No comments about Modern Architecture A-Z.

No comments about The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History.

2 comments about Florence: The City and Its Architecture.

1. While spending a week in Florence in April, visiting many museums that do not allow interior photographs, I noticed this book in a museum gift shop. I copied the ISBN and purchased from Amazon once I arrived home so I could avoid carting books home and getting a very good price from Amazon. The book is beautiful and provided insight into a city that has evolved over many centuries.



2. Florence: The City And Its Architecture by architect and architectural historian Richard Goy is an astounding, profusely illustrated coffee table book showcasing the architectural majesty of this proud Italian city. Filled from cover to cover with superb color photographs of some of Florence's most eye-catching, stately, and historical treasures of architectural excellence, the extensive and informative text takes the reader on a memorable tour through the city as well as its architectural history. Florence: The City And Its Architecture is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any academic Architectural History collection, and would make a superb choice as a Memorial Acquisition title for public library systems as well.

1 comments about Outdoor Living Spaces: Courtyards, Patios and Decks.

1. Eighty-one courtyards, decks, and patios from homes in all parts of the world are featured--from Japan to South Africa, Iceland to Australia, the United States to South America. With each are at least two or three and in many cases more sharp color photographs showing the courtyard, etc., from different angles and in varying detail. Where there are the more photos, these are usually of the entire house, then closing in on the outdoor feature. With many of the individual sections for each of the numerous outdoor areas are architectural floors plans of the entire residence so the location, adjacent parts of the home, and the relative size and configuration of the area can been seen. In each section are a few paragraphs on the idea behind the particular patio, etc., and its materials, lighting, and other design elements. With the design and quality of a coffee-table book, "Outdoor Living" is more than an attractive book with pleasing photographs on a subject of interest to homeowners meant to be displayed. With its multiple photographs of each courtyard, deck, and patio, its expertly-drawn floor plans, and the details in its commentary, it provides design ideas and also construction guidance for homeowners, interior designers, and architects.

1 comments about Perspecta 36 "Juxtapositions": The Yale School of Architecture Journal (Perspecta).

1. Writing in 3-D (2000)
   By Huang Xiang
   
   The oldest way to write poetry
   Is with a brush
   The newest way to write poetry
   Is with the body
   The most wonderful way to write poetry
   Is to stand right on your head
   With mind and body as one
   And dab ink
   On the ground!
   
   
   In a back alley in Pittsburgh sits a shingled house of little note except for the fact that the exterior walls are covered from foundation to roof with the cursive script and revolutionary verse of dissident Chinese poet Huang Xiang. Part of the City of Asylum project which gives international writers at risk a safe haven within which to write, this narrative home is the perfect materialization of many of the ideas in Perspecta 36: Juxtapositions, edited by Macky McCleary and Jennifer Silbert.
   
   Sweeping in its focus on the conditions of our time, the journal takes the reader on a multi-layered journey of discovery that turns the concept of architecture on its head in much the same vein as Huang Xiang's verse. Revolution, power and transition take center stage in this well-balanced journal that seams texts together to create sub- and hyper-texts that force the reader to mentally juggle the words and images before them. A sense of nostalgia in the form of roads traveled and studies undertaken arises throughout. Marjetica Potrc's "Caracas Case Study: The Culture of the Informal City" provides rich illustrations on the organic nature of the ever-changing homes on the hills high above Venezuela's capital city and, for this reader, brought back to life an evening spent sipping coffee with a young man eager to show his barrio home to a foreign guest. Leslie Lu's "The Asian Arcade Project: Progressive Porosity" allowed me to relive my own vertical traversal of Hong Kong via the intricate system of escalators and elevated walkways that intersect the city's close-packed skyscrapers while providing a new viewpoint on the ways the city's residents experience and navigate urban space. Many more recollections will be invoked in readers who have stood at the feet of the Berlin Wall, gazed out the window of a modernist home or walked down a meticulously planned boulevard in Brasilia.
   
   Broad in its attention to international contemporary culture, Perspecta 36 shows that the world's sovereign nations simultaneously rely upon and compete with one another to produce what might be called the stage of global juxtapositions. Architecture plays out upon this ever-shifting stage, providing a haven within which we may take shelter from the storm. In much the same vein as Huang Xiang's poem, the theoretical texts in the issue subvert architecture to the degree that we may begin to question its position in our tumultuous times. Evelyn Preuss's "The Wall You Will Never Know" deconstructs our notions of what the Berlin Wall stood for, both in physical and philosophical terms. In an equally revolutionary bent, Roger Connah's "Pulp Architecture" is a manifesto against "big name" architecture that calls for a new architectural strategy reliant on "film, street culture, art, play, terror, surveillance, the hacker ethic, shopping...war and new media." (Page 34) The editors surely used this list as a source of inspiration in their critique of the systems that fuel the architecture machine.
   
