No comments about Entrepreneurial Vernacular: Developers' Subdivisions in the 1920s (Creating the North American Landscape).

No comments about Garden Mania.

No comments about How to Plan Your Own Home Landscape: How to Organize Your Outdoor Space and How to Utilize It for Maximum Pleasure and Minimum Maintenance All Year Round.

No comments about Trees in the Landscape.

No comments about Gardenwalks: 101 of the Best Gardens from Maine to Virginia and Gardens Throughout the Country.

No comments about Urban Details Los Angeles : Stairways.

3 comments about CITYSCAPES OF BOSTON CL.

1. The authors' second collaboration of historical photos of Boston (the first was Boston Then and Now from 1982) came out ten years after the original, and shows a Boston I'm more familiar with. Much of the blight that Boston seemed to have been drowning in as late as the late 80s is gone in the new pictures in this book, and more of it is shown. The architectural finesses -- buildings with added floors, the defacement of buildings such as the former Fiske building on State St, before-and-afters of Quincy Market -- are given great attention in this book, and Campbell, the author of the text, is not happy with much of it. Especially poignant, towards the end, is a huge bit of graffiti along Columbus Ave from the 60s protesting the impending construction of I-95 through Boston; in 1992, however, the highway never having been built, it is now a park serving people from the South End all the way down to Jamaica Plain.

   This book is actually a readable book, more so than the first which was all about the pictures, and much of Campbell's ideas on urban planning are on display here. Campbell, one gathers, would not be happy with the current plans to build open space over the Big Dig, yet he applauds the demolition of an old parking garage that converted Post Office Square from a desolate, confusing high-rise commercial ghetto into at least a more presentable area where the architecture of the surrounding buildings can be enjoyed from street level. Campbell's obsession with urban density comes off as being a bit agoraphobic, but it's easy to see what he means when he describes useless open space as being as much a blight as overhead highways or slums.

   To those of you who might live in or regularly visit Boston, but have never seen, can't remember, or simply can't imagine downtown without the dust and construction that the Big Dig and its related projects have brought on, this book is a record of Boston just before they started tearing everything apart. It's also a valuable historical record of the evolution of a city.




2. With text by Robert Campbell and photographs (primarily) by Peter Vanderwarker, this book is not only a wonderful volume documenting the history of Boston, but a general and gentle instruction in the rise and fall and rise and fall cycles of many cities, focusing in particular on the "built environment". All photographs are in black-and-white, but this makes the comparison between old and new cityscapes easier. Within each of seven chapters there are a series of two-page pieces featuring photographs and an essay on such topics as: Murdering Another Street, A Waterfront Workplace Becomes a Playpen, A Landmark on Top of a Landmark, A Building That Floats, etc. The text is informative and interesting. Maps are used to supplement the material, and a good index follows. If only all history and architecture books could be this well done!

   Exceptional work, highly recommended.




3. My sister in law gave us this book a couple years ago when we moved to Boston. I grew up in the burbs and my wife in the Midwest so we had plenty to explore. The book sat idle for over a year, but when I pulled it down, I was amazed that I hadn't opened it sooner. This book is wonderful.

   This is a city that revels in its history, and, to an outsider, Boston sometimes seems a bit mired in its parochial and seemingly unchanging ways. You can end up assuming, "Gosh, it must always have been this way with it's cobblestones and colonial landmarks." This book shattered my assumptions about the static nature of this city.

   The authors peel off layer after layer from the city and as the landmarks come and go the authors reflect, educate and entertain as to how these physical changes are linked to history of the city. Some changes are success stories of planning, others fortunate twists of fate, and yet others, unmitigated urban planning disasters. All fascinating illustrations that help the reader understand the city on a more meaningful level.

   I must admit that I love cities and am enthralled by the idea of so many people sharing a limited space comfortably and enjoyably. Cities, to me, have an energy that speaks to the miracle of civilization where people can grow personally by sharing in the diversity of those around them. It nevers goes perfectly, because after all we are human, but it is nonetheless comforting to frame your current surroundings in the context of those who have come before you.

3 comments about Streets for People a Primer for Americans.

1. This is one of my all-time favorite books. Great writing and terrific illustrations. It is not only a wonderful reference book on architecture, history and urban life, it is the perfect travel book. Reading it before going overseas for the first time was the best preparation I had for appreciating other world architecture and history. Visiting people-friendly streets and public places inevitably leads the traveler to some of the most interesting spots in the world. It was Rudofsky's rhapsodic writing about Bologna, for example, that took me there and hooked me for life on that wonderful city.
   Rudofsky's passion for pedestrian-centric cities is gradually seeping into the consciouness of U.S. urban planners. What a huge improvement in American urban living there could be if the public insisted that developers go back to the basics that Rudofsky preaches when building public buildings and private residences.
   PS--I was devastated when my original copy of this book finally fell apart from years of use--but was thrilled to find that it was still in print and available through Amazon.



2. Rudofsky wrote the book at the height of the first huge wave of emirgration to the suburbs, when cities were of nearly the least interest to people and the suburbs and their malls were where it was at. Now, years later, we have suburbs that are scrambling to rebuild themselves like cities and malls that have fallen prey to even bigger malls with more drawing power/gravity to pull in more shoppers. There is even a website called deadmalls.com to document the dead malls in America, the most famous of which is the long, long dead Dixie Mall in Harvey, Illinois, featured in the movie "The Blues Brothers".
   
