2 comments about The Architecture of New York City: Histories and Views of Important Structures, Sites, and Symbols.

1. This is a wonderful book that extensively covers the architecture of buildings in New York, from past to present. Full of interesting background information. I can recommend this book to anyone that is interested in New York architecture. Unfortunately, photographs are kept to an essential minimum. Other than that, it was everyting I hoped for.



2. I bought this book a few days before my first visit to New York City. However, just reading very first part of this book gave me good knowledge of both history and architectures of NYC.

   This book starts with the born of New York City in 17th century, and covers many famous (and not so famous) architectures with about 200 photos taken by the author. It covers Georgian influence of 18th Century, Greek revival of 19th century, the Chicago school...etc. The Art Deco Skyscrapers, such as the Empire State building and the Chrysler building are well described. A whole chapter is devoted to Rockefeller Center. The history of MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) is interesting...

   For me, this book seems to have some small shortcomings. This book lacks "up to date" information. (This revised edition was first published in 1994.) Also, as a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, I hope Guggenheim Museum have been covered more.

No comments about Shaping an American Landscape: The Art and Architecture of Charles A. Platt.

1 comments about Stone Work: Reflections on Serious Play and Other Aspects of Country Life.

1. John Jerome has created a masterpeice, any person who enjoys thinking about physical work will delight in. Stone Work lets us in to the joys and disappointments of his life, that is, for a while centered around building a stone wall for purely aescetic reasons on his New England property. My five year old copy is in tatters.

No comments about Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design.

5 comments about Ritual House: Drawing on Nature's Rhythms for Architecture and Urban Design.

1. Ralph Knowles book has been a great help to my husband and me, as we plan a home for our empty nest. We are nearly 80 years old and wanting a house that is environmentally responsible. We also are deeply interested in integrating our lives, mentally-spiritually-physically-emotionally. A good home in rhythm with the world we live in has become a real focus, thanks to this book. We read it to each other in the early morning and become more awake and aware because of the ideas in Ritual House. So, we are including nature and the rituals we treasure in our house design. Thanks for a book with ideas and depth of soul.
   
   Marjorie R. Barlow, Ph.D.



2. This book is an uplifting invitation to explore architecture's 4th dimension. The rituals described here are those associated with the sun, and the seasons that result from earth's rotation around it. From migrating Paiute Indians within the Owens Valley to the seasonal changes in the nave of cathedrals [and diurnal changes in the transept] this book illustrates how users of buildings celebrate change over time. With so many detailed examples, the designer is invited to create settings where nature can inspire people to use their buildings and outdoor spaces in ways that enrich daily life. The invitation is made even more appealing by the many sketches that capture the essence of each topic.
   In separate chapters on migration, transformation, and metabolism, the focus is on people: their movement of within buildings, their manipulation of building elements, and the extent of their awareness of fuel consumption. While there is well-deserved criticism of modern buildings' exclusion of nature, there is far more to excite designers to find ways to help nature to lure our buildings' occupants into patterns of self-expression and acts of creativity.



3. Ritual House: Drawing On Nature's Rhythms For Architecture And Urban Design is an eclectic and innovative introduction and study of urban planning and architectural design drawing upon the years of experience and expertise of academician, researcher, architectural policy and design consultant Ralph Knowles. Ritual House is presented to the reader in a easy and engaging manner, with Professor Knowles depicting several particular housing developments and major historical projects, including their architectural significance and architectural design. Ritual House is very strongly recommended to students of Architectural Studies and Urban Development interested in the process of architectural design, students of architecture, as well as the non-specialist general reader wanting a better understanding of the esthetic and mechanical particulars of architecture.



4. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in architecture and the urban environment. This thought-provoking work is the result of more than 40 years of careful university research by one of the most important figures in solar access design.



5. RITUAL HOUSE is the latest book by Professor Ralph Knowles of the University of Southern California. Based on more than 40 years of research, the book describes how so much of the modern built environment has missed opportunities to reinforce powerful connections that people have with nature. Prof. Knowles provides examples of how designers and planners can and do improve the quality of peoples' lives by making direct connections to between the rhythms of nature and the rituals of human life. He talks about the importance of access to sunlight and natural ventilation in buildings, and provides specific design strategies to help . Ralph Knowles is internationally recognized for his important contributions to research in solar access and natural forces in architecture. Every architecture student knows of his work, and now he has written a book that the rest of us can understand. The text is easy to follow and does not require a degree in architecture. If you don't know if it is raining or sunny outside right now, you need this book. Think about how important this is the next time you are in your office breathing recycled air while you don't have any idea what the weather is like it is because you don't have a window and can't see the sun.
   
