4 comments about Classic English Interiors.

1. A book of grace and perfect taste. A good book to come back to when you need another idea... end tables, curtains, carpets, furniture placement...... lovely ideas...ideas that can work in a small apartment, modest colonial or grand house..... it's the 1 book in my collection of 50 or more interior design books that I would NOT sell... it is my favorite....



2. A must have reference for any professional or amature decorator. But be warned, if this is your first book by Lady Henrietta you will be hooked and will soon order her entire body of work.



3. Very beautiful book, I enjoy looking at it, lovely (mostly formal) drapery ideas, but for the money, I wish I could have checked it out at the library.



4. Classic English Interiors is a great book depicting the more upper-scale homes/interiors of England. The photos are exceptionally good too. If you are contemplating using English style in your decorating scheme, this is surely a good book of information and photos.

1 comments about Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry (New York Review Books).

1. Martin Filler has been a contributor to The New York Review of Books for the last twenty years. During that time, he produced a series of remarkable essays on the "Giants" of Modern Architecture. "Makers of Modern Architecture" is a compilation of seventeen of those essays. Filler starts with the first Modernists (Sullivan, Wright, Mies, Corbusier) and then moves on to the second (Eames,Kahn, Johnson) and third generation (Gehry, Meier, Foster and Piano) of Modernist architects.
   
   Martin Filler is one of the nation's best architectural critics and this book finds him at the top of his form. With great style, he praises the noteworthy and pillories the cynical. There is an erudition and honesty to his writing that is at times, thrilling. His chapters on Phillip Johnson's opportunism and the political wrangling over the Twin Tower re-construction are especially good. "Makers of Modern Architecture" is criticism at its finest. Highly recommended.

3 comments about Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living.

1. If you are considering alternatives to aging in isolation or retiring to a gated golf course community, read this book. Senior cohousing is becoming the fastest growing segment of the intentional community movement. This book offers both how-to advice and the social rationale for aging in community.



2. Charles Durrett's Senior Cohousing book will help lead us into the next 17 years as an estimated 75 million Baby Boomers head into retirement. It only makes sense that the generation that brought social and environmental awareness to the fore would be searching for a sustainable, suportive, self-managed community housing solution for their later years, and Durrett has outlined in detail how - and why - to go about it.
   
   The stories and wisdom are from Denmark, where multigenerational cohousing began over 30 years ago. Since that time, cohousing has translated very successfully to over a dozen countries around the world, including over 90 completed neighborhoods in North America alone. With 20 out of the last 25 cohousing starts in Denmark being senior projects, we can only assume that Senior Cohousing on the rest of the planet will be as big - if not bigger - a hit.
   
   Durrett has given us clear and useful intruction in Senior Cohousing for how to go about creating a Senior Cohousing neighborhood, from gathering other interested parties to finding land, hiring the design and development professionals and building a cohesive community. The step-by-step chapters are interlaced with impotant and interesting sidebars, illustrations and photographs.
   
   The spirit of the book is both informative and fun. The candid photos, quotes and anecdotes drive home the glee with which these Elders are taking charge of their lives. Neighbors work and play together, share frequent meals, dance, bicycle, walk, and create poetry and art. After reading Senior Cohousing, for probably the first time in my life, I thought getting older might actually be a hoot.



3. At last, here is a guidebook to a new way of aging for older Americans - a housing solution that at once addresses the need for privacy and for community; provides a net of security and mutual care without the institutional restrictions of assisted living; is environmentally friendly - and most importantly, is planned, designed, and built by the residents themselves.
   
   Cohousing got its start in Europe and has been successfully translated to America. In a cohousing community, each household has its own, stand-alone private dwelling, which is smaller than the traditional single-family home. These private homes are clustered around a common house which provides the amenities that are often wastefully duplicated in traditional American housing. The layout of the homes and the entire community provides plenty of privacy while affording opportunities for as much social interaction as the residents desire.
   
   The key to cohousing is that it is planned and built by the people who intend to live there, so the sense of community begins to develop during the planning process as interested participants winnow themselves down to a core group that is committed to building together, on a site they have chosen together, with a development program that they have evolved together through a consensus process.
   
