2 comments about Elderdesign : Designing and Furnishing a Home for Your Later Years.

1. The author gives advice on designing and furnishing a smart aging home, providing room-by-room analyses, checklists, and recommendations for resources. She addresses specific physical conditions and considers 'the healing bedroom' as a means to setting up a home hospital. And she covers 'the caring community', outlining the local support systems available for the onset of health and disability issues. (I found the reference to 'motion seating' and the company that makes it to be worth the price of the book alone.) Having seen my father through his last years, I already had an appreciation of the need for things as basic as proper seating and an accessible bathroom. The author's experience with her mother's Alzheimer's disease gave me even more to think about. This book appears to be going out of print which is unfortunate because it is quite practical. Buy it while you can.



2. Briefly, a fine book to sensitize one to issues of design as they apply to older persons. Although much of this book pertains to new constructions, I used it to sensitize me to issues that were also relevant to retrofit--such as putting up railings, etc., in an existing house.

No comments about Wood, Brick and Stone, the North American Settlement Landscape: Houses.

2 comments about The Tower of London: The Official Illustrated History.

1. I bought another book by Parnell about the Tower (The Tower of Londong Past & Present) that basically consisted of the past 150 years of photographs of the Tower. I was a little disappointed by that book because I wanted juicy history. As a result, I was a little hesitant to order this book without really knowing anything.

   Let me tell you- this book is FABULOUS. It is a thorough history of the Tower chock-full of photographs of the Tower and its archaelogical finds, paintings representing the history of the Tower, diagrams, writings, you name it. There's even a picture of the head of Simon of Sudbury.

   The book is broken down into two parts. The first part is "The Tower in the Middle Ages" which is largely architectural information about the start and development of the castles, covering the years AD 43 to 1485. Of course, the architectural info only makes sense in light of the political and social realities that dictated the Tower's structure, and there is plenty of that info as well.

   The second section continues telling the story of the physical history of the Tower, but talks more about its functions (royal lodgings, arsenal, prison, etc.). "The Tower and its Institutions" covers the years 1485 through 2000 and really covers the role of the Tower in the history of England.

   The history provided about the Tower is incredibly thorough and detailed. If you are planning a trip to England, I highly recommend reading this book before you meander through the Tower- it will really let you know what you are seeing so you could appreciate it better. If you've read a lot of British history and just want to see the places where some of that history took place, you'll really appreciate this book. I'm so excited about this book I can't stand it.

   A small caveat- this is a history of the Tower, and not a story about the history of England that took place in the Tower. For example, this book does not discuss the fact that Henry the VI was likely killed in the Wakefield Tower in the Tower of London, even though there is a picture of the oratory where tradition says his murder occured (at least, if it's in there, I missed it).

   But this is a small complaint- there is plenty of information about the beginnings, growth, development, political role, and all kinds of other good stuff. I've looked a while for a good book on the Tower and so far this is the best one!




2. I was a little disappointed in this book mostly because I didn't read the description carefully enough. A book that shows the history of the Tower of London in photographs can really only show, say, the last 150 years of changes. Given the thousand years of Tower history, the information this book provides is from a somewhat narrow time frame. I recommend it as long as you know what you are getting into because the changes to the Tower really are fascinating- but if you want to "experience" the eras of Anne Boelyn or the Princes in the Tower, look elsewhere.

3 comments about Building a Log Cabin Retreat: A Do-It-Yourself Guide.

1. The negative reviews is what convinced me to buy this book. It was exactly what those reviews claimed, which is what I wanted to get from the book. A step by step book on building a better homes and gardens cabin it is not. But as a guide to building a private get away, its great. Id be interested in other books by this author. I read this in one sitting.



2. What a lousy book. I must have been daydreaming when I purchased it and missed the other review stating how utterly useless this book is. Instruction like 'use a chain saw to notch the log so that it matches the other one' is not particularly inspiring or helpful for me. And I too could have done without the government-bashing, build-a-cabin-in-the-woods-to-be-ready-for-WWIII message this person actually paid to publish. I can't believe I spent any money on this thing!



3. The preface and first chapter are a bizarre rant against municipal governments, building departments, and utility providers. I haven't seen so much name-calling since my first marriage. The remaining chapters discuss building techniques, but not in enough detail to be useful for someone attempting to build a cabin. The only valuable information was the final chapter's formulas and tables for engineering larger structures.

   The author has a big chip on his shoulder.

1 comments about More One-Story Homes: 475 Superb Home Plans from 810 to 5,400 Square Feet.

1. I found this book useful for narrowing down my choices in what I do and don't want in my new house. Ultimately, we will probably have our house custom-designed by a local architect, so we just used this book to get ideas. It has a wide variety of single story home plans, so after we got a feel for what we DID and DID NOT want based on these plans, we went to a few home plan websites to perform more detailed searches and narrow it down further.

   I really didn't care for the organization of the book. The categories seemed a little too broad, and the plans didn't seem to be organized with much thought (not in ascending order by square footage like some other books we have looked at.)

4 comments about Modern House 2 (Modern House).

