1 comments about Building the Workingmans Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns (A Haymarket Title).

1. It Was An easy to read book

No comments about Modern Baroque Interiors (Reference Bks.).

5 comments about Philadelphia Then and Now (Then & Now).

1. This book is clearly more visual and offers insightful and useful information if you are interested in Philadelphia history which is really also American history. The author does an adequate job in focusing on past and present while offering information without drowing it's reader into it. I would have liked to have read more and seen more.



2. This is the second book I have ordered in this series that arrived and a little dinky book about 1/3rd the size of the regular coffee table book. How can you even see the details? I won't have this happen again, I will check dimetions before I buy.



3. This was an interesting book but a little disappointing. I have a book on Charleston,SC. The photos of "then and now" were set up where the site is exact of "then and now". The Philadelphia book takes different angles and misses the true change of the "then and now". It does contain interesting and unusual facts. It is a good coffe table book.



4. A must have for anyone of Philadelphia Origin. Makes for interesting reading and a great conversational coffee table book.



5. I sat down on a Sunday morning to casually glance through what I thought was just another coffee table photography book. Several hours later, thoroughly relaxed and enlightened, I closed Philadelphia Then and Now, having deliberately devoured every word, every image, every comparison-both visual and written, cover to cover. What fun it was to go back and forth. The effort taken to capture identical images was evident page after page. The attention to obscure and amusing snippets of historical detail tied the "then" black and white photos and the "now" colorful photos together perfectly.

   Treat yourself to a Sunday morning journey to Philadelphia-Then and Now.

5 comments about Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel.

1. For the University of Denver Water Law Review,
   Vol. 6, Issue 1, Fall 2002

   Coloradans Ken and Ruth Wright have teamed with Peruvian archeologist Alfredo Valencia to place back in working order the sixteen fountains of Machu Picchu. You can see for yourself.

   The Inca were master water handlers. They chose Machu Picchu as a ceremonial center because the mountains and the river spoke to them of life-giving power. The Urubamba River far below snakes triangular around the base of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu mountains. A saddle between these peaks cradles the temples, rock shrines, dwelling places, and agricultural terraces that dance between the clouds in early morning and emerge to sunlight by Noon.

   Water at the center of it all. The paleo-hydrologic studies of the Wrights and Valencia reveal how the Inca predicated the design and construction of Machu Picchu upon the flow of a spring. From high on the side of Machu Picchu Mountain, a canal brings water across an agricultural terrace to the first fountain just above the Temple of the Sun. From there, sixteen fountains splash, spout, and sing down a staircase to the Temple of the Condor.

   The May 2002, issue of National Geographic Magazine contains yet another map of Machu Picchu deriving from the Wright-Valencia partnership. This map shows how magnificent Machu Picchu must have looked with its thatched roofs uplifted to the condor sky.
   Underneath your feet at every turn is the invisible sixty-percent of Machu Picchu. In their Civil Engineering book, Ken and Alfredo describe the genius of Machu Picchu's foundational structure. The Inca edifices and agricultural terraces stand the test of time because of careful drainage and methodical trenchwork. The visible forty-percent of Machu Picchu rests on mountain bedrock and the skill of people who learned through ancestral experience how to counter earthquake and erosion's despoiling effect.

   Ken and Alfredo deduce from their studies that the Inca did not irrigate the agricultural terraces at Machu Picchu, though they did elsewhere. Here, the rainy season and supplemental importation of agricultural products met the needs of the small resident population and the influx of those attending rituals. The Inca ruler Pachacuti began Machu Picchu as a ceremonial retreat in A.D. 1450. It likely ceased normal operation by A.D. 1540 due to the collapse of the Inca Empire under Spanish invasion.

   Ken and Alfredo explain that Machu Picchu's durability stems from high quality professional workmanship:

   "Machu Picchu's technical planning is surely the key to the site's longevity and functionality. The Inca's careful use of hydraulic, drainage, and construction techniques ensured that the retreat was not reduced to rubble during its many years of abandonment. These techniques, combined with a strong knowledge of hydrology, were what made it a grand and operational retreat high in the most rugged of terrain."

