No comments about Single Building: National Airport Terminal: Cesar Pelli: Process of an Architectural Work.

5 comments about The Independent Home: Living Well With Power from the Sun, Wind, and Water (A Real Goods Independent Living Book).

1. This book is a motivational book for people considering building an off-grid home. It includes arguments for living independently of the grid or other utility systems, stories and interviews with people who've established independent homesteads, and some general information about design considerations (siting the home for maximum efficiency, ways to generate power, and maintenance issues). Although there are a few tables and graphs, this is definitely not a how-to book; it includes very little detailed information about setting up independent power systems. Instead, the book focuses much more on why people choose to live off grid and how they get along without grid power. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people and their houses or diagrams of equipment and how it works. End material includes a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.
   
   Unfortunately, many of the interviews with homeowners are rather disjointed. It seems that Potts was striving to convey what people told him as accurately as possible, and so he relied on direct quotes where it would have made more sense to fill out the statements with the details needed to explain what the people really meant or intended to say rather than the exact words they used. For the interviews, Potts chose people in the regions he knew best, namely Northern California, Vermont, Hawaii (Maui), and communities in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. No mention is made of independent homes outside of these regions, and very little is mentioned of independent living in other countries. Potts has a tendency to stray off topic and he occasionally includes some information that, while interesting, isn't really about building an independent homestead, such as chapter five, a simplified accounting of our environmental impact on the planet (ecological footprinting), in which everything we do or use is translated into trees. (The details of the accounting system aren't very well thought out, since, for example, Potts equates the impact of 1 mile driven to 10 miles flown, when cars actually get better passenger mileage than airplanes.)
   
   The strongest feature of this book is the encouragement it provides that living independently can be done, and done comfortably today. Many of the people interviewed in this book live relatively ordinary lives, complete with electric lights and refrigerators. Some have vacuum cleaners, and some even have freezers. Significantly, all of them are living in remote areas, where they take responsibility for supplying not only their power, but also their water. Because they realize the limits of their water supply, they use composting toilets, and since they don't have sewage to deal with, their drains have nothing but gray water, which is reused elsewhere around the farm. Most grow some or all of their own food, and consequently generate very little garbage. Many even apply the goal of independence to educating their children, and home school their kids. Overall, the information contained in the book is quite exciting and encouraging, but after reading the book cover-to-cover, I'm no wiser about the details of how I could begin to implement some of these ideas in my own home.



2. When I ordered this book I thought it was a collection of stories gathered from people who have moved off the grid with some techniques and practices thrown in. Instead what I've found is that it preaches to the choir.

   The emphasis is on explaining how we waste energy through our daily on-the-grid lives and what doing so costs in "real" terms of "dead dinosaurs" turned crude oil deposits. If I'm buying this book then it's assumed I already have some concern for the environment and my energy usage, that I already want to "get off the oil" addiction my nation has. Why propound it over and over and over in this book. Why preach environmentalism in a book bought by environmentalists? Why not give them the info they need and the courage to do it through depicting others who've done it already?

   There are some stories of how others have gotten off the grid but they are short and don't really go into any of the problems one may encounter or how they can be overcome.

   A disappointing book that so easily could have been much much better.




3. I found this book very disappointing. I was looking for more of a "How-To" book which would provide answers and ideas for a mountain cabin. Instead I found it to contain warm hearted informtion in the form of short stories. At a minimum this books title should be modified to "The Independant Home - Good Hearted American Stories of Living Well with Power from the Sun, Wind, and Water.



4. As an editor and writer, to me this book is awful. The title is misleading: it provides no idea that this is simply a collection of feel-good stories from people who have succeeded in living independently. For the person wanting to start to live independently, this is NOT the book. Except by accidental gleanings from the stories, there is no comparison of technologies, no systematic analysis of how to go about it. The incomplete and inadequate descriptions of technologies are poorly placed and you wonder why they were placed where they were at all; the applied information could be culled into ten pages or less. There is also a nauseating rash of redneck chest-thumping about why America is so great and why it is losing the "race" to go green, presented in the very way that provides an implicit answer: America is great because it is full of greedy, competitive, small-minded, insular, arrogant people built to exploit the country's natural resources - the very ones that (most of) these people - including me - would like to get away from. This is off-set by some (again, accidental) very brief and quiet mention of the usefulness of non-American technologies. I expected more from this book, especially given the reviews it has received already. Much like the authors approach to his own building, the book may be euphemistically called `organic'; otherwise, it may be called just wasteful, inefficient, and poorly focused.



