Random House New Releases - Architecture - Between November 27, 2008 and December 27, 2009.

Robert A. M. Stern by Paul Goldberger

2009-12-01T00:30:00-05:00

Robert A. M. Stern Buildings & Projects 2004-2009
Written by Robert A.M. Stern and Paul Goldberger
Edited by Peter Morris Dixon

I think that all architecture comes from what went before. And how carefully one hews to precedent or how many liberties one takes, in my view, is part of a larger set of judgments as to what is, or could be called, “appropriate.” Appropriate from every point of view, especially from the site, the cultural expectations of a community and of the specific client.
—Robert A. M. Stern

Central to the work of Robert A. M. Stern is a commitment to an architecture that reinterprets the past to serve contemporary life. This monograph, the fifth volume since Stern opened his practice in 1969, explores the application of this principle to a wide range of building types, including libraries, university buildings, cultural centers, offices, towers, and private residences.

Focused on the years 2004 through 2009, an exceptionally productive period for Stern’s firm, this volume includes designs for the Miami Beach, Jacksonville, and Clearwater Public Libraries in Florida, the vast Zubiarte retail complex in Bilbao, Spain, two new residential colleges at Yale University, the widely acclaimed 15 Central Park West condominium in New York, Comcast, a crystalline addition to the Philadelphia skyline, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas.

In a conversation with renowned architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Stern discusses the principles that have guided the firm since its inception, focusing on the collaborative nature of the work and the importance of precedent and context. He also describes his own role as an educator, as dean of the architecture school at Yale University, and his deep interest in the history of architecture, first awakened during his student days at Yale.

The 1950s Home by Sophie Leighton

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

The 1950s Home
Written by Sophie Leighton

In the aftermath of World War II, design was key to a new way of living as carefully thought-out principles were applied to new homes and commercial buildings across the country. From open plan living to new materials in buildings and furnishing, the 1950s marked a bright new era.

Hearts of the City by Nicolai Ouroussoff

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Hearts of the City The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp
Written by Herbert Muschamp
Introduction by Nicolai Ouroussoff

From the late Herbert Muschamp, the former architecture critic of The New York Times and one of the most outspoken and influential voices in architectural criticism, a collection of his best work.

The pieces here—from The New Republic, Artforum, and The New York Times—reveal how Muschamp’s views were both ahead of their time and timeless. He often wrote about how the right architecture could be inspiring and uplifting, and he uniquely drew on film, literature, and popular culture to write pieces that were passionate and often personal, changing the landscape of architectural criticism in the process. These columns made architecture a subject accessible to everyone at a moment when, because of the heated debate between modernists and postmodernists, architecture had become part of a larger public dialogue. One of the most courageous and engaged voices in his field, he devoted many columns at the Times to the lack of serious new architecture in this country, and particularly in New York, and spoke out against the agenda of developers. He departed from the usual dry, didactic style of much architectural writing to playfully, for example, compare Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao to the body of Marilyn Monroe or to wax poetic about a new design for Manhattan’s manhole covers. One sees in this collection that Muschamp championed early on the work of Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Thom Payne, Frank Israel, Jean Nouvel, and Santiago Calatrava, among others, and was drawn to the theoretical writings of such architects as Peter Eisenman. Published here for the first time is the uncut version of his brilliant and poignant essay about gay culture and Edward Durrell Stone’s museum at 2 Columbus Circle. Fragments from the book he left unfinished, whose title we took for this collection—“A Dozen Years,” “Metroscope,” and “Atomic Secrets”—are also included.

Hearts of the City is dazzling writing from a humanistic thinker whose work changed forever the way we think about our cities—and the buildings in them.

Jim Olson Houses by Michael Webb

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Jim Olson Houses
Written by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen
Introduction by Michael Webb

The sixteen houses and apartments featured here respond to different needs and sites, but all share a common DNA. They are the product of a singular vision and a collaborative process.

—Michael Webb

Seattle-based architect Jim Olson, the founding partner of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, is particularly known for his subtly elegant residences, from a glass farmhouse in eastern Oregon to a Balinese-inspired retreat in Hawaii, from a diminutive waterfront cabin for his own family to two grand art-filled residences on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle. Modern in spirit, the luxurious houses are characterized by intangible qualities of light and space. Olson balances a deep knowledge of architectural history, from the temples of Egypt to the great buildings of the modern era, with a sensitivity to art and nature. Each work is carefully calibrated to site and client.

