3 comments about 100 Turn-of-the-Century Brick Bungalows with Floor Plans.

1. As my husband and I look toward retirement, we are dreaming of the kind of house we will be looking for, or building, when we move. I have always loved the bungalow style for its coziness and nostalgic feeling. This book is full of bungalow concepts, all drawn from a magazine-sponsored contest in the early 1900's for plans for a brick bungalow for $3000. If you buy this book, be sure to get out your magnifying glass so you can read the designers'/architects' comments -- they are very funny! One said that if you think you can actually build a brick bungalow for $3000, you should plan on a thatched roof! I love this book and have perused it, and dreamed over it, many times. I have lots of ad-hoc bookmarks (like, corners torn from the newspaper or discarded mail!) stuck in at floor plans I like. There is a brick marketing "story" in the back of the book that is wonderful of its type.



2. It is interesting to compare the home plans in this book to the homes of today. The houses in the plans are smaller and most only have one bathroom but they have a charming details that is hard to find in the oversized "McMansions" that are being built today. Unless you are planning on faithfully recreating a house from the early 1900's this book is probably going to most useful as a source of inspiration and good ideas.



3. The sketches and floor plans are a little hard to read by modern standards, as all are hand-lettered, and the designs are a little light on bathrooms, to say nothing of garages, compared to contemporary homes. But the homes are very Picturesque nonetheless, featuring plenty of faux thatched roofs, chimneys, eyebrow dormers, arched entryways, porches and so forth.

1 comments about Houses, Villas, and Palaces in the Roman World.

1. This book has given me the incredible desire to take the rest of my life and do nothing except tour the archeological sites of classical Etruscan and Imperial Roman towns and cities! Alexander McKay- You are very cruel.

   For many years I have seen pictures in books and online of fragments and ruins of buildings, which can be interesting but seeing the pictures in the context of a complete floor plan brings a sudden epiphany of how our forebearers lived. I spent 7 hours surfing on the net looking at the pictures online for a number of the palaces and houses included in this book and dreaming of an itinerary covering almost all of western Europe,northern Africa and great areas of the near and mid East. Now I need to go out and win a very large lottery to afford it.

1 comments about A Book of Cape Cod Houses.

1. Doris Doane draws on years of experience as a historian and park ranger on Cape Cod to write text as only an "old timer" could. She lets you into a world that she grew to love -- Old Cape Cod. The illustrator brings his masterful work to the page to complement her work. A terrific book!

4 comments about Stanford University: The Campus Guides.

1. This is another volume is the Princeton series on U.S. universities, using a similar format: the campus is divided into "walks," with each chapter covering one walk and commenting on each building. As one reviewer here did not seem to understand, this is not the insider's guide to Stanford, nor even a full history of the University. That said, the reviewer made a telling criticism: in a campus defined by its setting, showing the buildings without showing the surrounding trees and open areas gives a false sense of the appearance of the place.
   
   When compared with other volumes in this series, "Stanford" is a little better than average. The entries are brief and factual, without the rather elliptical architecture speak that characterizes some of the Ivy League volumes. Most buildings are represented by a small photograph. There are a very few full page pictures.
   
   Based on the date of publication, this book was not written for the Princeton series, but was adapted for it. The maps appear to have been added more recently, and the method of presentation is different from the other volumes. Here, the buildings are considered not by location but by period, starting with the original structures (including ones destroyed in the 1906 quake) and proceeding up to the present. This means that adjacent entries are adjacent in date of construction, not location. Building 71 may be half a mile away from building 72. In the original publication, written for a Stanford audience, this was not a problem, but it may be difficult for those who do not know the campus. There are a number of errors in the maps, with some buildings not listed or not marked on the maps. Finally, a few entries seem wrong: Toyon hall is listed a dormitory for 150 men. Hmm... that's what it was when built, and perhaps (I doubt this) it is today. When I lived there 20 years ago, it was a dorm for about 230 men and women. Nice picture though.
   
   In fairness, the chronological approach is more logical, even if it makes it harder to read the maps. It allows the reader to see how building one structure can change the look and the traffic patterns of a large part of the campus.
   On the whole then, I recommend this book as a good way to see Stanford, so long as you understand the limitations of this kind of history. Just don't look for pictures of the tree or LSJUMB!



2. This is the worst book on Stanford that I have ever seen. The pictures are small and faded . . . I have photos taken in 1975 with a cheap camera that look better than what you'll find here. (Ah, but the cover pic looks awfully nice, you might think. Yes, it does. Fine bit of hucksterism from Princeton Architectural Press.)



