5 comments about New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York.

1. This is a beautiful book. Perfect for anyone who loves new york city.



2. I'm fascinated by "then and now" picture compilations. That said, this book does have some really good examples of the genre, however they are surrounded by much less interesting and really unimportant locations throughout NYC. It's a mix. If you like to see how a great city changes, this will have some utility. As a former native New Yorker, I found enough to make me glad I'd bought it but not enough to delight me.



3. Then and now photobooks of American cities are steady bookshop sellers but it is not until you turn over the pages of 'New York Changing' that you'll realise that this is how it should be done. Douglas Levere, with help from Berenice Abbott, has created a brilliant photo record of the world's premier city.
   
   To start with Abbott created the perfect architectural record with the 1935 to 1939 WPA sponsored project when she shot just over three hundred photos of the city (you can see two hundred of these in 'Berenice Abbott: Changing New York', ISBN 1565845560) and Levere has retaken over a hundred of these with eighty-one appearing in his book.
   
   Unlike other inferior books of the genre Levere has taken the utmost care with his project. Not only using the same type of camera and lens as Abbott but waiting until the same season and time of day to freeze the moment six decades later. A fascinating page of technical details at the back of the book explains more. The eighty-one photos are divided into four chapters with the majority taken in Manhattan. On each spread Abbott's photo is on the left and Levere's opposite, Bonnie Yochelson writes a straightforward caption for all of the images.
   
   With the help of 200dpi printing, quality paper and elegant design these photos (and the book) look just stunning. The perfect photobook!
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



4. In the middle of the depression Berenice Abbott began a five year, WPA funded project to document in photographs New York's transformation from the 19th century to the modern metropolis of skyscrapers. The result was published as 'Changing New York.'
   
   Sixty years later Douglas Levere went back to the same sites of 100 of Abbotts photographs and took another picture with the same angle, the same view, and usually even the same time of day (to get the same sun angle) of the same scene.
   
   The result is this book, 'New York Changing' which shows these pictures arranged next to each other. That way, the only differrence between the pictures is the changes that have come about in the basic structure of the city.
   
   This is a beautiful coffee table book, except that seeing one set of pictures makes you want to turn to the next set, and you've soon gone through the whole book.
   
   Highly recommended.



5. Fascinating book! Berenice Abbott's photographs from the 30's alongside present-day photos of the same locations shot by Douglas Levere. A great way to experience the layers of history in New York.

5 comments about Living in Japan.

1. The book is a pleasure to read through and to look at the wonderful photographs. At the ~ $20+ sales price, it was a very good value. Of course the homes are not typical of the average Japanese home but rather something we all aspire to.



2. Saw this book in Tokyo and loved the photos of modern Japanese living. Great shots of modern architecture and interior design in Japan. Went back to the hotel and found the book on Amazon for half the price... it was waiting for me when I got back to the states. You can't beat that!



3. Great photos, a well picked and varied number of interiors and still... I can't rate it at five. It's so slick and gorgeous but I miss some smaller and perhaps more lived-in dwellings. And a little more gardens. But it is definetely worth getting and browsing. A small defect is the habit of re-using objects and motifs in some of the pictures, always annoys me when they do that. Top marks I can only give to the twenty-some-years old Japanese Style, but then you won't get the recent modern interiors.



4. I bought this 'coffee-table' book as a gift for a friend, but when it arrived, we were so impressed with the extensive collection of photographs that I had to purchase a copy to display, re-visit, and share with future house guests. The authors have managed to capture the rare and simple beauty of Japanese architecture and design through history. An impressive tour!



5. I am a big fan of Alex Kerr and this book did not let me down. It contains a many images that aren't normally seen in most traditional print, and thankfully none of the babbeling of authors that only spend a week in Japan and white about the "true Japan". The last thing I am looking for is another tatami mat or Japanese screen.
   
   I have already begun a home re-modeling plan with some of the ideas in this book. I also got the idea from another one of Kerr's books, and began to collect old Japanese lumber to re-use in my own home.
   
   Thanks Alex!

4 comments about Miller/Hull: Architects of the Pacific Northwest.

1. Beautiful visuals of the works from this phenomenal Seattle architectural firm (which won the AIA Firm Award in 2002) and knowledgable accompanying text by perhaps the leading Seattle architectural critic.



2. this book shows a great collection of the Mill/Hull works, very interesting and intreguing works. a strang recommendation to any architect or lover of architecture's collection.