   I wonder what Rudofsky would think of Transit Oriented Development or The New Urbanism, just to name a few. He might well applaud them and say that he told us so. I wonder if he might even let someone drag out of him any grudging acceptance whatsoever that good urban design might exist in America, or if he might even expand his approval to speak up for affordable housing at all income levels, thereby expanding that label's appeal. Now, it just means Low Income Housing and Those People.
   
   Given the times in which he wrote this book, the early to middle 1960s, I can somewhat forgive him for saying, "Those God-awful, Philistine Americans, they don't know the beauty of Europe". However, I think that the market has determined what people can and cannot take from their suburbs, and they are starting to demand better urban design based on the cost of doing the same old things in areas that are necessarily 40 miles away from the central city, if not further.
   
   I may criticize this book somewhat, but let me tell you this: This book made me want to be a city planner, a dream I have made come true, when I read this book at the tender age of 14 or 15. I picked this book up and could not put it down. My library in my small town of Jackson, Michigan, had a copy and I either checked it out or read it numerous times. I think I even called Mrs. Rudofsky to offer my condolences after calling information for his number or looking it up on microfiche (oh, those pre-Internet/Mosaic/Netscape days!). I was so isolated in the dream that this book started that I didn't even know urban planning existed as a profession, much less that I could aspire to it.
   
   In the end, take this book with a grain of salt, understand the author's biases and the times in which it was written. It may well have started an urban design revolution that many recent books in that field have continued.



3. Another beautifully illustrated book by Bernard Rudofsky (author of "Architecture without Architects", still in print), this time with ample commentary detailing the significance of pedestrian culture across the globe. One wonders whether Victor Gruen and Rudofsky personally knew each other and, if so, who was a greater advocate of street culture. I myself rarely walk anywhere, but, when I do, their appreciation of its pleasures informs every moment.

No comments about The New Topiary: Imaginative Techniques From Longwood Gardens.

3 comments about Mirrors of Infinity:: The French Formal Garden and 17th-Century Metaphysics.

1. What would you rather do, talk about making love, or make love? If your answer is the former, then (A) please don't bother reading on, and (B) good luck! Talking about making love makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's absurd! The same holds true of art. Oh yes, there are those movie critics, art critics, music and CD critics, you know, all those people who think that their opinion matters. (What's worse, of course, is to write a critique of a critique as I'm doing here [lol].) Think about it in practical terms: out of a population of six billion people, why would you rely on the opinion of ONE human being? That makes no sense whatsoever. If you wanted some sort of opinion that was worth a hoot, wouldn't you ask more than one person? Or even more importantly, why wouldn't you trust your OWN judgment instead of somebody else's? Makes no sense to me whatsoever! Unlike other disciplines -- politics, religion, sports, etc. -- there is no "middle man" in the arts: there is no politician, no priest, no referee. ONLY in the arts do you have a direct relationship between the two parties, that being the art object -- the particular work of art -- and the "receiver" who "interacts" with it -- the listener, the viewer, the reader, etc. What a unique, simple yet powerful relationship and process! So, IF you are going to write about art, you better do it right: you better speak the truth by examining the subject methodically. And this is exactly what Mr. Allen S. Weiss has done in his "Mirrors of Infinity: The French Formal Garden and 17th-Century Metaphysics."
   
   Mr. Weiss has chosen a very narrow subject for his dissertation: the aesthetic examination of the French Baroque garden through the analysis of only three gardens -- Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles and Chantilly -- by the era's greatest champion, Andre Le Notre. (Note that I did NOT state `three masterpieces', because, as Mr. Weiss will correctly prove, the gardens of Versailles are NOT a masterpiece. It might be one in terms of size, but certainly not in terms of design. It was a surprise to me, too.) At the core of Mr. Weiss's dissertation is his examination of this era's logic through its aesthetics, and therefore, he begins the book with the analysis and explanation of the contemporary paradigm both in the arts, philosophy and sciences. Excellent! (Every landscape design book should do that.) In the Preface, Mr. Weiss discusses the aesthetics of various garden designs of various eras, i.e., the Zen garden, the Italian Renaissance garden, etc., in order to provide a general background of garden logic, so to speak. Also, it is important to note that Mr. Weiss, throughout the book, questions the visitor of why he/she visits a garden and how this mindset affects our perceptions of a garden! In the subsequent chapter, Mr. Weiss explains the aesthetic transformation that occurred within the Baroque era from "motion" to rigidity, the latter being the paradigm for Le Notre. In the following three chapters, Mr. Weiss gives both a historical account of each garden as well as a complete aesthetic analysis to show what makes each garden unique. Finally, Mr. Weiss concludes with a Postface in which he recounts a couple more historical facts about the French Baroque garden in subsequent centuries, and concludes by, once again, questioning us why we, the visitors, enter these gardens. This is actually very important.
   
   With this book, Mr. Weiss has not only given a thorough dissertation of French Baroque landscape design, but has elevated the level of dissertation of a landscape design era to such a degree that all future discussions of any other landscape design era MUST now be as methodical and complete as his: he has "raised the bar" of landscape design dissertation.



2. This book was recommended as further reading in my History of European Garden Design course, and proved helpful in understanding the quotation of Versailles to the imperial gardens of Rome, and then lead me to research why L'Enfant would use Versailles for the blueprint of Washington D.C.



3. An elegant, gracefully erudite and concise intellectual history. It is a focussed and yet wide-ranging look at the function and meaning of French 18th century formal gardens, specifically Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles, and Chantilly. The sources cited are also fascinating, and it is a book that leads you to many others. I found it quite wonderful, and am looking forward to reading more by the author.