3. Let's face it. Most of us will never get to study at, or be hired by this prestigious Bay Area institution. That doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the beauty of its grounds and buildings. Stanford, in addition to being one of the very best universities on earth, is also one of the most beautiful.

   Institutional histories tend to be excessively pedantic affairs. I know of no history of a university yet written that is an exception. They're generally dull, tedious things written for people who want to be sure that THEIR college is the best. And as another reviewer has noted, the style of writing is usually over-refined and staid. This book is no exception to those rules. But that said, it gives us a portrait of a university and its history through the grounds and buildings, bringing it to we who have no other chance to learn about Stanford but with our own eyes. So, the book may be dry and incomplete, but the university itself is gorgeous. That's what saves the entire effort.

   Stanford started out life back in 1885 as an idea not unlike the ideas John D. Rockefeller had for the University of Chicago. And while Chicago became a world-class university directly out of the box, it took some decades for Stanford to catch up. It wasn't for lack of good buildings, as this book will prove. There are really two things that make Stanford exceptional in this regard. First, it transformed itself from a somewhat troubled early design, strapped by the heavy hand of the founder's wife and a devastating earthquake in 1906, into one of the world's great universities in less than 50 years. Second, when the vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States (and the world) were always seeking to make themselves into carbon-copies of Oxford and Cambridge, Stanford and its designers dared to try something new. Look at this book and then go to the university to see for yourself.




4. When I accepted an admission offer from Stanford, I wanted to learn all I could about the environment into which I would be entering. Having read the book, I developed expectations about the culture of Stanford, expectations which, upon arriving on the Stanford campus, I found to be errant.

   This book is quite a disappointment. Suffering both from poor editing and omission of crucial facts, the contents do not flow smoothly. The text is presented in a somewhat offensively over-refined and pretentious manner, the kind one finds in art museum catalogs or as introductions to Penguin Classics. The reader gains little sense of the beauty of the campus, as only a few of the photographs depict the excellent landscaping, the detail of Quad buildings, or the quality of materials and construction of the buildings. The foothills of the Stanford campus, and the trails leading up to the Dish aren't even included -- an omission that reflects poorly on the editors. Equally poor editorial judgment can be found in the photograph of the Hoover Tower appearing in one of the chapters -- this famous landmark is shown in its early construction, as an unsightly steel frame amid a dirt field.

   To the credit of the authors, they give an engaing account of the history of the variously defined Stanford master plans, and of the culture which gave rise to the different stages of the campus' expansion.

   In general, the reader's labors are not rewarded with fresh perspectives, or a sense of the spirit that habituates Stanford. If one toured the Stanford campus before reading the book, one might wonder what drove the editors to present such an excellent environment so vapidly.

No comments about Creative City.

3 comments about Katsura: Imperial Villa.

1. If you want some solicitude and repose, here is a book for you.
   This book is extremely well crafted to show the essence of Katsura.
   Status of Katsura in Japanese garden art production does not
   demand any further explanation. Katsura is to Japan, what Alhambra is to Andalusia!
   
   In it, I found that disciplinary simplicity can be profound and strong.
   Especially in a world where one is inundated with images and media.
   Katsura is an art that invites physical presence and spiritual
   meditation. In that sense, it's an irony and a paradox to recommend to
   experience Katsura thru a book...
   
   Katsura is an art of water & island body formation/ relationally
   positioning pavilions / sculpting stones/ borrowing landscapes/ laying
   stone/ perfecting the shoji screens and combing the thatched roofs
   naming the places and tea pavilions to arouse imagination/ etc, etc, etc.
   
   However, what makes it stand out is that each mode of art does not stand
   alone. It had synergetic effect by being relational to one and another.
   Combined together, the density of experience exponentially grow to
   challenge infinitum. Hence, here is an art that tells us, "the whole is
   eternally greater than the parts."
   
   The parts are orchestrated in such a way to arouse the art of seduction.
   Not in a flamboyant manner, but in a subtly simple manner. Photographic
   images in the book tell us the multi-faceted, yet almost tea-ceremonially
   calm, story of Katsura. The book will make you retreat from the bustling
   noisiness of daily life.
   
   Isozaki's nicely written essay propels the experience of Kasura to
   a thinking level. He has placed his viewpoint in contrast to the earlier
   writers such as Bruno Taut/ Sutemi Horiguchi/ Kenzo Tange. Tange's
   earlier writing was Mondrian-like, cropping Katsura to a abstract level.
   The essay by Isojaki sets the curatorial tone to the images. It's very
   expository, revealing indigenous and rustic elements.
   
