No comments about Architecture, Power and National Identity.

No comments about Benares: The Sacred Landscape of Varanasi.

No comments about Tschumi: le Fresnoy.

1 comments about Strange Sites: Uncommon Homes & Gardens of the Pacific Northwest.

1. I like to collect books about space people have customized in an eclectic and eccentric way. This is one of the best.

No comments about GA Houses Special.

2 comments about The World of Contemporary Architecture.

1. An absolute bargain for the price, 1000 pages and over 2000 color photos (and some drawings). What I like about this book is the very comprehensive coverage of contemporary architecture, not only the well-known, Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur for instance, but the (perhaps) unknown, Grand Valley Woman's Prison in Ontario or the phosphate plant in Nordgraben, Germany or the Scottsdale, Arizona East Couplet Street urban improvement.

   There are five basic chapters, Urban planning and transport, Cultural facilities, Leisure facilities, Public buildings and institutions and finally Homes, these five areas are divided into thirty-nine sections in all. Each building gets a spread with usually one big and two, three or four smaller photos and some have architect's drawings (unfortunately the books small size means most of these are too tiny) a detailed technical description and a couple of hundred words about the building. For some odd reason the book does not have a building or architect index.

   This would be an ideal book for a student thinking of becoming an architect because it shows the very wide range of building styles that require design solutions. For others, like me, it is a super record of some of the best recent architecture around the world.




2. If like me you love the glossies, then this ones for you.Power packed with over thousands of photos covering a broad range of contemporary architecture- commercial,public,parks,land art,housing etc,its a visual tour of world architecure, all covered in one book(over 1000 pages!).Although the book is only approximately A5 in size ,this in no way detracts from its value,particularly if you consider the price.Another great book(better in fact) in the same series is 'houses of the world'.

4 comments about Great Houses of the Hudson River.

1. Beautifully photographed, well written. Will be appreciated by those who have visited these houses as well as those who enjoy fine architecture and interesting history.



2. If you love historical architecture, and the histories of old homes, then you shouldn't miss this book. The photographs alone make this a book worth owning, but the author has also included well written, indepth, and informative stories about these incrediable homes, their builders, owners and subsiquent owners. Reading this book has encouraged me to plan a trip to visit to the Hudson River Valley to see these beautiful places for myself.



3. This is a nice overview of the best of the estates along the Hudson. The book give a nice short history on the houses presented and the photos are nice, though the pictures could be more crisp. Having said that, I did enjoy the book and was just amazed at the variety in the styles of the houses from period to period; really a very informative book. If you are interested in this sort of thing, then you will certainly be pleased with this book, though the $50.00 price tag is a bit daunting.



4. This book is fantasic! I highly recommend it. It has loads of spectacular color photographs, and the mansions are breath taking. Being someone who has never visisted the area, this book really makes me consider a trip to New York, if only to see these mansions.

2 comments about Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House: Weekend House/Wochenendhaus (Mies Van Der Rohe Archive).

1. I love the Fansworth House but I've not been there yet. The book shows us full of images of the masterpiece and takes us into the house imaginarily. Black and white photos work very much and some Mies's drawings are also helpful to understand how the house was beyond the notions. It is still quite new and less is more, of course.
   Yoko Lewis, Berkeley in Califorinia



2. a magnificient book about the last domestic project built by mies, where an extraordinary complexity of details results in a very simple home. truly the work of a lifetime achievement.

1 comments about Bennett's Small House Catalog, 1920.

1. Because I spend my spare time looking at old houses and trying to identify their unique charasteristics and different building styles, I bought this book. As a serious researcher on Sears Catalogue Homes, I figured I better know what *other* catalogue homes look like.
   
   Bennett's Small House Catalog, 1920, is an 8 x 11" 73 page reprint. It's an interesting book to peruse. There are 7 pages of background info on Bennett in the front and 4 pages of building supplies in the back. That stuff is always an interesting read.
   
   The other pages are good quality photos and floorplans (with a sales pitch, too) of the misc. homes sold by Bennett.
   
   The photo and reprint quality is very good and the black and white pictures [drawings?] are unusually sharp for a reprint.
   
   So, if you're like me and spend your spare moments looking at catalogs of old houses, you'll enjoy this. But there's not a lot of meat here - just old pictures and old descriptions and old sales pitches of old houses.
   
   Rose
   author, The Houses That Sears Built

1 comments about Design of Building Trusses (Parker/Ambrose Series of Simplified Design Guides).

1. I needed a good source book for the work I was doing at this time and recieved it quickly and in great condition. The analysis techniques are in use right now.