No comments about American Buildings and Their Architects: Volume 4: Progressive and Academic Ideals at the Turn of the Century (Oxford Paperbacks).

1 comments about Los Angeles in the Thirties.

1. When someone visits Los Angeles for the first time one notes many historical landmarks often associated with Los Angeles are gone, The Brown Derby restaurant, Ciros & Trocadeo Nightclubs, Pan Pacific Auditorium, and most recently the tragedy of the destruction of The Ambassador Hotel. This book is priceless as we can see Los Angeles in it's glory days of the 1930's and 40's before a tidal wave of baby boomers in the 1960's and 70's followed by mass arrivals of very poor Mexican and other Latin American migrants and very rich Iranians after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 in the 1980's. which over crowded and soiled this once beautiful city, everything in Los Angeles seems dirty now due in large part of the speculative nature of the real estate market making it un necessary for land owners to keep building in good condition as they appreciate any way. A shame that the city did not treasure these Art Deco masterpieces more than the bland strip malls, and fast food restaurants that were built in their place. Anyone who loves Los Angeles must have this book.

1 comments about The Mystery of the Martello Tower.

1. "The Mystery of the Martello Tower" tells of a sister and brother who embark on an odyssey rich in discovery and mischief. There are layers of mystery which young Hazel and Ned must uncover, from an international art theft scandal to the enigmas of their own past. I was reminded a little of old fairy tales, such as Hansel and Gretel, in which children would find themselves in a desperate situation but escape through their wits and ingenuity. Hazel and Ned leave the big city, where they are being raised by a single parent in rather isolated circumstances. They journey to the region of the Thousand Islands and encounter a lively extended family. The bringing together of the long lost relatives is the catalyst for mysteries being solved, as well as for the healing of old wounds and memories.
   
   The characters spring to life in the first few paragraphs as the story moves rapidly along into danger and intrigue. The author is able to deftly see the world from a youthful point of view, conveying the fears, the hopes and the boundless energy of that brief time in life. Recommended for ages ten through fourteen, it is a grand book to bring along on a summer adventure.

1 comments about Cast-Iron Architecture in America: The Significance of James Bogardus (Norton Books for Architects & Designers).

1. My first encounter with skeleton structures was a plastic building set consisting of interlocking beams, columns, and very thin infill patterns. The concept of modular construction is one that many of us have been raised with, whereas at one time the idea of building with interchangeable lightweight metal units, sized to fit together in a variety of patterns, was a wholly new revelation. Understanding where this link occurs, manifested in the built environment by practical necessity, connects the modernity of International Style into the historic preservation movement.

   Several years ago I found myself involved in the business of repainting cast-iron facades in the Soho Cast Iron District in New York City and became intrigued to know more of the history of cast-iron architecture. Until I received this book, which I ordered from Amazon.com, I had to remain satisfied with a crude photocopy of an article by James Marston Fitch describing the mystery of the Laing Stores. The façade of the Laing Stores (erected in 1849 and the second of Bogardus's façade commissions) was dismantled in 1971, carefully stored with the intent of future restoration, and in 1974 were carted off by someone not-in-the-know like so many old steam radiators to be sold for scrap iron. This has engendered a small degree of paranoia with experienced preservationists and it has always been of value to me, as a preservation contractor, to know whereof the sentiment is derived. For whatever reason I have also been wondering for several years what goods were sold in the Laing Stores. This book provides the answer.

   James Bogardus (1800-1874) was a nineteenth-century American inventor, machinist, architect, engineer, manufacturer, and builder in a time, unlike our own, where an individual could do almost anything industrious and put a good name to it afterward. His inventions included the eccentric mill, the self-supporting cast iron façade, and, with construction of the McCullough Shot & Lead Company shot tower of nonstructural brick wall panels entirely supported by an iron frame to a height of 217 feet in 1855, he anticipated the skeletal steel-framework of our urban environment. At the time this structure was the tallest in Manhattan.

   I find it curious that the modern skyscraper was born of the necessity of the armaments industry. There is something else I had been wondering about -- the function of a shot tower is that lead is passed through a sieve at the top, falls a distance where it becomes spherical, and then plunges into a bath of cold water where it hardens. The necessity of the structure of a shot tower is to be tall, economical to build, and to not allow lead to not be blown around by gusting winds.

