Book Description

New England is as much a feeling as it is a region. It's Cape Cod clambakes in the summer, apple-picking in Maine come fall, snug Vermont inns in the winter, and the colorful, blooming gardens of the spring. Organized by season and anchored by authentic, classic New England houses, this book will show the real New England, capturing the experience of each place: its people, culture, history, and houses.

With more than 200 color photographs of New England's most picturesque homes and getaways, New England Style will be the book that every New Englander worth his salt will proudly display in his living room, inn, or Nantucket cottage. With its homespun personalities and favorite New England activities and recipes, the book is perfect for every New England native-and anyone who just wants to bring a bit of it home with them. A resource section will provide information on New England's great inns, restaurants, activities, and events.
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Reviews (2)

Style over substance
While the photography is stunning (by Kindra Clineff, whose name is misspelled on the cover), the text is wishy-washy and pointless. There is very little specific information on the places mentioned (history, architectural styles, etc) but rather vague inspiration for the home decorator. It's likely I'm the wrong audience for this book, but I came away from it feeling like I didn't learn anything about New England.

Arm Chair Travellers Rejoice! New England at Your Fingertips
"I love New England's historic homes and villages, the seasons and traditions, and to share that passion with Tommy Hilfiger, was a special opportunity." Anna Kasabian author quote

Popular Boston author Anna Kasabian explores the nooks and crannies of New England in New England Style, published by Rizzoli, USA with a foreword written by Tommy Hilfiger. Anna Kasabian, shares the people, culture, history, and especially the houses of New England with the reader through essays, stories, and observations. Arranged according to the seasons and anchored with profiles of timeless New England Houses, New England Style transports the reader onto the little traveled back roads and provides a memorable journey. ... Read more

Book Description

It's an unfortunate reality that architects practicing in the great expanse between the East and West coasts all too often find themselves beyond the radar of the profession's so-called "tastemakers." And it's especially a shame in the case of Julie Snow, a Minneapolis-based architect who has, over the past decade, developed one of the most inventive practices anywhere in the United States. Snow's meticulously constructed work has the structural opacity and formal integrity that characterized Mies van der Rohe's architecture, but with a sense of humanity and a sensitivity to the environment that seems borrowed from her Midwestern progenitor, Frank Lloyd Wright. This, the first monograph on Snow's work, provides in depthdocumentation of 14 of her residential, institutional, corporate, and public projects, including the Koehler Residence in New Brunswick, Canada, a series of Minneapolis Light Rail Stations, the Minnesota Children's Museum, and the University of South Dakota School of Business. Julie Snow, Architect is produced in collaboration with award-winning designer Andrew Blauvelt, and features an introductory essay by Jan Abrams, director of the Minnesota Design Institute. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Thirty-three American residential masterpieces
This book successfully captures the vast architectural contributions achieved in the Twentieth Century in American residential design by spotlighting 33 masterpieces located across the country.

The book begins with stunning photographs and drawings of remarkable homes built early in the century, including the Greene and Greene Gamble House in Pasadena, Ca., Rudolph Schindler's Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach, Ca., and Richard Neutra's Lovell Heath House in Los Angeles, Ca. Then, homes are featured that embody "the triumph of the modern American house," including Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pa. The final and largest section of the book highlights "blueprints for modern living," such as Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Ct., Louis Kahn's Korman House in Fort Washington, Pa., and Frank Gehry's house in Santa Monica, Ca.

The book lets the images of the homes, exterior and interior, speak for themselves through extra-large photographs. The accompanying commentary focuses well on the architects' contributions to architecture.

I very highly recommend this book. It is the best compilation of American residential masterpieces of the Twentieth Century that I've seen, and even more importantly, the authors have put the differing styles in perspective with the evolution of American architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

Known internationally for his polished interiors, Juan Pablo Molyneux is a designer who combines aesthetically strict modernism with the comfort and richness of neoclassicism. His attention to detail, his insistence on the finest materials, and his use of elements of fantasy and opulence together create a subtle balance between the different parts of a Molyneux room or the pieces within it, inspiring a sense of calm.

