5 comments about The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles.

1. Fulton is an expert on the history and political processes underlying the growth of Southern California over the last century, and he lays out how many of these same political ideologies and schools of urban thought have fundamentally malformed Los Angeles, as well as many other American cities, in The Reluctant Metropolis. Most elements pertinent to SoCal's development - the water supply, the creation of an idealized suburbia a la 1950's and its appeal to Midwesterners, the streetcars (and later veritable inundation with automobiles and freeways), and much more - all of the proccesses that created a paradox, with Los Angeles being the only top-tier, alpha-level global city that fundamentally rejects every single element of traditional "urbanity." But this is not a story unique to LA, and it is precisely because many other booming American cities risk suffering the same fate that this book is highly important reading for all interested in the future of the USA's urban centers.



2. Read this book! It is the best book I've read on development and growth in the LA basin. It's very well-written and incorporates both political and professional planning vantage points. Describes very succinctly the interplay between water, developers, and municipal leaders over the past century. Don't believe the whiner who rated this at two stars: he's a disgruntled slow-growther who has a personal bone to pick. Fulton captures the essence of Los Angeles without necessarily endorsing or advocating a position.



3. Bill Fulton is often lionized by planning "professionals" and students for his writing in this book but the truth is that his foray into the application reality of his theory has Ventura on the ropes. Fulton is the architect of several local no-growth initiatives such as Save Our Agricultural Resources (SOAR) as well as spearheading a housing development-blocking effort a couple of years ago for Ventura hillsides. What has since happened as any college freshman taking Econ 101 would understand, is that the supply of housing has constricted as demand increased and resulted in the skyrocketing price of local housing. Fulton did nothing after pushing these no-growth initiatives to stoke the fires of development that is required to prevent this housing supply constipation.

   Fulton has now gotten himself elected to the Ventura City Council and it has become easy to see his political agenda that before has been hidden and masquerading as thoughtful intellect. This guy is no responsible academic or planning God but merely another no-growth advocate pushing a political agenda. Don't waste your time reading his stuff unless you have nothing else with which to stock your water closet area.




4. The joke in Los Angeles is 'I've never been to downtown Los Angeles'. This is book that tells all about the decentralization of LA. Unlike most cities in America, Los Angeles' decentralization is a product of the explained 'growth machine'. One of the most unique cities in America and possibly one of the most depressing. I would have given this book 5 stars but i award 5 stars to inspirational books. The politics of Los Angeles makes me want to curl into a ball and shove myself into a dark corner (no worries though, it's perpetually sunny here).



5. This book is a must read for anyone willing to expose themselves to the stories behind the stories of Los Angeles. The stories reveal the apathetic and self-centered nature of some Los Angeles citizens (who will never really admit they are from "Los Angeles"), and sets the stage for an entire change of mindset among Los Angelenos. This mindset is one that takes notice of the community, and the larger metropolis that communities make up. For a graduate city planning student as I, these stories help shape some basic values of mine regarding the nature of cities and communities. I strongly recommend this book.

3 comments about Gardens Are For People, Third edition.

1. Thomas Church was a "founding father" in modern landscape design thought. He wrote this book to showcase his ideas about it.
   
   If you have read even a few landscaping books, you will find that most of the ideas expressed will be familiar to you and won't be of much help to design your specific garden. I felt the yard and garden examples in the book were dated (as in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s looking).
   
   Finally, I was disappointed in both the printing and the photo examples. All the pictures were black & white, and they all were rather crudely printed. This made it difficult to see details within the photos.
   
   On the up side, the text is good reading for those seeking to become a landscape designer, be he amatuer or professional. And if you DO want to do "retro" designs, the examples ARE well done.



2. I loved to read this book. After reading it you can clearly see how much Thomas Church influenced the modern designers. I really enojoyed reading the needs of the clients for their garden and then how Church solved and designed great gardens based on the clients'needs. A Classic.