3. I am a huge fan of the work of Miller Hull, however I was disappointed that this monograph lacked a thoughtful depiction of the design process. I would have loved to have seen the architect's sketches, drawings, and personal writing. There were really too many pictures, and the book had the quality of a film strip. The Ten Houses book, which showcases many of this firm's residential projects is a better book if you want to see drawings.



4. This book provides an excellent cross section of more Miller|Hull work than you've ever seen in the magazines. This book is a significant improvement in representing the full scope of their work compared to the Ten Houses book. The book is layed out so each project gets roughly 3 spreads (or six pages). A majority of the photos are clean, crisp, beautiful images of both interior and exterior. There's typically one page of text and two drawings.
   But, I have problems with this book. This book is over polished, over "published", & is more geared as a marketing brochure than a discriptive portfolio of thought and design. First, we all know these guys have done some really great stuff, but do we need to see ALL of it! Some of the less remarkable(i.e.,older, more traditional, more restrained) projects take valuable pages away from some of their more enlightened works. There's no heirachy about their design - everything gets 3 spreads, two token drawings, 500 words of static text, and some nice photos. You should not be able to learn more about a building from a magazine article than you can from the monograph. I want more! How do they think? What do early sketches and ideas look like? Models - I'm sure they've produced some great models! Where are they? This paperback book is a gem at it's current ...price. ... Ounce per ounce:dollar per dollar, the Ten Houses book is a better deal because it provides greater insight to the projects covered. But if you're looking for a blanket covering of Miller|Hull projects with nice photos, this is the way to go.

2 comments about Florence: The City and Its Architecture.

1. While spending a week in Florence in April, visiting many museums that do not allow interior photographs, I noticed this book in a museum gift shop. I copied the ISBN and purchased from Amazon once I arrived home so I could avoid carting books home and getting a very good price from Amazon. The book is beautiful and provided insight into a city that has evolved over many centuries.



2. Florence: The City And Its Architecture by architect and architectural historian Richard Goy is an astounding, profusely illustrated coffee table book showcasing the architectural majesty of this proud Italian city. Filled from cover to cover with superb color photographs of some of Florence's most eye-catching, stately, and historical treasures of architectural excellence, the extensive and informative text takes the reader on a memorable tour through the city as well as its architectural history. Florence: The City And Its Architecture is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any academic Architectural History collection, and would make a superb choice as a Memorial Acquisition title for public library systems as well.

5 comments about Painting with Water-Soluble Oils.

1. I have owned this book for quite some time and just recently re-read it. It does a fine job providing an overview of water soluble oils (WSO) and how they differ from regular oils. The write-ups for each include a listing of paints offered by each manufacturer and their light-fastness (i.e., longevity after sustained exposure to light). The information covered is more than enough to help you select one of them to begin painting.
   
   I've used them in the past and am now taking a class where I'm using them and others are using traditional oils. I have to say that cleaning up with soap and water is awesome. I use the Artisan brand and have a couple of the MAX brand too. I'm going to try the other brands to see how they handle.
   
   The write-ups by artists about WSOs, their comparison/contrast with traditional oils and the demonstration "lessons" provide for light reading. The pictures throughout give you a fine overview of what other artists do/did with these paints.
   
   Having said all of this, though, I have to note that this isn't a strict how-to book. You'll need to look elsewhere for that. One person recommended the "Water Soluble Oils" section of a book called "The Oil Painting Book" by Bill Creevy. Another is "No Experience Required! - Water-Soluble Oils" by Mary Deutschman. From the reviews this last book sounds it is more about hands-on technique.
   
   [...]
   
   Overall, I'd say buy this book to help you get a sense about this medium.



2. I thought the book was helpfull in that it explained the chemical basis of water soluable oils and had a fairly thorough overview of the products on the market. I thought that the book leaned too heavily on the history of oil painting and basic information regarding supports, brushes, knives, etc. I would have liked to have seen more examples of the work of artists with the stature of Kevin McPherson and also more discussion of how these artists overcome the differences between water soluable oils and traditional oils.



3. "Painting with Water Soluble Oils" supplied me with what I wanted. A text by a an experienced practitioner in the medium, well-credentialed, successful, and wanting to spread the word (along with spreading the oils!) about this relatively new item. When I started painting, I was not so aware of the TOXCICITY of the paint as I was of my desire to USE the paint in a manner I found at least acceptable. Years later, the latest grimly discouraging news on greenhouse gasses, global warming, and newly-found carcinogens appear in the daily papers----and in the courts. I'm not an alarmist, but I thought "water soluble oils, hmmm, can this possibly work?". Thus, Dye's book told me all of what I needed to know. Of course there are pages on the components of the product, its development, and requisite scientific explanations. The science of safety in the home, the studio, the environment and its impact on our kids made this necessary.
   