   Bogardus, in an age where mechanical invention was the new wave, was a practical and ambitious entrepreneurial builder seeking profitable income. It is ironic to consider that if he were alive today he might not have any particular interest to looking into the past or especial concern for preservation of the historic fabric that he was building for us then.

   "As for his customers, they probably were not concerned with architectural revolution or looking into the future. They wanted structures that accomplished the task at hand. Bogardus's buildings did so. And that was that."

   The above is about as speculative as this book gets -- there is a lot of factual information, dated and attributed thoroughly, that represents a great amount of admirable research. Unlike many books full of facts derived from historical records, this book is readable, the authors have a smooth and patient prose style, and I recommend the reading to anyone with a serious curiosity about cast-iron architecture, particularly if they are the owners of one of these beautiful facades. For those readers not familiar with the streets and buildings of New York City I advise keeping a street map and an AIA guide nearby (duly noted in the bibliography). I read the book on the subway, the dead time between business meetings, and was pleased to recognize a few of the buildings when emerging above ground. The author sticks to the task at hand and does not wander very far into concurrent events, therefore a timeline of American history or a short history of New York City would assist the casual reader in imagining a familiar context. The year 1855 in which Bogardus's first shot tower was built marks the publication of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and the building of the first oil refinery in Pittsburgh.

   Though the majority of Bogardus's work was in New York City he built cast-iron structures in several other locations including Chicago, Philadelphia, Albany, Charleston, Washington DC, Baltimore, San Francisco, Santo Domingo (a lighthouse), and Havana. From 1848 to 1862 Bogardus built 43 structures, with five of them now remaining standing where you can go see them for yourself, four in New York City and one, the Iron Clad Building, in Cooperstown, NY.

   Margot Gayle, a founder of the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture, is an authority on cast-iron architecture and has been a major inspiration behind the historic preservation movement in New York City. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday, and deserves as thoroughly researched a biography as she has provided us for Bogardus.

   First printed in APT Communique 1998.

No comments about Lisbon in the Renaissance: A New Translation of the Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio.

2 comments about Palaces of the Sun King: Versailles, Trianon, Marly--The Chateaux of Louis XIV.

1. This book is a huge disappointment. When i picked it up at border's i assumed at that price it would be spectacular..it is not..it's an odd book with usual images and hard to follow text. I had wanted to see the book because you rarely hear anything about Marly, the kings favorite palace, if Louis liked you, he would invite you to Marly, it was spectacular and you do get a feel for it in this book, but not enough to pay this staggering price. It's a mediocre book, with a shocking sticker price...just buy the Montclos book on Versailles, now that's a GREAT book and well worth it's price.



2. This book covers many structures, commissioned by Louis XIV, that were either built or were designed but not executed. The pictures that the authors did themselves are spetacular! The text is also above average. I however must warn you it is not worth $135.00 which is the book's retail price. The book's length was a huge dissapointment. It is only 208 pages (not 224 as they say in the book description) which includes the table of contents, index, bibliography, etc. The authors did not fill the pages with as many illustrations and text as I would've liked.If I had it to do over again would not pay the retail price for this book. I would buy a used one instead. Overall though, despite its length, the book does provide the reader with an in-depth look at the exquisite architecture of the Sun King.

2 comments about When Buildings Speak: Architecture as Language in the Habsburg Empire and Its Aftermath, 1867-1933.

1. "When Buildings Speak" uncovers a significant body of architecture that lay almost completely neglected for decades due to political and ideological reasons. Together with Akos Moravanszky's pioneering "Competing Visions," Alofsin's book is the only English-language source that deals with Central European turn of the century architecture in a comprehensive way. However, the author adopts a significantly different approach from Moravanszky: instead of offering a broad survey, Alofsin focuses on a limited number of in-depth case studies. In them, he interprets architectural form in terms of broader political and cultural contexts, casting a new light on the question of architecture as a means of communication. The book is spectacularly well illustrated, which further adds to the reader's understanding of buildings, at the same time creating an unusual hybrid of a solid scholarly text with the looks of an attractive coffee-table book.
   