This volume, the first devoted to the New York-based designer's work, presents more than a dozen of his most recent projects, from a Beaux Arts mansion in the heart of Buenos Aires to a Park Avenue penthouse. Superb color photographs illustrate these varied homes, providing a personally guided tour replete with insights into Molyneux's structural strategies and furniture selections. Highlighted are features of ornamentation, geometric floor patterns, and trompe l'oeil, the latter regarded by Molyneux as "a fantasy that provokes reality." Born and educated in Chile, Molyneux also studied classical architecture and Egyptology in Paris. He is at ease with different centuries and cultures, an important asset in this era of global eclecticism. Yet his unique mix of disparate objects-- the eighteenth-century French armchairs, seventeenth-century Florentine tables, and paintings by Picasso and Bacon in the living room of a Palm Beach house being but one example-- is based upon inherent and carefully considered correspondences between them.

While the residences seen here are clearly the properties of an exclusive clientele, Molyneux's fresh, direct, and pragmatic voice turns them into an essential source of inspiration for aspiring home decorators and professional designers. Through author Michael Frank's specific histories of these dramatic interiors-- including Molyneux's own-- and complementary drawings, photographs, and details, MOLYNEUX is the tale of a true love of design.
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Book Description

With the birth of the steel-frame skyscraper in the late nineteenth century came a new breed of man, as bold and untamed as any this country had ever known. These "cowboys of the skies," as one journalist called them, were the structural ironworkers who walked steel beams -- no wider, often, than the face of a hardcover book -- hundreds of feet above ground, to raise the soaring towers and vaulting bridges that so abruptly transformed America in the twentieth century.

Many early ironworkers were former sailors, new Americans of Irish and Scandinavian descent accustomed to climbing tall ships' masts and schooled in the arts of rigging. Others came from a small Mohawk Indian reservation on the banks of the St. Lawrence River or from a constellation of seaside towns in Newfoundland. What all had in common were fortitude, courage, and a short life expectancy. "We do not die," went an early ironworkers' motto. "We are killed."

High Steel is the stirring epic of these men and of the icons they built -- and are building still. Shifting between past and present, Jim Rasenberger travels back to the earliest iron bridges and buildings of the nineteenth century; to the triumph of the Brooklyn Bridge and the 1907 tragedy of the Quebec Bridge, where seventy-five ironworkers, including thirty-three Mohawks, lost their lives in an instant; through New York's skyscraper boom of the late 1920s, when ironworkers were hailed as "industrial age heroes." All the while, Rasenberger documents the lives of several contempor-ary ironworkers raising steel on a twenty-first-century skyscraper, the Time Warner building in New York City.

This is a fast-paced, bare-knuckled portrait of vivid personalities, containing episodes of startling violence (as when ironworkers dynamited the Los Angeles Times building in 1910) and exhilarating adventure. In the end, High Steel is also a moving account of brotherhood and family. Many of those working in the trade today descend from multigenerational dynasties of ironworkers. As they walk steel, they follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.

We've all had the experience of looking at a par-ticularly awe-inspiring bridge or building and wondering, How did they do that? Jim Rasenberger asks -- and answers -- the question behind the question: What sort of person would willingly scale such heights, take such chances, face such danger? The result is a depiction of the American working class as it has seldom appeared in literature: strong, proud, autonomous, enduring, and utterly compelling.

Reviews (4)

Outstanding Account of Brave Brotherhood
An outstanding account of the brotherhood that built the New York City skyline. Rasenberger does two things particularly well in this book. First, he provides a fine history of the DANGEROUS iron working trade, as it developed with the advent of the syscraper, the redoubtable Flatiron building. "The danger was reflected in the carnage...of 1,000 members of Chicago Local 1 that same year, 103 were injured, 15 permanently disabled and 18 died." Second, he paints lovely portraits of the individuals (the stoic daredevils) who did the work, Sam Parks, "Frenchy" and Jack Doyle, to name a few. I highly recommend that a prospective reader use Amazon's "look inside" feature to sample Rasenber's non-nonsene prose, so well-suited to his subject matter.