5. I was looking for a book on technical data for energy independent sytems, how they hooked up to your house, how it interacted with the existing power company system etc. This book has more opinion in it than information. I only read the first three chapters so far but the construction of all the chapters seem to be the same. It starts out with someone's story where they put down the power companies and insert a lot of "save the Earth" jargon. Most of the chapters consist of this type of rhetoric and at the very end of the chapter there is some useful information about a certain system, PV,wind, etc. I was also disappointed to find out that this book was copyrighted in 1993. The field of PV has taken leaps and bounds since this book was published. There is some useful information in this book but in my opinion, it could have been condensed into a short concise booklet of about 45 pages.

3 comments about Magnificent Milwaukee: Architectural Treasures, 1850-1920.

1. This book gives unprecidented information on icons from Milwaukee's past. Zimmermann's access to the interiors of these buildings allows for a higher level of documentation then most resources ever come close to reaching; this book is a must have for preservation architects working in the Milwaukee area.



2. H. Russell Zimmerman proves he is Wisconsin's preeminent architectural historian with his fantastic volume, "Magnificent Milwaukee." Long sought after by architecture enthusiasts around the state, the book captures the details, workmanship and romance of Milwaukee's most outstanding architectural treasures. Although relatively few copies of the book were printed, those who possess one have a gem that deserves to be kept and appreciated for generations.



3. I collect books on American Architecture. Russel Zimmermans Magnificent Milwaukee is one of the very best. It not only contains wonderful pictures of many of the cities grand historic homes it also traces the history of the city through the families that built the homes and the city.

No comments about Dream Homes New England: Showcasing New England's Finest Architects, Designers and Builders (Dream Homes).

3 comments about Hawksmoor's London Churches: Architecture and Theology.

1. Having read Kerry Downes' standard monographs on Hawksmoor, Du Prey's "Architecture and Theology" is very disappointing. Du Prey does not, to begin, bring the book to its logical conclusion; despite commencing with a gushing account of Anglican Divines in Augustan England (Atterbury and Aldrich, though not, rather surprisingly, Sacheverall), the way in which contemporary religious thought might have conditioned the form of the churches built is inconclusive and not argued with the conviction that made an old article on the matter by Du Prey himself (ie., 'The Basilicas of the Primitive Christians') worthwhile. Furthermore, broad, out-of-context and misleading generalisations (such as a description of the Tory party of 1711 as 'right-wing') mixed with pockets of narrative make the book extremely irksome to read. As if that were not bad enough, Du Prey proves himself a brazen and misguided name-changer: St. George-in-the-East becomes 'St. George's-in-the-East', whilst St. Alfege, Greenwich, is nicely modernised as St. Alphege (which is, in fact, in dioscean records, a completely different church!). These observations might seem pedantic, but such mistakes are quite surprising from a Professor of Architectural History. Du Prey does not mention the churches of Gibbs (St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Martin-in-the-Fields), Archer (St. John Smith Square, Westminster, St. Paul, Deptford) or John James (St. George Hanover Sqaure), even though the latter collaborated on St. John Horselydown and St. Luke Old Street with Hawksmoor himself! Neither of the churches, not surprisingly, are studied at all. This is a flaw which Kerry Downes highlighted in a review of the book; it ought to have elicited a little caution on my part, because "Architecture and Theology" is definately not worth the asking price.



2. There is so little available on the architecture of the eccentric architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, that this book on his wonderful parish churches in London would be welcome in any case. But the book is a gem--well written, elegant...and goes far in explaining the theological and cultural issues behind Hawksmoor's odd choices in designing these buildings. The book also served as a very useful guide as I traveled around London in search of Hawksmoor projects.



3. This survey of architecture and theology examines London church structures built by Hawksmoor from 1712-1731. From a review of the architect's education and designs to church politics and issues in structures, Hawksmoor's London Churches: Architecture and Theology provides a lively, involving account with plenty of color photos.

No comments about Winning Shopping Center Designs.

No comments about Architectural Brickwork.

1 comments about Eco: An Essential Sourcebook for Environmentally Friendly Design and Decoration.

1. This is a great book. I really enjoyed reading it, and I re-read it from time to time to get the creative juices flowing (I'm studying Interior Architecture, with the inevitable focus on sustainable design). I'd recommend it to anyone, with the caveat that it's a little thin on technical detail. Readers should consider this more an eye-opener than a reference book. You get a good feel for what's possible, but not so much on how it's possible.
   
   It's full of great pictures, though, and I mostly read books for the pictures.

No comments about Facing Southwest: The Life and Houses of Jon Gaw Meem.

No comments about Spectacular Homes of Greater Washington, D.C.: An Exclusive Showcase of Designers in Washington D.C., Northern Virginia & Maryland (Spectacular Homes).