2 comments about If You Lived Here : The City in Art, Theory, and Social Activism : A Project by Martha Rosler (Discussions in Contemporary Culture , No 6).

1. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in questions of urbanism and housing in advanced societies, from architecture to urban planning to homelessness.
   It is especially useful for the discussion of some of the ways that artists, architects, activists, and planners have responded to successive city and housing crises. It offers theoretical and historical documents but also art projects and transcripts of public forums.
   I found it very helpful in thinking about the issues and in suggesting ways to address similar questions.



2. Economically privlidged white males who edit books like this (i. e., Brian Wallis, who edits many such compiliations) need to recognize that it is Difference, not seperation from white male patriarchal paradigms, which constructs the most significant art work today. Somehow, white males always make it seem like it's about themselves....

5 comments about City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center.

1. I enjoyed this book, mostly because I had many, many questions about the politics and the economics of the WTC. If that's your purpose in picking this book, you'll do fine.
   
   However, "The Rise and Fall" certainly implies a lot of coverage of the collapse of the towers. This, while covered, is not dealt with in as thorough a manner as in many other documentaries. So, as with many things, your pleasure with the book is a function of your expectations. I liked it a lot, but, from what other reviewers say below, I can understand why others feel much less enthusiastic.



2. "City in the Sky" is a well- researched, well -documented account of the site acquisition, construction, and eventual collapse of the New York World Trade Center. (There are other WTCs). It is immediately obvious that the authors have conducted extensive interviews and research. Full disclosure: This reviewer worked at the facility for 24 years for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Most of the anecdotes retold in CIS are just as I originally heard them years ago. (With some exceptions: On Austin Tobin's first trip on the newly acquired Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, the sleeping drunk supposedly woke up long enough to bid the Executive Director "good evening" before passing out again. Also, some of the PA titles are inaccurate, though not wrong. There was one obvious leg-pull about a "mailroom worker".) CIS in really 3 stories in one: The first is the strongest: That tale encompasses the struggle to condemn the surrounding real estate, overcome local opposition and secure Governmental cooperation for the project. Those who enjoyed such works as Robert Caro's "The Power Broker" will be in their element here. The second is concerned with the actual construction of the 2 towers and satellite buildings. The authors manage to include just enough technical details to tell the story without allowing this section of CIS to become too technical. The final part deals with that tragic day we now call 9/11. This reviewer does not wish to minimize that awful event but this tale has been told better, or as well, elsewhere. One assumes its' inclusion was virtually mandatory in a 400+ page work on the Trade Center but it emerges, perhaps strangely, as the weakest section of CIS. This reviewer hopes he was mistaken when he read that some of the victims who jumped to their deaths were in fact pushed by co-workers needing window space. A major difficulty with the text is that the authors appear too inclined to blame the Port Authority for inadequate fireproofing of the towers. This may-or may NOT! -be so but this serious charge is not substantiated here. Furthermore the PA executive most of the allegations are heaped upon has been dead for some 20 years and is hardly in a position to defend himself. CIS' strength is the relating of the struggles to build the Towers in the light of another era. Those were the days of Radio Row, a vastly different New York City, the maximum power of the Rockefeller Family and what those a bit older that this reviewer fondly remember as the "good old days" at Mother PONYA. CIS is entirely worthwhile but far from urgent reading. Amazoners may wish to wait for the more moderate prices of a paperback edition. That event would warrant a 4th star.



3. As a child, I watched the World Trade Center go up. As an adult, I had been through the Center thousands of times and ate many a lunch in the plaza between the two beautiful towers. Although I worked only three blocks north of the WTC, I was nowhere near them on 9/11, and thank God for that. I don't think I could have been able to bear witnessing their destruction.
   
   To fill the void, I began reading everything about the World Trade Center that I could. Eric Darton's book, "Divided We Stand", published before 9/11, was okay but I found the second-person narration and its choppy presentation too distracting. Several other books were published after the devestation, but they all seemed like rush jobs trying to cash in on the disaster. However, "City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center" by James Glanz and Eric Lipton is by far the best of the bunch. Meticulously researched without being too scholarly, the authors present a biography of the center that was filled with controversy, behind-closed-doors intrigues, political wrestling and, ultimately, the construction and engineering marvels that allowed the towers to rise. The pacing is remarkably swift but nothing is glossed over. The final quarter of the book is about 9/11 and afterward. I began this section with dread and was tempted not to read it at all. Fortunately, Glanz and Lipton handled it with incredible sensitivity.
   