A thrilling history and profession, beautifully evoked!
"High Steel" has the reader marveling that this dramatic story has remained untold until now. As in "Seabiscuit," the author's narrative skills work with an exotic profession, and a dramatic period in history, to produce a truly gripping read. Rasenberger illuminates the history of ironwork in this country, and beautifully evokes both its danger and its draw to those who join the trade. It is a thrilling, perilous, foreign world up there where the ironworkers spend their days; we are privileged to gain entrance to this world through "High Steel."

A great story
This story of iron workers is both extremely interesting and a really fun read. It provides beautifully crafted vignettes drawn both from the history of iron workers and from contemporary tales of today's iron workers at work in New York. A strong narrative thread connects these stories as the reader learns about the lives of a small group of iron workers today at the same time as Rasenberger deftly introduces the history of this trade and its daring tradesmen that brings this story to life and sets it in context. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in iron workers, in the history of our tall buildings and impressive bridges and to anyone looking for an accessible and fun read about real workers engaged in daring and dangerous work. It's beautifully written, a sympathetic portrait, yet one that is not afraid to highlight the faults and foibles of the people it describes, making the story one that resonates as accurate and, most of all, real.

A Book About the Working Society of Ironworkers
Being an Ironworker for the last 42 years myself, I found this book right on the mark about the lives of working Ironworkers. Mr. Rasenberger has identified the uniqueness of Ironworkers in his book and ties it all together with some very interesting historical events that occurred to the Ironworkers Union. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about real life people, their work and the dangers of that work. ... Read more

Book Description

Just what is the quintessential Maine house? A traditional Cape nestled into a hillside meadow? A classic lakefront cottage? A Victorian reproduction on the outskirts of a quaint village? In this book, architect Chris Glass and architectural photographer Brian Vanden Brink make a compelling and visually fascinating argument that the answer can be all of the above. The critical element, notes Glass throughout At Home in Maine, is a house that fits its surroundings, rather than competing with them. And in stunning photographs, Vanden Brink proves the point.

Here you’ll see and read about a wide variety of Maine houses: some old, some new. Some that are combinations of the two, featuring innovative yet appropriate renovations. Glass describes each house as only a skilled designer can, exploring its history, its strengths, and even its weaknesses. For his part, photographer Vanden Brink uses light and line to underscore his collaborator’s points, at once delighting the eye with color and perspective. ... Read more

Book Description

Perhaps no other American city is so defined by an indigenous architectural style as Baltimore is by the rowhouse, whose brick facades march up and down the gentle hills of the city. Why did the rowhouse thrive in Baltimore? How did it escape destruction here, unlike in many other historic American cities? What were the forces that led to the citywide renovation of Baltimore's rowhouses?

The Baltimore Rowhouse is the fascinating 200-year story of this building type. It chronicles the evolution of the rowhouse from its origins as speculative housing for immigrants, through its reclamation and renovation by young urban pioneers thanks to local government sponsorship, to its current occupation by a new cadre of wealthy professionals.

The Baltimore Rowhouse was winner of the 2000 Maryland Historical Trust Heritage Book Award for outstanding books of scholarly or general interest. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The history of the city as told by its houses
I enjoyed the pictures of these houses, and thought the book was especially well written. It's impossible to separate the evolution of these houses from the changes in the city itself, so some history is inevitable; there is also a great amount of detail involving the lives of the owners and developers. (I suspect this is a result of the book's being partly funded by a grant. Nothing got thrown away, to give the sponsor their money's worth.) If you are not overwhelmed by all this, you will uncover some interesting bits: the ads for Formstone, the fact that basements were hand-dug by a crew of nine in two days, the tales of the "night soil" removers. Really concentrates on the local history, though, so it may not of interest to others.

Well-written treatment of a highly specialized topic
The rowhouse is far more common in Baltimore than other US cities, and these authors have documented its history and development up to the present day. Every nuance of design change is thoroughly discussed, and the amount of detail allows a street-by-street discussion at times. We're told about the various developers who, parcel by parcel, converted old elite estates into street grids covered with rowhouses of varying quality. The book ends as an advertisement for new urbanism, in which dilapidated old rowhouses are renovated and run-down neighborhoods undergo renewal.

