2 comments about Nantucket: Gardens and Houses.

1. The photography in this book is beautiful. However, if you are looking for pictures of outdoor Nantucket scenery, then you may want to choose another book. This book shows a lot of the inside of homes & their backyard gardens. It is a great background reference. It is clear the author did a lot of research of historical Nantucket when writing this book. Overall, there are a handful of really nice pictures of Nantucket, but mostly of the inside of older or newly renovated homes on the island. Great for decorating ideas!



2. A beautiful collection of 300 full-color photographs of Nantucket's gardens and houses. The author and photography is able to capture the unique vegetation and landscape that adorns the historical houses. I was impressed with the photography of the interiors of some of the most famous homes on the island. A quality collection of homes, gardens, history and culture. I would recommend for anyone who enjoys traveling to Nantucket. A perfect gift to bring home for the cofee table.

2 comments about Architecture in Detail: Colors (Architecture in Detail).

1. Unfortunatelly I have never received this book.
   What has happened with the shipment?
   My address is:
   FASTWEB, Ana Paula Calle
   Via Paolo Veronese 252
   10148, Torino
   Italy



2. The third volume in the "Architecture in Detail" series, Colors: Architecture in Detail explores the work of top architects and interior designers working today. Especially focusing on the form/color duality, Colors is filled cover to cover with beautiful photographs illustrating rooms and exteriors based around the impact of various colors: white, black, red, blue, yellow, brown, gray, green, and polychrome. Paragraph highlights draw attention to specific details, but the majority of Colors focuses squarely upon the almost dreamlike images themselves. A truly captivating volume simply to page through.

No comments about Gaudi: The Complete Buildings (Architecture & Design).

No comments about Aesthetics and The Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture.

1 comments about Ten Shades of Green: Architecture and the Natural World.

1. Peter Buchanan's TEN SHADES OF GREEN: ARCHITECTURE AND THE NATURAL WORLD centers on ten buildings which illustrate how environmental responsibility influences modern architectural pursuits. Peter Buchanan is a curator and critic: his choices reflect designs which blend environmental responsibility with design excellence, showing how such a focus provides architects with new, innovative ideas.

3 comments about Security Architecture: Design, Deployment and Operations.

1. The first 5 chapters are really about Security Architecture. The rest of the book has a more technical angle. The author totally, in my view, gets lost in words like: Requirements, Services and Controls. He uses these words sometimes at random. Since these definitions are crucial to a good and understandable built-up of any ICT architecture, the reader might get lost.

   Under design guidelines he talks about the services offered by the a team: Authentication, Authorizaton...etc. etc. Part of those services are Logical Access Controls which he calls "these controls". Under Technical Security Requirements we focus on controls that....The main focus of technical security controls is to protect C.A.I, which are at the same time technical security requirements. At the same time: Controls are designed to gover the following actions: again we find confidentiality, integrity..etc.

   All are requirements, actions, controls and services. Not clear enough in my opinion.

   The technical part is good.




2. Boeing Aircraft is currently working on its next big airplane, the Sonic Cruiser. But even before a prototype of the Sonic Cruiser takes to the skies, tens of thousands of hours will have been spent on design, planning, testing, legal, administrative, and other tasks.

   The product development scenario for information technology and information security is radically different. Corporate networks are being rolled out with planning and design that is not on par with that of our counterparts in the aviation and construction industries. In fact, already complex corporate networks are continuously becoming more byzantine. Take an average MIS department and add up all their hardware vendors, network topologies and protocols, operating systems, software add-ons, and custom-written applications. Now try to securely integrate them. If security was not designed into the original system architecture, how can these security products be expected to work? Despite the fact that companies are spending more and more money on information systems security, the systems are growing more and more complex -- and complex systems are much harder to protect.

   Security Architecture: Design, Deployment and Operations, is intended to help readers design and deploy better security technologies. The authors believe that security architecture must be comprehensive, because a network that is 98% secure is actually 100% insecure. This is especially true, given that -- contrary to popular belief -- information security is not a pure science, but a mixture of art and science.

   Effective information security must encompass every aspect of the enterprise. Security Architecture shows how to design a secure infrastructure. It addresses all of the major security products and provides details on how to deploy them.

   The authors incisively write that it is not enough for security professionals to understand the theory behind information security; unless they are able to insert security controls in the proper places within an application (data flows, storage and processing), the security solution will not be effective. A security product that is implemented incorrectly is like medicine that is taken improperly: great in potential, but futile in reality.

   In addition, if the inserted security solution is not managed with the proper processes in place (e.g., change management, separation of duties, notification, and escalation), the level of security provided will degrade with time until the control becomes ineffective.

   The book covers all of the fundamentals of information security. Particularly noteworthy is Chapter 3, "Information Classification and Access Control Plan." As companies place more of their corporate data jewels on often-untrusted public networks, the lack of an information classification scheme can have significant negative security consequences. Also, access control is critical in that many organizations -- and even the media -- are busy obsessing about remote hackers from foreign countries and have become oblivious to the real threats to information security: insiders. While it is much more romantic to think about foreigners hacking into your system in the middle of the night, the reality is that most breaches occur via insiders during normal business hours.

   The authors of Security Architecture discuss the elements needed to design and deploy effective information security architecture. Critical security products such as PKI, firewalls, VPN, IDS, and others are discussed, but cryptographic accelerators are not mentioned.

   This book highlights best practices and security standards and guidelines for effectively securing an enterprise. The book is well organized and easy to read. Many chapters have additional references and URL's for further research.

