No comments about Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past.

No comments about Carmel: A History in Architecture (CA) (Images of America).

5 comments about Living in Japan.

1. The book is a pleasure to read through and to look at the wonderful photographs. At the ~ $20+ sales price, it was a very good value. Of course the homes are not typical of the average Japanese home but rather something we all aspire to.



2. Saw this book in Tokyo and loved the photos of modern Japanese living. Great shots of modern architecture and interior design in Japan. Went back to the hotel and found the book on Amazon for half the price... it was waiting for me when I got back to the states. You can't beat that!



3. Great photos, a well picked and varied number of interiors and still... I can't rate it at five. It's so slick and gorgeous but I miss some smaller and perhaps more lived-in dwellings. And a little more gardens. But it is definetely worth getting and browsing. A small defect is the habit of re-using objects and motifs in some of the pictures, always annoys me when they do that. Top marks I can only give to the twenty-some-years old Japanese Style, but then you won't get the recent modern interiors.



4. I bought this 'coffee-table' book as a gift for a friend, but when it arrived, we were so impressed with the extensive collection of photographs that I had to purchase a copy to display, re-visit, and share with future house guests. The authors have managed to capture the rare and simple beauty of Japanese architecture and design through history. An impressive tour!



5. I am a big fan of Alex Kerr and this book did not let me down. It contains a many images that aren't normally seen in most traditional print, and thankfully none of the babbeling of authors that only spend a week in Japan and white about the "true Japan". The last thing I am looking for is another tatami mat or Japanese screen.
   
   I have already begun a home re-modeling plan with some of the ideas in this book. I also got the idea from another one of Kerr's books, and began to collect old Japanese lumber to re-use in my own home.
   
   Thanks Alex!

3 comments about Key West: A Tropical Lifestyle.

1. This book gives the true eclectic style of Key West. The photos are wonderful and give an accurate insight into the private homes and life style of this laid back, creative, elegant, charming community.....It gives one a look at the gracious stately old homes as well as the most impressive renovations of cottages in "old town". Book is filled with gorgeous full page photographs, beautifully, uniquely, Key West!



2. I think Key West had an appeal that you don't find in other parts of the country. It's the southern most point in America and there is the same feeling that you get in other special towns in the US, such as New Orleans, and SanFrancisco. Each has something unique about it.
   
   This was a great book for capturing that feeling. It's also nice to see beyond the street view. I found the text interesting and very readable.
   
   I hope if you decided to buy this book you will enjoy it as well.



3. It's hard to imagine how the natives, or the locals, live in places like Key West or New Orleans. These tropical outposts seem less mainstream than other parts of the USA; unique people put down roots in both of these sister cities. This lovely book gives a glimpse into homes of the poeple who live and work in Key West. It is just beautiful to see gracious living that is for real and not manufactured, but imagined and realized. Starting with the cover photo of the home of Michael Pelkey (and the ten pages of his home, and the ending photo of his kitchen countertop), you will be transported. The author writes with knowingness and sensitivity and respect for the inhabitants of, the history, and of present time Key West. This is a great inspiration book for your own lifestyle and decor, and a lovely arm chair vacation too. I would love the author Leslie Linsley, and the photographer Terry Pommett to come to New Orleans and do a sister book for us here (and bring Michael Pelkey along to lend his expert eye to the whole project).

4 comments about New Orleans Style: Past and Present.

1. Well written and good in its selection of a variethy of types, typically found in New Orleans. The photography, exceptionally important in this kind of book, is excellent. New Orleans' architecture is unique, from its shotgun cottages along the river, to its grand, Garden District houses. They're all here, and make me yearn to return to New Orleans.



2. This is a gorgeous book of homes of residents of New Orleans. These are real people who love their city, their history and their residences. Susan Sully shows that to its full extent.



3. "New Orleans Style" is a sumptuous, colorful tribute to our city and a worthy companion to Susan Sully's other books on Charleston and Savannah. Her research is, as always, impeccable with rich, lush prose appropriate for this most exotic of U.S. cities, and it's ideally complemented by Paula Illingworth's photographs. No student of American architecture and style should be without Sully's dazzling trilogy of the Deep South's "treasure cities."



4. how can you have a book about past new orleans and not mention shotgun houses a very bad decision

1 comments about The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and Progeny.

