1 comments about Prague Architecture & Design (And Guides).

1. I was expecting from the sparse description of this book to find an architectural guide to the over 6 centuries of buildings still standing in Prague. In fact, this architecture guide only covers 75 buildings all of very recent design---none older than 1994, and most built since the year 2000.
   
   The print and binding quality of this small, 192-page book is very high. Excellent photographs.
   
   The text is translated into 4 languages; and that means that the amount of architectural description that you will find for any one building may be considerably shorter than what you would otherwise expect in a 192-page book.
   
   Buy this book if you want an introduction to Prague's most recent architecture.
   
   I suggest buying the Blue Book Prague, however, if you want a compehensive guide to the range of Romanesque, Medieval, Rennaissance, Baroque, Art Nouveau and Modernist architecture in this beautiful city.

3 comments about The Michigan Law Quadrangle: Architecture and Origins.

1. The University of Michigan Law Quadrangle is an architectural wonder of American Universities - it is perhaps one of the most outstanding group of buildings in the entire United States. This book illustrates this viewpoint by providing wonderful photographs of the law quad along with fascinating text telling the history of the buidlings. For anyone who has ever visited the Law Quadrangle, this book will reinforce the feeling of awe you get while being within it's walls.



2. The University of Michigan Law Quadrangle is an architecturalwonder of American Universities - it is perhaps one of the mostoutstanding group of buildings in the entire United States. This book illustrates this viewpoint by providing wonderful photographs of the law quad along with fascinating text telling the history of the buidlings. For anyone who has ever visited the Law Quadrangle, this book will reinforce the feeling of awe you get while being within it's walls.



3. The University of Michigan Law Quadrangle is an architectural wonder of American Universities - it is perhaps one of the most outstanding group of buildings in the entire United States. This book illustrates this viewpoint by providing wonderful photographs of the law quad along with fascinating text telling the history of the buidlings. For anyone who has ever visited the Law Quadrangle, this book will reinforce the feeling of awe you get while being within it's walls.

No comments about Dublin (Architecture Guides).

No comments about Britain: Modern Architectures in History (Reaktion Books - Modern Architectures in History).

No comments about James J. Hill House (Minnesota Historic Sites Pamphlet Series).

No comments about Art & Architecture: Paris.

3 comments about Historic Hudson: An Architectural Portrait.

1. A thoroughly entertaining account of a Hudson River city with a truly fascinating history. I recommend it to anyone interested in nineteenth-century America, American architecture, especially the vernacular architecture of the northeast, and America as it once was. The vintage photographs are wonderful!



2. This is/was a great book and it is beautifully written I have spent many weekends and summers in this area of the hudson valley. This book brought to life, the colorful past of this wonderful city.



3. The old photos are the best part, but everything else, especially the quality of the printing & the total lameness of the writing is inexcusable. A very sad exercise in vanity publishing.

2 comments about Auguste Perret.

1. I was first drawn to Auguste Perret when I saw an exhibit of his work in Paris and have since been searching for a book which can convey the beauty of Perret's life work. Although this book has many great pictures, I miss the quality exhibited in the actual renderings. The book however, has much more to offer, and goes into depth about Perret's philosophies, the effects of his work, and his relationship with the infamous Le Corbusier. The style of writing coveys all of this information in an interesting fashion by incoporating specific stories. I particularly loved the cartoon that Corb drew with Perret sitting in front of a ribbon window (the commentary behind it is equally funny if you know architecture). The portion of the book on housing gives to architects a valuable lesson on how a building should not only serve a function but should make the ordinary daily routine much more interesting and enjoyable. I am struck with this quote from the book given by a man living in the pavillion for Madame Mela Muter: "The elements of this house are of such a fashion that to live there is pleasurable. It is pleasurable to open a door, pleasurable to close it, pleasurable to go from one room to another. What is marvellous, is that it remains as pleasurable at the end of two years as on the first day." If only we could learn from the work of Perret, a truly unique and gifted man who stood stubbornly by his vertical Parisian window while the austere architecture of Le Corbusier's strip window took hold of our concept of modern architecture.