   Read this book. You'll feel better. You might even be able to make small adjustments to adapt your own home or apartment to improve your quality of life. If you are planning to build, give this book to your architect.

2 comments about Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guide to Topiaries and Espaliers: Plus Other Designs for Shaping Plants (Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides).

1. This is a great beginner's book on how to create topiaries & espaliers. The book is in full color with lots of photos. Instructions are clear and easy to follow. In each section appropriate plant types are discussed.

   First, frameless topiaries are described. Designs included are lollipop, poodle, spiral, & corkscrew trees. The book then shows how to make empty frame topiaries. Included are circles, hoops and spirals.

   Then it shows you how to make a moss-filled bunny. Following this method you can make almost any shape imaginable. Several kinds of espalier shapes, and how to make them are then show.

   Finally, knots, mazes, pleaching, pollarding & coppicing are covered. Proper tools and shaping hedges are explained as well. Be aware that most plants used are for warmer climates (zone 6 or above).




2. This is the first negative review I've written, and I feel badly about it. I was so anticipating the arrival of this book.

   The instructions, which I was eager to get, were only the most general, basic things I already knew even though I'm a raw beginner. I was particularly interested in espalier and pleached allee directions and was hoping for a book with lot of focus on these. A couple of short articles available on the Net were much more informative and illustrated each step very clearly.

   The list of recommended plant materials was limited. With a little research on the Internet, I obtained a much more extensive list suited to my area.

   The photos were the best part, although they could have been improved, too.

   The most positive statement I can make is that the price was most reasonable, and perhaps that is why this book was so lightweight, more for browsing than using for instruction.

   I'm ordering another book from Amazon, hoping for better instructions--and hopefully, I'll be able to write a glowing review!

1 comments about Robert Irwin Getty Garden.

1. I felt that this book is not only a beautiful book on art and gardens to own, but qualifies as an "Everyday Reference" for our Architecture office. The photographs by Becky Cohen, 2000 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award winner, were reason enough to give this gorgeous book as gifts to friends as well as other Associates in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design. The images she took relay the purposefulness and soulfulness of the design of the gardens, which in turn, connects and inspires the Designer in their own field, whatever it might be. As a reference book to Designers, the book surpasses it's own purpose to show the incredible Getty Gardens and to view the dialogue between Weschler and Irwin, which at times, I'm sorry to say, can be dull and stupid sounding. However, the compositions and textures of the photographs are just too stunning to harbor that opinion of the dialogue for very long. In the book, you feel you might realize that Cohen's immensely thoughtful compositions of the garden photographs are a better art itself than of the artistic gardens. Again and again, with every page, they follow one after the other to reveal a new thought, not just about gardens or a particular spectacular plant or flower, but about how you see them. It inspires a desire to see them for yourself, as she does, to open an intimate experience with nature. Each image impresses that the two dimensional beauty you see in front of you might be part trickery. The "real" gardens couldn't have that much beauty! But, of course, when you visit the gardens, they do. Cohen is merely brilliant at capturing it. As you find the last of the images at the end of the book, it reminds me of the wonder you feel when you see anything beautful for the first time, it sort of makes you hold your breath and makes your heart skip a bit.

1 comments about On Distant Shores: Colonial Houses Around the World.

1. This is a truly unique book breaking down as it does buildings by colonial nation. It enables a side-by-side comparison of how different countries adapted their historic architectural styles to their mostly tropical colonies. It is stunningly illustrated and is a must-have for anyone interested in colonial architecture or, like my self, wishing to build a luxury home with colonial elegance in the tropics.

3 comments about Penelope Hobhouse's Garden Designs.

1. A friend of mine introduced this book to me when I was doing research and writing "Planting Design Illustrated." I loved it. It has many great photos to illustrate garden design. It is a collection of garden design done by Penelop Hobhouse and her partner. It enlightens you and encourages you to look at a design issue at a detail scale. Very good images. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be.
   
