No comments about Landscape Design UK: Featuring Plaza & Square, Institutional, Corporate, Recreational, Residential ...Projects.

2 comments about Place Making.

1. I was put on to this book by a professor at USF School of Architecture. It contains not only the history of placemaking but real examples of placemaking and tools in how to achieve the notion of "place." Not only is this a great resource, but it is easy to read and follow along.
   
   Highly reccomended!



2. I found this book to be one of the best out on the topic, of which there are too few at present for such an important topic. The depth and breadth of place-making topics and their coverage makes this a very excellent easy-to-read-and-understand as well as a long-term reference tool. The graphics are very well done. Having recently attended a Harvard program on retail for cities and new towns and urban center given by Bob Gibbs and Terry Shook, I especially found the book right on target. I want to see more of these types of books.

1 comments about The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely.

1. "Brilliant...Anthony Vidler is a conceptual conjurer of formidable skill." - J. Mordaunt Crook, New York Times Book Review

   "The Architectural Uncanny presents an engaging and original series of meditations on issues and figures that are at the heart of the most pressing debates surrounding architecture today. Anthony Vidler interprets contemporary buildings and projects in light of the resurgent interest in the uncanny as a metaphor for a fundamentally "unhomely" modern condition. These essays are at once historical and theoretical, opening up the complex and difficult reltionships between politics, social thought and architectural design in an era when the reality of homelessness and the idealism of the avant-garde have never seemed so far apart."

   "Anthony Vidler has proved himself among the most lucid of contemporary architectural historians,always writing with vigor and clarity, and allying perception with structure...There is wit, intelligence, and a host of shrewd observations." - Peter Blundell Jones, Architectural Review

1 comments about Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory.

1. If you want the book on urban design, one piece of work that covers it all and gives you depth, insight and outlook on this field like no other - then this is for you! A book that will become a classic in this field. Absoluetly with no competition!

No comments about A Better Way to Zone: Ten Principles to Create More Livable Cities.

No comments about New Waterscapes: Planning, Building and Designing with Water.

2 comments about The Regional City.

1. This is yet another book on a New Urbanist idea.

   This one describes the idea of transit oriented communties. These are relatively dense planned communities that try to maintain what is seen as the essentials of small community life.

   The density and distribution of these communities make them amenable to public transport. However more emphasis is placed on the development of community. Shopping facilities are centralized and made accessible to pedestrians. Public buildings and public space like squares are made central to the life of the community. The public buildings are given distinguished architecture to show their importance to the community. The public park or square is placed at the hub of planned pedestrian traffic to provide a place for unplanned meetings and interactions.

   As it is this soert of community will probably work. The idea of the public square at a transportation crossroads as a means to creatre interaction is straight out of Bill Hillier's seminal work 'Space is the machine.' With proper attention to the principles presented by Hillier, there is no reason why a community designed in the way advocated here cannot produce the types of interactions advocated within this book.

   However the book does not go far enough to truly identify what these principles are or even to state clearly and directly what basic principles are guiding the plans that it advocates. It would be possible to create developments that follow the plans described here that would work against the outcomes that it is advocating. Hillier's book, in its analysis of some modern housing estates based on similar goals, demosntrates this.

   Yet there is something fundamentally wrong with this book. It is a basic statement of architectural determinism. Traditional suburbs are blamed for all problems in society from environmental pollution to school shootings and possibly even to asteroid impacts causing mass extinctions. There seems to be nothing wrong in society that is not the fault of suburbs and that cannot be fixed by these pedestrian-based communities.

   The author acknowleges that the autonomy and privacy provided by the suburban form is attractive to many. He even states that his suggested community form is not antithetical to it. However following that one statement the remainder of the book is a jerimiad against suburban life. Privacy and autonomy references are replaced with descriptions of isolation and alienation.

   The book would be more convincing if it remained an advocacy for its desired form. There is no doubt that this form if designed properly can foster the close community life that many people find very attractive. However not all people are attracted to this sort of life. Many people prefer the social autonomy that is provided to them in suburbs. With modern communication mechanisms like the telephone, Email, automobile etc, they can maintain multiple social netowkrs each with the social distance that they find comfortable. They are not forced to interact with a neighbor that they do not care for simply because his residence is nearby.

   All in all this is a good book for its purpose. The unfortunate blathering about the short comings of suburbs distracts from its main purpsoe and weakens its argument. However many will find the small community life presented here very attractive.

   It is worth reading despite these handicaps.




2. There is a very informative review by Suzannah Lessard in the February 18th issue of the New York Times Book Review. Not only does she provide interesting background to the issues surrounding urban growth in America, she also defines what these issues mean to us today, and the contribution this book makes to our understanding of the built world around us.

No comments about Architectural Theory: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870.

4 comments about Construction Planning, Equipment and Methods.

1. This book was alright. Some illustrations, decent descriptions. Some of the problems were too in depth. It would be alright for some just starting out in construction or someone who just wants to learn a little about it.



2. We speak English & use the Metric System in the rest of the World.
   
   When will American publishers discover this ?
   
   
   This book requires me to convert every single worked example to the units used by the rest of the world.
   
   I suggest that they publish the worked examples on a CD with book using the units that he rest of the world use !!!



3. The second chapter is the nuts and bolts of financing equipment. The numbers are commonly wrong. There are WAY to many mistakes. This is a textbook for a heavy equipment class. It's the third week of the semester (Fresno State) and we're dying...



4. This book had so many errors, the entire class including the instructor were confused. It is very sad to see a textbook in its fifth or sixth edition with so many mistakes. Many of the questions at the end of the chapter are so poorly written, that there was no solution. Clearly, the authors had a goal and a message to convey, but because there was no attention to detail, the message was muddy at best. I remain disenchanted with the general quality of textbooks, but this is one of the worst examples of a textbook I have ever seen. Come on America, educate!

1 comments about Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning From Village Homes.

1. Judy and Michael Corbett have written a brief and thoughtful, not to mention well-informed book on the subject of designing and building sustainable communities. The various chapters on the history of their subject, on their seminal and justifiably respected community in Davis, CA, and on elements of the planning process and the integration of real estate pragmatics with environmental ideals will serve as both a user-friendly introduction for lay readers and a handy reference for professionals looking to expand their horizons. The writing is clear and uncomplicated, the design of the book is simple and straightforward, and there is the nice sense throughout that it has been put together by people who know wherof they speak. One complaint: it's unclear why a paperback published by a non-academic press would be priced a bit high but it is unfortunate, as it will serve to prevent this book from reaching the broader audience it deserves.