2. A valuable addition to a series of monographs from this publisher. Karla Britton's account of the great French architect-engineer, a master of concrete construction like Breuer, but one who straddled two eras, combining boldly expressed structures with rich surface ornament. The Theatre des Champs Elysees was completed before the first world war, and its "nudity" shocked Parisians as much as the barbaric rhythms of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which provoked a riot when it was premiered here. Now, Perret's masterwork can be seen as a perfect balance of grace and daring--the greatest theater in the city. A couple of apartment blocks were even more ahead of their time, but Perret, like Breuer, stayed around too long and the later work, particularly the rebuilding of Le Havre, diminished his standing. Books of this quality and importance deserve much better production values. The series is overpriced and poorly designed; the bindings are fragile, the illustrations drab, and there is not even a proper title page.

5 comments about Louis I. Kahn : Unbuilt Masterworks.

1. So I'm looking through this book of photographs of unbuilt projects, and gradually I realize. . . I'm looking at photo. . . . graphs of. . . unbuilt projects. They're great-looking photos, too. There's a building at the Salk Institute in La Jolla which I know isn't there, and another Jewish memorial NYC which I don't think exists, and they look great.

   What Kent Larson has done is a simple, powerful, cool idea that took a lot of time, energy, MIT architectural thinking, and SGI computing power to accomplish. Larson first pieced together a reasonable paper version of each structure, then assembled a 3-D virtual model of that structure, then had to choose the best virtual camera angles under the best false sunlight for the best portraits. Larson went as far as using high-resolution photographs of existing Kahn walls to skin these virtual surfaces, and added a patina of wear and tear, just to make it more convincing.

   So Larson's work is the result of a lot of a helluva lot of choices. It helped the interpretation that Kahn preferred a limited palette of building materials - like concrete - which helped Larson orchestrate this score. It didn't help Larson that Kahn was known for his close attention to lighting effects. All that lighting took the most sophisticated possible CAD/CAM rendering on SGI hardware.

   But the payoff is - shocking. You get bright sunlight, soft counter-reflections, complex reflections in glass (the glass-block Jewish memorial is the showboat piece in that respect). You have to see them to know how much you want to believe them, if that makes any sense. To know how much you'd like to visit these six new Kahn buildings that will never exist. In a weird way, this project advances Kahn's career and reputation, not only from beyond the grave, but lapsing over into architectural cyberspace.




2. Larson has not only demonstrated superb skill in computer rendering but also a much deeper understanding of Kahn's architecture. Reviews by Scully demonstrate the histrorical development of Kahns work & Mitchell has done a fine job of giving the analysis. This book will help in establishing some standard for presenting unbuilt works of architecture in the future.

   Format of the book is good in its simplicity although some reference to drawings would have made it a more comprehensive study. Great book ... a collecter's item for all "Kahnian's" across the world.




3. This is not just another architecture book. It is also a beautiful photography book. It is astounding that these luminous images are of spaces that were never built!



4. I have known the eight projects presented in this book for over thirty years, but now realize that my understanding was only superficial. This extraordinary volume reveals aspects of the buildings impossible to perceive from drawings and models: the layering of space, the rich materiality, and - most of all -Kahn's genius for manipulating light. Delightfully, this ambitious and unorthodox study is sure to rattle those who regard Kahn as an unapproachable icon.



5. Kent larson presumes he can show a finished Kahn using a computer. As we all know, the building process is evolving. It certainly was for Kahn. Larson's leaden computer graphics shed not even the glimmer of a candle on the genius of Kahn.

1 comments about Canals (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design and Engineering).

1. Kudos to Amazon for selling this book as I have been unable to find it anywhere else. The author is obviously an expert in his subject and consequently this is a fascinating read and a worthy addition to the number of books on this subject. I look forward to a follow-up.