1 comments about Detail in Process: Detail in Process (AsBuilt).

1. This is the second book in the new AsBuilt series. Its like the In Detail series with beautifully presented images and drawings, but because all the projects (many different building types) are built in North America, most of the drawings have units of measurement and terminology currently used in the USA, and include materials available for construction in the United States. There are also more kinds of drawings, models and renderings than the typical formats usually found in books about details, which gives the series a dynamic, contemporary quality. Highly recommended.

2 comments about American Barn (Motorbooks Classic).

1. This is the ultimate compendium of barn information. As a writer of a published barn book myself (Barn in the USA), I have seen my share of similar works. Most, however, fall short by showcasing old barns without placing them in context, or telling you more than you want to know about architectural considerations. Randy Leffingwell's book covers the historical and practical aspects of these rural structures, also presenting beautiful images without turning the book into a beauty contest. It is a treasure for historians and barnlovers alike.



2. As usual Randy's books are tops. His photography, sidebars and careful attention to details are unsurpassed. You can almost hear the hammers falling in the barn raising chapters. Recommended to all lovers of the vanishing scene.

5 comments about St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography.

1. Wanting to read a scholarly biography of St. Patrick, this book came up first in my library search so I went with it. I was at first skeptical of the author because of his name and alma mater. What possible legitimate interest, I thought, could some Harvard professor with a Jewish-sounding name have in St. Patrick, except to throw dirt on him? I was expecting an secular Ivy League scholar of Jesus Seminar pedigree, who would delight in discrediting cherished beliefs and tearing down the icons of the faithful from their place of honor. Now, I was specifically looking for nothing but the whole truth, and I accept that medieval legends should be discounted in a scholarly work, but after seeing what academic higher criticism has done to the rest of what Christians hold sacred, from the accuracy of the Bible to the very existence of Jesus Christ, I was a bit suspicious of Philip Freeman. I'm glad to say that my initial prejudices were (almost) totally proven wrong. This is a work of exceptional scholarship, with obvious respect and even affection for St. Patrick.
   
   The first problem in dealing with the life of St. Patrick is the paucity of primary source evidence. His two extant letters provide a wealth of biographical details relative to most other historical figures from the era, but certainly not enough to fill a book. The gaps in his biography have to be filled in with historical context and historical speculation and Professor Freeman excels in both. As a Professor of Classics, he is well qualified to tell us about the Roman-British world in which Patrick was born and the ecclesiastical structure in which he worked. As an expert on the Celts, he is also an authority on the culture, religion and language of the Irish people among whom Patrick spent the better part of his life. And because the details of Patrick's life are so few, Professor Freeman is of course forced to fill in the gaps with speculation. At no time did I find his conjectures anything but judicious, educated and utterly plausible. Apart from scholarly suppositions about the methods Patrick employed and the places he visited, Professor Freeman also beautifully imagines the inner dialogues Patrick must have endured and recreates the various dramas he must have experienced. I quote his wonderful visualization of the scene when Patrick told his family that God was ordering him back to Ireland:
   
   "They probably sat stunned, perhaps thinking it was some kind of joke. When they finally realized he was serious, they surely begged him to reconsider. To leave a prosperous villa, to abandon a promising political career, all for the sake of an island of hideous barbarians who had done nothing except cause pain to Patrick and those who loved him- unbelievable! Fine, become a priest if you must, they probably said, your grandfather Potitus did that, but he never left behind his wealth and position to run off and preach to savages. We'll even build you a chapel here at the villa, have services every day if you want. If you're looking for miscreants to convert, there are plenty here in your own neighborhood!" (page 54)
   