Olson is fascinated by the relationship between art and architecture, and many of his houses and apartments have been designed for major art collectors. The sixteen residences in this volume—in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, and Hong Kong—explore that interplay as well as the correspondences between light, space, and mood. The finely proportioned interior spaces are distinguished by a striking use of both natural and highly refined materials, masterful modulation of light, sophisticated details, sleek furnishings, and a careful balance between monumentality and intimacy. In natural settings, his buildings often weave into their surroundings as if they had always been there; in urban environments, his designs create and enhance a sense of community. The introduction, by noted design writer Michael Webb, emphasizes context and process, vital factors in Jim Olson’s work.

Juan Montoya by Elizabeth Gaynor

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Juan Montoya
Written by Juan Montoya
Text by Elizabeth Gaynor

Always on the cutting edge, Juan Montoya's work exudes refinement and simplicity. Each of his designs features an exquisite juxtaposition of textures, colors, and volumes; an attention to scale, lighting, and spatial qualities; and objects that reflect an interest in a variety of cultures. In addition to creating beautiful, eclectic rooms, these underlying principles have strongly influenced contemporary design.

A truly original thinker, Montoya is not wedded to a particular style or period. With a background in architecture, he has developed a remarkable understanding of space and how best to fill it; he believes the careful placement of objects can, and should, enhance a room's space and scale.

This oversized volume features twenty-five recent projects, all illustrated with striking color photographs. Sumptuous interiors range from a yacht to apartments and houses in New York, Florida, Connecticut, and Paris to showhouses and commercial interiors.

Ken Smith by John Beardsley

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Written by Ken Smith
Introduction by John Beardsley

Both a landscape designer and a public artist, Ken Smith produces designs that range in scale from small public installations to vast parks. He is known for inventive and imaginative gardens and landscapes, some of which use little or no natural plant material. His projects include public, commercial, and private work: urban parks, streetscapes, plazas, gardens, public art commissions, memorials, museums and institutions, urban development and multiuse projects, restoration of modern-era landscapes, waterfront planning and design, and residential projects.

Among Smith’s best-known projects are the MoMA Roof Garden, consisting of white gravel, recycled black rubber, crushed glass, sculptural stones, and artificial boxwood plants in a camouflage pattern; the Elevated Acre, a one-acre urban plaza with a sloping topography of planted dunes and an elevated view of New York Harbor; and Orange County Great Park, California, a redevelopment of a Marine Corps air station to include a 2.5-mile canyon, 20-acre lake, cultural terrace, botanical gardens, great lawn, performing arts venue, veterans memorial, aircraft museum, sports park, nature preserve, and wildlife corridor.

Medieval Masons by Malcolm Hislop

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

Medieval Masons
Written by Malcolm Hislop

This book explains in detail the practice of masoncraft in the Middle Ages, using evidence from a number of sources. Monastic chronicles, building contracts and other contemporary documents have already revealed a good deal of information on the subject but less attention has, until now, been paid to archaeological evidence preserved in numerous surviving medieval buildings. Dr. Hislop investigates how a study of certain features in these buildings such as the stonework and building joints can contribute to our knowledge of working practices of masons in medieval England. By focusing on how to interpret clues in the building structure, this account provides a practical guide to pursuing the study of masonry, and helps the reader to understand and identify the medieval mason's approach to design and constructional techniques.

SOM by Ernst Danz

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1950-1962
Commentaries by Ernst Danz
Introduction by Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, founded in 1936, is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in the world. SOM has long been known for innovation, experimentation, design excellence, and technical mastery, for an abiding interest in the contributions that buildings can make to the life of cities, and for a collaborative approach that extends to all aspects of the design and construction processes. This volume, which presents work from the 1950’s and early 1960’s, reproduces a monograph first published in 1962.

In an age dominated by a few great architect-designers noted for their intensely personal art, the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for twenty-five years has been a unique force in the building of the modern city. This book is the first study of SOM’s unified but far-flung operations, of the architecture created by its remarkable complex of designers and engineers working in all corners of the world. Containing photographs, site and building plans, elevation drawings, and accompanying explanatory text, it shows clearly the integrated and pioneering work of a great American firm.