   Unlike much of the current writing in architectural history, this book is refreshingly clearly written, free of the fashionable jargon, while still competently dealing with the complex issues of national and ethnic identity, architectural representation, etc. Because of its accessible style, detailed explanations of the context, and excellent illustrations, I can imagine "When Buildings Speak" being a great teaching tool for courses in architectural and art history.



2. Anthony Alofsin's "When Buildings Speak" brings an impressive overview of the key examples of Central European architectural modernity. Focusing on different geographical spots within the Habsburg Empire, it examines the plurality of social and political aspects in the creation of specific architectural languages, associated with the elusive margins of the region. At first glance, Alofsin's definition of architectural languages may seem puzzling. A reader can easily start struggling with the author about a certain building being specifically associated with a single architectural language. But exactly that fight with the author, a puzzle about where a reader would put a certain building, makes this work open and provocative. It feels like a reader has a very personal dialogue, if not a debate, with the author while reading the text.

1 comments about An Imperial Vision: Indian Architecture and Britain's Raj.

1. The British really did empire well, they cultivated the trust of their subjects and backed it up with percision military might. The British were fascinated with India and it shows it the imperial architecture, the fusion of Western and Indian Architecture, most of which is spectacular, expecially in New Delhi. This book has wonderful images and well researched text on the architecture of India during the Raj. The British left India with a thirst for democracy and the buildings in which to excercise their freedom. Highly recommended to anyone with any interest in this subject...and buy Imperial Delhi while your at it..that is the definitive book on the subject.

No comments about Young Architects 5: Inhabiting Identity.

2 comments about History of the United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics.

1. I fully agree with the above review in all its positive points. This book is superbly researched and superbly written, and it is well worth the very inexpensive price. It is by far the most detailed examination of the architectural history of the U.S. Capitol building that I have come across. However, the actual physical quality of the book leaves a great deal to be desired, which is why I have given this four stars instead of five. The printing job is lousy. Many words are struck out or compressed into the space of one letter. The illustrations look as if they were copied on an old and dirty photocopy machine. This is a particular problem with the photographs, some of which are almost undifferentiated black rectangles. Also, the captions indicate that some of the illustrations were obviously in color, although they are copied in black and white.
   
   I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the architecture of the U.S. Capitol, but I also would recommend that it be read with other books on the Capitol that have better quality illustrative material.



2. I used to think that the United States Government Printing Office was responsible for putting out lots and lots of documents only politicians and lawyers might find interesting, as well as pamphlets on home canning, fallout shelter design, and other arts. I was thus delighted to find that this government branch has produced a quite beautiful volume, _History of the United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics_ by William C. Allen. It even has a publication note: "106th Congress, 2d Session / Senate Document 106-29 / Printed pursuant to H. Con. Res. 221," but don't be put off by this. It may be an official US Government publication, but it is a large format book of almost five hundred glossy pages, it is well illustrated, and it is written with no touch of bureaucratese. Cynics alert: the government can do some things very well.

   Of course, that is what the book itself is about. The Capitol is a real triumph, a gorgeous building that does everything architecture can do to inspire hand-over-the-heart patriotic feelings. Underneath that magnificent dome are wings that are beautifully proportioned and decorated, and it comes as a surprise to learn just how much the building consists of additions that were never anticipated when its first stone was laid in 1793. Indeed, the splendid dome we see now was before just a smaller spherical cap without decoration, and the building consists more of additions than it does of the original structure. We may now think of the building as essentially finished; indeed, historic preservation activists have in recent decades prevented any major additions or changes, but for most of its history, the Capitol has been tinkered with and pieced together. In 1827, Representative Charles Wickliffe of Kentucky addressed the house to complain that the building was not yet finished, and that old men from his district who had worked on it were now amazed to find out that the work was incomplete. Almost ever since, elected representatives within the building have criticized the Capitol, bothered its funding, politicized the selection of architects, and in general acted like politicians. The building remains symbolic in this way: a magnificent outcome has arisen despite the arguing and shenanigans.