   Beyond that, I needed to see just how the stuff behaves on a gessoed surface. Dye has what I'd call a painterly style, almost abstract at times, but it's a loose and defiantly colorlful style, with examples chosen to teach. Hey, I'm sure he wants to sell his works, but he is a teacher by trade when he writes.
   
   Anyway, I am delighted with the comparative safety of the new medium, with the courage I gained to try many techniques, brushes, knives, etc. I also continue to maintain respect for the pigments themselves. Heck, I'm not smearing it around with my fingers. My money was well spent, and I'd recommend this book because the main purpose of the text was to "git 'er DONE." Mission accomplished, IMHO. Buy, shop, paint, enjoy, plus you can inhale during fits of creativity and still run for president.



4. I feel a lot of the book was redundant, too much repetiton was used -- I believe it was to fluff up the page count. I'm new to oil painting all together and was looking for a book that would teach me to paint with this medium - for example, help me understand when I would thin with water, or when with watersoluable linseed oil. I thought that the promised "step by step demonstrations" would do that. Contained in only one chapter of the book, they seem almost an afterthought, and do not go into enough depth.
   
   There is an entire chapter devoted to "what is watersoluable oil color?" There are 20 pages -- which is far too much information -- about the properties of every watersoluable oil paint by color and manufacturer, though there are some useful demos of the various marks different brushes and knives make.
   
   The book contains more than I want or need to know about the processes by which watersoluable oils are created.
   
   By far the lengthiest chapter is the one which showcases 14 different artists who try out this medium and provide some tips, which may be useful. But I believe its primary purpose is as a showcase for the various artists. There are some useful tips here, but much of what is said is repetition from one artist to another - and that gets boring! In some ways I am more confused than ever, having learned that some of the artists shown aren't painting soley with watersoluable oil paint - they are using the oils in combination with watercolor or acrylics or sometimes using all three together!



5. About half this book discusses unique properties of water soluble oil paints, but I learned more from reading the paint manufacturers' brochures as I did from this book. The rest of the book discusses and demonstrates various techniques, but it doesn't cover anything different than what you'd find in standard oil painting text, and there are many better ones of those. Don't bother buying this book.

No comments about Candela (Basic Architecture).

5 comments about The Seven Lamps of Architecture.

1. The kessinger edition of this book is a rip off!!! do not buy it!!!
   i received a copy in which the margins on the pages were 2 inches all around and the text was so small. everything seemed to be copied with a fax machine, so there was lots of tiny black dots all over the pages. the images are so unclear. they were black and white with no grayscales and it was so hard to make out what the images were. i returned this book for a refund.
   buy the dover edition instead. its practically the same text except the text fills up the whole page and the pictures are clear. its also less than half the price of the kessinger edition.



2. If you are looking for a "practical guide to the
   structures and tools" of architecture, this is NOT
   your book nor your guide.
   For John Ruskin is an art critic, classicist, and
   moralizing aesthetic prophet. He is not an "art for art's
   sake" temporizer or relativist. He not only knows what
   HE believes...but he believes he knows what YOU should
   believe too. If that makes you uncomfortable or makes
   you feel hampered, you might want to pass him by until
   you feel you can accommodate the "insult" and "restrictions"
   on your "free will choices." Otherwise, there is much of
   beauty, wonder, and insight to be gained in these pages.
   Ruskin's point of view is that of a classical Platonist
   mixed with the moralizing tenor of an exhorting (but not
   shrilly so) prophet toward beauty, Truth, and clarity of
   vision...and moral purpose in Art. He also has a wondrous
   prose style which is both clear, compelling, and entrancing.
   This edition published by Dover as a reprint is of the
   second edition of the work from 1880. It also includes
   14 plates of drawings which Ruskin did to illustrate the
   points which he makes in the text.
   Along the way, Ruskin includes shortened Aphorisms
   in the margin which restate the bold face print points
   which he is making in the text. In Chapter 2, titled
   "The Lamp of Truth," Ruskin stands forth most forcefully
   and dynamically (and perhaps to the "modern," most
   tendentiously) as the classical Platonic moralizer
   and aesthetic apostle/prophet/priest. Though raised
   a strict Protestant, Ruskin rebelled and left Christianity
   for a classical Paganism based on beauty, Truth, and clarity.
   Needless to say, this more than tended to alienate him
   and isolate him from the mercenary, industrialized
   Victorian world which was chugging along outside his
   hermetically sealed temple dedicated to Truth, Beauty,
   Goodness, and Clarity. Mercantilism and "practical
   progress" don't exactly exalt those four princples as
   the means or the goals whereby to make money and become
   successful in the eyes of the world or popular opinion.
   But if you want to read about Truth and Beauty and
   read it through the eyes and soul of a lover of those
   qualities -- and read it expressed in most beautiful
   prose and style (which is both poetic and powerful),
   then Ruskin and this work are clearly the choices you
   should make.
   This excerpt from Ruskin tied to Aphorism 29 {"The
   earth is an entail, not a possession.") clearly shows
   that Ruskin's vision and prophetic power extend beyond
   the merely practical realm of architecture into an
   all-encompassing total vision of responsibility and
   reverence: "The idea of self-denial for the sake of
   posterity, of practising present economy for the sake of
   debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our
   descendants may live under their shade, or of raising
   cities for future nations to inhabit, never, I suppose,
   efficiently takes place among publicly recognized motives
   of exertion. Yet these are not the less our duties; nor
   is our part fitly sustained upon the earth, unless the
   range of our intended and deliberate usefulness include,
   not only the companions, but the successors, of our
   pilgrimage. God has lent us the earth for our life; it
   is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are
   to come after us, and whose names are already written in
   the book of creation, as to us, and we have no right, by
   any thing that we do or neglect, to involve them in
   unnecessary penalties., or deprive them of benefits which
   it was in our power to bequeath."
   Read...enjoy...benefit...