   Senior cohousing is the logical extension of the cohousing idea. Many senior cohousing communities already exist in Denmark, where the author, Charles Durrett, traveled extensively and interviewed community residents. In the United States Durrett and his wife, Katie McCamant, are the principals of The Cohousing Company, an architectural firm that specializes in facilitating the development of cohousing. Their previous book, Cohousing: A Contemporary Way of Housing Ourselves, pioneered the cohousing movement in America.
   
   Senior CoHousing is an inspiring and practical guidebook to help older Americans get started organizing and planning a cohousing community. It draws upon the author's extensive experience in developing cohousing in the United States, and the shared experience of elders in Denmark who have been living in senior cohousing communities for years. Filled with inspiring photographs and helpful graphics, the book presents the nuts-and-bolts considerations that go into planning a senior cohousing community. For many Americans over 50, this book may be the first step toward creating a way of living out the final stages of life in a rewarding, stimulating, supportive environment, where one's choices find expression in a neighborhood of like-minded people.

1 comments about The American Collection Farmhouse: 165 Home Plans With Country Style:.

1. I feel the plans are very similar to plans already featured in other
   books by Home Planners. The floor plans and exteriors are I believe
   do not have the farm/country feel I was led to feel in the brief
   description of the book. Most of the homes I could not imagine in
   a "country,farm-like" setting.

3 comments about The Country Houses of Robert Adam: From the Archives of Country Life.

1. The illustrations are an estimated 95% black and white, and had I known that I would never have purchased the book. I ordered it based on an article in The English Home which showed all pictures in color - the book itself is not.
   
   This is a book that needs color plates and I would have paid any price if it had them. Publishers' catalogues usually list detailed information regarding illustrations, including the number of pictures and whether they are black and white or color. It would be very helpful if the Amazon specs contained that information.



2. Excellent superb photography a classic informative book, a must for those interested in interior design / architecture recommended highly



3. Robert Adam was one of the most influential architects and decorators of the 18th century. His work influenced Hepplewhite and Sheraton to just name a few. This book does a fine job of making the reader understand the influence and the range of Adams work. The text is highly informative and well researched and the images are crisp and vivid. This book is expensive, yes, but if you have any interest whatsoever in this subject I can't imagine you being disappointed. Great book to buy, if you have the means to buy it.

5 comments about Beautiful Built-ins: Plans for Designing with Stock Cabinets.

1. It is my own fault for not reading the entire description of this book, but it is not what I first thought it was. This book simply has different layouts for stock cabinets your could buy (for example at Home Depot). I should think that manufacturers of these cabinets could give you a book like this for free to help you decide layouts. So, you have a book of hundreds of different arrangements of cabinets, and you'll probably find 1 or 2 that you actually like or need. It does seem to leave a lot of the figuring, ie measuring to fit, to you. If not free, this book should be like $9. I gave 3 stars because if you want lots of ideas on how to arrange cabinets for all areas of the house, this book serves its purpose. However, if I really rated its value to me, I'd say 1 star, maybe half. Can I return this??



2. This book seemed meaningless to me. As others have noted, it is basically a very long sequence of rather poor line drawings and very little else. Very few low quality pictures are included; that is a pity because they could help provide some inspiration or guide your design. And fairly little know-how information is provided for do-it-yourself folks - the author recommends using professional installers. For most people, cabinet manufacturer websites and/or a visit to your local Home Depot or Lowe's kitchen design center will be much more useful than this book.



3. This book contains almost no photographs of finished projects. There are hardly any diagrams of the intermediate steps, and the instructions are minimalistic at best. This book assumes a reasonable knowledge of cabinet installation techniques; however, persons who possess such skills would largely find this book unnecessary. What you do get in this book is lots of line drawings of how to stack and arrange cabinets in different configurations, but these drawings are much like the ones you can get through the design services that are provided by Lowe's, Home Depot, and other major home supply stores.
   A better choice would be "Built-In Furniture: A Gallery of Design Ideas".



4. 500 pages of cabinet designes in line drawing format! If you get one idea from this book it is worth the price, and believe me, there are many ideas you can use. I have been designing cabinets for a year now and this book has added to my ability to generate good designs for my clients.



5. The only color photograph is on the cover. This is a big book with 500 pages, hundreds of drawings depicting many layouts and a clear list of cabinets needed along with additional materials required to complete each layout. Each of the twelve chapters focuses on a specific area such as bedrooms, baths, beverage centers, entertainment centers and utility areas. The author offers many design variations for each area.
   