The quality of writing is particularly high. There are approximately 140 b&w photos, which for the most part are grouped together so they can be printed on high-gloss paper. This is an awkward arrangement that requires the reader to flip back and forth to the glossy photo pages. There are approximately ten cross-sections and floor plans. There are very few maps, and a detailed knowledge of Baltimore geography is assumed. Because of the highly specialized nature of this book, it is unlikely to appeal to anyone outside Baltimore, but it would probably be a delight to architectural enthusiasts within the city.

They say, "Timing is everything.."
...and the time to read 'The Baltimore Rowhouse' is now! I'm telling you'se- this book has it all. ; )

You not only get the expected descriptions of the architectural styles of rowhouses, and a historical review of the development of this style of housing, but the author weaves in the chronological social climb of an immigrant family throughout the book. Following the family's real estate history gives the book a story-like, biographical feel; unusual for non-fiction of this nature. It is in a sense, a well documented account of one way the "American Dream" has been realized.

From a social/cultural perspective, the 'Baltimore Rowhouse' is a social commentary on Baltimorean (and American) housing development past, present and future from visionary authors who love the City of Baltimore.

I received the book as a Christmas gift and read it in about 3 days. I couldn't put it down and was a little saddened that it had to end. I say this rarely- IT IS A MUST READ.

The Baltimore Rowhouse
The Baltimore Rowhouse provides an insightful retrospective of the growth of Baltimore City over a 200+ year period by analyzing the houses which its residents built and occupied. It chronicles the birth of a city and describes its growing pains in accomodating its increasing population. Being a lifelong resident of Baltimore and having a personal knowledge of the neighborhoods described in the book, it was especially fascinating to me. I was able to match my own knowledge with the historical background provided by the authors. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the growth and evolution of a typical American City from the perspective of its townhomes.

A Study in Sensible Housing
The Baltimore Rowhouse describes the origins and development of a housing style which went out of favor after World War II, when suburban development became more fashionable. As the authors explain, Baltimore has a fascinating collection of rowhouses, beginning with the federal period and continuing through the 1950s, with a recent spate of construction that generally matches earlier styles. Notwithstanding the limited space (i.e., the front of the rowhouse) within which to express their individual stylistic vocabularies, architects and builders managed to create a plethora of fascinating facades.

Now that the disadvantages of suburbia--the traffic, the commute, the isolation--are becoming more obvious, the rowhouse looks more and more like a great solution to the problem of home ownership and community. The city of Baltimore has a rich collection of structures and magnificent, but human-scaled, streetscapes which are worth exploring and reinhabiting.

A fun book for urban dwellers and architecture enthusiasts to read. The authors write in respectable, historians' prose, but the language is lively enough to keep one interested. ... Read more

Book Description

Offering stylish yet affordable housing for the average person, the bungalow took the nation by storm in the early 20th century, and was rediscovered in earnest in 1996 with the publication of the authors' American Bungalow Style. That book, the first lavishly illustrated showcase of bungalows, reminded us all of the seductive appeal that had made these charming little homes so popular. This much-anticipated follow-up book takes readers into the living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and baths of the best and most characteristic bungalows from five American neighborhoods where this housing type has flourished: Washington, DC, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Pasadena.

Bungalows, while modestly sized, are known for their integrity of design and craftsmanship, and their shape lends itself to a variety of stylistic treatments, from Colonial Revival to Craftsman to Tudor, all displayed in Bungalow Nation. With 350 of Alexander Vertikoff's evocative new photographs from his recent travels and Diane Maddex's reliable, fact-filled text, Bungalow Nation is sure to be an important resource for bungalow lovers and an enticing entrée for those who are just discovering these gems of American domesticity. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Love affair with the bungalow
I live in a California Craftsman bungalow and therefore gravitated immediately to this book when I saw it in Builders Booksource in Berkeley, CA. It's absolutely lovely: the story of 75 bungalows in LA, Seattle, Chicago, DC, and Minneapolis. I was surprised that Berkeley wasn't included, but the homes shows epitomize America's love affair with these cozy, well-built structures. Included are features on porches, fireplaces, numerous built-ins, furnishings, landscaping, and interior/exterior decoration. You'll love this book, as I do. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Chicago Architecture and Design review
I thought this book was very interesting it has great pictures of the buildings in Chicago. It has alot of information about the beginning of when Architects wanted to build something modern but unqiue at the same time. Get inspired by the great exterior and interior of these amazing buildings.

