2 comments about 100 of the World's Best Bars.

1. I just received my copy of this book and the pictures are absolutely beautiful! It has great inspiration if you are thinking of opening a bar/lounge/restaurant. Some bars even have the blueprint along with pictures.



2. This is a great resource book. And this group out of Milwaukee, FLUX DESIGN
   is really doing some wonderful interior design and full out building of there designs, making for truly unique spaces. Buy it.

1 comments about Twentieth-Century American Architecture: The Buildings and Their Makers.

1. Twentieth-Century American Architecture: The Buildings And Their Makers surveys the major figures, influential movements, and landmark buildings that have identified and defined the American architecture over the past century. Carter Wiseman's informative text is enhanced with photographs as he focuses on the architects whose personalities and abilities indelibly influenced architectural progress. These figures range from Louis Sullivan Frank Lloyd Wright, and Philip Johnson, to I.M. Pei, Robert Venturi, and Louis Kahan. Twentieth-Century American Architecture is an impressive, authoritative, narrative history that is "must" reading for students of architecture, and highly recommended, accessible reading for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the development of American architectural trends and the men behind them.

5 comments about Morgan.

1. I have both this book and Sara Boutelle's "Julia Morgan, architect" ISBN 0-7892-0019-8. I give a slight edge to the Boutelle book for the writing, but both books are excellent and each provides information, images, and insight not in the other. I wouldn't give up either one.



2. While this is clearly a comprehensive book at JM's work and the photographs are exquisite, the prose could have used a bit more editing.
   For example, the introduction, written by JM's niece is a stream of consciousness of memories vs. a more concise piece on Julia Morgan's relationship with the goddaughter and the mother (who was Julia's assistant).



3. This book is an exceptional coffee table book for oneself or as a gift. It is one of the most comprehensive books I have seen on Julia Morgan and her architecture with a wonderful compilation of photos.



4. This is a great addition to the Julia Morgan literature. A lovely intro by her god-daughter gives some new biographical information, and there are more pictures and discussion of her private home commissions than in any of the other books I have.



5. Much new primary source material. Stunning photography and much more. Something for the scholar, the architect, the homeowner, the dreamer...and anyone who craves beauty.

No comments about A Dictionary of Architecture.

1 comments about Contemporary Asian Bathrooms (Contemporary Asian Home Series).

1. This is an undeniably beautiful coffee table book, which shows plenty of photos for bathroom design in Asian countries (Japan, China, Thailand, etc). If what you want is an overview demonstrating how gorgeous a bathroom can be, given an unlimited budget and (often) a lot of space, then you'll probably find this a five-star book.
   
   That wasn't what I was hoping for, however, so I'm personaly a little disappointed. First, when you can buy the finest (such as lots of marble) then it's easy to create something beautiful. For my purposes... as a new homeowner, I've been considering doing one of my bathrooms with an Asian theme. This book didn't give me much in the way of ideas for that. On the other hand, it's so pretty that I don't really mind.

3 comments about Architecture After Modernism (World of Art).

1. I have the luxery of learning under Diane, and this book is required for one of the 3 courses she teaches. What makes Diane and her work compelling is that she is able to use history to defend and defeat modern architecture. Clear and consise, Diane's work will follow the background thoughts of many future architects.



2. Thought provoquing and illuminating. Always analyzing architecture from the larger scope of society. Never apologetic nor reserved in her comments, the author comes out as a real person. Whether you agree or disagree with her, I prefer a book like this one than a nonjudgemental review of buildings trends and theories. Wonderfully illustrated, and very clear in most passages. I really enjoyed the analysis of public spaces.



3. Though this was a required text for school, I find myself reading it weeks after finals. It assumes a basic knowledge of Architecture & isn't for the casual reader, but there's much good information to be had. Tends to make me want to travel to the places mentioned.

3 comments about Pamphlet Architecture 15: War and Architecture (Pamphlet Architecture).

1. The work of Lebbeus Woods has always fascinated me. From the initial shear beauty of his art of alternate built landscapes both familiar and alien to his in-depth commentary.
   