   
   The Civil Engineering book is easily readable, yet contains much study and analysis of Machu Picchu's structural accomplishment. Ken and Alfredo devote chapters to (1) setting, geology, climate, and site selection; (2) city planning and engineering infrastructure; (3) hydrogeology, collection works, water requirements, and water supplies; (4) hydraulic engineering, water supply canal, and fountains; (5) drainage infrastructure, surface runoff and drainage criteria, agricultural terraces, and urban sector; (6) agriculture, hand-placed soil, crop water needs, and adequacy of nutrient production; (7) building foundations and stone walls; (8) construction methods, rock quarry, transporting and lifting rocks, using wood and vegetation, roof structures, canal stones, floors and plaster, bridges, and tools of the trade; (9) cultural background and Inca heritage; and (10) a walking tour of the engineering works (Ruth's contribution).

   Dr. Gordon McEwan, excavator of Pikillacta and Chokepukio, illuminates the cultural background of the Inca in a fine chapter he contributes to the Civil Engineering work (chapter 9). He further explains in a June 2002 National Geographic Magazine article how the Inca culture built upon the Wari culture (A.D. 600-1000). At Pikillacta, the Wari relied on an aqueduct whose portals also served as their gateways and guardways to the Cusco Valley. Before the Wari, dating from B.C. 200, the Pukara and the Tiwanaku peoples conducted water for pragmatic and religious purposes.

   The Inca were religious and practical people. They revered the earth, the mountains, and the sky, as their descendants the Quechua still do. On mountain torsos they saw visages of the serpent, the puma, and the condor. Rocks and dead ancestors were equally alive to inform and inspire them by daily consultation in community. They were expert engineers, architects, and water workers. Joseph and Pharaoh-like, they dreamed of drought and famine; so, they stored the plentiful crop against the certitude of impending scarcity. The Inca exacted a tax in the form of labor. In return, the community benefited from stored food and ritual celebrations.

   In the third summer of a North American western drought (A.D.2002), with the published work of Ken, Ruth, and Alfredo in hand, I could see it too--how water works at Machu Picchu for domestic water supply, aesthetic, and spiritual needs. The Inca water containment and delivery structures join those of the Mayans at Tikal, the Anasazi at Mesa Verde, and the Hopi at their mesas in a centuries-old mosaic of water use in the Western Hemisphere.

   In scarcity lies the opportunity for community. The native peoples of the Americas practiced the art of water works construction out of ingenuity and necessity, praying to the gods for rain to fill their earth-constructed hope against despair. The native peoples also demonstrated that water supply planning and infrastructure is a core responsibility of those who would govern in the public interest. Westerners always come round to the practical and symbolic value of water for people and the environment.




2. Great book that goes way beyond the standard guide book fare. It inspired me to make the trip after reading it, to see first hand how the ancient Inca Empire created a complete fortified city in the sky, to trace the old Inca trails by the watchtower, the drawbrige and into the main gate with the view of city and the peak beyond. Other travel books have beautiful pictures and "where to eat and where to stay" for this citadel but very little information on how the city itself came into being and survived.

   City maps and commentary in the book are far better than you can get on-site. Don't leave home without it. Even if you are just an armchair traveler you will be amazed with the accomplishments of the Inca Empire.