From Lever House to the Chase Manhattan Bank, from Oak Ridge to the Inland Steel Headquarters, from a school for the deaf to a rare-book library at Yale, SOM has achieved a high perfection in standards of structural design, continually refined excellence of finish, and vitality and elegance of experimentation. But it has done more than that. Eschewing convenient routine solutions, SOM has demonstrated that a large organization need not be uniform, conservative, or schematized. In every aspect of the building process, in every detail of design and execution, it has shown imaginative and experimental brilliance. The curtain walls of Lever House, the exposed reinforced concrete ribs of other skyscrapers, the spatial organization and lighting in their offices, the steel tetrahedrons of the Air Force Academy Chapel: these technological innovations have virtually opened up a new esthetic and technique of modern architectural design.

SOM architects are not, however, only interested in the individual building. Persuading its clients of responsibilities beyond the mere maintenance of structures they will occupy and use, SOM is itself dedicated to solving the major architectural problem of our day: the re-creation of old, and creation of new, cities – well planned, imaginative, and of innate and lasting distinction. The substance of this book illuminates the manner in which Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has achieved that goal.

SOM by Axel Menges

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1963-1973
Commentaries by Axel Menges
Introduction by Arthur Drexler

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, founded in 1936, is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in the world. SOM has long been known for innovation, experimentation, design excellence, and technical mastery, for an abiding interest in the contributions that buildings can make to the life of cities, and for a collaborative approach that extends to all aspects of the design and construction processes. This volume, which presents work from the 1960’s and early 1970’s, reproduces a monograph first published in 1974.

Since the early 1950’s, SOM has ranked among the leading architectural offices in the United States. Buildings such as the office skyscraper of the Lever Brothers Company or the administrative building of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company have exerted a decisive influence on the history of postwar architecture and have, both by their form and their construction, pointed the way in new directions. SOM has proved that even an enterprise which at present comprises about 1,000 members is able, by teamwork and dedication, to produce results which are equal to those of the great individualists of modern architecture.

This book is dedicated to SOM’s most recent work. The gradual move away from the ideas of the 1950’s, a period which was entirely characterized by the International Style, has not, as was sometimes feared, resulted in a decrease but rather in an increase in architectural quality. To the continued almost unsurpassable technical and organizational discipline has now been added an astonishingly varied form-language. Of those who are moving in completely new directions we should mention, above all, Walter Netsch in Chicago and Edward Bassett in San Francisco. Netsch developed a multi-axial ground-plan geometry which makes it possible to use identical elements which are easy to mass-produce in the construction of extremely complex buildings which can be extended on the principle of cellular structures; Bassett is especially concerned with overcoming the isolation of individual buildings which is a heritage of the International Style period. But even those who have carried on along the principles of the 1950’s have not been simply marking time. On the contrary, they subject these principles to new interpretations and continue to develop them consequentially, either toward an intensification of the architectural expression (Gordon Bunshaft, Roy Allen) or toward a refinement of the construction methods (Bruce Graham, Fazlur Khan). Bunshaft has, in recent years, distinguished himself above all in his response to the challenge of an increased desire for symbolism in architecture; the names Graham and Khan are synonymous with the process of forming the external framework of a building as a self-supporting tube, a development which has opened up completely new perspectives in the field of skyscraper construction.

The building and projects included in this book combine to produce an impressive survey of the activity of the past ten years. All the examples are provided with comprehensive commentaries and, where necessary, documented with attention to details. In his extensive introduction, Arthur Drexler explains the social and architectural relevance of SOM’s work and subjects it to a critical appraisal.

SOM by Albert Bush-Brown

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1973-1983
Introduction by Albert Bush-Brown

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, founded in 1936, is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in the world. SOM has long been known for innovation, experimentation, design excellence, and technical mastery, for an abiding interest in the contributions that buildings can make to the life of cities, and for a collaborative approach that extends to all aspects of the design and construction processes. This volume, which presents work from the 1970s and early 1980s, reproduces a monograph first published in 1983.

SOM’s growth as a large architectural firm began almost fifty years ago. By 1981 there were nine offices in the United States with a total of more than 2,100 members. The decade 1973–1983 brought retirement to a number of well-known founding partners. Nevertheless, SOM’s reputation for design leadership has been maintained through “creative dissidence,” as one of the younger partners describes it. The firm moves with distinction into a third and fourth generation. This book, organized by region, reveals the firm’s architectural response to a decade that greatly changed American society.