Fine Book on Chicago Architecture
This book described many of the significant architects in Chicago history. I found it to be informative and very readable. It is the best book I have found which summarizes Chicago Architecture. The color photograghs are excellent

A treat to read from cover to cover
Lasron and Pridmore have put together a wonderful slice of Chicago history through its architecture. An excellent introduction to architecture in Chicago, I would reccomend it to anyone with even a casual interest in the subject. The focus of the book has great historical depth. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1980, Los Angeles historian Jim Heimann wrote a book about the oddball roadside architecture that has dotted the American landscape since the advent of the auto. Published by Chronicle Books as California Crazy, it stayed in print for nearly 20 years. Finally, here is the greatly expanded new edition of that sought-after classic. California Crazy and Beyond is packed with madcap restaurants, motels, service stations, and many other businesses shaped like hot dogs, animals, airplanes, pianos, and other architectural anomalies. Over the years, Heimann's continued research has uncovered a multitude of new pictures and forgotten buildings. With over 380 photographs and an illuminating text that tracks the subject well beyond the bounds of the West Coast, California Crazy and Beyond is an authoritative document of a style born in America and spread to all corners of the world. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Fun-tecture
I bought this book when it first came out in 1980 and I recently noticed that a new addition was available. Well worth getting too, more pages, extra subjects (cars for instance) updated bibliography and a sparkling new layout. Author Heimann feels that architectural historian David Gebhard's term 'Programatic' does not quite capture the flavor of these buildings, I propose calling them FUNTECTURE.

A new chapter, not in the original book, is 'Current Condition' which has twenty-two photos, in color, of buildings now standing and they all look very smart and well cared for but wait till you see the photo on page 169, this shows the amazing headquarters of the Longaberger company in Newark, Ohio, famous for making baskets and that is exactly what the building looks like, seven stories high with two carrying handles reaching up to the sky...only in America! You can see and read about this lovely bit of whimsy on their website.

You will really enjoy this book if you are a fan of roadside America, especially if you have lived in California and maybe remember some of the weird buildings that are no longer around.

Fun and Informative
This book is a must-have for those of us who love the lure of the road and all it has to offer. It's sad that a lot of these wonderful icons of Americana are vanishing, but it's great that people like Jim Heimann are preserving it for future generations to see. I highly recommend this book -- lots of great photos and interesting history in a nicely organized book! ... Read more

Amazon.com

The massive New York 1960 is the third installment in a series covering the last 100 years of New York architectural history. Weighing almost eight pounds, it's a seemingly endless parade of images and information woven together into a fascinating tale of the changing urban landscape. The combination of political, social, and artistic commentary of the day culled largely from primary sources, along with sharp period photographs, provide a time machine's experience of the city that was. The historic tour begins with lower Manhattan and progresses uptown one neighborhood (and practically one building) at a time. With stories of buildings that were never built, teams of architects fired from projects, and the influence of the mayor's office, this chronicle offers amazing insight into how decisions were made and their impact on the city's life. The implementation of parking meters, the zoning laws to support retail on 5th Avenue, the movement of artists from Greenwich Village to what used to be Coenties Slip to industrial SoHo are a number of examples. For anyone interested in architecture, urban issues, or the history of New York City, New York 1960 should not be missed. --J.P. Cohen ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An eight-pound masterpiece of architectural history
First of all, the book is just too darned big to handle comfortably. With over 1300 pages, I don't know whether to congratulate the authors on their thoroughness or criticize them for having no sense of self-restraint. This tome could have been divided into three separate volumes, and each would have been a substantial book in itself.

