No comments about Four Pictures by Emily Carr.

1 comments about Casa Malaparte.

1. this little book is full of information about the house, architect, and owner. the drawings wonderful, the pictures really sets the house back in the time of Malparte, and the ideas that went behind the house is not hidden in the book.

No comments about Richard Meier's Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art.

2 comments about Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. Wonderful book with very detailed information regarding architectual styles and construction techniques. This information is very useful for both the layman and scholar. It is written in easy to understand language with numerous illustrations and photographs.



2. This is the perfect book for those interested in the art and science of examining and interpreting the built landscape. Providing the same instruction as an intro-level Historic Preservation course, it teaches the reader the process for building documentation , as well as some of the other basics of the Historic Preservation profession. The beautiful photographs, drawings, and illustrations clarify the more-difficult ideas. Not for the casual building-enthusiast, but it will greatly add to the enjoyment of the more serious vernacular architecture fan.

2 comments about California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture.

1. I bought this book when it first came out in 1980 and I recently noticed that a new addition was available. Well worth getting too, more pages, extra subjects (cars for instance) updated bibliography and a sparkling new layout. Author Heimann feels that architectural historian David Gebhard's term 'Programatic' does not quite capture the flavor of these buildings, I propose calling them FUNTECTURE.
   
   A new chapter, not in the original book, is 'Current Condition' which has twenty-two photos, in color, of buildings now standing and they all look very smart and well cared for but wait till you see the photo on page 169, this shows the amazing headquarters of the Longaberger company in Newark, Ohio, famous for making baskets and that is exactly what the building looks like, seven stories high with two carrying handles reaching up to the sky...only in America! You can see and read about this lovely bit of whimsy on their website.
   
   You will really enjoy this book if you are a fan of roadside America, especially if you have lived in California and maybe remember some of the weird buildings that are no longer around.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



2. This book is a must-have for those of us who love the lure of the road and all it has to offer. It's sad that a lot of these wonderful icons of Americana are vanishing, but it's great that people like Jim Heimann are preserving it for future generations to see. I highly recommend this book -- lots of great photos and interesting history in a nicely organized book!

No comments about Wallace Neff 1895-1982 The Romance of Regional Architecture.

1 comments about Two Carpenters: Architecture and Building in Early New England, 1799?1859.

1. Calvin Stearns, the father, George, one of his four sons, the father's brother, and Calvin's three other sons covered a lot of ground in early 1800's New England. They were master carpenters whose homes they built for their families and clients in Vermont and Massachusetts--mainly in Northfield and Boston--were looked to as models of the best of New England craftsmanship and design ideas. "Calvin Stearns designed and built dwellings that were visually and spatially complex...[that] articulated hierarchy." His brother and his sons never strayed far from these architectural principles, but often imaginatively applied them according to different social circumstances they were in, the wishes of their clients, and changes in architecture in the course of the careers. Garrison focuses on Calvin and George Stearns because it was they who left many documents which could be studied for the two carpenters' working habits, financial and social relationships with clients, and the materials, supplies, and equipment they used. Garrison does a meticulous study which credits mainly the two Stearns he focuses on with changing the architecture and building of rural New England homes and thus the main of New England rural society. "The book considers pattern, work, identity, power, and ambiguity because those metathemes help organize interpretation." For instance, "the Stearnses primarily acquired power through their ability to design and make things"--which ability others sought out and they demonstrated in building their own houses in different communities they moved into. To call these two Stearnses "carpenters"--instead of the architects they clearly were to a considerable degree if not strictly by occupation--may seem coy or seem an understatement. But the author means to show not only the consummate carpentry and design sense of Calvin Stearns and his son George, but also how their being woven into different communities had an effect on architecture throughout the region. Garrison is director of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture and history professor at the U. of Delaware.

No comments about Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: Building for Democracy (Taschen Basic Architecture).

No comments about Rapid City: Historic Downtown Architecture (SD) (Images of America).

1 comments about Ruins of Ancient Rome: The Drawings of French Architects Who Won the Prix De Rome 1786-1924.

1. Few architects will dispute that the high-point of architectural rendering was achieved in the schools and ateliers of the Beaux Arts. Indeed architectural representation has gone seriously downhill since. No matter that computers produce 3-D views and other realistic views, but the human touch is so lacking as to render AutoCAD drawings cold and lifeless despite the high degree of accuracy that is possible.
   
   Ruins of Rome collects an extraordinary set of images, all student work no less, that shows a level of skill no longer taught and possibly not understood. Not least it also represents a particularly fine period in architecture. Beaux Arts architectural renderings can be appreciated in their own right as works of art. This book is that rare gem in publishing, an affordable book packed with quality color plates. The generously-sized format allows appreciation of fine detail throughout. An informed essay adds useful background to this special book. A treasure!