   My only complaint is that for some bizarre reason the word "Catholic" was used a grand total of 1 time in this book, and that was only to describe someone from the 17th century. Throughout the book, the author vaguely refers to Patrick as a "Christian" missionary for the "Christian" Church, to Brigid and others after her as "Christian" saints, to "Christian" monks, "Christian" bishops, "Christian" clergy, etc. That language is very odd. The adjective "Christian" is accurate as far as it goes, but not very descriptive and actually slyly deceitful. Patrick and his faith were indeed "Christian", but also more specifically "Catholic", a name the Church had been using since at least the late 1st century to describe itself and distinguish its divine legitimacy and Apostolic lineage from the various heresies that sprung up every now and then. If the Church used the word "Christian" as often as the word "Catholic" in those days, it was because there weren't 30,000 Protestant denominations around at the time to confuse the issue. The myriad sects birthed by the Reformation necessitated the use of more precise language. So, except for use in the most general terms, (such as "the cross is a Christian symbol") the word "Christian" is an amorphous glop of linguistic and theological goo in this day and age that no serious scholar can claim describes anything specific or tangible, such as a "Christian doctrine" or "the Christian Church". A similarly absurd evasion would be if a scholarly book about the Revolutionary War only described the patriots as "men" (Italians? Lithuanians? Aztecs?) who wanted independence from their "European" colonial overlord (Prussia? Turkey? Switzerland?). Such word usage is superficially true, but that kind of hazy equivocation serves to obscure the full truth rather than illuminate it. Patrick was a bishop in something called the Catholic Church, with a clerical hierarchy of deacons, monks, nuns, priests, bishops and Popes, and which was the direct doctrinal and historical forbear of the modern institution of the same name. So why did the author efface the Catholic Church from his history in an act of almost Stalinist historical revisionism?
   
   Could it have been for pusillanimously pecuniary reasons? Might his editor have told him that being Irish is trendy these days, so it would be advisable to make Patrick as ecumenically friendly as possible and not alienate the Protestant section of the market? Or was it for sectarian reasons? I don't know his faith, but he does teach at a Lutheran college in Iowa. Was he subliminally trying to advance a Protestant understanding of Church history and imply that the Catholic Church of today has no connection with the church that evangelized Ireland? After all, it is a widely-understood code word among evangelical Protestants in America that "Christian" refers to their particular brand of faith. (For example, you don't find Catholic or Orthodox books in "Christian" bookstores). The Protestants who colonized Ireland have long misappropriated Patrick as one of their own, in order to further their cause of religious and cultural genocide. Was this book an example of that kind of sectarian misuse of history? For whatever reason, Mr. Freeman's strange omission is unforgivable in a serious scholar. This book is excellent and valuable, but I'd only recommend reading it if you're savvy enough to read between the lines.
   
   Postscript: This reviewer has learned that Professor Freeman is a "practicing Catholic" who deliberately avoided use of the name of his and Patrick's church in order to "get away from modern divisions of Catholic vs. Protestant that are totally foreign to Patrick's time." Judge for yourselves, readers, whether such reasoning should be respected.



2. There certainly is a very large amount of information packed into a very small book (by comparison) here. This is an excellent work for those who have been curious, or are curious, about this famous Irish Saint, yet who are not so curious that they want to dig through a mind numbing academic work which would be better than xanax to provide a good nap. I am one of those people and I am one who greatly appreciated this work. In other areas of history, yes, I want something more in depth, but not on this particular subject. It is written in a scholarly manner, appears to be very well researched, yet I found not one page that I did not learn something from nor one page that caused my eyes to roll back into my head and wish the author would just get on with it. It was a good and informative read.
   
   I certainly am not going to rewrite the entire work in this form and call it a review. That has already been done. For greater detail refer to one of the well done and very in depth reviews already posted here. What I found most interesting about the book was the author's ability to paint a very vivid picture of the cultural and religious clash that too place in Ireland during St. Patrick's time. I enjoyed the brief look at the state of the Christian Church at that time and how it affected the people of that time. That story, to me, was just as fascinating as the one told by the author of the Great Saint himself. The brief look at the Celtic religious practices and beliefs was excellent. I also appreciated the author's ability to separate fact from all the fiction that has been dished out for years and years and do it in a nonoffensive way. This was quite refreshing. The author is quite careful to note fact from fiction, speculation from written and archeological fact. This was most helpful.
   