   The strength of this book is the huge variety of designs shown for each project area. The author illustrates many clever ways to use stock cabinets to create a variety of custom looks. The weakness for me is the lack of any color photographs to help visualize the results in a finished projects. This is a great resource of concepts for professional designers or decorators who have the imagination to know how drawings translate to finished results.

4 comments about Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of All Major League Ballparks.

1. When I first received the book 'Green Cathedrals' in the mail I was initially disappointed in that all the photographs are in black and white. However once I really examined the book I realized this book is truly unique in that it is the only book I am aware of that lists every ballfield ever used by a major league team or negro league team. This book required a ton of research. For example, if you ever wondered where the 1876 New York Mutuals of the National League played (I Have), this book has the answer. It includes the street names surrounding the park. This book is for a true baseball historians.
   If this book is ever revised I'd love to see it made into several volumes. One for the Negro league, one for the early (wooden ballbarks), one for the classic era (Steel and concrete), such as Forbes Field, Ebbet's Field, etc., one for the multi-purpose era, and one for existing and future parks. I'd love to see it include the best available photographs of each. I'd buy the whole set.



2. Author Philllip Lowry did a nice job of reserach, and the result is an excellent reference source on big and minor league ballparks of past and present. But there are far too few photos (or illustrations) to give the reader an accurate feel for these wonderful green cathedrals. Also, I have the earlier (1992) edition which lacks much updated information on the many big-league ballparks (and some minor league ones as well) that entered the arena during the 1990's and 2000's.



3. Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks offers up a history of each of the ballparks that have hosted Major League and Negro League baseball, and appears in a revised, updated edition which has seen many changes since its initial appearance a decade ago. Over a hundred new ballparks and hundreds of new photos make for essentially a different presentation, covering each park's location, dimensions, capacity, and history. Baseball fans will love it.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. I have just received from SABR a copy of the new revised edition of Phil Lowry's long-awaited latest version of GREEN CATHEDRALS (Walker & Company). I can't judge the overall quality or accuracy, since I am not a ballparks expert. But if the two entries on Cuban ballparks (pp.96-97) are any measure, than there is much to be judged as most disappointing. It is a shame that Lowry didn't have the Cuba entries checked by someone who knew anything at all about Cuban ballparks.
   
   The first stadium, El Cerro or Gran Stadium is named incorrectly as Estadio Gran (which would be totally inappropriate in Spanish; it should be Gran Estadio del Cerro). It is also indicated that the occupant was the Negro National League Havana Cuban Stars of 1920, an absurdity, of course, because the Negro leagues club of that name played in the States (not Havana) and this park was not built until 1946, long after the team's demise.
   
   The July 25, 1959 Cuban Sugar Kings contest (the one with the shooting incident) that is mentioned in the text was played before a crowd estimated at 25,000 (not 2572, as given by Lowry).
   
   Gran Estadio was built in 1946 and was the first and only park on this site in the Cerro neighborhood. There was no Gran Stadium II which replaced some number one version as Lowry states. (He is apparently confusing the two Almendares ballparks: Almendares Park I (original home of the pro Cuban League) was destroyed by a hurricane in 1926 and promptly replaced by Almendares Park II, which gave way in the early 1930s to La Tropical Stadium. There has only ever been one Gran Stadium (Cerro Stadium), which was renamed Latin American Stadium in 1971 by the Castro government, on the occasion of its refurbishing that year for the Amateur World Series.
   
   The second stadium listed by Lowry is Estadio Cerveza Tropicale, which was technically Gran Stadium Cervecería Tropical (or familiarly La Tropical Stadium). It has no E at the end of the name.
   
   The occupant is listed as the NNL Cubans but again this was not a stadium used by a Negro leagues team (for "neutral cite games" as Lowry has it). It was a stadium which housed Cuban amateur play and also the bulk of Cuban League pro games between 1930 and 1946. It was perhaps most famous for hosting the Amateur World Series games of 1939, 1940 and 1941.
   
   Lowry claims the park was built in 1930 for the Pan American Games. The Pan Am Games didn't start until 1951; the park was built to hold the second Central American and Caribbean Games in the fall of 1930.
   
   Lowry lists current uses for the park (today called Estadio Pepe Marrero, after a minor hero of the 1950s revolution) as lacrosse, soccer, and track and field. I have spent a lot of time in Cuba in the past dozen years and have never heard of a single lacrosse match being played on the island. (Field hockey yes, but that is not lacrosse.)
   
