2 comments about The Architecture Student's Handbook of Professional Practice.

1. "The Architecture Student's Handbook of Professional Practice" has 4 parts, including the profession, the firm, the project, as well as contracts and agreements.
   
   Each part is further divided into chapters and subchapters, including:
   
   Professional life, legal dimension of practice, and professional development
   
   Developing a practice, running a practice, marketing and public relations, client relations, human resources, financial management, risk management, and firm operation
   
   Project definition, project delivery, project management, quality management, and building codes and regulations
   
   Types of agreements and AIA contract documents
   
   It also has some useful appendixes: Resources for intern architects, allied professional organizations, state registration boards, schools of architecture, sample AIA contract documents, glossary and Index.
   
   Most of Americans will open a book, read an average of 18 pages, and then put it away and let it sit on the shelf. I guess most architecture students will look through the table of content of this book, and look up the portion when they need it, and then put it away.
   
   One suggestion I have for AIA is to publish an abridged edition and reduce the number of the pages to make it more usable, and focus on the issues that young architectural professionals have to deal with everyday or 80% of the time in real architectural practice.
   
   "The Architecture Student's Handbook of Professional Practice" has 720 pages. Overall, it is a useful resource for architecture students.
   
   Gang Chen, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Author of "Architectural Practice Simplified," "LEED GA Exam Guide," "Planting Design Illustrated," and other books on various LEED exams, architecture, and landscape architecture



2. This is required reading for many professional practice courses and is very useful beyond school. The content is a compilation of articles from experts and very well written with essential information readily available in each chapter. I would highly recommend getting the book at the beginning of any architectural studies as it is the best measure of the actual business of architectural design.

5 comments about Professional Practice for Interior Designers.

1. The book was in excellent condition, and although there were issues with shipping, the company I worked with expedited the service and shipment.



2. I am using this book for a class. It is actually very readable and has lots of good clear information.



3. The book is very informative,easy to read, and enjoyable! I wish I would have read as an interior design student, but I wouldn't have appreciated it as a 21 year-old.



4. This is very good! I haven't read the whole thing though. This version is so much better than the old one. It's twice as thick and scary at first site. If using it to study for the NCIDQ, better start reading way in advance, it's long and small print. Got a nice CD in the back to use for forms, nice!



5. Its a good book, but there are some things I think need to be reworked.
   
   There are real-world examples that are kinda hokey.
   
   There are lots of ethical "what would you do" examples with no follow up about whether or not such an example is an ethics violation or not. With relating the examples to codes of ethics, these examples are pointless.
   
   There seem to be some factual errors too. For example, the author states that if a designer witnesses work on a job site that is not in conformance with drawings they should intervene and stop work. HELLO! Contract law clearly states a designer should NEVER intervene. They should instead inform the contractor and the client of such inconsistencies and NOT recommend a remedy. It is up to the contractor to decide the appropriate remedy and the client to determine the appropriate contract action to take.
   
   And some things seem outdated. In the chapter on preparing marketing presentations, the author states that women "MAY" be permitted to wear trousers to a presentation depending on the firm they work for. Is this 1960? Forcing women to wear skirts violates employment law and the author should know this.
   
   Overall its a useful book, but I wouldn't call it great.

5 comments about Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery, Second Edition.

1. it was a ok price but the shippment was to late and i almost dropped my class for the same reason.. but its in a good condition...........



2. thanks, this is a great book. It taught me a lot about green building and construction and it got me an A in my class!



3. It's no light reading, but for someone new to sustainability and/or sustainable construction this book provides a well rounded and balanced discussion of the topics.



4. This is a very useful book. I will recommend this book to the students and the professional for their reference.



5. This is a textbook required for my green design 2 class. It provides a huge amount of statistics and green construction methods. Compared to other books about sustainable construction, this one seems much more informative and looks at the real issues behind WHY we should be using sustainable construction.

5 comments about Real Estate Development: Principles and Process.

1. I bought this book after reading a great review on it but then when I received it, it just looked so uninviting and ...boring, I just never read it. Maybe some day and when I do I'll add more to this review.



