains many plans of many differt styles of victorian architecture from a simple 3 room home, to a 36+ room mansion.