3. This is a revised version of the hardback printed in the 50's. It was revised by his long time assistant Grace Hall whom he trusted and adored. It has a more indepth look at his own home which still looks the same to this day. The original hardback version can be found if we like you.

No comments about Street Furniture.

3 comments about Chambers for a Memory Palace.

1. An interesting format for a discussion of design principles with beautiful pen and ink sketches. Imaginary letters written between two architects discussing well known and not so well known buildings that illustrate proportion, paths, angles and why they appeal to our eyes and hearts. Recommended by a designer whose course I took. A very pleasing book.



2. For the way this book is advertised, I did not feel like it accomplished what it sets out to do. Nevertheless if you are an amateur buff of architecture like me this is a good book to add to your home library collection.



3. Easily the best book on architecture, and mere observation, that I have ever read. Great even for those with little or no knowledge of the field.

1 comments about Zaha Hadid.

1. A Good compilation of past, present and future projects, sketches and models. an eye candy of her work without too much text (which is fine if thats what you want). however...the image print quality is not upto a crisp standard.
   if thats not too much of a concern. a must buy for a hadid fan.
   (havent quite understood the binding system which makes the book twice as fat as it should be with a waste of paper!!!)

3 comments about Herzog & de Meuron: Natural History (Herzog & de Meuron).

1. H & DeM have always been influenced by art & you can even argue that their body of work could be an entire exhibiton. This book follows up some of their selected projects with interviews of the architects themselves as well as the collaborative artists. It does well to probe into theie unique process of design & actualization of their work. Jaques Herzog says that Art is roughly 20 years ahead of architecture. This vivid book clearly shows the great accomplishments by two men who are constantly trying to even up the odds between art & architecture through inspirations from the natural world.



2. I don't think this is an "object book" but a book in which herzog & de meuron want readers to understand their work like an archaelogical history. you cannot flip through it like an photographic architectural essay, but you really have to sit down, have a cup of coffee/tea, and really read the book, think about what they are saying, how other ideas such as art, history, materials, cultural, industrial changes, and etc. are interacting to their architectural process. certainly, they have the depth in their thoughts to publish a book that doesn't depend on photographs/architectural drawings. quite refreshing.



3. Another object book with content that matches the originality of the design. Herzog & De Meuron, the Basel-based architects, are best known for their art museums, but also for creating buildings that are works of art--even when the program is as mundane as a railroad signal box. This companion to the recent CCA exhibition is an anthology of interviews, stimulating essays by artists and clients, and pictures of objects that have inspired them, in addition to an illustrated catalogue of their 200 buildings and projects. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

2 comments about More Craftsman Homes.

1. Found this book to be very interesting as I am fascinated by the construction of homes I especially liked the craftsman approach even though it was almost 100 years ago, I think the designs are still relevent.



2. This is a reprint of a house plan catalog from 1912. These books are actually exact reprints of original plan books from the turn of the century (1880-1925, roughly). Dover adds little or no modern explanations, just presenting the catalog as it was. So when one looks to review these books, one isn't really judging the modern-day publisher, or editing, or writing. The only modern element is the accuracy of reproduction- in some cases, if pages in the originals that Dover found are damaged or torn, that page is reproduced in the original with the tear, smudge, blot, or hole showing. So to judge the books, one has to compare each one to others of its kind, and then to decide whether the material in it is thorough and complete according to the standards of its time. Since there are several dozen of these catalogs published by Dover, we have the basis for such a comparison.

   Stickley and the Craftsman school of design are well known. Many people own bungalows, or admire them even if they don't own them. What getting a book such as this does, is give a person insight into the details of the lifestyle of the time, of the philosophy of the architects/designers, and so on.

   This particular plan book is one of my favorites. It includes an introductory essay by Stickley, an essay on "The Relation of Craftsman Architecture to Country Living," and several other pieces. "The House of the Democrat" by William L. Price is also included, a thoughtful essay which would give anyone pause when looking at today's McMansions. Price says that a house should not embarrass one's friends; it should be ample enough to contain them, simple enough to leave them unoppressed, and with enough artistry to please and lead them, if they wish, to build one likewise. This essay is worth the price of the book!

