No comments about Stadium Design (Design Books).

No comments about Wood: Architecture in Finland.

1 comments about Means Estimating Handbook.

1. I was hoping for a comprehensive step-by-step process with deep insights that should come from a company (RS Means) that is publishing other books in their 65th editions. Instead this books is merely a collection of tables like Installation time for chalk boards and dimensions of wide flange shapes.
   Huge disappointment. I am certain that I will never use this book.

3 comments about Construction Specifications Writing: Principles and Procedures, 4th Edition.

1. I have found this text to be highly useful in explaining the purpose and content of specifications. The text provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of what should be in a specification. The only thing that might have been better was if the authors had spent more time on the technical specs and less on the EJCDC and other standard items that do not appreciably change. All in all though, this is an excellent text and well worth the price.



2. The previous reviewer obviously has not read the book that he rated so low. Harold J. Rosen is an Honorary member of The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), an honor given to few CSI members. This book, in its first edition, predates the CSI Manual of Practice, and it has been updated over several decades.
   
   Construction Specifications Writing: Principles and Practices has been the leading textbook for teaching construction specifications at colleges and universities.
   
   The 4th edition has been superseded by an expanded and updated 5th edition, co-authored by this reviewer, that is consistent with the CSI Manual of Practice and includes more examples and resources than CSI's MOP.



3. I want ask if the book contains this title:

   CSI = Construction Specification Institute

2 comments about Rancho Deluxe: Rustic Dreams and Real Western Living.

1. The last decade of the twentieth century spawned a culture of week-end ranchers buying week-end "places" and decorating the interiors in "drug-store cowboy". "Ranch Deluxe", however, shows you what the real thing looked like, Partner.

   For those of us who grew up on "Hop Along" and Gene Autry Saturday mornings at the neighborhood theatre, Rancho Deluxe is a voyeur's dream.

   Motoring down the highways of the great Southwest, one occasionally glimpses an old ranch house in the distance. "Is there a soul so dead who never fantasized about life in that ranch house?" Rancho Deluxe welcomes the voyeur to step inside and have a look around.




2. This book is a wonderful history/architectural reference. I purchased this book as an interior design reference and although it does not cover interior design details the rich history provided by the author led me to want to read this book cover to cover. And what a beautiful cover it is- brown leather- makes this a great coffee table book. This would be a great gift for anyone interested in western architecture and home style. This is not one of those books that choses a certain western style and displays hundred of the same photograph-this book covers every ranch style possible. I will continue to reference this book for inspiration and ideas.

1 comments about California Bungalow.

1. As the owner of a 1920's California Bungalow, I am constantly seeking information about the correct styles and furnishings for this period. Obviously, many of these homes have been heavily modified by "do-it-yourselfers" of varying skills and often bear little resemblence to their former glory.

   This book provides an excellent set of original floor plans, plus the most detailed set of interior architectural elevations detailing fireplaces, kitchen cabinets, and built-in furnishings I have seen in this style of book.

   The architect responsible for the plans in this book was based in Los Angeles, so if you are local to that region the California bunaglow you are interested in restoring is likely to be represented within this volume.

1 comments about Pretty Vacant: The Los Angeles Dingbat Observed.

1. The publisher's trade catalog for this book says 'The only thing better than one boring building is hundreds of them' and the photographer Clive Piercy says of his images 'This is not a book about architecture-or photography. It is a visual poem, a love letter and a simple attempt to help preserve these fantastic, quirky characters'. Well, maybe and this chunky little book delivers 480 photos of them. Piercy was struck by the LA apartment that has the design characteristic of having an open to the street ground floor parking space the width of the building.
   
   Flicking through the pages you get the impression that maybe the local builders have formed a cartel to make sure their efforts look as identical as possible, so to add a little bit of individual flavor to their apartments many owners have fixed large numbers or names to the buildings (set in appropriate typestyles: Atomic Bold Italic or Googie Casual Cursive) Piercy photographed many examples of this building detail and being a designer I found these fascinating. A thing I found rather disappointing though, was that nearly all the photos are in black and white and the reproduction makes them look rather grey (I wonder if they were originally transparencies?) so to break up this greyness color graphic elements are scattered through the pages, mostly type dingbats, how appropriate!
   
   Piercy is not the only photographer to celebrate the 'Pretty Vacant' style, Jeff Brouws in his lovely book of color photos, Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts has a chapter devoted to ticky tacky homes in Daly City, California, especially interesting because he sought out homes that were painted in bright colors. Lewis Baltz photographed pretty vacant commercial units in his famous The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California.
   
   I bet a copy of 'Pretty Vacant' will be popping up on the coffee tables of architects, designers and those interested in pop Americana.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

No comments about The Problem of the House: French Domestic Life And the Rise of Modern Architecture (A Mclellan Book).

1 comments about Porches, Decks & Outbuildings (Best of Fine Homebuilding).

1. I have designed two porches for our home and found this book to be the one that I referred to the most. It goes beyond the basics and provides information on how to make a structure that is both aesthetically pleasing and built to last. It includes features that most other books ignore, like how to build a leak-free roof deck. This is a "must have" for anyone designing and building a porch or deck.

1 comments about Palaces of Venice.

1. I bought this book some months ago in anticipation of a trip to Venice - which I have just returned from . I only glanced at the pictures before I left , with a view to savouring them and reading the text when I returned home.
   
   When I actually started to read the text I discovered that the English translation is like something out of "Monty Python" ... the sketch with the obscene English/Hungarian phrase book . The line "my hovercraft is full of eels" would not be out of place in this book. It is a bizarre, pseudo architectural, English - Italian mangle of words, tenses, concepts & jargon. The dust jacket blurb even manages to insult the photographer (referring to his other works -"... among these volumes , some are worthy of value").
   
   Some phrases ..."prevelaently ligneous", "architectonical experimentation", "autarchic economy" etc etc - and that's just the introduction !
   
   Almost none of the complete sentences in the book make any sense whatsoever.
   
   The photos are nice though - hence the 2 stars.
   
   It'll look good on your coffee table, as long as you don't attempt to read it !