2. This book is trash.From beginning to the end.
   
   1)On page 6, mistakes show up.. there are two FOURTH on page 6, wherein should be one FOURTH and one FIFTH.
   
   2) Too many photos, big photos. I am tired to see all the damn big photos, which may have cost me 20 dollars out of the price of this book.
   
   3) stupid headers. on every page, the header only tells you the name of the chapter. but it does not tell you the order of the chapter. for example: on page 154, the header is Finance. on page 155, the header is REAL ESTATE FINANCE: BACKGROUND. that is all. if you want to know which part, or which chapter this page is about, you have to look for it by yourself by turning the pages one by one.
   
   4)weird language. As an international student. I cant understand these language at all.
   
   5)the writting is highly degressed. under every topic, the author doesnt respond to this topic. he just talks about the things randomly. after you read the essay, you dont know the difinition of the topic.
   
   TOO many shortcomings to say.....
   
   The author does not understand students at all. this book is readable only for real estate professors. The writting is highly spreaded. meaning no focus. I just dont know it is talking about after I read all the book.



3. This book was required for a class. The text at lengthy is making points and can come off vague as to what would be tested over. There are, however, alot of actual case studies which I enjoyed and found helpful.



4. In its earlier incarnations Real Estate Development Principles and Process was groundbreaking,informative, insightful, and occasionally downright brilliant. This edition builds on that legacy with updated coverage of electronic information systems and thoroughly revised (vastly improved) coverage of marketing and market analysis. However, Development is still not an easy read; adjectives like ponderous, academic, and stodgy still apply!
   
   Development is structured around an Eight Stage Model, prefaced by ~200 pages of introductory material about developers, development environments, development finance, and real estate development in the United States. The authors emphasize several themes:
   
   * The interplay between markets, marketability, and feasibility: Development recognizes thatprojects must be feasible for all of their constituencies to be feasible for the developer.
   * The role of public and political interaction and goal congruity in the process: Development extends James Graaskamp's thoughts on development as socio-political activity.
   * The necessity for coherent risk-management and exit strategies at every step of the process:Development emphasizes the development process as (simultaneously) a business activity, a prelude to property management, and an integral part of asset/portfolio management strategy.
   
   At core, Development is about process. Each successive step of the model applies: increasingly sophisticated analysis or procedures to ~ increasingly specific and refined data in order to ~ match resource commitments to ~ the "go forward" decision's inherent risk and "reversibility." Model steps include:
   
   1. Inception of the Development Idea
   2. Refinement of the Idea
   3. Feasibility
   4. Contract Negotiation
   5. Formal Commitment
   6. Construction/Development
   7. Completion and Formal Opening
   8. Property, Asset, and Portfolio Management
   
   The eight step format is instructive, but probably shouldn't be taken too literally. One could argue just as easily for as few as 5 or as many as 15 steps.
   
   In practice, development processes often overlap or are indistinguishable from each other. Project inception, refinement, and feasibility analysis collide willy-nilly. Negotiation, commitment, and construction proceed simultaneously and loop-back to accommodate change orders or "unanticipated events." (Who knew about the aquifer under that hillside?) Recently re-invigorated design-build strategies (e.g. Integrated Project Delivery) usually require greater developer commitment, and greater risk, at earlier stages of development than the authors' model contemplates.
   
   None of which detracts from this book's achievement!
   
   As a textbook for a junior or senior level real estate development class (the authors' intended audience) the work has no peer. It is a monumental tour-de-force of development with unrivaled breadth and depth.
   
   Development can also serve as a reference and how-to guide for practicing developers and their advisors - no matter how sophisticated we think we are already. The bibliographic material,references to printed and electronic data sources, and the authors' analysis of the data's limitations are enough to justify keeping a copy of Development close by - though you may have to reinforce your bookcase just to be on the safe side!
   