1. This book appropriately divides into 5 categories: environmental awareness, changing patterns of living, urban interaction, the rural retreat, concept houses of the future. With that, we are bombarded with ideas, many of them innovative ideas that are willing to be embraced by the architects' clients & in some instances, by the architects themselves. Some houses here blend in with their surroundings, & some stand out from the crowd, some that look & work more like a machine, some that facilitate the lifestyle of the occupants, some are meant to be poetic, & so forth, but overall, they all convey the thinkings & the personalities of the people who are willing to embrace the ideas behind the buildings. As St. Patrick of Assisi said before that stones don't build a city, but people do, & ultimately, the erection of spectacular buildings conveyed in this book is all done to serve the people, which in turn are fabricated into a bigger urban picture of where they are living in. Highly enjoyable to read & browse thru, & a well presented coffee book it is. We don't expect a lesser quality book from Phaidon, to put it simply. The book is finished by relevant chapters such as credits, further reading, index, & acknowledgments. One downside of this book, however is the usage of works of architects already covered in the first offering such as Thom Craig of Christchurch, Mathias Klotz of Chile, & others that I wouldn't remember. Then, there is the usage of small grey fonts over the white background, & in many instances, the statements are simply too vague to read.



2. This book presents a collection of houses as a range of ideas--producing a wide range of styles and designs sited around the world.



3. I think the photography of this book is its greatest strength it shows the architecture in it best form! You can get a real feel of the buildings and the surroundings. GREAT BOOK WITH GREAT ARCHITECTURE! If you liked 10 x 10 or 40 under 40 you will like this!



4. I think the photography of this book is its greatest strength it shows the architecture in it best form! You can get a real feel of the buildings and the surroundings. GREAT BOOK WITH GREAT ARCHITECTURE!

No comments about Entertainment Dining.

1 comments about Victorian Houses: A Treasury of Lesser-Known Examples (Dover Books on Architecture).

1. "Victorian Houses: A Treasury of Lesser-Known Examples" brings together 116 richly detailed black-and-white photographs of Victorian houses. This is an eclectic collection in terms of architectural style: Italianate, Second Empire, Carpenter's Gothic, "steamboat," octagon, and other elements can be found throughout the book. The houses come from towns throughout the northwestern United States, as well as from Canada.

   Most of the photographs are by Edmund V. Gillon, and his excellent work is accompanied by the commentaries of Clay Lancaster. Although Lancaster's insights are informative and frequently entertaining, he often uses a disparaging tone which is unnecessary, and which some might find arrogant.

   Throughout the book Lancaster uses phrases such as "a strange conglomeration" (plate 5), "a tight clutter of naive elements" (plate 16), "dull proportions" (plate 53), and "[m]ore gross than odd" (plate 92) in discussing various houses. I think it would have been better to simply have described the stylistic classifications of the architectural elements, and left value judgments to each individual reader.

   Despite my dissatisfaction with some of the commentaries, I find "Victorian Houses" to be an excellent book. It is a superb record of and tribute to a remarkable period in North American home architecture. Mansard roofs, abundant verandas, ornate iron cresting, elegant pillars, towers, cupolas--all this and more can be found in here. If you love Victorian houses, you will definitely want this book.

1 comments about House: Black Swan Theory.

1. Steven Holl's architectural work is quite interesting, although I am not as sure his ideas are the most livable. I can't comment on his writings, as I prefer to look at pictures.

3 comments about Modern House.

1. There are plenty of house books worth a quick scan, but this is one worth hanging on to. That is, if you're interested in ultra modern architect designed houses. The competition is The New American House series, which is mostly pictures, and the Taunton Press books, which unfortunately add insipid text. What makes this book stand out is its excellent design, and plans, sections and elevations for every entry. Something that could only have been gotten from access to the original construction documents. There's a companion essay for each house. True, it's ultimately nonsense, but it's well considered and articulate nonsense, as the author, a former architectural magazine editor, knows his history.



2. This book mainly deals with residential properties & most of them have already been featured in other architectural books. In my opinion, this book works because it doesn't concentrate simply on properties in the States as many architecture books tend to do. Rather, it gives us a broader picture by illustrating properties from all around the world. Whilst the books are divided into various categories as discussed in the editorial review, I particularly enjoy the discussion on properties that fall either in abstract (clarity in design) category or representative (to conform with their surroundings) category. Whilst there are cross section diagrams of properties, labelling would enhance our understanding of the application of architecture on properties mentioned. Otherwise, the discussion could be overbearing or technical at times. Still, I'm finding this book to be an enjoyable read.



3. John Welsh presents a nice selection of modern houses. The layout of the book is very elegant, each house is presented with beautiful pictures, sketches and plans. The illustrations are accompanied by exactly the right amount of text, describing what the architects were trying to achieve when designing the houses. What makes this book really stand out, though, is the way the author describes the relations between the presented houses and the works of the early century legends; Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Wright and so on. Finally, the author's descriptions on the topics of space and light are the best I have read, completely avoiding the abstract and pompous metaphores so often used in books on architecture.