1 comments about Everything but the Walls.

1. Excellent book for one of the most famous new product designers. With small and understandable mentions of Jasper Morrison to all of his works. Explains how he inspired to do all of this works. From lightening equipment to chairs and tables, Jasper Morrison knows very well how to do the things look simpler and also functional.

5 comments about Elephant House: Or, The Home of Edward Gorey.

1. After wanting this book for along time and being a somewhat hard core Edward Gorey fan, I finally ordered and received this book. I sat with it and experienced an intimate glimpse into his private world and found myself feeling and learning so much about this man and our times. I seriously laughed and cried and everything in between by the time I finished my first page-though. The rich content of the images took me on a journey through his home and collections that touched many familiar and unfamiliar bases. I not only gained insight into the man, but into a window in time in the art and collecting world that was very familiar to me as a baby-boomer aged art/literature/theater type. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is the least bit interested in Edward Gorey and the late 20th century arts milieu. I was/am profoundly moved by this book and know that I will revisit it often.



2. This is a beautiful book of photographs and text that allows the reader an intriguing view of the home in which Edward Gorey lived and the collections of curious objects, books, and cats he filled it with.
   
   The photographs are large and beautiful - haunting even - and there are lots of them. There is just the right amount of text to cast some light on the man behind the house and his elusive character - anecdotes about his life, his work, his friends and the things that inspired him.
   
   If you are fan of Edward Gorey, or of eclectic interior decorating and design, and displaying collections of antiques, this book will be a treasure in your library.



3. That's really all I can say. I have been waiting for this book for a long time, and it was the most incredible thing. Amazing photos. Read up on Gorey first, though. The details are some much better when you get the little visual jokes Gorey set up in his day-to-day life.



4. If you are an Ogdred Weary fan...this is a truly wonderful book. Photographs of the exterior (peeling paint and kind of saggy porch) and the interior rooms of the house on Cape Cod in Gorey lived and worked, along with his cats and figbashes, piles of thousands of books, assorted rocks and oddish things, and the expected miriad of curiosities. Alas, or delightfully...just the environment one would expect of the eccentric Edward. A cabinet of curiosities...a delight!



5. This book wouldn't mean much to anyone who isn't already a Gorey fan. I own (and love) the compilations 'Amphigorey', 'Amphigorey Too' & 'Amphogorey Also', so have a head start. I also have the auto(?) biography 'Ascending Peculiarity', which is almost a necessary co-requisite to this book - it helps explain the cats, and many other Gorey details. Now that the individual books are available again, I'm tempted to get them too, because they are such nice objects - but only if the kids promise to share with me!

5 comments about Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City.

1. As stated in an earlier review, this is a good book for anyone interested in NY buildings and history. The Empire State Building is my favorite building, and I have a large collection of books and photography regarding it. This book is an excellant addition to that collection.
   
   Though I know a great deal about the men and times behind the creation of the Empire State Building and some regarding the Chryslar, this book fascinated with additional information on both and all new information regarding 40 Wall Street. Neal Bascomb gives you a good account of the money men and their egos behind the financing of these buildings. He gives you the history and motivation of the architects. Neal also gives you the background on the men who built the buildings--which is usually lacking in other books.
   
   It was also interesting to read this book today with all that is going on with the economy. Though the situation today is not as bad as then, a lot of the same things happened. Now as then, especially here in Miami, there are going to be quite a few empty buildings dottig the skylines for the next five years.
   
   If you liked "The Devil and the White City", you'll like this book.



2. Very interesting coverage of the subject. Very focussed on three landmark buildings and the personalities involved in their conception and construction. It was fascinating to learn where these people came from and what happened to them after these huge projects. Many really suffered for their art and industry. I had read a bit on this subject before but this book really added to my knowledge. I have rarely been so entertained and engrossed by a non-fiction book. Highly recommended.



3. I certainly enjoyed _Higher_, but it could have been a better book. Bascomb needs an editor: usages are awkward, some of the passages read as though they were padding added to a slimmer first version, and when the author steps back to sketch the bigger picture the prose, all too often, turns purple. Not altogether his fault: too many authors today try to write a movie rather than a book. Oddly, for a book about architecture and the construction of specific buildings, there are surprisingly few photos -- not that I expected or wanted a coffee table book, but the very visual story here could have been better illustrated. Those of us who like this sort of book, and I do, despite the quibbling and caviling above, should also read Daniel Okrent's _Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center_, which is every bit as interesting and a better-written book, all in all.