3. I found that tying in human traits to different styles of architecture was not interesting at all. There is no discussion of building techniques or the practical side of architecture. This would be more for the artist that is trying to project different human feelings into the structure. If you are looking for a techincal guide to architecture this is not it.



4. This book is the origin of virtually every theory held throughout the history of architecture. The arts and crafts movement, Frank Lloyd Wright's organicism, and Corbusier's New Architecture are just a few examples of prominent theories whose foundations lie within the pages of this book. In this book, Ruskin prescribes the essential elements required to make timeless, meaningful architecture. This manifesto is a must for any student interested in the practice and study of architecture.



5. Ruskin is a master in morality and architecture. This combination, which is very nineteenth-century-like, mixes Ruskin with a wonderful mastery of the English language. The Seven Lamps is a must-read for all you folks who have not yet studied architecture in all its facets.

No comments about The Graphic Standards Guide to Architectural Finishes: Using MASTERSPEC to Evaluate, Select, and Specify Materials.

4 comments about Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction: The Architect's and Builder's Guide to Design, Planning, and Construction Details (Ramsey/Sleeper Architectural Graphic Standards Series).

1. This book is an excellent reference book for use in designing, planning, and building a new house or remodeling an existing one. Whenever I plan on doing something on the house, I double check with this reference before finishing my designs and plans. It's a must own book for serious do-it-yourselfers.



2. Although these editions change little, this review is based upon AGS 10th Ed. & AGSRC 2003.
   
   
   Negative:
   This is bascially a regurgitation of the more complete Architectural Graphics Standards, distilled to a "residential" focus but appears as volumous because some details have been photo-enlarged (in poor-average quality). Few, if any new residential details/information has been provided.
   
   Positive:
   Those ONLY interested in residential construction and NOT requiring a full brace of ALL details will find this quite a good value - compare its price to Architectural Graphics Standards.
   
   Recommendation:
   Anyone in construction should have one, but not both of these books as a prime resource. The content does improve every year, although some years it's like watching grass grow.
   
   Challenge:
   IF there are numerous portions of the Residential version that are unique and new to it, exclusive of passages in the larger AGS version - I would really appreciate a review that contains how to locate these passages, as I've spent enough time trying to find them. If enough of these exist, it would give thought of updating this resource once in awhile.



3. Experienced readers will benefit from its brief summaries and drawings covering the broadest range of topics imaginable. Some economizing is evident in the paper and printing quality, some of the drawings look 50 years old, but there is lots of reference information, like span tables, solar position data, etc. Probably not the last word on every topic, but still worth consulting.



4. Following in the terrific legacy of the benchmark Architectural Graphic Standards book, this edition clearly makes building for residences an easier task. I've found innumerable details that I've used in my residential practice on a daily basis, details not found in other reference books. Of particular help are the pages that give an overview of how parts of a house interconnect with each other, such as foundation-to-framing. Also, there is a wealth of info on HVAC, new window technology and other things I've found very, very helpful.

No comments about The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets (The City in the Twenty-First Century).