   This small book pulls some big punches, revealing the examined paper architectural propositions expressing the underlying spirit and intent of the buildings within their context, altered, re-revealed to that society's 'catastrophe.'
   
   Well worth a buy for students to Architects to all those wishing escapism back to simple truths, and to delight in the satisfaction gleaned. Only wish the inside images were colour!



2. Woods is as much philosopher and urban planner as architect in the traditional sense. His buildings rip open the landscape of the ordered grid, and also open new possibilities about what it means to inhabit a space. The functions of some of his ideas for buildings are obscure even to him. He is constantly trying to deconstruct the politics of architecture and it's place in history. He actively embodies Heidegger's idea that "dwelling means to recieve the sky", except in his dwellings it also means to recieve the ground, and to actively take part in constructing your world.



3. In this work I have seen the necessity for Woods' architecture to exist; where before I had only seen compelling drawings. Lebbeus Woods has dedicated this manifesto to the city of Sarajevo, and to all cities which bear the signs of armed conflict on their walls. He states that the emergence of a new architecture is especially crucial in Sarajevo where the architecture was the target of the attackers (from within) who meant to destroy the culture there in all of its manifestations. The architecture of that culture, the places of worship and of social congregation, became the primary target for the ethnic genocide. As much as the bodies of the people, the architecture was destroyed for its significance as the public body. Therefore it is the architecture which must give a physical presence to these atrocities. Woods makes it clear that it is the responsibility of the architecture to preserve the memory of the destruction- not in a sentimental or memorial manner- but in the same manner as the life of cities has been preserved through use and adaptation throughout history. The war is part of the reality of the place and therefore should not be erased. This work also resists the glorification of war of the Italian Futurists, and the `tabula rasa' erasure of existing conditions of the Modernists. This is a work which acknowledges growth and destruction in the same breath. It is existential in its acceptance of reality and its means of building with it.... not nihilistic. It is existential in that it knows no reality other than what is there, but is not fully convinced by its authority. It revels in the multitudinous nature of the contemporary world, of the present. Unlike the Modernists, Woods does not intend to reinvent the city but to allow the city to be more itself. This work, his infamous drawings, is an attempt to recognize the reality of a place through actualization of events.... By building in and upon the ruins he remakes them into the living substance of the city, leaving no trace unexposed.

5 comments about Bucky Works : Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today.

1. I've been interested in the ideas and work of Buckminster Fuller for a long time but whenever I've tried to read his books I can't get through them, they're too dense for me. J. Baldwin has a clear and concise writing style which he enhances with illustrative photographs. His book really shows the practical applications of Bucky's work. I highly recommend this book to anyone.



2. I bought tis book several years ago based on a recommendation as a good intro th Buckys work. This book is a gem for all of those who are inclined to engineering and design, not only because of the explanations and ilustrations, but also as testimonial to the thought of the great genius.
   
   Im still amazed that Bucky's thought have not been embraced by us modern citizens.
   
   I am trying to introduce a revolutionary solar coating here in Venezuela [..], I think of the aluminum domes built in Ghana that used natural convection for cooling, and people thoight they were in fact to cold!!! sustainable development has been around longer than we thought, are we ever going to strat smelling the coffee???



3. Inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller, "Bucky," died in l983 at age 88. He is known the world over for his invention of the geodesic dome. The author of this book knew him for 31 years.
   
   Bucky, as he was known to everyone, (except his wife of 66 years) was not a college graduate, yet he received 47 honorary degrees during his lifetime. His influence on architectural and product designing was--and still is--tremendous.
   
   This book is of interest not only as a tribute to his inventiveness, but for detailing why many of his concepts, to this day, have not been accepted. The full-page cartoon on page 20 is a classic example of his frustration. It depicts an automobile being made on the driveway of a home. Bucky argued for years how ridiculous it is that we build houses 'from scratch' on a house lot. If we built cars that way, as the cartoon shows, they would cost $300,000! It should be noted that the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in 1928, passed a resolution "...on record as inherently opposed to any peas-in-a-pod-line reproducible designs." Others, sewer system builders, carpenters, electricians, etc., indicated they too would oppose home-building innovations.
   
