No comments about One Story Homes Under 2000 Square Feet: Traditional and Contemporary Styles.

5 comments about House Beautiful Small Spaces (House Beautiful).

1. This book has become one of my all-time favorites. The photos are beautiful and the book offers helpful advice on how to maximize space in a room without sacrificing style.
   Even the tiniest of spaces provides an opportunity for storage, display or utility with no wasted space to spare.
   
   If you are a small-home owner, as I am, this book should delight you. I've kept it handy and have referred to it on quite a few occasions to spark my creativity or stimulate ideas that I could (and still can) easily implement in my home. Unlike many other decorating books, this was a great read as well. I enjoyed it from cover-to-cover.
   Renters, this book is geared more toward home owners so I would suggest seeking it out from a library to enjoy the ideas without spending the extra cash.



2. My husband and I don't have a lot of money. We live in a one-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati. But if you're accustomed to making expensive ideas work for a miniscule budget, it's a perfect book. True, most of the designers featured in the book live in Manhattan (which is woefully expensive; those great apartments you see in movies or on TV are actually more in the price range of folks making near six figures), and some of the ideas really weren't my style, but if you do a little reading between the lines, you get good basic ideas on how to maximize your space.

   Truth be told, not all of the ideas used were that expensive. Slipcovers for chairs and sofas abounded, old furniture was given new life with decorative painting. Remember two things as you go through the beautiful settings: 1) these were done by artistic designers and certainly a good portion of these things were done by hand as opposed to bought, and 2) gorgeous, tasteful items don't have to cost an arm and a leg if you look in the right places.




3. After reading the last review, I decided to look at this book in the bookstore before ordering. I'm glad I did, because I will NOT be ordering the book after all. What a waste. Nothing there. A bunch of pretty little pictures of places that don't relate to my home or life or "stuff" at all. And I live in a pricey suburb.



4. This is, by far, the best book I've found on decorating small spaces. I pick it up again and again, and it always inspires me. It illustrates different techniques you can use to create the illusion of more space, maximize space, or create a cozy space. Although the styles are expensive, many of the techniques can be used even with a small budget, i.e., using mirrors, patterned wallpaper, furniture you can see through, hanging curtains above window frames, etc.



5. This book contains many stunning photos and presents a lot of intriguing ideas. But it also brings out the final question: If you can afford that much on design why not move to a bigger space? A more appropriate title would be: Decorating Small Spaces in Expensive Cities (where you are too tired to move).

No comments about Magui Gonzalez + Jose Antonio Sosa.

No comments about Parking Requirements for Shopping Centers.

2 comments about Housing: New Alternatives, New Systems.

1. Well, honestly, I probably wouldn't have seen this book if it wasn't for my professor and his obscure references to buildings. This is a pretty good book to make one understand and become visually aware of the way housing affects the inhabitant and the way the inhabitant(society/culture) affects the housing... also site relationships and basically the urbanization of the world. Another thing, this book is pretty good at giving examples of housing that breaks from the "normalcy" and "style-numbness"(that's my own term!) of today. I focused mainly on Riegler and Riewe's apartment building in Austria and theories on "conditioned openness" and flexibility. This, and the other examples are pretty interesting to me, maybe a good coffee table book for some. Pick it up and compare the many different systems to your current form of housing...



2. Well, honestly, I probably wouldn't have seen this book if it wasn't for my professor and his obscure references to buildings. This is a pretty good book to make one understand and become visually aware of the way housing affects the inhabitant and the way the inhabitant(society/culture) affects the housing... also site relationships and basically the urbanization of the world. Another thing, this book is pretty good at giving examples of housing that breaks from the "normalcy" and "style-numbness"(that's my own term!) of today. I focused mainly on Riegler and Riewe's apartment building in Austria and theories on "conditioned openness" and flexibility. This, and the other examples are pretty interesting to me, maybe a good coffee table book for some. Pick it up and compare the many different systems to your current form of housing...

4 comments about Craftsman-Style Houses (Great Houses).

1. Ok, I'll break from the pack and say I really like this book. As previously mentioned, it's actually a collection of older articles from Fine HomeBuilding. I bought the book many years back, when I first started to develop an interest in architecture. My architectural library has now outgrown a medium-sized bookcase, and I've even designed and built several houses. Nonetheless, I still find myself coming back to the articles in this modest book.
   
   Go forewarned - this collection does not focus purely on craftsman bungalows. Instead, the theme tying these articles together is a craftsman-like approach toward design, materials, and building. There are indeed some true Arts and Crafts treasures highlighted, like the Bolton house by Greene & Greene. Others though have a somewhat modern feel about them. Others still...well...we won't go there.
   
   I must say that even the articles about houses that I don't care for offered up something of value. Sometimes this is just a clever detail or use of material. My favorite article is the Greene and Greene inspired home by Rodger Whipple. This showed me how heavy timber could be elegantly integrated with conventional modern stick framing. I'd never seen this done so well and this little article heavily influenced the direction I took with my own work.
   
   Don't write this one off - I consider it a hidden gem.



2. At best, this book is mis-titled. With a few exceptions, it takes a smattering of abstract interpretations and applications of the Craftsman Style and incorporates them into new homes. Maybe it was my fault for literally interpreting the title, but this is not a reference for Craftsman/Arts & Crafts/Bungalow style architectural elements nor design. I am a Taunton Publishing fan, but this was a real disappointment and a waste of my money.



3. While the houses featured are not the finest examples of the style, the diagrams of construction details are good.



4. This book will be a real disappointment to readers who expect a collect of articles on the restoration or reproduction of houses in the Craftsman style. Most of the builders/architects whose work is included seem to think that "Craftsman style" means "use a lot of visible wood in the interior." Additionally, there is one real horror of a remuddling of a hapless bungalow.

   However, there are a handful of articles of real value, mostly on restorations. These are almost worth the relatively inexpensive price of the book.

3 comments about Metro: The Story of the Underground Railway (Mitchell Beazley Art & Design).

1. Hi, I haven't read this book, but I saw it in a bookstore today and was very excited. It seemed right up my transit-freak alley. If it's so full of factual errors though, what better books on the subject would you suggest?



2. This book is full of errors and half finished stories. The pictures are nice. If you are interested in the history of underground railways there are much better books to find.



3. While the photos are indeed a treat to look at, the text is so full of inaccuracies that it best be ignored. I'm not an expert on every one of the Metro systems profiled, but with regard to the ones with which I am familar, I can attest that Mr. Bennett's factual errors are pervasive. Dates, directions, system topology, and more...nothing jibes with the actual facts -- even such seemingly minor things as referring to Washington DC as a "state capitol" when I think that many people are under the impression that it is the national capital of the USA...or referring to Ontario as a state when many in Canada, and elsewhere, believe it is still a province. With an editing standard as low as this, it's no wonder the metro descriptions are valueless.

1 comments about Hegemann and Peets American Vitruvius (Reprint Series).

1. This is an incredible achievement. It absolutely must be in the library of every architect and architecture student in the world, because we have lost contact with the beauty and social glory of living urbanistically. The architecture we produce supports this suburbanized lifestyle, and the anti social results of this new pattern of living can be seen daily on the news in all manner of bizarre murders and cultist activity. Well then! Without advocating a style of architecture in particular, this book advocates a type of planning that, if we are intelligent enough to understand this book, could save this country, and save the world. I do not exaggerate. Buy the book. You'll be a different person for having purchased it.

No comments about Pioneering British High Tech (Architecture 3s).

No comments about The Country Builder's Assistant: Containing a Collection of New Designs of Carpentry and Architecture; which will be particularly useful to Country Workmen in general..