   The book describes the placement upon Jenkins Hill of the "Congress House" within the famous plan of the city drawn up by Pierre L'Enfant. It was Jefferson who insisted that that it be called a "capitol," with roots deep in the Roman republic, emphasizing ancient principles of citizenship and self-government. There was a competition for the design of the original building, but there is not really one original architect, as it was built by compromise between various plans. George Washington insisted on a dome "for beauty and grandeur," but thought it might be a good place to put a clock or a bell. It was the classicist Jefferson who advised Washington on the final design, and who worked intimately with B. Henry Latrobe to produce the initial structure. Prominent within it was the rotunda, with proportions taken almost directly from the Pantheon in Rome. The Jefferson - Latrobe partnership was enormously productive, but not without some conflict. Latrobe, for instance, was in favor of a "lantern" to be raised upon the dome as a means of covering it and allowing for light to enter, but Jefferson was clearly bound to classical precedent; he knew of no such lantern on classical buildings, terming them "degeneracies of modern architecture." By the time the dome was really to be erected, the British had in 1814 burned much of the original building, and Charles Bullfinch designed a relatively low, spherical dome close to the desires of Washington and Jefferson.

   Latrobe was the first of the architects to deal with the Americanization of classical influence. For instance, the sculptors of the enormous eagle above the Speaker's rostrum produced a weird bird that was distinctly un-American. The Italian sculptor modeled the bird from memory, and it was only after shipments of anatomical parts of a bald eagle to the sculptor that we got an eagle whose inauthenticity would not "be detected by our Western Members." Latrobe also designed novel columns for the inside of the building, capped by magnolias or graceful tobacco leaves rather than the classical acanthus. His most popular feature, however, were the corn columns, the body of which resembled stalks of corn tied together (rather than plain fluting), with a cap of ears of corn. Everyone liked them, and they enabled him to get extra appropriations.

   The architect who has most to do with the appearance of the Capitol as we know it was Thomas U. Walker, who entered the competition for the expansion of the building, once the old Senate and House chambers were acknowledged as too small. His design of wings for new chambers on either side of the old ones, and connected to them by narrow corridors, was approved by Millard Fillmore in 1851. Walker worked on the creation of the new chambers even though for most of his term the building project would be transferred to the War Department. It is not clear who had the idea for a vertical extension of the low dome into the splendid one we now see, but by the time a certain Representative addressed his colleagues about the fire hazard of the mostly wooden Bulfinch dome, Walker was already designing its replacement. Many of Walker's beautiful drawings and plans for the dome are reproduced here. The dome is of fireproof cast iron, painted to look uniform with the stone of the rest of the building. Miraculously, the colossal and ornate dome exceeded in weight the original, much smaller, masonry and wood dome by only twenty percent. It was not without controversy; there were many in architectural circles who insisted that buildings and materials must be honest and iron should not imitate stone, but this was never a controversy entered by the politicians. The dome had been started by the beginning of the Civil War, but the firm with the contract for the cast iron had over a million pounds of it on site, and kept working even though the government admitted that the war would postpone all payments. During the war, the Capitol was used as a bakery, a barracks, and a hospital. With the confusion of war, the grounds became trampled by hogs and goats, and they rubbed against and discolored the ironwork waiting installation. But the great dome was completed by the time the war was over.

   There have been extensions to all four sides of the Capitol, and many changes to the interior. While many of the historic decorations have been deliberately retained, a few (and it seems significantly few) changes have done serious damage to what went before. The author notes that the 1950s update of the Senate and House chambers took out all of the high Victorian decoration and replaced it with "pastiches of vaguely classical designs." He sniffs, "Few connoisseurs today look upon the designs with satisfaction, nor has any student of Federal period architecture discovered either authenticity or wit among the details." However, such dismissals are few in this gorgeous book. Allen is himself the architectural historian in the office of the Architect of the Capitol, and so his enthusiasm for the structure is not only obvious but it is exceedingly well informed. He has included the controversies, personality clashes, funding debates, and political bombast here, but nothing can obscure the success and the beauty of this remarkable building, a superbly American temple.