   One of the features of this catalog is that along with the exterior view and floor plan of every house, there is an extensive written description. For many of the houses there are drawings of the interior, with suggestions for furnishings. There are also examples of what types of light fixtures one might use. There are several cement houses, a fad of the time which should have caught on more than it did, as it is an economical and sturdy material for building a house. The written descriptions, in some cases, even include alternate ways to finish the house to save money or to adapt it to a particular type of location. Most of the illustrations are drawings/paintings; there are a few photographs, but not many. The drawings of the interiors include wallpapers and curtains.

   There are a few houses in the book without indoor bathrooms, which is not unusual for the period, but most have a full bath, and some have two bathrooms. Almost all have extensive built-ins: sideboards, bookcases, benches and settles, shelves.

   There are a few plans for log houses, for summer camp houses, and even for rural schoolhouses. There's also a section on gardening and landscaping; one on pergolas, one on the details of concrete house construction, and one on how fireplaces work for heating and ventilation.

   In sum: this is more than just a plan book; the only bad point is that if this is your first exposure to plan books, then the subsequent ones you read will seem plain and lacking by comparison. Definitely should be in the collection of anyone interested in turn-of-the-century architecture, restoring houses, or adm

1 comments about Masonry Construction Manual.

1. There's nothing else quite like these construction manuals: highly technical information aimed at architects and engineers, presented very stylishly. Because this one concerns masonry, the most general purpose of building materials, it seems to cover all aspects of building science--energy efficiency, moisture and sound control, fire safety (very briefly) etc. It also gives basic overall structural engineering guidelines, e.g. allowable dimensions for unsupported walls, and more, for the reader who is already conversant with stresses, shear forces, and so on, and who is interested in reading several pages on, say, how to interpret cracks in walls.

   Apart from the historical overview which begins it, it is essentially a summary and explanation of the German building codes, and supplies voluminous data from them in the form of tables and graphs. And, of course, it ends with the detailed examples, with meticulous drawings, for which the publisher is famous.

No comments about Shift: SANAA and the New Museum.

3 comments about Art Deco New York.

1. For lovers of the 1920s and 1930s this is a fabulous book. From New York's stunning architecture to the social lives of the rich and famous, everything associated with New York when Gotham was truly the center of it all, this book is a trip back in time. Historically rich and a visual treat! New York in its finest hour.



2. Art Deco New York by cultural historian and author David Garrard Lowe (who is also President of the Beaux Arts Alliance and lectures in such noted forums as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the American Academy in Rome, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) offers a superbly organized and presented tour of seminal decorative designs during the transformative decades of the 20s and 30s when the art style known as "art deco" was affecting architecture, fashion, furniture, textiles, graphics, trains, automobiles, even Hollywood movie and Broadway theater stage sets. Profusely illustrated with period photography and artifacts, Art Deco New York is an impressive, "reader friendly", coffee-table book that would significantly enhance any personal, professional, academic, or community library architectural studies, art history, or American popular culture collection.



3. Garrard revives the restless, utopian, sensationalistic mood of the 1920s and '30s giving rise to the inimitable Art Deco style not only by pointing to buildings and their design features representing the style, but also by including posters, advertising, architectural drawings, furniture, and varied aspects of popular culture. The author evokes an understanding of Art Deco not mainly by discussion of aesthetics or art criticism, but by immersion in the spirit of the time between the World Wars, frequently with bountiful and in many cases, unfamiliar visual matter. The Empire State Building and Paul Manship's sculpture of Prometheus ringed by signs of the zodiac in Rockefeller Center are familiar Art Deco images, if often taken for granted. But designs of rooms, architectural details of buildings, trains and cars, and magazine covers and clothing fashion are often overlooked. Garrard demonstrates how deeply--thoroughly--Art Deco pervaded the culture; and points to elements of this vibrant, short-lived cultural period which continue.