3. Abandoned for centuries and overgrown by dense subtropical forest, this awesome city in the sky has been the subject of speculation and conjecture since Hiram Bingham first disclosed it in 1911. Now, for the first time, the wonders of Machu Picchus' construction and water supply are revealed in a new book by Kenneth R. Wright and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra. Anyone who has read Bingham's Lost City of the Incas, or who has visited this ancient city of the Incas or who yearns to journey there, should read this new and searching volume that delves into and solves many of the mysteries of Machu Picchu. Why was it built, how the site was selected, and what were the critical criterial criteria that were met to make the ridge top site suitable for an alternate home for the Inca Pachacuti? Machu Picchu served as a residence, a fortress and a holy place. The developement of a water supply, the construction of terraces for agriculture and the remarkable and enduring granite structures were well concealed by its unique location. Near vertical cliffs, the roaring Urubamba river all contributed to the concealment of Machu Picchu from the Spanish invaders How an ancient people, without the written word, without instruments and steel tools so capably built and prospered there for more than a century is now revealed in this landmark book that will increase both the awe and respect of the reader for the Inca people.



4. Don't let the title scare you if you are not an engineer. Reading through the book is like taking a stroll with the ancient men who planned, designed and built this great site. It is a "must take along" if you are planning a visit. Even if you cannot afford to visit, the book is worth the read to be able to admire the skills of ancient people.



5. The story of Machu Picchu is a tribute to the prehistoric Native Americans who planned and built this mystical mountaintop royal estate for Emperor Pachacuti between AD 1450 and 1540. The authors have, at last, defined for scientists and layman alike what makes Machu Picchu such a beautiful and special place: the innumerable details of Machu Picchu, when combined into a whole, create a visual and spiritual experience that is unparalleled in the New World.

   Properly, this book is dedicated to the young Yale explorer Hiram Bingham, John Rowe and Pat Lyons of the University of California/Berkeley, Richard Burger and Lucy Salazar of Yale University, and several others who had a hand in supporting the research work in both the United States and Peru.

   Ten chapters, 160 photographs, many sketches and maps, in conjunction with a detailed index, provide both the scholar and casual tourist with a description of Machu Picchu that is a must-read before leaving Cusco for the trip down the Urubamba River to see this most important archaeological ruin of the Western Hemisphere. The book is designed so that much of the story can be appreciated even if one only looks at the photographs and reads the captions; much like a National Geographic magazine.

   Chapter 1 explains the when, where and why of Machu Picchu along with it ancient climate. Site selection reasons are described; here you will learn why the Inca chose such a difficult site for construction and how the mountain and water played a major role in its choice. In Chapter 2, you will learn about the Inca-period planning that went into the royal estate so that it would function. For instance, based on engineering evidence, the Inca spring and canal layout details were established before the Inca Royal Residence and the Temple of the Sun locations were chosen. It is no coincidence that the one-half-mile-long canal ends near the Royal Residence and Fountain No. 1 so that the emperor would have the first use of the domestic water supply.

   Without the Inca Spring on the north side of Machu Picchu Mountain, there would be no archaeological ruin here. The Inca water source is described in Chapter 3. The hydrology of the spring and its flow are presented in an easy-to-understand manner; the reader will learn why the water supply is a child of the geologic faulting, upthrusts and related cracking of the granite bedrock and that the spring flow rises and falls throughout the year with a several-month lag time between the rainfall. But most of all, the chapter describes the original spring works and its water supply so that its technical significance to the Inca engineer can be fully appreciated. For water quality aficionados, a detailed water quality table of constituents is described; you will learn that the water supply of Machu Picchu was and is clear and pure.

   Also in Chapter 3, the remarkable recent discoveries of long lost water supplies are explained. A previously unknown extension of the Inca Trail down to the Urubamba River is also described. One fountain is shown flowing in 1999 after nearly five centuries of being buried under the forest floor.

   Chapter 4 explains the hydraulic engineering of Machu Picchu and the meticulous fountain work that delivered water to the heart of Machu Picchu. Hydraulic works such as the Abandoned Canal are pictured to show that even when Machu Picchu was left to the forest in AD 1540, the royal estate was still under construction. Machu Picchu represented a pinnacle of the Inca architectural and engineering achievements.