The epic length of the book allows the authors to go into incredible detail. The book is divided into chapters primarily by neighborhood. There are also chapters devoted to the topic of interior decoration, the 1964-65 World's Fair, "Beyond the Boroughs," "Historic Preservation," and "New York and the Arts." The numerous b&w photographs, averaging more than one per page, are stunning.

A chapter titled "Death by Development" walks the reader through the ideology of the era that led to public housing monstrosities, as well as middle-class housing of dubious aesthetic and structural integrity. This same chapter discusses proposals for air-raid shelters, some of which would have had expanses large enough to hold a nine-story building, as well as the 1945 incident in which a US military plane crashed into the Empire State Building. The same chapter shifts to transportation issues, and presents a 1951 proposal for an unconventional "people mover" under 42nd Street, and the beginning of construction in 1972 on the Second Avenue subway (which perhaps, will open sometime in my lifetime). All this in just one of seventeen chapters - gives you some idea of the expansiveness and thoroughness of this book.

Many readers will take special note of the eight pages devoted to the World Trade Center. This book was written before "9-11," and the book's coverage of the WTC is haunting, to say the least.

From our perspective, the era in question (1945-1976) constitutes the "dark ages" of urban planning and architecture. Yet, the beautiful period photographs and accompanying text immerse the reader in the aesthetic mentality of the era. This book is a masterpiece, and maybe later in the day I'll find the strength to move this eight pound book from my table to my desk.

A beautifully researched and written book ,
which gets to the core of what metropolitan cities, and specifically New York, are all about. Politics, codes, social agendas, design, and chance mix, struggle and interchange to become Architecture, which in return can be read as the memory and the conscious of the city. Given the sheer amount of information provided by this book, it's almost stunning how easily it reads. Countless anecdotes amuse and surprise through this enormous journey and keep the reader's interest focused and a smile on his face.

AN excellent resource for Architects and Planners
A great book for the coffee table or the library. Concise desriptions of built projects as well as conceptual ideas for the City of New York. Focuses on individual neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole. ... Read more

Book Description

Simultaneously defining and defined by its surroundings, the town house-- as one of the basic building blocks of the city-- has emerged at the close of the twentieth century as a symbol of architectural innovation and refinement. At one time the bastion of Park Avenue society, the American town house has now been embraced by a broader group of people: families with small children, single urban professionals, and retired couples. Drawn between the antipodes of architectural precedent and originality, the modern town house enhanced the urban landscape through both its break from and adherence to the delimitations of the typology. Within its five-story frame and two parallel walls exquisite solutions to the constraints of the form take place. Sweeping stairways, moonlit loggie, and seemingly boundless atria all comprise some of the newly realized fantasies of these structures. The playful interchange between public and private spaces, living and work quarters, and interiors and exteriors are all part of the new rhetoric of the town house.Ranging from sites in New York, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Seaside, Florida, and Los Angeles, each of the buildings featured in The New American Town House represents an eloquent contribution to the form. From the funky, gritty streets of Greenwich Village to the quiet sunny walks of San Francisco, the book explores the cutting-edge designs of twenty-six recently built town houses by such celebrated young architects as Tod Williams and Billy Tsien, Mark Mack, Dan Solomon, Stanley Saitowitz, Dirk Lohan, and Alexander Gorlin. Each project is extensively illustrated with full-color and black-and-white photography, plans and drawings, providing a striking presentation of the elegance and stylistic distinction of the houses. Alexander Gorlin includes an insightful essay on the history of the town house from its origins in Pompeii to recent urban dwellings designed by twentieth-century architects. The esteemed architecture critic Paul Goldberger discusses new developments in the genre during this period of resurgence and what they portend. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good effort
This book is simply that, a book about new American town house. It started with a description of the evolution of town house, rite from the time of Palladio & Vitruvius to the present time. The rest is 20 examples of American townhouses all seemed to be going skyward fulfilling all kinds of tastes ranging from chic, loft style, minimalistic, opulence, romantic. & so forth. There are tonnes of pictures in this book with helpful building plans. I always like variety & after browsing thru initial examples, the rest of the book I really couldn't bother with as they all look pretty much similar. Afterall, a townhouse is a townhouse. Anyhow, this book is beautifully presented & definitely worth keeping if you simply want a coffee book for show. Keep up the good work.

