1 comments about Creative Perspective.

1. Buy Basic Perspective from this author along with this and really spend some time with these books. You'll thank yourself for the rest of your career. These books lay out perspective drawing in a fairly easy to understand format with lots of step-by-step diagrams. I own, and have read, 12 books on perspective drawing and these are the books I go back to again and again. I'm buying another copy of each, because mine are worn out. Fair warning: These books definitely teach the technical stuff. You may not feel that you need to know the craft of perspective drawing at this level. That's your call, but I find that most artists who lack this knowledge... well, it shows in their work.
   
   The only real drawback to this book is that the language is a bit overly dry and academic for my taste. But then It was written by an English architect in the 70's, so what do you want? The easy to follow diagrams make it worth the read. I don't think this is still in print, which is sad, so buy it while you still can.

No comments about Inchoate.

3 comments about Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing: Basic Fundamentals (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing).

1. This text/workbook provides excellent training on the basics of GD&T. The book is easy to read and uses extensive examples. The content makes the ASME standard understandable. The chapters are organized in a logical sequence. The first two chapters provide a very important overview of dimensioning, tolerancing, and an introduction to GD&T symbology. This helps lead you into learning GD&T concepts gradually and solidly as basic elements build toward more complex technology. The book provides a review test after each chapter and a comprehensive final test covering all concepts. Each chapter also has projects for the drafting students and print reading exercises for the manufacturing students. Additional tests, and projects are found in the Instructor's Guide along with sample course syllabi. Use this book if you want a text that clearly and easily teaches you the GD&T basics.



2. This book is comprehensive in scope but lacks insightful explanations. The overview chapters at the beginning confuse rather than orient the reader. As someone who has done technical writing for a commercial software package I recognize this as the first draft which covers the material but has yet to be rewritten in a way that will best orient the new user. I expect more given the high prices of technical books. As a student I certainly disagree with what the instructors have to say about the book!



3. I am a college instructor, and have taught classes using this text. It is an excellent choice for use in a classroom setting. The chapters are laid out in a logical order so the student progresses through the concepts in a meaningful manner that leads to thorough understanding of the standard. The diagrams and examples are well designed and explained. The chapter exercises, tests, and drawing problems are useful to the instructor and educational for the students.

   In addition to being a classroom text, it is a very good reference book for the work place. It will be useful to anyone in the engineering, drafting, inspection, programming and machining departments. The engineer and draftsperson will use this book as a reference to develop drawings that adhere to the ANSI and ASME GD&T standards, and it will assist others in the interpretation of the drawings.

   I recommend this book to anyone who is taking a GD&T class or wants to teach themselves this very useful standard.

No comments about Civil Engineering: Problems & Solutions (Pe Exam Preparation).

No comments about The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts.

No comments about Ghost: Building an Architectural Vision.

2 comments about Pencil Points Reader: Selected Readings from a Journal for the Drafting Room, 1920-1943.

1. Few books explore the history of architectural practice with the excitement offered by the Pencil Points Reader. The original publication (later to become known as Progressive Architecture) chronicles the changing role of the architect over the course of its publication period. Finely written and genuinely critcal articles fulfill the role of jounalism as no architectural magazine does today. And for any architect who loves hand drawing or sketching, there is ample material to amuse them for quite a while. Although not the intention of this fine volume, it inadvertently shows how far the profession has fallen from a time when design skills were clearly understood and the means to illustrate them were commonly available to practitioners.



2. pencil points maped and nurtured the branch of traditional architecture that stretched across the atlantic to this country.
   By 1936 it began to show signs of weakening and after WWII it was over. Between 1920 and 1936 Pencil Points is filled with travel sketches, working drawings, biographies and drafting room tricks of the trade. It is also filled with bombastic writing about beauty, timelessness, and eternal values. Its painfull to watch advertisment creep into the pages and by 1936 it becomes apparent that these ideas are weakening. Along with Income taxes, The Depression, Architectural licensure, Architectural degrees, Building Code Law and The Women's movements addition to Architecture (modesty, economy, convienience) this movement was buried by a "perfect storm" .
   Its great reading although sad....essays on ornament, softball scores of Mckim, Mead and White, taunts at the emerging German modernists (thought to be a fluke!). This book cuts a cross section into some of the enthusiastic and intense writing that fueled these devotees. They would all be thankful they did not have to witness the death of our cities and towns, bridges and public spaces on an international level. Bland, unplanned psuedo-luxuries. A gag gift of epic proportions from "modernists".
   Pencil points is the bible for Plants, Stones, History, Bones, Fur, Femininity and Death. Read this and look for issues of the periodical on ebay. 1920 - 1936 are the best. Assuming a 20 year old worked in an office in 1936 they would now be 88 years old.
   These few people witnessed the end of a 2000 year old tradition of Architecture...I only wish I could say to them "how could you let it all slip away!!" I doubt this duped generation would even know what I meant- still shell-shocked by that mega perfect storm. Hopefully new ones will and will read Pencil Points.

No comments about Pamphlet Architecture 26: Thirteen Projects for the Sheridan Expressway.

1 comments about Why Architects Draw.

1. I'm not an anthropologist/ethnographer or an architect, though I've been very interested in both fields (Latour, Le Corbusier, etc.). I found this book, mostly of interviews with architects about how they use drawing in their practice, very accessible for the non-architect, and also, I suspect, very interesting for the architect as well. The architects interviewed have different styles for how they use drawings and these differences are reflected in the structure and process of their practices (the intervews are exclusively with principals or very senior designers). The style of drawings (and models) they like to present in various situations (to junior designers, draftsmen, clients, engineers) forms an interesting picture of the social structure of architectural practice.

1 comments about Freehand Drawing for Architects and Designers: Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Black and White Techniques.

1. Very good book. Many styles and techniques of rendering and architectural drawing.