   Penelop Hobhouse is one of the best writers on gardening and garden design, her books always have great print quality and very nice color photos. No offence, she is also one of the great people that dare to call a garden a garden, not "landscape." She is actually talking about landscape design issues, but she prefers to use the term garden or gardens and make her book closer to ordinary people. As a design professional, I love her books also.



2. I've had this book for several years now and keep coming back every year as an old faithful source of planning inspiration. Beautifully illustrated with plans for many scenarios. Many of the books written by or about English gardens are beatiful to look at but don't stand much of a chance at being reproduced in the typical suburban garden. Hobhouse has, in my opinion, shown us extraordinary gardens, gorgeously photographed, along with plans that can actually be implemented in your garden. I've got a library of garden books, some serving as inspiration and some serving as pure tools (almanacs, etc.) - this is by far the best inspirational garden book I own.



3. Hobhouse's book combines the look of a coffee table book with the practicality of a manual with her many varied garden design examples. Each design has an explanation followed with outstanding photos. However, the best part is that she illustrates in plan how her plants are grouped so that the beginning gardener can learn about spatial concepts while also about plant placement, color, texture, etc. This is a thorough, but not overwhelming design source and guide that is both useful and inspiring.

5 comments about Monastic Gardens.

1. Purchased at Wave Hill Gardens in NYC, this book is the last purchased on my horticultural school tour. And, I must say, this book probably isn't worth the energy I spent to tote it up and down New England. Granted, the pictures are wonderful and some of the chapters worth a second look-over, Hale's Monastic Gardens is a standard coffee table book and should be considered as such before purchase.



2. Very interesting, very beautiful book illustrated by photographs of present day monastic gardens in Europe and the UK.



3. I recently purchased this book as a gift for a friend after hearing a review from a fellow book club member.
   
   My friend is a long-time gardener and has also attended retreats at several convents and monasteries. She was delighted with the information in the book as well as the beautiful photographs. Especially interesting are the explanations of the selection of plants included in the various parts of the gardens.
   
   I would recommend this book as a must-have for the serious gardener's library.



4. This book is a precious insight into a way of life which is rare today, and all the more valuable as a result. The photographs are beautiful and informative, the text respectful but not synchophantic. I've read it twenty times and still find opening the next page a real treat.



5. Books on the origins of English words, generally agree the word 'garden' comes from the old German for an enclosed safe space where living things including vegetables, flowers and children can be safely grown. Modern dictionaries expand the meaning a bit, but for the most part gardens remain places of safety, nurturing, repose, and reflection. The huge fields containing monocrops grown by large commercial interests, where nothing survives except the cash crop of interest, are the antithesis of the garden, which is literally and figuratively the source of life.

   According to the Christian Bible (and the Jewish Torah), the original garden (Eden) contained the tree of life. MONASTIC GARDENS, by Mick Hales, is about the importance of gardens for the well being of bodies, minds, emotions, and eternal souls. The places he visited and photographed in the U.S. and Europe reflect the lost paradise and the paradise to come. Many of the gardens contain a tree as a focal point in remembrance of the Garden of Eden.

   In addition to setting an example of the life well lived, providing a place of refuge for the weary soul, and working for their own sustanance, the most important good deed the monks and nuns who tend the living spaces in monastic gardens do is to contribute to the preservation of the diversity of life humankind at times seems bent on obliterating in it's mad quest for "perfection". Around the world other spiritual/religious groups are similarly engaged in this very important work. One can think of the Amish who live in the mid-Atlantic areas of the U.S. as like-minded souls who understand the modern obsession with "perfectionism" is a deadly illusion if not downright sinful.

   Hale's photographs and text encourage meditation. Cloister walks and clipped box mazes reflect the paradox of life as a journey of the soul toward the infinite. An orchard where a fallen Quince stained with a bit of decay lies in the sunlit grass reminds one of her own mortality. All these photographs reflect the work of the creator who is the divine spark that sets the monks and nuns on their daily rounds.

   MONASTIC GARDENS is a beautiful book of prayer and meditation. Forget for a moment the strife and hatred of those who do not know love, and focus on the words Hildegard Bingen who said, "greening love hastens to the aid of all.." This is not a book about the life of priviledge. This is a book that points the way for all.