   ---------------------------------------------------
   
   A (minor) quibble about style: Development's prose is turgid, its sentence structure convoluted. {We counted 8 subordinate clauses in one (not atypical) sentence that continued for 24 half-column lines.} The authors are inordinately fond of "laundry list sentences" - multiple nouns, separated by even more numerous adjectives, strung together by a plethora of commas, colons, semi-colons and "and/ors," with nary a verb or a period in view (kind of like this sentence). The authors wrote much of the book in passive voice (an unequivocal breach of Strunk and White's law for effective prose). Net effect, Development is a difficult read! The authors' style (or lack thereof) masks their often startling insights into the development process.



5. This book is exactly what the title says - Principles and Process of real estate development. It is written by professors and it describes development as a whole and I would definitely recommend it to every development student. Every possible segment of real estate development is captured. Don't think this book will provide various 'tricks' and 'secrets'. It will provide more than that. For those wishing more practical knowledge I recommend 'Confessions of a real estate entrepreneur' by Randel.

5 comments about Professional Real Estate Development, Second Edition: The ULI Guide to the Business.

1. This is written by THE authority on real estate finance, Rick Peiser, and is published by ULI....An indespensible handbook for first time developers, if you are interested in developing real estate, READ THIS BOOK. Great for students of the industry and those looking to break into it.....



2. Rick is first and foremost a professor, so the book follows an academic format best suited for the young student of development seeking a broad introduction to the process. Of course, the real world is more complex than any text book could ever capture. That said, the book has become a bit dated for the contemporary developer, whose world is increasingly governed by investors, special interest groups and oft ill-informed government officials! The book delivers fundamental building blocks in a logical, sequential process. The examples cited are, as another reviewer pointed out, on average probably 14 year old analogies. Perhaps the largest ommission is an accurate portrayal of what a developer really does - assembles a diverse team of people together to share in a singular vision, then rule over this creative, temperamental team with an iron fist in velvet gloves. A chapter called 'Cat Herding' would best summarize that world.
   
   My recommendation is, buy the book, join the Urban Land Institute, attend your meetings, be a good listener, and dont think reading one book will set you off on your path to that infamous (maybe fictitious unless you happen to be the primary investor in an opportunity fund!)in that $100,000,000 net profit deal!



3. Excellent starter book. Should be required reading for every real estate professional. Wished I'd had about 5 years ago.



4. For its high price, you may want to seriously think about your needs. If your intention is to buy a book for a broad overview of the development process with a somewhat academic approach, then this may be right for you. If you are builder or someone with prior real estate brokerage/service experience, you may find this too ivory tower and not practical. This book was a bit theoretical for my taste.

   Although this book has been reprinted recently, all the data dates back to the late-1990's. Social and economic data are perhaps presented for illustrative purposes only, however, it is a bit disheartening.

   There are some interesting project data, financial models and checklists, but frankly, the reader could figure those out on his/her own with some common sense and marginal experience in the industry.

   Bottom line -- my suggestion is to review the book at the public library before you buy.




5. I am a 66 year old developer with several successful projects under my belt. This is a fine book for beginning, intermediate, and yes, advanced developers. The best I've ever read, and I've got bookshelves full of them. Also, for a modest fee, you can download from the publisher the software used for the financial illustrations in the book. I had to learn this material the hard way, because when I started out, there weren't any good books on development. If you want to be a developer, start here. If you're an experienced developer, you'll learn a lot from this book. I congratulate the authors for putting in such an immense amount of work.

4 comments about Construction Methods and Management (8th Edition).

1. this book came quickly and it was in the condition i expected. pleasure doing business with you.



2. We used this book for our construction equipment and methods class along with the CAT performace manual, and together, I thought they complimented each other quite well. This book is great because it touches on the basics of earthwork and excavation and gets you ready for courses in estimating, scheduling and cost control. I enjoyed using this textbook because the questions make you analyze construction problems from many different angles and not just look from a "here's the problem, here's the answer" point-of-view. *All in all, I would have to say that this a very good and useful textbook.* -M.