4. The 1920's was all about reaching new heights in America - the roaring 20's emphasized a fast-paced lifestyle where there were no limits. It was this "anything goes" attitude that led to the construction of skyscrapers in New York City that were just as much a symbol of the times as they were practical business investments. In this book that chronicles the race to be the tallest between 3 New York landmarks - the Chrysler Building, 40 Wall Street, and The Empire State Building - egos collide, markets tumble, and relationship are broken. The author weaves a very readable tale that focuses on both the financial and architectural icons who led to the construction of these buildings. If bricks and mortar also interest you, then this will do the trick as well. Throughout the book you are taken to the construction sites and learn what its like to catch a burning hot rivet a quarter mile up in the air, all while balancing on a single beam and bracing against high winds and frigid temperatures. Overall, a very good book that manages to tell the "story" of these now prominent buildings. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could.



5. This book, not only glorifies the American spirit, but serves as an excellent reference for what New York was like in the late 1920's. Through architectually acurrate, this book focuses on more that any review can project. This is the best history book I've read since the Guardians by Geoff Kabaservice.

2 comments about Hometown Architect: The Complete Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park And River Forest, Illinois.

1. Although he died in 1959, almost fifty years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright is probably still the most famous architect in America. Fifty years before his death, say from 1890 to 1910 he was living in a Chicago suburb and was designing a series of houses that are usually called his 'Prairie Style.'
   
   This style was the first of his breakaway styles from the traditional European and East Coast styles to develop something that fit into his vision of the prairie. To be sure, sometimes other influences came into play, such as a short Japanese period.
   
   While Prairie Style houses were built all across the country, the Chicago suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest are home to the largest concentration of prairie houses. This book describes 27 of his homes in this area. Most of them are available for tours. And in looking at these houses, it is hard to believe that they are a hundred years old.
   
   The book is beautifully printed and cloth bound and supplied in a slip case. Another recommended book on a Wright Prairie House is Frank Lloyd Wright's Rosenbaum House which describes the house, but also the effort that it took to restore the house ot its original form.



2. This is a very good book on the best years of Wright's work. It's a shame some of the houses were lost, but it's refreshing to know that so many have survived and are treated like the treasures they are. The text is highly informative and the images are crisp and well presented. I appreciated the guide at the back of the book, that informs the reader how to locate these buildings. Wrights work is so unique and elegant, yes he was a narcissistic, control freak, with a serious God complex, but his buildings are 100 percent his creation, he would exept nothing else. He made the clients use his designed furniture and his fixtures, but in the end, he was always on the mark, though many of the beautiful chairs look very uncomfortable, at any rate..good book, highly recommended.

3 comments about The Return of Sacred Architecture: The Golden Ratio and the End of Modernism.

1. Do you wonder why some buildings can change the way you feel? Well wonder no more.
   
   There are certain mathematical ratios that occur repeatedly in the universe, and have been known to the most advanced civilizations preceding us. Most of the currently built structures in the US do not reflect these geometric ratios, and architects do not learn any of this in school. Nowadays it is all about costs and efficiencies. Project managers have more to say about the construction than the architects. Buildings are merely boxes in which we work or things are sold.
   
   As the author reflects, our buildings reflect our current nature. Looks like we're not as advanced as we perceive ourselves to be.



2. Herbert Bangs brings extraordinary insights into his scholarly yet impassioned exploration of sacred architecture, which is a relatively new and vitally important subject. Bangs presents illustrations and historical accounts of a wide variety of architectural structures, letting the stories of each example demonstrate the points he makes regarding archetypes of shelter (cave, clearing, garden, water, elements), archetypes of design (duality, hierarchy, materials), and resolution of form. Bangs enthusiastically praises those architectural masterpieces which prove themselves to be aesthetically pleasing and livable, and denounces designs which may have been lauded by others, yet actually are tolerable by few. There are reasons why some spaces can lead people to feel relaxed and refreshed... or confused and stressed... and Bangs brilliantly describes the architectural principles and qualities that create these results. THE RETURN OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE is a clarion call for adopting a more intuitive approach to design and a better appreciation for the sources of divine inspiration. I give this book my highest recommendation to everyone, since all of us are at some point involved in designing, buying, visiting, and living in architectural structures.



3. Both architecture and spirituality collections will relish Return of Sacred Architecture: The Golden Ratio and the End of Modernism: it contrasts and modern religious architectural structure with the grand monuments of the past, revealing how modern dysfunctional buildings bring out the worst in humanity and how ancestral masterworks focus on the best. Architecture once was closer to expressing the sacred between man and cosmos: THE RETURN OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE focuses on the elements of this expression and is especially recommended for any college-level architectural library.

No comments about Palm Springs Style.

1 comments about Kazuyo Sejima In Gifu.