   The book also provides the hidden dimension of buildings. By providing
   field-measured drawings, readers will be able to analyze quintessential
   element of plans and sections of traditional buildings. Five past
   writings of world-class architects and critics are also part of
   publication.



2. I have been to Katsura several times, and have several books on Katsura villa, and this new book is the best.
   This is how architectural books should be produced and photographed so other architects and people interested in architecture can actually learn and use the book not only as a beautiful catalog but as a tool.
   
   The beautiful photographs are architecturally photograhed in 1 point perspective except for details, gardens, and exterior. This is helpful as you can deduct the proportion and scale of the rooms. Most of the drawings have measurements, and are very well drawn.
   
   The introduction and text by Isozaki is excellent for understanding Katsura and Japanese architectural idealogy. Additionally, there are several past texts by Tange, Taut, Gropius, and etc. to get different perspectives.
   
   Katsura, along with several temples and villas have been meticulously maintained for the last 400 years.



3. The best way to know the traditional architecture of Japan. Very good pictures, technical drawings and very interesting articles explaining the Katsura Villa.

1 comments about Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production.

1. This insightful book provided me with a fundamental understanding of not only the history of architectural representation, but also scientific, psychological, philosophical and metaphysical backgrounds of the architectural expressions of epochs throughout the Western culture. What is especially interesting to me is how the idea of 'architecture as language' especially in relation to Bauhaus and modernism is investigated. Since the manifestation of fragments of contemporary cities continuously surfaces in our environments to be comprehended or to take in charge, the text seems to be very relevant to our present time, perhaps even more so in developing countries. One passage reads: "... (I)n amnesic aphasia, the discontinuity between the possible and actual reality of words, between their concrete and abstract meanings, destroys the physiognomic qualities of experience, perception, and language. The loss of physiognomic qualities is directly related to the loss of categorial background, affecting language and perception... This shows just how critical is the communication between articulated, conceptual experience and its background; even more important, it shows that the background is common to our experience as a whole, including our language."

1 comments about Timber-Frame Houses (Great Houses).

1. Not a book on the basics of timberframing practice, but moreso a survey of beautiful or somewhat unique timberframe implementations. Homes with various cultural and historical influences are fully explained. The book is choppy since each chapter is meant to stand alone. There are some rare (IMO) techniques highlighted. I especially love the section on Bowstring Trusses and the bent wood Curved Roof Bungalow on page 130. The book also has a decent section on foam core panels, showing their various joinery techniques and wiring procedures.

No comments about Dream Homes Georgia: An Exclusive Showcase of Georgia's Finest Architects, Designers, and Builders (Dream Homes).

1 comments about Living in Scotland.

1. This lovely picture book shows interiors and views from twenty-eight of the inhabited houses/castles in Scotland. Gorgeous furnishings and architecture from centuries past are still in use and well cared for. I enjoyed the short, historical notes and personal histories of the residents.
   There was one jarring discontinuity: a new (1977) house built and furnished as a modern country house complete with modern architecture and furnishings.
   
   Included in this book are pictures of Glamis Castle in Angus, Blairquhan in Ayrshire, Hill House in Helensburgh, Blair Castle in Blair Atholl, Traquair House in Innerleithen, Ardgowan House near the Firth of Clyde, Glentruim House in Badenoch, the estate of Mellerstain, Thirlestane Castle near Lauder, Newhailes House, Manderston in Berwickshire, Fordel Castle in Fife, a new modern house designed by James Morris near the Lothians, the "poet's garden" of Little Sparta in the Lanarkshire Hills, the house of Keith Schellenberg on the Island of Eigg, Craighall-Ratray above the River Ericht, Pitcullo Keep in the north-east of Fife, Bardrochat in the south-west corner of Ayrshire, Kinveachy Lodge near Boat of Garten, a Highland smithy converted to a one-story home, a mini-mansion on Tweedale lands, Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire, and also the city homes of six Scots in Edinburgh and Glasgow: William Mowat Thompson - owner of the Theatre School of Dance and Drama in Edinburgh, Ken McCulloch - restaurateur and hotel-owner in Glasgow, Susie Raeburn - an advocate in the Law Courts in Edinburgh, Broderick Haldane - international society photographer, Andrew McIntosh Patrick - Managing Director of the Fine Art Society, and Chris Clyne - international dress designer.