1 comments about Palazzi of Rome.

1. The interiors of the various Palazzi and Villas of Rome are often one of the great unseen sights of this ancient city. These ancient Roman mansions are often breathtaking inside and quite unlike what you will find in the stately homes other countries such as England or France. In many cases the artists have taken whole rooms and turned them into one great 3 dimensional canvas showing scenes from mythology, history and nature.

   This book is filled with wonderful colour photographs of the exteriors and interiors of various Roman Palazzi, covering many of the better known publicly owned buildings and some that are still privately owned. We get to see such places as The Vatican Palace, Palazzi Massimo, Villa Farnesina, Villa Madama, Palazzo Altemps and Palazzo Colonna just to name a random few in the book.

   If you have any interest in the Italy of old or interior design this book is a must. You get a glimpse of the great Italian genius for frescoed interiors and a way of life for the very rich in the past that will never be repeated. There is much more to see in Rome than the ancient ruins and this book gives you a glimpse of some of those treasures and will leave you stunned with some of the wonderful beauty of some of these palaces.

2 comments about Capital Drawings: Architectural Designs for Washington, D.C., from the Library of Congress.

1. I purchased this book based upon its title and cover imagery; I was disappointed in that many if not most of the images and drawings contained in the book are NOT located in Washington, DC, as the title would have you believe. It's ok to illustrate other images by the same architect or draftsman, but the book includes tens of dozens if not hundreds of illustration that are located thousands of miles away from Washington, DC, the city. A better title would have been "architectural drawings at the Library of Congress" and leave out the reference to the actual City of Washington, which is not well represented.



2. Washington DC is one of the few major cities in the world that was designed from the start to be a city. Built on ten square miles of land donated to the nation by Maryland and Virginia, the city was conceptually laid out by L'Enfant. The streets were designed to be wide, straight and long instead of the meandering cow paths of the older cities.
   
   Along with the general plan, the early presidents, Washington and Jefferson especially) recognized the expressive power of the capital's buildings and monuments. The major Government buildings and monuments: the White House, the Capital building, and the Washington monument have become recognized around the world.
   
   This beautiful book consists of drawings from the Library of Congress illustrating these and other buildings in Washington. Some of these are historican and reflect various plans submitted before the final design was chosen. Some are more recent, reflecting the fact that the originals were lost.
   
   This book illustrates the impact that the architecture of Washington has had on American architecture around the country.

1 comments about The Architecture of Europe: the 19th and 20th Centuries.

1. THIS SURVEY OF EUROPE'S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SPANS ALL THE MAJOR HISTORICAL STYLES FROM the ancient Minoan, Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Byzantine civilisations, through early Christian, Romanesque and Gothic building, on to the 'classical' era of European architecture, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical. The study is rounded off by a survey of nineteenth century Eclecticism and the development of modem architecture in the twentieth century.
   Almost 1,000 of Doreen Yarwood's elegant and accurate drawings and 108 excellent photographs make this a most attractive, as well as authoritative, work. The Architecture of Europe will be an invaluable reference book for teachers and students as well as the interested general reader.

2 comments about The World of Contemporary Architecture.

1. An absolute bargain for the price, 1000 pages and over 2000 color photos (and some drawings). What I like about this book is the very comprehensive coverage of contemporary architecture, not only the well-known, Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur for instance, but the (perhaps) unknown, Grand Valley Woman's Prison in Ontario or the phosphate plant in Nordgraben, Germany or the Scottsdale, Arizona East Couplet Street urban improvement.

   There are five basic chapters, Urban planning and transport, Cultural facilities, Leisure facilities, Public buildings and institutions and finally Homes, these five areas are divided into thirty-nine sections in all. Each building gets a spread with usually one big and two, three or four smaller photos and some have architect's drawings (unfortunately the books small size means most of these are too tiny) a detailed technical description and a couple of hundred words about the building. For some odd reason the book does not have a building or architect index.

   This would be an ideal book for a student thinking of becoming an architect because it shows the very wide range of building styles that require design solutions. For others, like me, it is a super record of some of the best recent architecture around the world.




2. If like me you love the glossies, then this ones for you.Power packed with over thousands of photos covering a broad range of contemporary architecture- commercial,public,parks,land art,housing etc,its a visual tour of world architecure, all covered in one book(over 1000 pages!).Although the book is only approximately A5 in size ,this in no way detracts from its value,particularly if you consider the price.Another great book(better in fact) in the same series is 'houses of the world'.