The firm’s work of the past decade belonged to the city, and especially the urban office tower. Architectural restraints, new technology and programs created opportunity for a new generation of distinctive towers that have become important additions to the skylines of major American cities. The tall building has evolved to new purposes, and the result has been expanding variations on tower architecture. The late Chicago partner Fazlur Khan, who led the way by creating the flexible, economical tube structure, was enthusiastic about the tall building, claiming “it permits work and residential space to locate where and when most needed.” The tall building, for him, was a remarkable economical and symbolic success which also performed an admirable social service.

The decade was also defined by wide public interest in preservation of historic buildings and contexts. To this movement, SOM’s designers did not react with historical quotation or eclectic reference, but rather by accepting the contextual obligation as part of their more urgent quest for a strong architecture that is both modern and compatible with its setting. SOM addressed important urban problems with seminal studies for San Antonio, Chicago, and Washington, as well as with designs for large urban transportation facilities on the East Coast.

At the same time, the firm sought work abroad in the face of a barren domestic economy, designing universities, new towns, airport terminals, and commercial buildings on several continents. Whereas regret surrounds plans for Iranian cities halted by political revolt, planning projects of this kind introduced the firm’s teams to social urgency and primary research into indigenous form.

The energy crisis brought still other challenges. Its special requirements created new architectural opportunities that have been demonstrated by buildings in a variety of locations. SOM early recognized the potential of computer analysis and pioneered its adoption in dealing with structural and architectural problems. This capability dramatically extended SOM’s capacity for the creative study of energy efficiency and performance calculations.

SOM by Detlef Mertins

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1984-1996
Introduction by Detlef Mertins

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, founded in 1936, is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in the world. SOM has long been known for innovation, experimentation, design excellence, and technical mastery, for an abiding interest in the contributions that buildings can make to the life of cities, and for a collaborative approach that extends to all aspects of the design and construction processes. This volume presents work from the 1980s and 1990s.

Since its founding in the 1930s, SOM has pioneered an architectural practice that is equally attentive to the currents of modern design and the demands of the marketplace. The early years were devoted to developing the International Style in the United States; the middle of the century to collaborations with legendary patrons such as Lever Brothers, John Hancock, Sears Roebuck, and Yale University; and the later years to charting a course for architecture at a time when modernism was beginning to embrace contextualism and local cultures.

In the years 1984–1996, SOM continued to develop the skills for which it had become known—high standards of design, imaginative structural solutions, exceptional detailing, city making on a grand scale, expertise in managing large and complex sites—and also addressed new areas of design and practice. A contextual modernism—one attentive to climate, topography, and the regional vernacular—a focus on restoration and reuse, and an expansion of international work came to the fore in a time of great social and economic change. In his introduction, Detlef Mertins traces the firm’s history in parallel with this restructuring, a growth in real estate development and financial markets that fundamentally changed how buildings were commissioned and built.

Rowes Wharf in Boston, the USG and AT&T Buildings in Chicago, and Worldwide Plaza and the Islamic Cultural Center in New York are among the buildings that represent the firm’s contextualism and inventive interpretation of historic precedents. At the same time, Exchange House in London demonstrates SOM’s continued commitment to modernism and technological expression. Many projects, such as Enerplex in Plainsboro, New Jersey, and the Pacific Bell Administrative Complex in San Ramon, California, broke new ground in strategies for long-term energy conservation. Among the firm’s important restorations of this era are the Civic Opera House in Chicago and the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, as well as a series of historic train stations along the Northeast Corridor.

International works—the National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia, Ayala Tower One/Philippine Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, and especially Canary Wharf in London, an entire district based on a new model of urban planning—demonstrate SOM’s coordinated expertise in planning, transportation and civil engineering, and landscape design in an era of globalization. Finally, the most recent works, especially the landmark Jin Mao Tower in China, point the way to SOM’s work of the twenty-first century: diverse, contextual, urbane, and populist.

SOM by Kenneth Frampton

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1997-2008
Introduction by Kenneth Frampton

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, founded in 1936, is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in the world. SOM has long been known for innovation, experimentation, design excellence, and technical mastery, for an abiding interest in the contributions that buildings can make to the life of cities, and for a collaborative approach that extends to all aspects of the design and construction processes. This volume presents work from the late 1990s and 2000s.