   The author has a wonderful popular history style, yet writes in a mode that does not insult your credulity nor does Freeman sensationalize events simply to hold the reader's interest. The facts alone, and the way the author presents them, are enough to keep you turning the pages on this one. The black and white maps provided are quite helpful as is the "dictionary" and foot noting. I enjoyed the translation of the two surviving letters of St. Patrick's "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus" and the "Confession." Both are a nice touch and added much to the value of the book.
   
   A work such as this, where so much has been lost down through the years is not an easy thing to write, but this author, Philip Freeman has done an excellent job. Now there are books out there that go into much greater depth on the subject of this obviously great man and I certainly would recommend further reading for those who are interested or who want to become experts on the subject. For myself, this work fit my needs perfectly. I wanted to know a bit about the man and I certainly learned it here.
   
   Recommend this one highly.
   
   Don Blankenship



3. This is a great book for anyone interested in getting a glimpse at one of the most influential figures (in my opinion) in early Christianity. Freeman's book presents a concise, easy-to-follow account of Saint Patrick's life and ministry as well as pertinent historical and cultural information about Ireland and Roman Britain during his lifetime.



4. This is an excellent book that details the geography and history of the times, and the station of life that young Patrick hailed from. All of these background historical details are vital in understanding better Patrick's life and ministry. The author appeared to be as thorough as possible. What was startling was just how depraved, pagan, and cruel, at least the roving Irish were (slave traders, murderers, even cannibals) without the tempering influence of Christianity. It makes one realize how the conversion of Ireland did in fact bring the kind of normalcy that most of us take for granted within the context of civilized society.



5. Trivia: Patrick once considered himself a pagan until divine intervention caused him to become the one who drove them out of the Emerald Isle when pagan icons failed to relieve from captivity. St. Patrick's day was a celebration of liberation from the spiritual bondage of pagan practices.
   
   St. Patrick of Ireland, like St. Valentine of Rome, has been commercialized in that pagan secular way of merchandising. St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland when he converted the druids and other animal worship practices into Christianity. It was for this achievement that he was made a Saint.
   
   St. Patrick's Day is his feast day which has turned into a parade for Leprachuans, Shamrocks, Lucky Charms, and all sorts of Druid icons. Nonetheless, there was a historical man who became St. Patrick.
   
   Some historical notes for those interested: Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá 'le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially Paddy's Day or St. Patty's Day, is the feast day which annually celebrates Saint Patrick (373-493), the patron saint of Ireland, on March 17, the day on which St. Patrick died.
   
   It is the Irish national holiday and one of the public holidays in the Republic of Ireland (a bank holiday in Northern Ireland); the overseas territory of Montserrat; and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In the United States, Australia, and rest of Canada it is widely celebrated, although not an official holiday.
   
   It became a feast day in the universal church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary [1] in the early part of the 17th century.
   
   The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Roman Britain about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship.
   
   Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he became closer to God.
   
   He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity.
   
   He wished to return to Ireland and to convert the native pagans to Christianity, but his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. However, two years later Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland.
   
   Patrick was quite successful at winning converts which upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.
   
   His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.
   
   Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated.
   
   Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland, and some people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.
   
   One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. This stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.
   
   The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737, the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated, in Boston, Mass.
   
   Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring.
   
   In the recent past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903, by the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara[3]. O'Mara later introduced the law which required that pubs be closed on March 17[4], a provision which was repealed only in the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday is still a religious observance in some areas.
   
   It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture.[2] The government set up a group called St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:
   
   --Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity.
   --Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.
   --Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.[5]
   The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on March 17, 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long.
   
   The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish speakers using more Irish during seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Week").
   
   Shamrock ("three-leaf clover")Many Irish people still wear a bunch of shamrocks on their lapels or caps on this day or green, white, and orange badges (after the colours of the Irish flag). Girls and boys wear green in their hair. Artists draw shamrock designs on people's cheeks as a cultural sign, including American tourists.

No comments about Architectural Drawing Course: Tools and Techniques for 2D and 3D Representation.

5 comments about An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles.