   The author explains in Chapter 5 that, without good drainage, Machu Picchu would not have endured through the centuries. The drainage system is analyzed using modern methods to prove the type of planning and engineering that preceded the actual building construction, all with figures and photographs so that the drainage components can be examined in the field to provide a greater appreciation. Discovery of the first and only gold at Machu Picchu in 1996 is a story that illustrates the Machu Picchu mysteries that still await discovery; a gold bracelet was found in and amongst the stone chips that underlie the Playa. A photograph of the gold bracelet shows its graceful curves.

   The agriculture of Machu Picchu is amply illustrated and described in Chapter 6, along with the nutrient producing capabilities of the hundreds of terraces. It was determined that the terraces would provide food for no more than 55 people and, therefore, food was brought into Machu Picchu from elsewhere. Actually, the terraces were used mostly for growing corn, probably to produce the ceremonial Inca beer known as chi cha.

   Chapters 7 and 8 satisfy one's need to know about how the Machu Picchu stonework was built and why it has endured. Eighteen types of stonework wall patterns are illustrated and lintel beams are described along with many special-use stones. Methods of construction are analyzed to show how large stones were moved, shaped and placed. Evidence of potential Inca renegade stonemasons is shown on page 77, a controversy on which Inca scholars still disagree.

   One of the best descriptions of how the Inca were able to do so much in such a short time is given in Chapter 9, prepared by scholar Gordon McEwan, in a chapter on cultural background and the Inca heritage.

   The final chapter of the book provides a capstone in the form of a walking tour that takes the reader to each and every Machu Picchu highlight, complete with 44 figures and photographs. The four pages of Machu Picchu mapping helps the armchair traveler know just where he or she is at all times.

   This book, parading as a civil engineering guide to Machu Picchu, is actually a detailed guide that covers the scientific aspects of the archaeological site in a way that any and all readers can appreciate. I recommend it to all. Don't miss it if you are planning to visit there.

1 comments about New Brazilian Gardens: The Legacy of Burle Marx.

1. It is a magnificent example of Burle Marx' influences in his native country. Having always admired Burle-Marx works, it is a treat. Also he has influenced modern landscape design worldwide, it was interesting to see how it develop[ed in Brazil.

No comments about European Landscape Architecture: Best Practice in Detailing.

4 comments about An Album of Maya Architecture.

1. My husband and I have traveled extensively to the many ruins in Mexico and the illustrations in this book are amazing! We've seen a lot of the Maya ruins and this book had some we hadn't been to yet. If you love pre-Columbian architecture in Mesoamerica or have traveled to this part of the world, you'll love this book.



2. There are currently two versions of this beautiful book available that does a marvelous job of recreating the Maya world. The one entitled "An Album of Maya Architecture"(the other version has no An in the title) is published by Dover and is unabridged and is therefore a rebulication of the original published by the Carnegie Instition of Washington D.C. in 1946. This book is a labor of love by Tatiana Proskouriakoff whose excellent illustrations will and have stood the test of time. In the acknowledgement the author gives credit to all who made this project possible as there are several unpublished drawings and notes that were put at her disposal. Having visited the great temples of the Maya in Copan(Honduras), Guatemala and the Yucatan(Mexico) I can bear testament to their magnificent presence in the jungles. Buried for years in the jungles they have only "resurfaced" recently for archeologists to study and preserve for future generations. In this book the author takes the liberty of informing us of the uses of the various temples based on her extensive knowledge and field research. Since many of the building have deteriorated with the passing centuries,Tatiana Proskouriakoff mastefully recreates the buildings as they were, based on her studies. Her lively depiction of the famous Ball Court is in stark contrast to the actual court that is desolate with only tourists and the spirits of the skillfull atheletes who once graced the courts. The black and whilte illustrations are simple yet lavish in certain details. Each section or chapter comes complete with text explaining the visual and begins with an elaborate illustration of a particular part of the site in full rich detail.This is a beautiful book that anyone who is interested in the ancient Maya should have in their library. The author also suggests other books and works to compliment the study of the complex world of the mysterious Maya.