Inspiring antidote to urban sprawl
With the cities and suburbs spreading out into former farmland in the form of superstores, fast food chains, and garishly oversized homes reminiscent of motel conference centers, Gorlin and Goldberger present the compelling alternative: the townhouse, revamped, revitalized, and more relevant than ever. No matter what your esthetic, there is a townhouse to suit it, and you can find it in this book. It could be argued, in fact, that the townhouse represents architectural humanism at its best: inherently social, family-friendly, scaled to real human dimensions and needs. In other words, just right. An excellent introduction to an important new trend in architecture and home-building. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Houses of Key West
Excellent pictures of great Key West houses including addresses. No interior pictures. Book fell apart at binding after very little viewing.

Key West Houses Close Up
I love this book. If you enjoy the unique look of Key West Conch architecture you will enjoy this book. Color full page and full page plus photographs fill the book. Most pictures are full close-ups of the front of the house. It is a nice reminder of time spent in Key West. If you are interested in architecture it contains examples of the various unique Key West styles used. I enjoyed looking at picture of the famous houses and reading about why they are famous. Almost forgot it, contains the addresses of the houses in case you want to see them for yourself. ... Read more

Book Description

"Washington Through Two Centuries" presents a comprehensive history of the city, recording its changing character and suggesting future developments. Author Joseph Passonneau has devoted twenty-five years to preparing a suite of detailed maps that show the center of the city, building by building, in 1800, 1860, 1900, 1940, 1970, and 2000. The maps, presented as foldout pages, offer an exceptional graphic history of the capital's transformation. The volume is also illustrated with a great number of archival photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Great Book for Architects and Planners
Joe Passonneau has combined history, planning and architecture in our nation's capitol that has a certain relevance to every serious, large city in the country. What you really learn here is how architecture and planning can work together in a creative relaltionshiip and both better for the experience. If the elected officials were crafting laws with the same care, concern and perhaps even love, that architects, planners and a host of other insightful non-professionals were using to build Washington, DC, we would all be better off today.

The maps alone are glorious and probably worth the price of the book itself. Study them and you will start to understand and appreciate the historic process by which cities either reinvent themselves or fail to do so. Architects, planners and history buffs should own this book. Period. ... Read more

Book Description

Following our Campus Guides for Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of Virginia, this guide to Princeton presents an architectural tour of one of America's finest campuses.

Organized in a series of walking tours and beautifully photographed with 100 color photographs, this guide reveals the stories behind over 80 historic and contemporary campus buildings, gardens, and works of sculpture, as well as a sampling of architecturally significant landmarks in the surrounding town. Three-dimensional watercolor maps locate the featured buildings.

Founded in 1746, Princeton University epitomizes ideals about campus planning and building design. Major works by architects McKim Mead & White, William A. Potter, R. H. Robertson, John McComb Jr., Hugh Stubbins, Machado Silvetti, I. M. Pei, Marcel Breuer, and Venturi Scott Brown, as well as sculpture of such notables as Daniel Chester French, Pablo Picasso, and David Smith, are presented. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Stimulating!
The combination of outstanding writing and splendid photographs makes this book a stimulating and comprehensive tour guide for the Princeton campus. The architecture,the grounds and the history of this university are brought alive by the rare combination of an accomplished writer and a gifted photographer. Students, parents, architects, scholars and historians will love this book! ... Read more

Book Description

The first comprehensive study of one of America's great house architects. The Country Houses of David Adler (1882-1949) discusses in depth fifteen representative houses (many with interiors by Adler's sister, the noted interior designer Frances Elkins), illustrated with fine archival photographs and newly drawn plans. In addition, the full scope of Adler's work is documented in an illustrated catalogue raisonné. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

this book is fine
oh i wanted to LOVE this book-- it is FINE--but not amazing-- a bit too "textbook"--