   But worst of all, the photo Lowry uses at the top of page 97 and identifies as Havana's La Tropicale (sic) is not La Tropical at all but rather Gran Stadium in Cerro, taken sometime in the late forties or early fifties. La Tropical is easily identified by the running track that was its main feature (it circled the baseball playing area) and would be clearly visible in any aerial shot. The track and some of the grandstand is still there, but the oval now circles a soccer field. The park was also set in a wooded area (not an urban center like Cerro), had only a small grandstand and no outfield fences.
   
   For good photos of both Cerro (Gran) Stadium and La Tropical, one can look at Roberto González Echevarría's The Pride Havana, which also details the history of these historic venues. RGE's fine book has been a best-seller since 1999 and was readily available to Mr. Lowry.
   
   All this does not bode well for the information on other obscure parks. Is the scholarship better there? Perhaps. I hate to play "I gotcha!" and this is far from my attention here. But I also hate to see Cuba baseball continue to be so shrouded in misinformation and even dis-information. Especially when there are now so many good sources out there on the subject.
   
   Peter C. Bjarkman
   Author of A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 and (with Mark Rucker) Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball

5 comments about Private Splendor: Great Families at Home.

1. I find this to be a beautifully photographed book, I have dupilcated one of the floral arrangements already. A great idea book.



2. This book is excellent! If you've ever wondered what it must be like to live in grandeur like the British nobility and some European Royal Families, then this is the book for you!
   
   Buy it today!



3. This is a fabulous book. I bought the book because of my connection and time spent at Harewood House in England. The photographs are so fantastic and the text very competent. Which in the case of Harewood is quite an accomplishment since the history is long and quite complicated. Alexis Gregory is to be congratulated on getting all the facts right. I know this home intimately and the photos show Harewood just as it is in all its glory.
   
   I was also fascinated with St. Emmeram Palace in which I have also spent much time. Again the images and the accompanying text are best examples of their craft.
   
   But the best part of the book was discovering other stately homes and palaces that I did not know about. It was exciting to get a look inside these private spaces. A more beautiful book will be hard to come by. I could not put it down. The only complaint with the whole book is that there was not more of it- more photos and more homes included!
   
   I am often disappointed by such photography/history books, but this is the exception to that rule.
   
   My highest compliments!



4. Beautiful objects, great architecture, photos show dark inhospitable living conditions of a time gone by. I would have liked more photos of living areas and brighter conditions



5. The author has arranged to enter some of the oldest, most ornate historical family residences in Europe -- homes we would not otherwise be able to see or tour, in many instances -- thereby providing an opportunity to see what generations have accumulated in these grand mansions. Unfortunately, the photographer is, like so many French photographers of interiors, incompetent.
   
   Virtually all of the images have deep shadows over much of the interior, allowing very little to be seen. We see this repeatedly in French publications focused on interiors, leading us to believe that perhaps French photographers have never learned how to use any supplemental lighting at all, certainly not effectively. This is usually essential in allowing one to actually look at the detail of the decor. Only Naudin and Bardlay, among French architectural photographers, are generally able to make the "available lighting only" approach work and when their work is paired with that of a Skrebneski (as in the Givenchy book), it pales by comparison. Why would the publishing house have accepted these photographs?
   
   A further, minor observation: in two of the homes, the owners are shown. Aside from Princess TNT, (and this is a bit nasty, but what the hell, these books are supposed to be fun to look at) showing the owners in these cases was not a wise editorial choice. When a Conde Nast publication shows a homeowner in an interior, you can be certain he (or far more often, she) will be highly photogenic. If, when showing a home, the resident duchess could, at best, be described as having an "unfortunate" visage, Slim Aarons could usually find a comely young housemaid going about her duties to include in the photos instead.
   
   Poor photography results in a waste of unusual access.

5 comments about Shigeru Ban.

1. The fact that this book comes with real explanation and plans of the proyects is why it was chosen above all others... arquitects don't read pictures, they read plans...



2. the work of this interessant japanese architect, it's a demonstration of a continuated and progressive developmente of an architecture beautifull and deep.



3. Excellent book,interesting, useful not only for architectors but for anybody. good print quality.



4. Shigeru Ban is famous for his innovative use of building materials, structural rigor and pureness. This book captures all these quintessential attributes of this ingenious architect.
   