1. This is my last buy, and i need to say taht is a excellent buy. This book contains one of the most beautiful house project in the contemprary scenario. Is in Japanese and English, and contains detailed plans and very goood pictures. This package contains instead other mini book with other projects of sejima about social houing like a catalog.
   The best of all, the price, a masterpiece under the 20.
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   Este libro ha sido lo ultimo que he comprado en arquitectura y tengo que decir que es una compra excelente. Contiene uno de los proyectos de vivienda contemporanea mas interesantes. Esta en japones y en ingles, lleva en el interior planos detallados y muchas fotografias. Este libro ademas viene con otro mini librito donde aparecen otros proyectos de sejima realacionados con vivienda social. Una muy buena compra.

3 comments about Then and Now: The Wonders of the Ancient World Brought to Life in Vivid See-Through Reproductions.

1. Ideal gift for my brother who enjoys and basks in Egyptian History. To see what the ancient wonders would have looked like in their prime, is a joy for any young mind!



2. A man loaned this book to a friend of mine. She immediately ordered it and showed it to me. I immediately ordered it also. I used this book to teach a children's class today. One of the parents saw it and had me order them a copy.

   I especially enjoy the pictures of places I have visited. To see how these places could have looked originally with the artist's renders overlaying the current pictures is amazing.

   Great teaching tool for adults as well as children. As they say, "a picture is worth 1,000 words."




3. A unique book for lovers of ancient civilizations. The acetate overlays restore present day photographs of ruins to their original colorful glory, as they might have looked back then. Anyone who has ever picked this book up off my coffee table has loved it. The acetate overlays bring back nostalgic memories of browsing through the Britanica as a child.

1 comments about The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful--and Their Architects--Shape the World.

1. It took me some time to figure out what the Edifice Complex meant.
   
   
   I first thought, being an "English Patient" in the realms of
   
   
   English-speaking world, edifice complex meant something like "Sports
   
   
   Complex". Later I found out that it was a derivitive of Oedipus Complex,
   
   
   that there is a psychology in a poweful man, an urge to make a mark, a
   
   
   desire to control, and an ambition to build. To build big and high.
   
   
   
   
   
   I found this book particulary interesting because it focuses on the
   
   
   side of clients, their hidden chambers of obsessions, disguised in
   
   
   the form of political beliefs, orchestrated and realized by the hands
   
   
   of architects. Plenty of different types of influential clients and
   
   
   their episodes are portrayed.
   
   
   
   
   
   Some stories are old (or well known)and some stories are new. To the old
   
   
   stories, like that of Hitler/Mitterrand/Hussein, Sudjic gave a different
   
   
   bent, to the new and lesser knowns, like that of
   
   
   Mao/Rockerfeller/Agnelli/ US Presidents, Sudjic wrote electrifying lines.
   
   
   
   
   
   Another remarkable aspect of the book is the political skills of many
   
   
   past and current star architects. Johnson/ Pei/ Piano/
   
   
   Koolhaas/ Gehry (and many more mentioned in the book) are illustrated as
   
   
   true Machiavellian architects of this century that have tongue and pen to
   
   
   realize the dreams of their Princes.
   
   
   
   
   
   In the conclusion, Sudjic sums up by showing what kind of prevailing
   
   
   architectural garments are out there for different political strategists.
   
   
   The author also kindly guides us to the further readings that pertain to
   
   
   the subject matter of the book.
   
   
   
   
   
   One thing that made my head skew: Why are Blair and Libeskind beaten
   
   
   when, in contrast, following French President and English Architect
   
   
   mentioned in the book are promoted? Does it explain Sudjic's political
   
   
   stance and his allies? Just a thought...

2 comments about Design Dimensioning And Tolerancing: Study Guide.

1. Bruce Wilson has developed a volume which explains the ASME Y14.5M-1994 drawing standards in a more accessible format. This book is an ideal companion to the official drawing standards, or if you don't want to shell out a hundred bucks for the ASME book.

   Extensive examples and a well-formed index also contribute to the effectiveness of this work. My only complaint is that the entire book is slanted toward machined parts, so people who work a lot with plastics or complex-surface parts may find themselves wondering how to apply certain dimensions.




2. GD&T is thoroughly explained in easy to understand terms. Explanations build from simple applications to those that require extension of the principles currently defined by the national standard. All material is in agreement with the current national standard, ASME Y14.5M-1994. Design dimensioning and Tolerancing is written such that it will be a good resource for engineering, manufacturing, and quality assurance organizations. Exercises contained at the end of each chapter make it useful for classroom use. The study guide and solutions manual are helpful for the classroom or self-study.