Four stars for a Great architect, but so-so publisher.
I really love David Adler. I was thrilled to find out that this book was in the making. But when I finally got my hands on it I was furious to find that there were no color plates in the entire book. All photographs are archival. The Richard Crane mansion in Ipswich is a tremendous house, and I appreciate the old view from the beach, but how does that compare to the view now that all of the landscape has come to maturation. Not including color plates and more contemporary shots was a cruel tease to play.

beautiful book -- excellent gift!
growing up in Lake Forest, IL...I, too saw these beautiful country estates -- but never knew the common theme was David Adler. Such a wealth of information and history that I have to thank Mr. Salny for. We are talking an era of architecture that included not only the design of a building, but also the design of the gardens, the interiors, etc. A fabulous book -- beautiful and inspiring in so many ways!

Sloppy detailing
Useful and informative, but Norton was a bit slap-dash in its production. The "newly-drawn plans" were disappointing and nowhere near the standard in architectural publishing; whoever was responsible shouldn't have been.

Magnificently Done
Salny's comprehensive look at the work of David Adler is completely unprecedented and profound. Elegant,organized and thoughtful,this book clearly enables the reader to grasp the genius of Adler by dazzling him with his life's work.

Any fan of Adler will surely not be dissappointed, anyone new to his work will be enthralled.

Bravo Stephen Salny!! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

A classic work by a distinguished architectural historian, tracing Spanish architectural influence in Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California in text illustrated by 195 photographs and 50 measured drawings. Among the sites explored: St. Augustine, San Antonio, Santa Fe, Tucson, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano and Carmel.
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Book Description

The book that has been called ``the best walking tour guide of the city'' is back in a revised and updated second edition, certain to be as big a best-seller as the first! This walking tour guide captures the variety of architectural styles that can be found in New York's public buildings, residences, and commercial structures--brought to life in nearly 300 new and vintage photographs and engravings that will intrigue residents of New York and tourists alike. But this is far more than a compilation of buildings: its twenty walking tours provide an insider's look at the architecture of New York City that is unique to this guidebook. Easy-to-follow street maps make this an ideal walking companion to the city. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A MUST FOR LICENSED NYC TOUR GUIDES
I learned more about Manhattan's Lower East Side in this book, than any other in my collection. As a licensed, NYC tour guide, this is now the first book I go to, the ultimate reference. 15 neighborhoods are highlighted with solid information on the architecture of hundreds of buildings as well as nuggets of fascinating stories. Read about how one now defunt NYC Dept. store shipped an albino elephant to one skeptical customer. All true! Anyone studying for the NYC sightseing exam needs to have this book in their collection.

Sloppy
There is only one word to describe this book: Sloppy. So sloppy that you have to ask yourself if the author has ever taken his own tour.

I don't know if the blame falls to the author, or publisher McGraw Hill, for failing to edit this book.

I pulled a page (142) from a neighborhood I happen to know something about and found these errors on a single page:

# 21 "The former Metropolitan Savings Bank", opened in 1867 not 1868. He uses the apprehensive phrase "attributed to Carl Pfeiffer." A newspaper article about the grand opening day of this building as a bank reports it as May 21, 1867, and declares that the builder is Carl Pfeiffer.

Then he repeats an urban myth from a discredited revisionist "historian" that McSorley's Old Ale House did not open in 1854, but in 1862. He goes on to describe the items "on the grimy sheet-tin walls." The bar has no tinned walls. (With the exception of the lavatories) Step inside if you are going to describe the inside!

Save your money. McGraw Hill did when it came to hiring an editor to check his facts. Buy the AIA guide and make your own tour. Although the old photos are pretty good, they are not quite enough to be the saving grace here. Wolfe gets the addresses right, but if this one page is any indication., no one checked his historical facts, and that makes me even more surprised by the American Heritage review of this work.

My favorite guide to NYC!
This is the best guide of its kind which I have seen. Wolfe is thorough, engaging, sometimes funny and a joy to read. As a tour guide I have read many books on NYC, and this is one of my favorites. Unlike many other authors, he pays more than lip-service to the outer boroughs, and also offers a good guide to Roosevelt Island.

Let's see an updated edition!!! ... Read more