   The editor did a great job of organizing Ban's projects according to the building materials (i.e., paper, wood, bamboo, prefab, and skin). Multiple projects in each chapter form a coherent and articulated presentation of how Ban took advantage of the uniquessness of certain material and incorporated it into his architectural philosophy and aesthetics.
   
   The text is technical oriented which often includes the characteristics of the materials and the issues concerning structural engineering. At the end of most chapters, you can find detailed technical information and test statistics of the building materials used in the featured projects. Moreover, at the beginning of the book, Ban also contributed an article on the whole building process of building his classic work: Japanese Pavillion, which is very informative and instructive.
   
   Another noteworthy strength of this book is that it reveals the connectness of Ban's different projects and shows how the architect developed and built his own architectural style programmatically (e.g., How he developed, refined, and matured the paper architecture, the furniture house idea, the ivy structure, and the universal floor plan through several dozens of projects).
   
   Put together, this is a well-organized, thoughtful, and informative book about Ban's contribution to the international architectural community. Bravo!



5. The book itself is almost the perfect monograph. Each project is described concisely, and it has all the drawings and photos to orient the reader to the site, the program and the idea. The drawings and photos range from the finest detail to the biggest gestures, and doesn't isolate the projects like they're pristine objects. The photos often emphasize the construction or assembly of the work, though the finished photos and model shots are expressive and informative too. The pages with experimental and test calculations are well-organized and relate back to specific projects and details, using graphs, tables and pictures or drawings of the elements or details in question. For a non-engineer, it's all rather clear and convincing. I've never seen ideas and processes presented so rationally and convincingly. Nothing here seems superfluous and Ban reveals his process and interests completely to the reader.
   
   Of course, the projects themselves are fantastic. John Hedjuk's influence is all over the work, and I dare say that Ban's actualized projects are now richer, have reached greater depth and are more expressive and informative than his mentor's. On one level, you could imagine that Ban's preoccupation with wood products, "green" construction and sustainable design started as a bad pun that served as the basis of his student thesis. ("Paper Architecture." Ha-ha.) But the rigor and depth that he brings to each project break through any temptation to show self-conscious irony or superficiality. At the end of the day, he's an architect's architect who controls proportion and light, defines space and considers human scale in all his work. He makes Calatrava look like "just" an engineer. And his works aren't just formal exercises with nine square grids and such. His ideas and works begin to touch on politics without seeming pretentious or partisan with his refugeee shelters and other more recent work (although those private houses do present a counterpoint to the socially-oriented work in more ways than one).
   
   Anyway, great book, great work. I'm totally convinced of Ban's skills and talent.

5 comments about Seaside Style.

1. You need to know this is just about the place, Seaside, in Florida-which is fabulous. I really enjoyed the book.



2. although the book is lovely to look at, the houses are quite similar and very typical of that particular part of Florida, which I did not realize in the description. My intent was to view houses that would fit in all seaside areas and the book therefore was a disapppointment.



3. When one thinks of Seaside, Florida, images of white picket fences, quaint beach cottages painted in pastel colors and tin roofs are evoked. From classic Greek Revival to urban contemporary, the mix of interior and exterior styles fascinate and capture the reader. In Seaside Style, Nesmith allows readers not only to experience the broad range of architectural styles but also tour the interiors of these amazing spaces. Highly recommended for coffee tables from Maine to California and Alabama to Illinois.



4. As a Seaside neighbor in Old Seagrove I have a special interest in Seaside, but I found the book to be much more than the chance to get inside houses of people I know and others I see every day. While the writing in the style of architectural magazines might be called "gushing," Eleanor Lynn Nesmith subtly focuses her seasoned critical eye on the people who brought more than their money to the "New Urbanism" community. The result is the story of how Seaside got its soul. The somewhat dark--almost broody--photos of Steven Brooke suited my taste, though maybe not everyone's.



5. The new Seaside Style book through the pictures of Steven Brooke and the words of Eleanor Lynn Nesmith takes us on a tour inside some of the homes of Seaside. A small town along the Gulf Coast of Florida, Seaside gained world fame as the birthplace of New Urbanism.
   With humor and insight, the author walks us through 23 houses and gives us a glimpse of both the homeowners and their personal style.
   The photographer takes us there with his stunning images.
   A must buy for anyone with an interest in New Urbanisn or viewing the individual styles and the pleasures of living at the beach.