   One reason the geodesic dome concept succeeded was that the military did not need to consult zoning and codes when it needed a transportable light weight and super strong structure for a mountain top or an Arctic location.
   
   You will be amazed at how much his 1934 car designs resemble today's vans. Equally amazing is his "traveling cartridge," a small car transportable by air or rail. No need to rent a car. It could even be used as a sleeping unit.
   
   His "Triton City" was designed as a floating city (100,000 people) for Tokyo Bay. You see variations of this idea almost every year and it is invariably presented as a new idea. His "Fly's Eye" dome is now under commercial development and you may be seeing into the future when scanning this section of the book.
   
   An example of the tremendous respect for Fuller's concepts can be seen in the naming of the 60-atom carbon molecule discovered in the early 1970s. It is called "buckminsterfullerene" and is often referred to as "Buckyball." Its soccer-ball-pentagon-hexagon pattern very much relates to Fuller's icosahedron-based constructions.
   
   Fuller maintained that the entire universe, from atoms to galaxies, "is make made up of islands of compression in a continuous sea of tension." This "tensegrity" concept may even apply to biological cells according to a recent (1993) paper by Dr. Ingber.
   
   As the author often notes, Fuller--as a person and as a designer--had his faults. However his accomplishments and his influence on others far outshine his failures. Many inventors can relate to the problems due to being "before your time" and to the difficulty of displacing the "established way" of doing something.
   
   This book is crammed with photos, many never before published. Buy it, enjoy it. Donate it to your local school library. There is a whole new generation out there that can be inspired by it.



4. Buckminster Fuller has fascinated me since my teens because of his borderline science-fictional ideas and his quest to use technology to provide for 100% of humanity -- which unfortunately is a moving target during an era of population growth. Baldwin's book doesn't quite satisfy my curiosity about the current state of Fuller's posthumous work, since he gives me the impression that it's stuck somewhere back in the post-Hippie 1970's. I certainly hope that the field has advanced further along than the dumbed-down "Whole Earth Catalogs" version which celebrated geodesic model kits and "sustainable" (i.e., voluntarily hardship-inducing) technologies.

   What I would like to see in a proper review of Fuller's legacy includes (a) mathematicians' assessment of his synergetic geometry, which is more radically anti-Euclidean than non-Euclidean in that it rejects the whole Greek paradigm of "abstraction" from physical objects; (b) economists' assessment of his argument that with proper resource use and rational design decisions we really could take care of 100% of humanity; (c) a discussion of why, if Fuller's goal is indeed practical, after 250 years of industrial and technological progress we've devolved from objectively useful work -- making and moving stuff on farms, in mines and in factories -- into to a situation where we hold absurd, time-wasting and nonproductive "jobs" in "services" (which sociologist Daniel Bell characterized as postindustrial "games between persons"), while billions of other humans don't even have the basics for a materially decent life; (d) and why this goal isn't on the agenda of any major politician or other world-recognized and respected figure.

   In other words, I find implicit in Fuller's work the question, "When do we declare victory in the Industrial Revolution, and go on our long-overdue vacation that futurists used to call 'The Postindustrial Leisure Society'?" Although Baldwin supplied me with some useful information on "Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today," it wasn't quite what I wanted.




5. I haven't actually read this book but JB is my professor and a fascinating human. Everyday of class is a treat to listen to his life experiences and stories. He was a student of Fuller and clearly understands his theories and has furthered them in ways that would make Bucky proud.

No comments about I.M. Pei: Complete Works.

1 comments about Mini House Now.

1. Made me feel like a glutton after buying an 1200 sq. foot condo... what a waste of space! An excellent book showing you don't need an 8,000 square foot mansion to live comfortably. The book is also great for anyone interested in minimalism interior design as many of the homes don't allow for much clutter or adornment.