   "City in the Sky", like the towers themselves, is a remarkable collaboration: the narrative is seamless--like Burrows and Wallace's "Gotham". And, ultimately, this book is a lively and poignant tribute to the World Trade Center they must have loved.
   
   Rocco Dormarunno,
   author of "The Five Points"



4. It is all right here. From the germ of the idea at the 1939 New York World's Fair to the design and planning of a project unlike any other in the history of mankind to the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001. New York Times reporters James Glanz and Eric Lipton have pieced together the complete history that needed to be told. "City In The Sky" is the remarkable story of how the World Trade Center came to be. It is a riveting tale from start to finish. Learn about those who first envisioned this project way back in the late 1940's and of the considerable role politics would play in this saga over the ensuing decades. You will be introduced to Lawrence A. Wien, owner of the Empire State Building, who fought this project tooth and nail. And you'll meet one Oscar Nadel, owner of a small appliance business that would be displaced by the World Trade Center. Put yourself in his shoes and in the shoes of hundreds of other small business people who were to be evicted in the wake of this massive project.
   Glanz and Lipton also devote a considerable amount of time to the struggle between the City of New York and the New York and New Jersey Port Authority for control of this enormous project.
   You will learn why the WTC was located where it was and
   about all of the people who made this concept a reality from the visionary David Rockerfeller to the unconventional architect Minoru Yamasaki to powerful Port Authority chairman Austin Tobin. And of course, you will read once again of the tragic events of 9/11 and see how decisions made decades earlier may have helped decide who would live and who would die on that fateful day. Were corners cut during construction? Was the fireproofing used adequate? And were the consequences of an airliner crashing into the Twin Towers ever seriously considered? So many questions. This is an important book that helps you to unravel some of the complex issues here.
   Recommended.



5. This book is an excellent history of the World Trade Center towers, from their conception in the early 1960's to their eventual destruction on 9/11/2001. This book avoids many of the political biases generally associated with this subject, and instead simply tells the story. Surprsingly, the book is a quick read, much like a novel. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Charter of The New Urbanism.

1. This book presents urban design ideas which are useful, sustainable, and proven by time. Many of the cities that are so loved, for example, Paris, Budapest, Prague, Rome, etc., are built on principles of design that are similar to those that are presented in this book. While this form of urbansim may now seem new in America, it is found in America's past, throughout Europe, and other areas of the world. I really enjoyed reading this book.



2. The Charter of the New Urbanism not only sets forth a manifesto of what future generations of town planners and residential developers may deem the most significant architectural movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but it does so with clarity, precision, and economy.

   This volume is an essential text in an essential field, and should be considered so by municipal planners, developers, builders, architects, and citizens who care about the quality of life in their cities, towns, suburbs, and hamlets.

   In addition to rendering their own analyses in compelling and thoughtful prose, McCormick and Leccese have displayed the deftness of master cat herders by wrangling a passel of leading New Urbanists -- by no means the most egregiously agreeable of architectural types -- into presenting their thoughts in a thorough-going and satisfying manner.

   The reader who delves into this book and rides it to its conclusion will come away understanding a great deal about how we live today, and how we could -- and perhaps should -- be living.




3. This is a very dry and disjointed work. If you are interested in the topic, have a blast and read Suburban Nation and The Geography of Nowhere. Then if you want more, buy Christopher Alexander's works--and savor them.



4. "An important work that defines the tenets of New Urbanism, this book serves as the group's manifesto. The charter illustrates the 27 principles of New Urbanism, from the scale of regions to neighborhoods and buildings, and pairs each with an essay by a different author. Now followers of the movement can use the charter to define their work and detractors can refer to it when presenting their side of the debate. ... Graphically pleasing, the book reads well ... When defining the problems of today's development patterns, the text is clear and seductive. ... The test of the Charter of New Urbanism will be its timeless quality. ..."