In an era of true globalization in design and commerce, SOM has come to occupy a unique place in American and international architecture. Recognized for the exceptional quality of its architectural design and urban planning, the firm is also renowned for its clients, an eminent group of businesses and institutions. In the years 1997–2008, the period represented in this monograph, SOM’s steadfast dedication to a modern expression has produced an important series of works at all scales, in a variety of typologies, in countries around the world. From the diminutive Skyscraper Museum in New York City to the radiant Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California, to the master plan and two buildings for the University of California Merced, the newest U.C. campus, the works shown here illustrate the remarkable range of SOM’s current practice.

Perhaps no work exemplifies the firm’s creative, multifaceted approach as much as 7 World Trade Center, the first structure built at the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. On a site claimed by commerce but also subject to the demands of memory, SOM created an elegant stainless-steel and glass tower that restores the New York City street grid and begins the process of remaking this part of the city. A suggestive combination of artistic and structural expertise, dedication to finding sustainable design solutions, collaborations with preeminent artists and designers, and commitment to urbanism characterize not only 7 World Trade Center but SOM’s recent body of work.

Among the projects shown is the massive U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, the first federal office building to receive a LEED rating. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing elegantly responds to the local culture and site. An abundance of airport projects—in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Israel, and Singapore—shows SOM’s mastery of this complex project type. The firm’s commitment to urbanism and its ability to work at a large scale on sites of great visibility are evident in the designs for the Time Warner Center in New York and Tokyo Midtown, as well as in a series of grand master plans: Chongming Island in Shanghai, the redevelopment of the waterfront in Alexandria, Egypt, and Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. At the same time, the firm often works at a fine scale, as in the Burr Street School in Connecticut, the retail prototype for Charles Schwab, and the Condé Nast Cafeteria in New York.

Kenneth Frampton brings a historian’s perspective to SOM’s recent work, tracing its evolution back to the Miesian modernism dominant at the time of the firm’s founding and forward to the cutting-edge technical advances to which the firm has devoted itself. Large-span structures, high-rise towers, low-rise topographic forms, compositions that incorporate media, and constructivist essays: all contribute to the development of contemporary architecture and contemporary urbanism alike. Well into its eighth decade of practice, SOM continues on a course of twenty-first century modernism, a modernism that is diverse and inclusive, contextual, urbane, and populist.

The Art of Living by Claudia Steinberg

2009-11-17T00:30:00-05:00

The Art of Living
Text by Claudia Steinberg
Photographed by Barbel Miebach

To artists and designers, a home is a canvas on which they can project themselves, a testing ground for creative impulses, a place to display the objects that inspire them, a venue for experimentation with forms and materials that later appear in their own work. In this unique volume, photographer Bärbel Miebach captures the unique spirit of the private living quarters of twenty-five internationally known figures including Ellsworth Kelly, Catherine Malandrino, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Andres Serrano, Hunt Slonem, Vivienne Tam, and Andrea Zittel.

From self-designed, floor-to-ceiling trompe l'oeil tile in quirky color combinations to renovations of urban lofts as Japanese farmhouses to pristine all-white spaces, sixteenth-century cathedrals, and a bold apartment that takes design cues and motifs directly from the vibrant colors and brash metallic forms of the inhabitant's own artwork, each of the featured homes provides an inside look at the personalities behind these unconventional dwellings. Equally intriguing are homes of artists and gallery owners who have spent a lifetime collecting works by artistic friends, priceless examples of art and furniture from a favorite period, or artifacts from far-flung continents during their own wide-ranging travels. Still other spaces reveal how the imaginations of architects are interpreted in black concrete, copper, zinc, and brightly painted plywood when they turn their energies to designing houses for themselves and their families.

Over 200 color images reveal a wealth of unique, personal approaches to the challenge of incorporating creative space into a home. Of interest to anyone who has wondered what the living rooms and studios of famous artists might contain, what objects inspire them, and what inventive solutions they devise to create expressive personal spaces in a domestic atmosphere, The Art of Living provides a colorful, varied look at a group of diverse artistic individuals who live and work in homes from New York and the Hamptons to Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert.