5 comments about A Corner in the Marais: Memoir of a Paris Neighborhood.

1. I can't believe I actually skimmed through a particular chapter, I never, ever do that. It tried to bore me to tears with a tedious description of a wrangle over the ownership of an apartment 200 years ago!!! I love this area of Paris, and was hoping that the historical content of this book would leave me delighted... sadly not.
   There are some interesting descriptions of life at the time, however the book tends to only touch on the interesting bits and rave about the mundane. I kept hoping it would improve as I pressed on... unfortunately, it didn't.



2. I loved this book, especially as I was staying a few doors down from his apartment in a hotel and it made my visit enhanced by his descriptions and thoughts.



3. This is a great book to read while in Paris. With the book in hand, we easily found many points mentioned in it (and it answered some questions we had had while walking around the Marais on our own). It's very much a "labor of love" by someone who became intrigued by a small slice of history that, coincidentally, sheds some light on the broader picture over a long period. Anyone who enjoys history will envy the author's dig through old documents and records searching for even tangential mentions of his building, and the people associated with it. (Also recommended, for entirely other reasons: "Paris to the Moon," by Adam Gopnik.)



4. man this book gets boring at times. it's more the history of the neighborhood and medieval and renaissance parisian life as it took place around the author's apartment building. Maybe the other books I've read about Paris are overly sentimental, but this book does little to invoke the romance of the city of lights.

   for instance: there is an entire chapter devoted to a legal wrangle which took place over the non-payment of taxes on the home, in which various people bickered over the ownership in the 17th century. this should have been at most a paragraph.

   there are some fascinating descriptions of period toilets,17th century french bathing habits, and 13th century house construction. the length of space devoted to meaningless crap is stunning.

   some bits of it are interesting. i love the marais, and thought it would give a sense of the personality of the area, particularly as the cover makes it seem like quite a warm book. it isn't. but if you want to know about feudal french land taxes and Cardinal Richeliu's preferred urinal (the fireplace), then this book is for you.




5. This book reminded me of William Murray's City of Soul, about Rome. Karmel is obviously in love with his Paris and it is infectious.

   The narrative about Karmel's first trip to Paris, then how he moved to Paris and bought an apartment in the Marais was intriguing, although his detours into the history of the neighborhood were less interesting. I found I wanted to know more about Karmel and his wife than about who had lived in his street two hundred years ago.

   And the photographs! There are some marvelous black and white Atget photos in this book and although there really isn't much going on in them, these studies of shadow and light are worth the price of the book alone.

No comments about Spanish Splendor.

2 comments about Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House: Weekend House/Wochenendhaus (Mies Van Der Rohe Archive).

1. I love the Fansworth House but I've not been there yet. The book shows us full of images of the masterpiece and takes us into the house imaginarily. Black and white photos work very much and some Mies's drawings are also helpful to understand how the house was beyond the notions. It is still quite new and less is more, of course.
   Yoko Lewis, Berkeley in Califorinia



2. a magnificient book about the last domestic project built by mies, where an extraordinary complexity of details results in a very simple home. truly the work of a lifetime achievement.

No comments about Architectural Guide Japan - 20th Century (Birkhauser Architectural Guides 20th Century).

1 comments about Heart of the Community: The Libraries We Love.

1. 
   Compiled and co-edited by Berkshire Publishing Group founders, Karen Christensen and David Levinson, "Heart Of The Community: The Libraries We Love" showcases eighty libraries throughout the United States and Canada. Ranging from the Norman Williams Public Library of Woodstock, Vermont; to the West Avenue Library of Newport News, Virginia; to the Oaklyn Branch Library of Evansville, Indiana; to the Runnymede Branch Library of Toronto, Canada, "Heart Of The Community" provides an illustrated and succinct history of the library. Each featured library includes the libraries address, founding date, the designing architect, the director, and any special collections associated with it. Combining historical information, inspiring stories, and simply beautiful images, "Heart Of The Community" offers the reader a true celebration of community libraries across the width and breadth of the land. Very strongly recommended for academic and community library reference collections, "Heart Of The Community" would serve as an admirable template for more volumes of such celebrations of libraries from around the country and around the world.

No comments about Florence - Architectural Guide (Allemandi's Architecture Guides).