   The journal's visual program features the paintings of Joy Garnett that feature ghostly airplanes which hint at imminent disaster and attack from the sky and C.J. Kang's The Manhattan Project that melds imagery from the popular U.S. comic Popeye with superimposed bombers and a new tattoo for the hero's arm that reads "Enola Gay." Clearly addressing 9/11 fears and the Hiroshima nuclear attack, these paintings make us question the stability of the constructed form in an age when potential threats to the status quo loom large. To this end, Perspecta 36 urges us to rethink our built and social environment. Alexander Garvin's "Ground Zero: The Rebuilding of a City" is timely proof of the import of juxtapositions to our daily lives that extend well beyond the pages of Perspecta. On June 30th, 2005 the New York Times ran an article entitled "Redesign Puts Freedom Tower on a Fortified Base" that presented the new design for David M. Child's skyscraper for the World Trade Center site. A far cry from the plans outlined in Garvin's article, the new "impregnable" tower in many ways becomes Preuss's wall built directly in the midst of New York. Returning to Huang Xiang's poem, we may only question on what end architecture, and indeed contemporary society, will land in a world that seemingly depends on juxtapositions to survive.
   
   Eric C. Shiner (MA, History of Art, 2003) is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. He was the co-editor of Palimpsest: Yale Literary and Arts Magazine in 2004.
   
   (For more information on Huang Xiang's City of Asylum Pittsburgh project, please see www.mattress.org/news/events/asylum.html)

1 comments about The Georgian House in America and Britain.

1. This book talks mostly about British examples, but should be all the more interesting to Americans because of it, since everything here is but a copy of everything there. The first few chapters contain a lot of interesting and detailed history, but the emphasis eventually turns to restoring windows, doors, floors, wallpaper, and so on, to genuine Georgian.

   The author scoffs at the readily available low-cost reproductions, often pointing out their inaccuracies--pure white was never used for windows, for instance--but then again, what do you expect from a book with a Forward by the Queen of England? Abundant photos accompany the text, fully justifying the book's price.

5 comments about The California Pop-Up Book.

1. The book is--for the most part,--masterfully engineered. The pop-up of the Golden Gate Bridge is particularly spectacular.
   
   There is, however, a blatant void concerning the dawn of California's written history--namely, there is not one pop-up of a Spanish mission. The cover of this book includes a mission bell tower in its collage-style design, suggesting there might be a mission inside. Nada.
   
   Perhaps a pop-up book of the 21 historic California missions is in order.



2. Now I know why I love California so much - this pop-up book tells it all! Well worth the money.



3. Even with lack of proper stereoscopic vision, due to serious lazy eye, the figures appear vivid and dimensional. The book includes a set of postcards that may be sent to taunt the less fortunate who haven't witnessed the wonders herein.



4. As a California historian and author of the book: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MISCELLANY, I found this California pop-up to be a charmingly fun novelty book to share when company comes over.



5. The book looks like it might just be a decorative coffee table item, but the content belies that impression. The pop-ups are fun and attractive, but the real story is in the choice of objects and the writing. The selections speak to the myth of California that was consciously created by early explorers, developers, and movie moguls but became its own reality as people migrated to the state ready to play the roles the myth-makers created for them. In exposing the history through objects and some remarkable writing by such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn See, Graham Nash, Alice Waters, Terry Gilliam, and Richard Rodriguez, the pre-mythic history and the development of a true California culture emerges...one in which the tinsel is a little tarnished around the edges, but glows as brightly as ever with its own special light.

3 comments about Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses (Wright at a Glance Series).

1. This is a nice 'little' gift to give to a Wright fan, but it is not comprehensive enough to tell you what the whole Usonian thing was all about.
   It would have gotten more stars if the price was a couple of dollars less.



2. This is a tiny hard cover book. "At a glance" is an over statement. More like a drive-by book. The pictures can be found elsewhere (larger and more complete) and the historical info is nil (and also found elsewhere.) Had I know this I would have not wasted my $10.00 on this.



