2 comments about Colours of Architecture: Coloured Glass in Contemporary Buildings.

1. As a student, this text was incredibly helpful in opening my eyes to the possibilities of glass. I had no idea such methods and techniques are being used all over the world! This will definitely add to my studio practice as well as my scholastic prowess. I am recommending this text to my professor as a required reading for our contemporary architecture course. I think many students would benefit from the breadth and depth of this work.



2. This book speaks to the evolving landscape of architecture with beautiful images and captions capturing the essence of architecture today. Breathtaking views of colored glass invite the reader while the critical commentary provokes thought and sparks further dialogue. This text is a must read for any aspiring architects, artists, or lovers of the arts. Very clear, beautiful, and evocative.

No comments about Complete Home Plumbing (Complete...).

5 comments about City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village, Revised Edition.

1. This is an absolutely wonderful little book. Don't let its small size and informal demeanor fool you - It is a very thorough, practical, and well reasoned guide (and yes, it is a guide, not just a bunch of theory with questionable applicablility in the real world) to designing urban areas with people in mind. Sucher has done a tremendous job of creating a book that is straightforward and easy to read, but still a serious work of planning and design. If you have any interest at all in those subjects, this is one book you should definitely have in your collection.



2. A great book, no matter what your area of emloyment or study! Everyone who is interested in better neighborhoods and friendlier living within communities should read this book. It's easily accessible, upbeat, and totally practical. This slim volume offers wonderful soloutions to problems that face every community. I would recommend it to anyone, and have given it as gifts to several people I know. (I'm secretly hoping that there will be a follow-up to this book.) This is really a book you will be glad you've read!



3. In the first couple of pages of this book, David Sucher captures the struggle of modern urban planning: how do you make a place feel "urban" (bustling, a degree of anonymity, culture and complexity) and like a "village" (friendly, natural, community-oriented) at the same time?
   
   The answers are here, in refreshingly easy-to-understand language that is also easy to implement. Good planning isn't a mystery, but so many cities and towns have done it so poorly for so long. I like to think that American planning is at the beginning of a renaissance (I have to think that, I'm in planning school) and people like David Sucher are making it happen. This should be on your shelf next to Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte.



4. I am so glad that David Sucher has revised and reissued this book. I used the first edition for several courses that I teach in community development and urban planning, and I know of no better single volume text on urban design issues. The new edition is even better. The book is particularly useful for those who have an interest in planning and design issues, but have limited technical training or experience. As a consequence, it makes excellent reading for city planning commissioners.



5. This book provides brevity with depth. It reminds you about all those little things that sometimes get left out during development, but which make a world of difference to the people who live in it. Plenty of examples are provided, usually with the thought behind why they work. The author clearly enjoys his native city because almost all the examples come from the Northwest, but this makes them no less impactful. I highly recommend this book to students of architecture/planning, developers, city officials, or anyone who has an interest in the "little things" that make our built environment better. This would be a GREAT book for anyone who has any influence in high growth subruban areas--neighborhood assns., zoning officials, subdivision developers, etc. Enjoy!

5 comments about Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles.

1. Not only are California's courtyard neighborhoods thoroughly documented, but Polyzoides et al thoroughly explain this housing typology, its evolution, and its finer points.
   
   Whether you have a casual interest in California history, or a need for deep professional understanding of the architecture, I think you will be delighted by this book.
   
   I should also mention that Stefanos Polyzoides, one of the authors, has a firm in Pasadena which has recently produced some exceptional courtyard buildings to add to this lineage. (Seven Fountains, in Hollywood, and Mission Meridian in South Pasadena)



2. This book highlights one of the unique qualities of Los Angeles. Much of L.A. housing has a Mediteranian feel, not surprising given the climate of southern california and the foothills and mountains and the courtyard is a prefect oasis to build this style of house around. This book does a wonderful job of showcasing these beautiful courtyards and the text and the images are very well presented. Reading this book reminds me of why i love Los Angeles so much, I mean even with all of her problems, she can be so serine and beautiful. Highly recommended.



3. More than stressing a communal vibe, the courtyard buildings covered in Courtyard Housing reflect Hollywood's fascination with fantasy architecture. The sense of palatial Moorish palaces at a smaller scale provide a whimsical escape from the drudgery of everyday urban life, while the climate of Los Angeles and the Mediterranean architecture combine to create a sense of exotic, charming otherworldliness.
   
   The Zwebells's astounding courtyard design, The Grace on Grace and Franklin, is sadly not included in this book, but luckily many fine buildings are.



4. I purchased this because I live in a courtyard building in WeHo, and have long been a fan of the form. The authors make a compelling case for preservation by identifying courtyard housing as an important and valid alternative to the socialist-inspired modernist forms (Corbusier, et al) that were coming up at the time (1920s-1930s). One small caveat, though -- a photo on page 210 identifies an area as between Harper and Hayvenhurst, when in fact the streets seen are Laurel and Hayworth (the Villa de Este is on Laurel, not Harper).



5. The authors have done a spendid job of assembling the full range of courtyard housing types from the complex atached units of the Andalusia to the arrangement of modest bungelow courts.

1 comments about Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (Dover Books on Architecture).