3. A very nice and useful book.Throughout 29 plates Tania covers from Early Classic to Postclassic,from Uaxactun to Chichen-Itzá, showing many buildings and structures.According to her time,this Proskouriakoff's masterpiece displays highly accurated B&W drawings, plenty of details and suggestive forms, bringing to light Maya history not only from the jungle, but also from the obscurity of past. As the back cover says, her work combines "the imagination of an artist and the precision of a scientist". A great book by a great mayanist.



4. This book although perhaps slightly out of date is an excellent way to get started in this field. Tania Proskouriokoff is one of the most influential archaeologists ever to work in the feild of Maya history. She was a great scientist and researched this book well and with great regard for the imperfections of the study of the Mayan history.

5 comments about Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company.

1. This book is amazing - actual floor plans, and Sears would send you absolutely everything you need to build whatever house you choose.



2. I have had this book since it first came out and am now on my fourth copy of it as I have totally abused the others in my search for Sears Homes and while doing research for my book. This book is a valuable source of information and no true Sears Home Lover should be without it. This is the first book ever written about Sears Homes and it is still the one I turn to when I have a question. The author and I have been in many of the same interviews and videos but have never met, I have to rectify this. Let's meet Katherine!!!



3. This book is a great collection of designs and illustrations but what disappointed me most was that some houses did not have floor plans at all while some only had a downstairs and no upstairs floor plan illustrated. I was especially disappointed about those without any floorplans since I have seen floorplans elsewhere on the internet on various archive lists, the same goes for interior illustrations which I really expected to be many more of. I hoped it would be a 'Bible' or ultimate reference book to Sears homes but I guess I need to complement it with my own internet research.
   I am not sure if I would recommend it to somebody who has high expectations and such a great love for these old homes like me.



4. I found Houses by Mail to be very helpful and informative.



5. This book probably provides useful information for persons otherwise unfamiliar with this genre of house and architecture, but personally I found two things about it particularly annoying: first, its small size. Many plans are reduced to the point where they might just as well be heavy line diagrams, and second, I find direct reproduction of original text to be far preferable to the uniform re-typing found here. Original text tends to be just as legible and lets the reader know with no uncertainty what is, in fact, original text. In all fairness, I have to say that since I am an architect and very familiar with house plans in general, my review may not apply to all readers. I much prefer the direct reproductions, and without a doubt favor a larger format.

1 comments about The Architecture of Additions: Design and Regulation.

1. The topic of how new and old buildings are to be related to one another is one of the least-discussed and most widely mis-understood within the profession of architecture. This book, and another like it, the earlier "Architecture in context: Fitting new buildings with old" by Brent Brolin, are two of the few good books I've found that tackle this issue, and each features essentially case analysis of both successful and unsuccessful examples of the relationship between new and old buildings in many different forms. In fact, the two books have very little, if any, overlap in content, and therefore make very good companion books. These are must-reads for any architecture, urban design, and historic preservation students (and practitioners) involved in this type of design work.

2 comments about Japan Houses.

1. I have read this book word by word and there is no doubt that the featured projects are a study in serenity. In fact the most intriguing part of the book is the introduction which informs the reader about the Japanese society and the inspiration behind such awe inspiring designs.
   
   Quality of paper and photography is top-notch. However, the write-up for the projects was a little disappointing. Besides being repetitive, on more than one occassion, I found words that were typed twice. And the biggest blunder that one would least expect from a book of this quality and standard - spelling mistake.
   
   On the other hand, if you are in for enjoying the architecture, look no further.



2. The projects featured in this book are very well compiled and really show how unique and different the Japanese culture is despite all the houses being designed in the same modernist principle. Poetry is evident in nearly all the houses featured and the architects (as well as the clients) have really take the term "less is more" to another level. This book's compilation, however, features houses that are larger than the average houses in Japan and may appeal to certain readers who comment that most modern Japanese houses border on experimental and are not actually habitable, at least by their standards. Houses featured include the H House by Akihito Fumita and the Misonou House by Makoto Tanijiri among many others.
   
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