1. If you want a book to LEARN about architecture in LA, then look elsewhere. But if you want to FIND architecture in LA, there is no better resource than this book. This is just a big fat list & map guide book and as such, functions brilliantly. I haven't seen this latest issue but previous ones had lived in my car the last 8 years I lived in LA. Almost anywhere I went, this guide would show me great homes and buildings hidden away and in plain sight that I never would have found otherwise. I happily burned many tanks of gas with this book in one hand and my steering wheel in the other. I left my copy with a friend when we left the area but if we were ever move back, I'd buy fresh copy right away.



2. Not AIA sponsored but in familiar AIA format, this guide is about as good as one can expect for such an incredibly vast urban area. There's lots of modernism, which is a good thing in this case since Los Angeles contains perhaps the best ensemble of high-quality modernism in the world. The entries are very short, sometimes as short as one sentence. Only about one building in five comes with a small black & white photograph. Covers all of Los Angeles County, but nothing from Orange, Ventura, Riverside or San Bernardino counties. Some important slivers of Riverside county would be a good addition.
   
   While more than a few people believe Los Angeles is nothing but a formless sprawl with little interesting architecture, this guide proves otherwise. The real key to Los Angeles is that its architectural features are scattered all over the basin rather than in one dense location, but they're out there for you to discover. This guide will help you find them. Bring it along with a full tank of gas.
   
   Another revised edition that fills out Long Beach, Shaw, Monrovia, Pomona and Claremont would be nice.



3. The book goes deep into detailing each of the buildings...It was definetely a good purchase. However,maybe just for architects, not listings of cool design bars or clubs, restaurants, etc. more the hardcore stuff like neutra, Lautner, case study, Eric Owen Moss, etc. but a lot of info. a very good source of information Very satisfy with my purchase. Spent 5 days in L.A. and got a lot covered thanks to this one.



4. This book is a major disappointment, it is hardly thorough and tries to cover to much ground and in doing so really does not cover anything. The book has very few pictures, which is so odd in guide of this kind, all you get is short discriptions of each building and I guess from this you are suppose to glean the image of the building, uh o.k. This really is the worst city architecture guide I have come across, I usually love these guides, I have reviewed several and have given them high marks, I love L.A., I think that is why I am so disappointed in this particular book. I had expected so much more, L.A. has so many interesting buildings, it's a shame that it does not have an architectural guide to match. Hopefully someday someone will write a guide deserving of the title of this book; the city of angels desevers better, heck Buffalo deserves better than this.



5. The long-awaited fifth edition of an LA guide that's often called "the bible" is a major disappointment. Robert Winter is a perceptive scholar of Victoriana and arts and crafts, but he sensibly left modernism to his collaborator, the late David Gebhard. Now he has attempted to do it all, by providing entries on key buildings of the 1990s that he neither likes nor understands, and the result is embarrassing. Gehry, Maltzan, Mayne, Moss, Pei, and Yazdani will be surprised to find themselves bundled together under the label "Neo-Expressionism (Postmodernism)." Disney Hall, which is pictured on the cover, is described in terms of what happened ten years ago (plus cloddish public reactions to the first pictures of the model); there's not a sentence on the completed building. Other adventurous work is dismissed as "very strange." A long-winded entry on the Getty reads like a chatty letter to a friend; most are absurdly brief. The revisions add almost nothing, and are woefully incomplete; the publisher is guilty of gross negligence for not wielding an editorial pencil. Earlier selections have been edited, but the William Cameron Menzies house in Beverly Hills is still there, even though it was demolished three editions ago, along with Gehry's Venice restaurant, Rebecca's. The original 97 percent of the guide remains invaluable and engaging. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

1 comments about Morocco: Courtyards and Gardens.

1. Oh dear, oh dear - why do I buy books like this! It is so gorgeous that I want to re-vamp my entire garden right now so I can transpose some of this beauty to my home in Australia. In fact I have started, but my back and knees are a dead giveaway - I'm not young enough to do it, nor old enough to shame my sons into doing it. Still, using some of the ideas here, I have made some relatively simple changes to our deck and garden to reflect the Moroccan style and am very happy with them.
   