3. This is a beautiful short introduction to the late and often smaller houses built by Wright after 1935, appropriately published in a purse-size book (part of a series). While less well known than his Prairie houses, these Usonians are the houses that YOU and I could afford! (Well...the smallest gem, Goetsch--built for $7,137.23--just sold for c.$225,000.) You will see here the beginning of many cliches of "modern houses:" single storys, open plans, lots of glass, dinettes, carports, etc. Only, these look beautiful! Why? Some idea of the awesome power of integrated design, inside and out, even at a tiny scale, is given in the small pictures of rich color. No "interior decoration" for Wright! Carla Lind is an extraordinarily evocative writer on Wright, and distills deep aesthetic insights into a brief focused text. If you like the magic you see here, then be sure to get Sargeant's book (Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses) to understand how these are designed and built (or seek Susan J. Bandes, Affordable Dreams. Kresge Art Museum Bulletin 6. Michigan State University. 1991). Enjoy.

2 comments about Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Houses (Wright at a Glance Series).

1. "Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Houses," by Carla Lind, is one of a series of mini-books dedicated to the work of this important architect. This volume focuses on Wright's Prairie Houses. As Lind notes, the Prairie School of architecture was inspired by the "spacious, horizontal feeling" of the American prairie. This book pays particular attention to several of Wright's Prairie masterpieces built between 1900 and 1908.

   This book shares many of the admirable characteristics of other volumes in the series: a profusion of superb full-color photographs (both interior and exterior), Lind's interesting text, illuminating sidebar quotes from Wright and others, and a brief but useful bibliography. Houses pictured include the Bradley House of Kankakee, Illinois; the Darwin Martin House of Buffalo, New York; the Stockman House of Mason City, Iowa; and many more.

   The only flaw in the book is the lack of any legible floor plans. Although floor plans are not a focus of this series as a whole, author Lind does call attention to the distinctive features of the Prairie House floor plans several times in the text. Thus, one or two representative plans would have really enhanced this volume. Actually, one floor plan is included, but it is used merely as a decorative background element: the plan is printed in a pale blue ink and has text superimposed on top of it, so it is not very legible. This matter aside, however, this is a fine volume in an excellent series.




2. Although the entire Wright at a Glance Series is wonderful, this book is especially good. It gives good examples of what made Wright's Prairie home distinctive. The photographs are very fine and the text supports them well.

2 comments about Sun Valley Architecture and Interiors.

1. "Sun Valley is an oasis between desert and lava of the Snake River Plain, an isolated haven and difficult place to reach from just about anywhere. It is wedged between surrounding peaks of Sawtooth, Smokey and Boulder Ranges with a high desert climate."
   
   For anyone living in Sun Valley, the history at the beginning of the book will be of interest. Then, if you have ever been skiing in Sun Valley, this has interesting historical pictures. Golfing and fishing are also of interest.
   
   In regards to the beautiful architecture in this book, you may notice the abundance of open space and walls of windows. Living inside, you feel a sense of communion with nature. Garden showers and retreat rooms are an essential. Modern log cabin styles contrast with the more traditional mystique of old-world adventure.
   
   The homes do not seem overly opulent on every page. There are some quaint pictures of decorating with quilts and small porches with aging chairs. The retreat style homes have a cozy country feel and there are even pictures of restored trailers.
   
   There is a gorgeous kitchen complete with rows of copper pots and a huge island. Fireplaces, libraries, lush gardens, modern art, fishing lodges and barns all mingle nicely together. The picture of the kitchen in the fishing lodge is amazing in detail. Now that is what I call a sink on page 205.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



2. Sun Valley has long been a vacation area for the rich and famous. It is large enough that houses don't have to be next to each other, each home can have its own surroundings out of sight of the neighbors. Further, each home can be constructed to meet the desires and requirements of the individual builder. There is no standard architecture like you find in many communities. Here is an ultra modern concrete and glass structure, there is a 'log cabin' but not the simple one room cabin the pioneers might have had. Somewhere else there is a converted barn, here is a house decorated with oriental art, more common is a western Americana theme. There are some homes that are not too large, and there's one that's 19,000 square feet that houses a private art collection of some 650 pieces.
   
   All in all, a spectacular set of photographs beautifully printed that shows some of the best in the valley. My one complaint is that I would like to know who owns these homes. Pure curiosity I know, but I'm certainly curious.