   The inclusion of numerous case studies, combined with the authors' real-world experience, makes Security Architecture a valuable reference. No one would ever want to get on a plane that had not been properly designed and tested. Neither should we want to use networks that have not been adequately designed and tested from a security standpoint. Security Architecture is intended to make sure that doesn't happen.




3. While this book didn't light a raging intellectual fire within my gray matter it certainly was a well-crafted and thorough explanation of various security techniques. And although I found some of the chapters a bit bloated and at times confusing the price of the volume was completely justified on the basis of Chapter 12 alone. "PKI: Components and Applications" was by far the most clear and concise treatise I have ever encountered during my months of research covering PKI -- a challenging and almost arcane security method. With envious ease the author managed to delineate complicated and intricate methodolgies using a common-sense approach that's a pleasurable derivation from standard computer book narrative.

   If you are interested in learning about PKI I suggest no better a place to start or end than "Security Architecture: Design, Deployment and Operations".

1 comments about Cool Hotels: Ecological (Designpockets).

1. Improved table of contents and index over other volumes in the series. However, the photos seem slightly dull in sharpness and color. Not sure if it's the printer or maybe just my copy. It's just a little annoying. The photography is still great. Nice reference for those who love to travel and stay in unique places.

1 comments about Midwestern Landscape Architecture.

1. This book is a very interesting reader. The essays on the important founders of Midwest landscape, spoke of a greater view of the American Civil Condition and how landscape can promote civilization and community in a diverse group of people. This is a strong undertone of the book.
   Not all the architects were enamored with. The wild Midwest landscape sought to build upon it to create a more varied and interesting landscape. It is interesting to note that what most of us regard as the Midwest look, is artificial and created by these progenitors of our current landscape.
   This is not a book for everyone, but is very insightful

1 comments about Superstudio: Life without Objects.

1. This book is a long time coming. The influential Superstudio gang has been virtually absent from publication for decades, and this companion book to the 2003-2004 traveling exhibit is essential for understanding their work. There are essays by all the major figures as well as from the authors of "Life Without Objects." The inclusion of early exhibit photos, storyboards, and many of the lesser known graphics and projects is enlightening--and there are plenty of manifestos rendered in clearly read text.

   I studied under Superstudio's Toraldo di Francia more than ten years ago, but there were a lot of things about his past work that were not clear, nor elaborated until I read this book.

   Anyone interested in history in general will appreciate this book, and I would strongly recommend this book to anyone in architecture and the arts. A great effort and it's about time. Bravi (sic)

5 comments about Lost New York, Expanded and Updated Edition.

1. The original version of Silver's ode to New York City's architectural ghosts was compiled almost forty years ago, so it's nice that this revised edition was released in 2000, with a ton of new photos and revised text. It definitely belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in the modern history of Manhattan. That said, the book is very poorly designed and would benefit from a total makeover. The photo size and placement follow no discernable grid or system, and the text and photos often don't match up, forcing the reader to flip back and forth. More annoyingly, there's no standard system for captioning or dating the photos, except for an "Illustrations and Sources" section at the back. So, I read this book with one finger permanently stuck in the back so I could flip back and forth to get a sense of the eras I was looking at -- very cumbersome. It also would have been really nice to have a map at the front with the photos matched to it. While the photos are obviously archival, the reproductions seem curiously flat and fuzzy. This may be due to the uncoated natural paper the book was printed on, but they would benefit from the contrast a bright white paper would provide as well as new scans and some careful retouching work. So, this is a neat book, but could become something really excellent in the hands of a good designer.



2. Mr. Silver has a poetic prose style, revealing a most poetic soul, and frames his message of architectural conservation and adaptation through a highly effective personal lens of incredulity and nostalgia, articulating what most readers subconsciously knew but probably never take the time to think about: that architecture is the most accesible and inescapable reminder of urban culture at a given moment; that while culture evolves and architecture becomes artifact, these artifacts can often continue - through thoughtful planning and incentives - to live and to serve without economic detriment to their owners; and that rapacious, self-serving obliteration of our architectural past is the obliteration of cultural evolution and memory.

   I would like to see Mr. Silver now produce a companion volume to LOST NEW YORK, a book about what has been saved.




3. IF the reviewer below is really Nathan Silver, I congratulate him on the shift of gears from his 1968 version of LOST NEW YORK to this one. (Even if it's not him, I congratulate him anyway.) The first edition was heavy on the preservation/conservation debate while this one is more reflective and personal. In both instances, however, Mr. Silver has made an incredible contribution to the study of New York history--not just its architecture, but to the thinking that went into the creation of these lost structures, and the lack of thinking that destroyed them.

   Like Jane Jacobs, Mr. Silver shares a passion for the city and how its monuments, public buildings and spaces, and private residences have a direct and fortifying effect on its citizens. The photographs are stunning, as is the quality of the printing. Mr. Silver's text is equally powerful and just as relevant. At times the effect of seeing these representations of a lost time, and reading about their ends, can be upsetting; the sense of loss is very powerful. But there is a point to all of it beyond the seeming nostalgia: we had better start appreciating those gems of the past that are still rooted in the schist of Manhattan before they wind up in the next edition of LOST NEW YORK.

   One last note: As rebuilding begins on the site of the World Trade Center (a part of lost New York that wasn't our fault), this book indirectly compels New Yorkers to participate in some forward-thinking. It makes one wonder, not only what was lost to us, but what will we give to future generations?

   Rocco Dormarunno,
   author of THE FIVE POINTS




4. The book Lost New York by Nathan Silver is one of the best photo and information books ever writen. Old photos and information on land marks in New York City which have been torn down. Shows you how buitiful a city is but also how little care some people can have for it's treasures



5. This wonderful book gives wonderful pictures and descriptions of lost buildings.