1. Books on historic architecture tend to devote too little space to the homes of ordinary people. This book covers dwellings from the huts of the first colonists to governors' mansions, from rural plantation houses to Colonnade Row in Boston.
   The profusion of illustrations include early and modern drawings, photographs, engravings, and lithographs. They depict floor plans, elevations, interiors, exteriors, and details.
   What I found particularly useful is the way the author develops the historical changes in materials, style, and philosophy. His research is thorough but not at all dry. For example, he quotes William Hubbard who, before 1682, wrote of the New Haven Colony: "They laid out too much...in building fine and stately houses, wherein they at first outdid the rest of the country."
   This book will correct misunderstandings and oversimplifications about Colonial domestic architecture.

2 comments about Structure and Architecture, Second Edition.

1. This book describes the different types of structural elements in buildings (steel, wood, reinforced concrete) and how they are constructed for maximum efficiency. A lot of the book deals with spans and how the efficiency of materials must accomodate different spans and weights. The concepts were very well written and easy to understand (the appendices were a little bit more complex) with lots of examples. I would recommend this for anyone who would like to try framing a structure or who is interested in more than just the picture books of architecture and would actually like to know what's inside the walls and how those objects are functioning.



2. Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Angus MacDonald's Structure & Architecture showcases the relationship between architecture and structural engineering using both historical and contemporary examples. This new edition is enhanced with an expanded and re-written chapter dealing with structural criticism and the relationship between structure and architectural style; as well as a new section on the relationships between architects, builders and engineers, and the influence which these relationships have on architectural styles and forms. Structure & Architecture is an invaluable and highly recommended addition to any personal, professional, or academic architectural studies collection.

2 comments about The Place of Houses.

1. Ever since its arrival in the mid-1970's as a reference for architecture students and professionals alike, this book has been one of the finest references, also, for budding homeowners as well. It places into beautiful perspective the almost anatomical linkage between large and small scale; neighborhood, house and room. It further discusses, eloquently, the relationship -- the emotional relationship -- between architecture and its users. Moore, et al, uses examples of old American neighborhoods, discussing the evolutionary nature of their success, contrasting it with the tragic results of uneducated development in suburban sprawls. If I sustain one distant criticism, it is that Moore slightly overdid the use of his own design examples which, though helpful, present less variety in style than would have been helpful to the central point of the book. But let there be no doubt, this is quite a little gem for *anyone* interested in what makes for exquisite personal residential lives. It is timeless in its core content.



2. Primarily concerned with the design of residences that are appropriate to their settings. Lots of photos of Moore's houses

2 comments about The Main Line: Country Houses 1870-1930.

1. I had been waiting for a book on this subject for some time so you can imagine my excitement when this book came out. I am sorry to say that it's somewhat of a disappointment, I expected a better researched book and also one that including some current color pictures of the surviving estates. The authors of the book on architects Delano and Aldrich did a wonderful job of combining great archival B&W photos with rich currect color pictures. The archival photos in this book are wonderful, but you finish the book wondering what the surviving estates look like today and in color, I really do hope the authors take this criticism to heart and make vol. II a five star book, they are not that far from it with this book and quite frankly the subject deserves it.



2. I bought this book two years ago when it came out and I had to reply to the simple comments of another critic on this page. The author put together an incredible group of old photographs from around the time the houses were built, showing exteriors, interiors, and gardens. He talked about the architects and the clients and about the designs of the houses, as well as giving a detailed history of the Main Line and how it came to be. Color photographs would have ruined the old-time feel of the book, which is beautiful in design and execution. Any educated eye will appreciate this book and the series that it is a part of. Congratulations to the author and the publisher.

1 comments about Roman Imperial Architecture (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art).

1. I found this book to be an excellent, even masterly, coverage of the subject. It is bound by its period, but still gives a sense of the continuity of architectural development from the native Italian, Etruscan, Hellenic and particularly the Hellenistic influences on the growth of Roman architecture into and through the Imperial period. It also covers the continuity of architectural styles, technologies and traditions into the Romanesque period.
   I liked the way in which the author covered the regional influences on architecture in the various parts of the Roman world, especially contrasting the East, with its substantial existing traditions, styles and techniques, with the "frontier" type of situation in the West, where the new introduction of Roman technologies and styles all but eclipsed those which had gone before.
   The author's writing style seemed the relaxed intimations of a man comfortable with his mastery of the material and without the need to prove himself. I found a particular enjoyment in the tone of someone enjoying passing on the details of his favourite subject.
   I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the way the Romans solved some of the universal challenges of a built environment.

2 comments about The Studio Book.

1. I like this book for its photographic essay anthology on artists and their workplaces - I'm glad I made the right choice of buying it because I needed a full-term book on the subject! Everyone should consider it for their libraries as well as I did!



2. Caveat emptor. A very interesting and well done book that gives an interesting perspective on numerous artists, their studios and the designers of the studios. However, if you have an interest in studios not located in California, you like I will be quite disappointed. Apparently the "sun and sea" reference in the publishers description is supposed to indicate that the studios are all in California and is not just a metaphor. This omission is personally significant enough that for the first time I am returning a book to Amazon as I would not have bought it had it been accurately described.