1. William L. MacDonald presents an unpretentious and sound survey of Rome's most famous yet least understood architectural icon. For those with a keen but novitiate interest in the Pantheon, or casual readers of Roman history, this book is ideal; it's not overwhelmingly fact-laden and it's as assimilable as an afternoon snack. For those interested in the engineering, logistics and constitution of the Pantheon I would suggest some of the recent work by the Engineer David Moore. Historically MacDonald's ideas are consistent with previous analyses and include an interesting metaphysical supposition for the Pantheon's ambitious dimensions ("to unify unities...is the Pantheons ultimate meaning" - pg. 88). The final chapter offers an insightful survey of similar designs from ancient Mycenae to Neoclassical American, showing how influencing, and influenced, Hadrian's rebuilt Pantheon was as a western idiom and architectural paragon.
   
   All-in-all I enjoyed reading this book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it!

3 comments about The Lost Vanguard: Russian Modernist Architecture 1922-1932.

1. In the West, we often forget the Modernist agenda was rapidly adopted throughout the World. Young architects in the Soviet Union were especially eager to embrace this radical break with tradition. From 1922-32, Soviet architects were on the leading edge of the Modern Movement. This experiment with Modernism came to end with the rise of Josef Stalin. The Iron Curtain soon cut off the Soviet Union from the rise and eventual decline of architectural Modernism in the West.
   
   The collapse of the Soviet Union opened new opportunities for Westerners to explore countries that had been cut off for nearly seven decades. In 1993, architectural photographer and curator Richard Pare first entered the former Soviet Union. Pare's goal was to find these "lost" early Modernist buildings and photograph them. "The Lost Vanguard" is a compilation of photographs of seventry three structures. Richard Pare is a first rate photographer and his images are impressive.
   
   A wonderful companion work to "The Lost Vanguard" is "Havana Deco." While the Soviets were adopting the latest Modernist designs, Cuban architects were embracing Modernism's more sensual sibling, Art Deco. In both Cuba and the Soviet Union, these cutting edge buildings were allowed to fall into the worst kind of disrepair. Yet in Cuba, no matter how greatly neglected the bulding is, there are always sensual bones beneath the decaying exterior. In contrast, there is something nightmarish about the Soviet buildings. In looking at Pare's depressing photographs, I am reminded of the slum photos of the great Chilean American photographer, Camilo Jose Vergara. These early Modernist buildings are not long for this world and we are fortunate the Richard Pare got there in time to document them. Highly recommended.



2. 
   Beautiful modern architecture, beautiful postmodernist photography -- a labor of love, worth the labor that went into it!



3. Richard Pare is one of the best architectural photographers in the world today. In more than ten years he has documented Soviet architecture from after the 1917 revolution (1922-32) and this book is a catalog of that work, some of which is on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (July-October 2007). It is a large (12" x 10.75") and heavy (most plates are in color) volume. An excellent source for those interested in this facet of modernism!

1 comments about LARE Review, Mastering Section C: Site Design.

1. I'm not sure if this book was written from someone who has not taken the LARE, but the book is filled with multiple and critical errors. Besides only being a simple review of the LARE Reference Manual with no real insight, this book provides graphic solutions to the given problems so incorrect that they would critically fail the LARE. Vignettes are not to scale, components are sized incorrectly, pedestrian access is either unsafe or not provided, vehicles back out onto primary access routes, and more. This book is a nightmare if you are looking for accurate study material.

No comments about New York: A Historical Atlas of Architecture.

1 comments about Ryokan: Japan's Finest Spas and Inns.

1. The book is introducing 36 Ryokans throughout Japan.
   
   13 for Tokyos area
   6 for Kyoto, Nara and Kansai
   7 for central Japan
   4 for northern Japan
   6 for southern Japan
   
   One of the particularly well done features of the book are the exceptionally well written texts and a very sensitive introduction about the "Ryokan and Onsen Etiquette".
   
   This 3 page introduction alone lists up cases which probably make up more than 80% of common pitfalls when "guests" are lacking the cultural background.
   
   Years back I have been in those or similar situations myself and would have wished to have had such a quick rundown of what to do and what to better avoid.
   
   
   A few things that could be improved on the book.
   
   1) Some pictures have homepage or newspaper like quality.
   (low resolution picture zoomed up to a full page)
   2) The introduced Ryokans should be numbered throughout the book as it was done on the map in the front.
   3) More seasonal information should be included. Blossom of certain trees and flowers, festivals etc.
   4) Perhaps a smaller sized edition would accommodate better for some of the lower quality pictures and would help making the book more portable.
   
   
   Summary:
   
   With each single well crafted textual descriptions of the Ryokans you get invaluable sensitive introductions to Japans cultural background.
   
   If you are going to Japan for business you will want to consider the book an investment into an cultural introduction.
   
   The other above mentioned points are no deal breakers in an way, but are actually devalueing an another wise excellent book.
   
   The book is highly recommended !!