Building Suburbia by Dolores Hayden

2009-11-04T00:30:00-05:00

Building Suburbia Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000
Written by Dolores Hayden

For almost two centuries Americans have been moving to the suburbs in search of affordable
family housing, unspoiled nature, and small-town sociability—only to find that their leafy
new neighborhoods are part of the growing metropolitan sprawl. It is to this contested cultural landscape, where most Americans now live, that Dolores Hayden draws our attention.

From nineteenth-century utopian communities and elite picturesque enclaves to early twentieth-century streetcar subdivisions and owner-built tracts to the vast postwar sitcom suburbs and the subsidized malls and office parks that followed (on a scale that earlier builders could never have imagined), Hayden reveals the cultural and economic patterns that have brought us to the present. She explores the interplay of natural and built environments, the complex antagonisms between real-estate developers and suburban residents, the hidden role of federal government, and the religious and ideological overtones of the “American dream” embedded in the suburbs. Hayden asks hard questions about who has benefited from the suburban building process and about “smart” growth and “green” building. And she makes a strong case for the revitalization of existing neighborhoods in place of unchecked new growth on rural fringes.
Few readers will see our ubiquitous suburbs in the same way again.

From the Hardcover edition.

Lasting Elegance by Michael Hall

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

Lasting Elegance English Country Houses 1830-1900
Written by Michael Hall

The great English country house tradition reached its apotheosis in the nineteenth century. Designed by all the most eminent architects of the age, houses constructed during this period were larger, more elaborate, and more lavishly furnished than ever before, and they became famous throughout Europe and America for their luxury, technological innovation, and convenience of plan.

Michael Hall's survey draws on the vast archive of the great British magazine Country Life to present the fullest visual record yet published of the Victorian-era country house in England and Wales. It ranges from the High Gothic of Tyntes?eld to Ferdinand Rothschild's ?amboyantly French Waddesdon Manor and Philip Webb's Arts and Crafts interiors at Standen. These remarkable photographs are in many cases the only record of the great houses in their heyday; those such as Wrest Park, Thoresby Hall, and Hewell Grange were all sold in the twentieth century and their magni?cent furniture and priceless artwork and collections dispersed. Houses that have survived with their interiors intact but are little known or rarely accessible to the public also feature prominently, such as Flintham Hall and the Earl of Harrowby's Sandon Hall.

Spectacular color photographs provide a fascinating look at some of the most celebrated houses of the period, from A. W. N. Pugin's Scarisbrick Hall and William Burges's Cardiff Castle to J. F. Bentley's Carlton Towers and J. D. Crace's astonishing interiors at Longleat. This chronologically arranged survey of Victorian houses spans the decades from the 1830s to the 1890s and includes not only new houses, but also historic county seats that have been in families for generations and were given major renovations or additions in this era. With over 150 superb color and black-and-white photographs specially selected to highlight the century's most signi?cant houses and their architects and an authoritative commentary by Michael Hall, this book provides a thorough overview of a major period in British architectural history.

Inside Outside by Petra Blaisse

2009-10-20T00:30:00-05:00

Inside Outside
Written by Petra Blaisse

Petra Blaisse and her firm, Inside Outside, specialize in the rare combination of interior and landscape design, interweaving architecture and context. Interior projects use materials that introduce visual effects such as color, flexibility, seasonal change, and movement and solve acoustic, climatic, shading, and spatial issues. Landscape projects reflect a fascination with materials, light, and movement within an urban and infrastructural program. This approach brings forth a series of strong, multilayered garden and park designs that combine logistics with rich planting schemes and graphic effects.

Inside Outside introduces the full range of Blaisse’s work, focusing on collaborations with internationally renowned architects including Rem Koolhaas and SANAA. It weaves together descriptions and documentation of more than fifty projects, a conversation with the designer, and essays by renowned writers and critics.

Building Up and Tearing Down by Paul Goldberger

2009-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Building Up and Tearing Down Reflections on the Age of Architecture
Written by Paul Goldberger

PAUL GOLDBERGER
ON THE AGE OF ARCHITECTURE
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry, the CCTV Headquarters by Rem Koolhaas, the Getty Center by Richard Meier, the Times Building by Renzo Piano: Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger’s tenure at The New Yorker has documented a captivating era in the world of architecture, one in which larger-than-life buildings, urban schemes, historic preservation battles, and personalities have commanded an international stage. Goldberger’s keen observations and sharp wit make him one of the most insightful and passionate architectural voices of our time. In this collection of fifty-seven essays, the critic Tracy Kidder called “America’s foremost interpreter of public architecture” ranges from Havana to Beijing, from Chicago to Las Vegas, dissecting everything from skyscrapers by Norman Foster and museums by Tadao Ando to airports, monuments, suburban shopping malls, and white-brick apartment houses. This is a comprehensive account of the best—and the worst—of the “age of architecture.”