3. If you are an excavation or foundation SUB this may be quite helpful, particularly for road building. I found much of the info on ability and capacities of equipment:loaders, cranes, scrapers; concrete and aggregate production, paving, interesting but not info I need as a CM PM to build buildings in cities. If you want to know how to plan the construction of tall buildings, foundation planning, scheduling, staging, etc. don't look to this book. "Construction Mgmt.", which touched lightly on my interest, starts on page 479 of a 550 page book. This book is simply inaccurately titled.



4. This book is a basic introductory text to the construction industy, focusing on earth moving operations, water pumping operations, and finally on physical construction methods.
   
   Unfortunately, a lot of the examples in this book contain numerical errors. For example, many of the examples contain references to data tables, and data from those tables is utilised for the analysis. Often, the examples use data entries that are obviously wrong, and thus invalidate the rest of the example, forcing the student to rework the example. This can be found throughout the book, but luckily the examples aren't too hard to rework.
   
   For anyone interested in the construction industry, I don't recommend you buy this book. Getting out on site is the best learning experience. You should only buy this book if you need to (eg, for an undergraduate university subject) and then sell if off at the conclusion of the subject.

5 comments about The Function of Ornament.

1. I guess, to me at least, the title of the book is bit misleading,
   it should be "how to make an interesting building skins"
   Because this book provides ample examples of great building skins of
   contemporary (some past) architecture.
   
   Graphics, analysis, and categorization are the 3 strong points of the book.
   Each example is analyzed in the order of following:
   
   1. elements (typically material)
   2. key design concept
   3. organization and assembly of key building skin
   4. overall effect
   
   For example, for Laban Dance Center by Herzog de Meuron, three different
   colors and glasses are introduced, how they are used according to the program
   inside, how the glasses are put together as double-layer enclosure, and
   the daytime/ nighttime effects are analyzed.
   
   The book speaks with graphics, limiting the number of words used.
   The graphics were painstakingly achieved. Really delivering the message
   clearly and concisely. Hence, essence of the project concept is easily
   graspable, yet, at the same time, being graphics, it leaves room for
   subjective interpretation.



2. I purchased this book after a fellow colleague recommended it to me and I must say it's become one of my favorite books because of its explicit and clear way of explaining the concepts of the buildings selected. All architecture books should be written this way. Farshid did a great job of validating her standpoint of ornament... A concept that has been re-defined in this book.



3. This is not a technical manual as a couple reviewers seems to wish, nor a survey of ornament in architecture. Nor does it ever claim to be such--reviewers should review a book not wish it was a different book. Instead it represents the results of graduate level research at Harvard Graduate School of Design into a revitalized understanding of the role of ornament in architecture and how one employs technical and material means to produce architecture effects and phenomena. As such the book is extremely clear, useful and elegantly designed and thoughtfully organized. Great for students and professional who want to think.



4. I'll agree with some other reviews and say that this is only for students. The book DOES make some intelligent and iconic building systems very clear, but it is only a cursory look. You expect to turn the page to find more investigation and its not there. So this book is only for undergrad students. Professionals look elsewhere.



5. The title suggests that this book is about architectural ornament, but it really covers only an extremely limited, and not particularly interesting, part of that rich topic.

No comments about Planning Theory for Practitioners.

1 comments about Interior Design Reference Manual: Everything You Need to Know to Pass the NCIDQ Exam.

1. This book seems very thorough, I have taken the multiple choice previously without this book and I am hoping this contains all the critical information to pass those two sections.

3 comments about Construction Scheduling: Principles and Practices (2nd Edition).

1. This book helped me put my job scheduling on the right track, was all over the place with dates and time request for completion status. Also was able check out the budget estimating process for a preliminary study with the contractors that were knocking at my door on a regular bases. In the future I will check into some of the software for estimating and scheduling and take-off needs.
   
   Thank You,
   Talibah Salih



2. I had to get this for a class. It is fine, but nothing teaches like having real world experience. It is good for people without any scheduling/project experience to understand what the theories are behind putting together a schedule.



3. Great work by the author. Written in a very good style, to the point. It is for every one interested in construction scheduling.