5. The Charter of the New Urbanism is an absolutely fantastic book. It should be required reading for all planners, architects, public officials, engineers, and citizen activists. It brings together in one book essays from some of today's brightest minds. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Peter Calthorpe, Walter Kulash, John Norquist and others describe the Congress for the New Urbanism's (CNU) positions on many important issues, such and traffic congestion, regional planning, environmental issues, affordable housing, civic art, and of course, curbing urban sprawl. New Urbanism is a highly organized and diverse branch of the "Smart Growth" family tree. They have brought a broad range of people together in forming this book, which shows that the problems of sprawl, environmental degregation, inner city decay, and increasing separation by race and income are "one interrelated community-building challenge."

No comments about Non-Fictional Narratives: Denton Corker Marshall.

No comments about Sustainable Residential Development.

2 comments about Design That Cares: Planning Health Facilities for Patients and Visitors, Second Edition.

1. I found this book in my college library and found it invaluable. I knew I would buy it, but was forced sooner than later because I could not keep renewing it. That's ok! It really is a great tool for my interior design senior thesis project.



2. I design buildings for a living and this book has permanently changed my outlook. Although about health care buildings, it's a blueprint for thinking about the needs of building occupants for any kind of institution. The authors obviously understand building users better than anyone I've ever dealt with. There are great insights in every chapter, and the sidebars alone are a great education. In my opinion this is required reading for architects and facility managers. The 2nd edition is even better than the first.

2 comments about Great City Parks.

1. First of all let me state catagorically that this book is hella overpriced..it's a VERY thorough book on the parks the author decided to cover..quite an eclectic selection. Where was the Bois de Bologne, Hyde Park, Fairmont Park, Hermann Park, Golden Gate Park...???..For this amount of money, I would expect every major urban park in the world to be included..certainly more of the great American Parks...and frankly Hyde Park and the Bois are arguably the most famous in the world, the great Central Park, Prospect Park, and the Teirgarten are included thankfully, but this is hardly comprehensive, the parks he does cover, he goes very indepth and the images are adequate..but get real, the price of this book is in a word: outrageous



2. An invaluable reference book for those interested in urban park design. Tate has surveyed 20 city parks in Western Europe and North America ranging from tiny Paley Park New York to the whole of the Minneaplois Park system. He has described each systematically under the heads of History, Development, Planning and Design, Management and Usage, and Plans for the future, and then drawn conclusions.

   He knows his stuff; he sent out questionnaires to the parks managers in 1987 and 1998 and the book is generously illustated in colour with photographs by the late Martin Jones, again taken over two decades. This is a bit of a labour of love, Tate's magnus opus is a must for any academic landscape or planning library. It is not a light read, nor is it a historical account of park design (though the the page 1 thumbnail ouline of two centuires of park design on page 1 is a model of its kind). But it does give a fair and impartial landscape architect's critique.

   Each park is accompanied by a line plan. It's a bit pricey and very Anglo-Saxon in world view, but if this is really your subject then do buy it or order a copy for your library. Pity to mix metric and imperial, and Richard Haag's Gasworks Park in Seattle (see p.114) was not the source of the Latzs' design for Duisburg Nord Landschaftspark (Latz's Hafeninsel Burgerpark, Saarbrucken from the 1980's was the source).

1 comments about Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology.

1. I'm surprised that this rich volume hasn't been reviewed by anyone else so far, but I'll try to do it justice. Mary Ann Caws, who has written extensively about the Surrealists, has compiled a treasure trove of Surrealist art & writing in these pages, including work from many creators not immediately thought of as Surrealists. But as she demonstrates, the glowing thread of the marvellous runs through their creations as well.
   
   "Surreal" has become an all-purpose word for "strange, different" these days, and many famous Surrealist images have become all too familiar, drained of their mystery & power, through commercial over-exposure. Caws makes us experience Surrealism anew, in all of its boundary-breaking freshness & startling beauty. She reminds us that it's not just one more useful form of graphic design, but a means of seeing through the mundane shell of the world, of discovering new & intricate connections between seemingly unrelated objects & ideas, and of burning away the dulling drabness of the everyday to experience a blazing, transforming new reality.
   
   There's such a wide range of work collected here that you're sure to find something that speaks especially to you. And you'll find countless points of departure for further exploration of the Surreal. This isn't just an excellent introduction to Surrealism (although it's certainly all of that), but a work of art in itself. If the Surrealist mode of experience appeals to you, and you want to learn more about it, then this is the place to start. Most highly recommended!

No comments about Henri Lefebvre : A Critical Introduction.

No comments about Trees in the Urban Landscape: Site Assessment, Design, and Installation.