On Norman Foster:
Norman Foster is the Mozart of modernism. He is nimble and prolific, and his buildings are marked by lightness and grace. He works very hard, but his designs don’t show the effort. He brings an air of unnerving aplomb to everything he creates—from skyscrapers to airports, research laboratories to art galleries, chairs to doorknobs. His ability to produce surprising work that doesn’t feel labored must drive his competitors crazy.

On the Westin Hotel:
The forty-five-story Westin is the most garish tall building that has gone up in New York in as long as I can remember. It is fascinating, if only because it makes Times Square vulgar in a whole new way, extending up into the sky. It is not easy, these days, to go beyond the bounds of taste. If the architects, the Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, had been trying to allude to bad taste, one could perhaps respect what they came up with. But they simply wanted, like most architects today, to entertain us.

On Mies van der Rohe:
Mies’s buildings look like the simplest things you could imagine, yet they are among the richest works of architecture ever created. Modern architecture was supposed to remake the world, and Mies was at the center of the revolution, but he was also a counterrevolutionary who designed beautiful things. His spare, minimalist objects are exquisite. He is the only modernist who created a language that ranks with the architectural languages of the past, and while this has sometimes been troubling for his reputation . . . his architectural forms become more astonishing as time goes on.

Living West by Sam Lubell

2009-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Living West New Residential Architecture in Southern California
Written by Sam Lubell

A dense concentration of design talent, uniquely varied topography, and one of the world’s most pleasant climates have made Southern California a crucible of architectural innovation. There, forward-looking clients respond to dramatic modern interpretations of form and site that capitalize on natural light and magnificent ocean views, perch delicately on steeply graded land, or maximize privacy on a sliver of a city lot.

Thirty of the best designs by the most creative firms portray the diversity of Southern California’s architecture. Author Sam Lubell draws examples from Montecito to San Diego and the arid conditions of Joshua Tree to illustrate the wide range of responses to geography, budget, and space. Featured architects include Barbara Bestor, Belzberg, Griffin Enright, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Michele Saee, the Office of Mobile Design, and Predock Frane, among others.

The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer

2009-09-29T00:30:00-05:00

The Architecture of Natural Light
Written by Henry Plummer

Shelter and natural light are fundamental elements of architecture. The first is concerned with protection from natural elements; the second with the creative and sometimes spiritual interaction between the man-made and the natural worlds. One is solid and static, the other illuminates and animates.

Architects through the ages have preoccupied themselves with how to marry these two opposing aspects of architecture, a marriage that at its finest transforms natural light itself into a building material. Seen through the eyes of an architect and photographer, The Architecture of Natural Light is the first publication to consider the many effects of natural illumination in contemporary buildings. This comprehensive and thoughtful survey begins with a brief introduction exploring the advances and experimentation of architects throughout the centuries. Each of the following seven chapters is devoted to a specific quality of natural light, including evanescence, atomization, and luminescence, and examines the particular uses of light through many disciplines—from art history to film and literature. With more than fifty case studies of buildings from around the world, this volume considers works by some of the world’s most influential architects, including Tadao Ando, Steven Holl, Herzog & de Meuron, Peter Zumthor, Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza, Alberto Campo Baeza, Rafael Moneo, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, Fumihiko Maki, and Toyo Ito, among others.

For all those seeking to create space that transcends the physical, The Architecture of Natural Light is a powerful and poetic yet practical survey that provides an original and timeless approach to contemporary architecture.

Beatrix Farrand by Judith B. Tankard

2009-09-29T00:30:00-05:00

Beatrix Farrand Private Gardens, Public Landscapes
Written by Judith B. Tankard

Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes presents the life and work of one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s. Born into a prominent New York family (she was the niece of Edith Wharton), Farrand eschewed the traditional social life of the Gilded Age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants. Many of her clients were members of the highest echelon of society with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine, but Farrand ultimately became a consultant for university campuses, including Yale and Princeton, and for public gardens, including the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. Perhaps her best-known work is the extensive garden at Dumbarton Oaks, originally a private residence and now a research institute of Harvard University.