   If loving gardens were a sin, I'd go straight to hell. Gardeners have their likes and dislikes but I'd challenge any gardener not to find someting to take their fancy in this book. As for non-gardeners, well, just buy it anyway, because the plates and text are so, so good. To paraphrase Omar Khayyam: " . . . a cup of tea, a book about Moroccan gardens . . . and gardens are Paradise enow".

2 comments about Elements of Design: Elegant Wisdom That Works for Every Room in Your Home.

1. The book is filled with practical ideas for highend decorating using the best quality items. The illustrations are excellent and really do help point out the concepts trying to be taught. With time and effort the look can be achieved. I like that it moves us away form the HGTV look of beige and minimalism.



2. WHAT A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT FROM ONE WHO IS SUPPOSE TO BE A GOOD DESIGNER...IT IS OBVIOUS NINA CAMPBELL IS TRYING TO DRUM UP NEW CLIENTS AND BUSINESS WITH AN EYE TOWARDS THAT 60'S AND 70'S "stuff". SHE IS FOLLOWING THE TREND RIGHT AT THE MOMENT HOPING TO CAPITALIZE ON THE RETRO MOVEMENT.....SHE SHOULD STICK TO WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR...
   
   THIS BOOK IS NOT A GOOD REFLECTION OF HER TASTE OR ABILITY.........TOO BAD..
   
   I WOULD RECOMMEND TO SAVE YOUR MONEY AND NOT BUY THIS BOOK...IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT GO TO THE LIBRARY OR THE LOCAL BORDERS AND LOOK....

1 comments about Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future.

1. This book was put together as an accompaniment to a touring exhibit of Eero Saarinen's work. It is one of three books I purchased for an architectural class project on Saarinen and this book is the best of the three, more comprehensive, more personal, and just as if not more informative. I would highly recommend it, it offers tremendous insight into the man as well as the work. The personal interviews and discussions at the end are superb. The editors obviously have a great admiration and affection for Saarinen, and they do an excellent job of making you understand why.

No comments about Garden History: Philosophy and Design 2000 BC - 2000 AD.

2 comments about Typologies of Industrial Buildings.

1. Reading the introduction to this remarkable book I came across the fact that Bern and Hilla Becher are continuing the German tradition of companies photographing their industrial premises. Alfred Krupp, about 1860, was the first to have his own photographer and a printing plant to produce promotional material. Other companies followed and printed ever more lavish photo books about their plants.
   
   The Bechers though have pursued, since 1957, a unique photographic objective in attempting to record as much of the industrial landscape as possible but in a way that is personal to them. Their head on, flat perspective and grey sky backgrounds just seem so right as you turn the pages. I think this is the only book to show so many of their photos: just over 1500. They are divided into 130 Plates with between six and thirty photos to a Plate though they are mostly fifteen throughout the book. The structure sequence is water towers, cooling towers, gas tanks, colliery winding towers, preparation plants, gravel plants, lime kilns, grain elevators, coal bunkers, blast furnaces, details (close-ups) and industrial facades. Winding towers has thirty Plates with over four hundred photos. The briefest of captions locate the place, country and the photo date.
   
   Armin Zweite writes a thirty page introduction (translated from German which makes it seem overly complex) but full of interesting insights about the Bechers work, style origins and their place in contemporary photography. The book is beautifully produced as one would expect from the German publishers Schirmer (MIT have the English language rights) with quality paper and printing in a 200 screen.
   
   Because Typologies contains so many works taken by these two remarkable photographers I think it is way above the usual art monograph.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
   



2. Fabulous photos arranged in logical and pleasing order. Captions are limited to location only. I would have enjoyed a little more explanation of the function of the building types shown. However, as the blurb says "Bernd and Hilla Becher's photography can be considered conceptual art, typological study, and topological documentation."
   The text is limited to the Bechers' approach to their photographic art and is a little dense and esoteric for the average reader. Definitely for those who wish to understand the Bechers' place in the art world.
   I'll keep it for the wonderful pictures!