Deeply influenced by the English landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll, Farrand was known for broad expanses of lawn with deep swaths of borders planted in a subtle palette of foliage and flowers. Her gardens have been photographed at their peak especially for this book, and these lush illustrations are complemented by beautiful watercolor wash renderings of her designs, now preserved at the library of the University of California at Berkeley.

Random House New Releases - Architecture - Between November 27, 2008 and December 27, 2009.

Robert A. M. Stern by Paul Goldberger

Robert A. M. Stern Buildings & Projects 2004-2009Written by Robert A.M. Stern and Paul Goldberger Edited by Peter Morris Dixon

The 1950s Home by Sophie Leighton

The 1950s Home Written by Sophie Leighton

Hearts of the City by Nicolai Ouroussoff

Hearts of the City The Selected Writings of Herbert MuschampWritten by Herbert Muschamp Introduction by Nicolai Ouroussoff

Jim Olson Houses by Michael Webb

Jim Olson Houses Written by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Introduction by Michael Webb

Juan Montoya by Elizabeth Gaynor

Juan Montoya Written by Juan Montoya Text by Elizabeth Gaynor

Ken Smith by John Beardsley

Ken Smith Landscape ArchitectWritten by Ken Smith Introduction by John Beardsley

Medieval Masons by Malcolm Hislop

Medieval Masons Written by Malcolm Hislop

SOM by Ernst Danz

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1950-1962Commentaries by Ernst Danz Introduction by Henry-Russell Hitchcock

SOM by Axel Menges

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1963-1973Commentaries by Axel Menges Introduction by Arthur Drexler

SOM by Albert Bush-Brown

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1973-1983Introduction by Albert Bush-Brown

SOM by Detlef Mertins

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1984-1996Introduction by Detlef Mertins

SOM by Kenneth Frampton

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1997-2008Introduction by Kenneth Frampton

The Art of Living by Claudia Steinberg

The Art of Living Text by Claudia Steinberg Photographed by Barbel Miebach

Building Suburbia by Dolores Hayden

Building Suburbia Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000Written by Dolores Hayden

Lasting Elegance by Michael Hall

Lasting Elegance English Country Houses 1830-1900Written by Michael Hall

Inside Outside by Petra Blaisse

Inside Outside Written by Petra Blaisse

Building Up and Tearing Down by Paul Goldberger

Building Up and Tearing Down Reflections on the Age of ArchitectureWritten by Paul Goldberger

Living West by Sam Lubell

Living West New Residential Architecture in Southern CaliforniaWritten by Sam Lubell

The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer

The Architecture of Natural Light Written by Henry Plummer

Beatrix Farrand by Judith B. Tankard

Beatrix Farrand Private Gardens, Public LandscapesWritten by Judith B. Tankard

Robert A. M. Stern Buildings & Projects 2004-2009
Written by Robert A.M. Stern and Paul Goldberger
Edited by Peter Morris Dixon

The 1950s Home
Written by Sophie Leighton

Hearts of the City The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp
Written by Herbert Muschamp
Introduction by Nicolai Ouroussoff

Jim Olson Houses
Written by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen
Introduction by Michael Webb

Juan Montoya
Written by Juan Montoya
Text by Elizabeth Gaynor

Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Written by Ken Smith
Introduction by John Beardsley

Medieval Masons
Written by Malcolm Hislop

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1950-1962
Commentaries by Ernst Danz
Introduction by Henry-Russell Hitchcock

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1963-1973
Commentaries by Axel Menges
Introduction by Arthur Drexler

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1973-1983
Introduction by Albert Bush-Brown

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1984-1996
Introduction by Detlef Mertins

SOM Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1997-2008
Introduction by Kenneth Frampton

The Art of Living
Text by Claudia Steinberg
Photographed by Barbel Miebach

Building Suburbia Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000
Written by Dolores Hayden

Lasting Elegance English Country Houses 1830-1900
Written by Michael Hall

Inside Outside
Written by Petra Blaisse

Building Up and Tearing Down Reflections on the Age of Architecture
Written by Paul Goldberger

Living West New Residential Architecture in Southern California
Written by Sam Lubell

The Architecture of Natural Light
Written by Henry Plummer

Beatrix Farrand Private Gardens, Public Landscapes
Written by Judith B. Tankard