Creating the New American Townhouse

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Poetry masquerading as prose

American beauty

Is a townhouse different from a city house?

Non-typical collection of townhouses

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing

Creating the New American Townhouse
Alexander Gorlin
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Residential | Building Types & Styles | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Interior Design | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0847827127
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Book Description

Once the bastion of the haute bourgeoisie, the town house has now been embraced by families with young children, single urban professionals, and retired couples, all looking for more comfortable city or suburban living. Architect Alexander Gorlin explores a spectacular array of diverse town house designs (often referred to by different terms in different parts of the country) that carry this familiar symbol of architectural innovation and refinement into the twenty-first century. Creating the New American Town House features cutting-edge town houses that each draw from architectural tradition while achieving originality by both breaking from and adhering to the limitations of the town house form. Within the typical five-story frame and two parallel walls presented here are ingenious and exquisite and, above all, extremely livable design solutions to the constraints of this classic housing type.
Ranging from sites in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, each of the buildings featured in Creating the New American Town House represents an eloquent contribution to the form and is designed by such celebrated architects as Steven Ehrlich, Hugh Newell Jacobson, Stanley Saitowitz, and 1100 Architect. Each project is extensively illustrated with full-color photography that showcases the interior design as well as plans and drawings. Alexander Gorlin’s insightful text continues the discourse begun in his The New American Town House, surveying the adaptation of this beloved urban dwelling to the demands of a new century.

Customer Reviews:

Poetry masquerading as prose.......2006-03-08

Creating the New American Town House only reaffirms my longstanding appreciation of the work of Alexander Gorlin, known for his high-end residential designs, but equally deserving of accolades for his innovative design of synagogues, churches, affordable housing and educational projects. Check out his own website www.gorlinarchitects.com and you will see why he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a regular in magazines like Architectural Record, Architectural Digest and Interior Design.

Oh right, the book! Not only is every photograph stunning. Boldly elegant but never ostentatious, these projects are without exception the work of design studios (with as few as two employees) who care more about well-realized details than money or fame. Gorlin's concise project descriptions illuminate precisely those aspects of the projects that might otherwise escape the reader's notice, a phenomenal accomplishment that in some way surpasses his earlier book, The New American Town House. The first book, now difficult to find, opens with an erudite and comprehensive history of the Town House from Vitruvius to Hejduk!

Less is more? Nothing less than a triumph! Go forth A.G.!

American beauty.......2006-03-08

Yes, some of this book's projects may not technically meet the traditional criteria for the town house; but as Gorlin himself describes one of Stanley Saitowitz's projects, it "extends beyond general restrictions for the type". The book is more a record of how gifted architects have in the last five years reimagined and utilized the typology in new contexts and in striking new ways. Indeed you will be disappointed if you are looking for "typical" projects, but who wants typical when you can have genius!!

There is a diverse array of projects, including multi-family and affordable housing the like of which are to be found almost nowhere in the United States. While many of these architects are highly respected names whom the average reader herself might not be able to hire, Gorlin makes a crucial statement about the architect/client relationship in his "Advice from the Architect" introduction: "Apart from talent, personal chemistry is essential". The work also demonstrates that the architects in the book have earned their reputations by pushing the envelope, by CREATING one-of-a-kind responses to their clients and their urban contexts.

Is a townhouse different from a city house?.......2006-01-30

First of all let me say that Mr. Gorlin has compiled and selected very beautiful projects for his book. The book itself is very well constructed and the detailed photographs provide insight to how these exquisite homes were designed and constructed.
The only question I have regarding some of the projects featured in this book is that they don't seem to fall under the typology of what a "townhouse" is. Perhaps its my lack of knowledge, but I believed a townhouse differed from a city house in that a townhouse shared a parallel wall with adjacent buildings and is usually built vertically due to narrow city lots. Although most projects featured here fall under this form, some such as the Reyna Town House by Dean Nota Architect and the Vertical Townhouse by Lorcan O'Herlihy among others bear the name "town house", but seem to be just houses in an urban context. These houses are built on lots, but because they share no common wall with their neighbors they seem to fall under the typology of suburban houses with their boundary indicating fences. Don't get me wrong, the projects featured here are all very beautiful whether they are new constructions or renovations, but some seem to be out of character of what I thought a townhouse is. Nonetheless, aside from the dispute in nomenclature, this book features some of the best examples of fine architecture in city living.

www.hjlbookreview.com

Non-typical collection of townhouses.......2006-01-15

If you are looking for new and typical American townhouses, you'd be disappointed by the beautiful and modern houses custom-designed by sophisticated architects in the book. But it's still a creditworthy design collection of individual luxury townhouses.

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing.......2005-12-13

Sometimes too much of a good thing, one beautiful photo after another, leaves you feeling bloated with... having seen alot of beautiful photos. The only relief the book offers is in the frequent mediocrity of so many of the projects.

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Creating the New American Townhouse
Alexander Gorlin
Manufacturer: RIZZOLI @ INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N677XY

Product Description

The most important spiritual writings of Christian history are available on this Classics CD by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at Calvin College. It contains 118 Christian classics, including three versions of the Bible, several commentaries, Bible dictionaries, readings, spiritual guides, sermons, poems and journals -- all in a convenient, searchable form. Books are available in HTML and PDF formats. The easy-to-use CCEL Desktop software powering the CD enables users to browse and print books and install additional books from the Web. The top-of-class search engine can search for words or phrases in books, in authors works or in the whole library. In addition, it can search for dictionary definitions of words and commentary or references to scripture passages. The interface is a Web browser. The CD is compatible with Windows 2000+, Macintosh 10.3+, and most Linux versions.

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That Divine Order
Peter Vergo
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Ever since antiquity, philosophers have pointed to the supposed `divine' character of music, and following Pythagoras's discovery of the mathematical basis of the musical scale, have posited a link between the mathematical order of music, the physical order of the universe and the moral order of human society. Both practising artists and moralists came to believe that, by demonstrating an analogy with music, they could claim a dignity and value for their art - whether painting, architecture or sculpture - that it might otherwise lack.

Why was this so? What was the point of such analogies? What advantages was music believed to enjoy, by comparison with the visual arts?

Artists and critics frequently cited music as a manifestation of God-given order to which visual arts should aspire. But on what evidence was this belief in the inherently systematic character of music based; and in practical terms, how might visual art seek to emulate any such divine order or system? In what way might Gothic cathedrals have been based on systems of harmonic proportion? How did Poussin's search for a compositional principle derived from antique `modes' in music resemble, or differ from, Palladio's attempts to embody musical `harmonies' in architecture? And how did each artist conceive of the sense and value of such analogies?

Systematic answers to such questions have hitherto been lacking, and, for the first time, Professor Vergo makes direct and detailed comparisons between musical and pictorial practices in the long period covered by the book. He also provides a broad analysis of changes in the character of the analogies drawn at different times, using in his analyses critical and philosophical sources as well as evidence about artistic and musical practice.

That Divine Order will be of interest to art historians and musicologists, to practising artists and musicians, to students of cultural history and those concerned with aesthetic theory and interdisciplinary studies.

Book Description

This surprising book presents 50 beautiful full-color images by the great American landscape photographer, Ansel Adams, marking the first time that a significant body of Ansel Adams' color work has ever been published.Ansel Adams began to photograph in color soon after Kodachrome was invented in the mid-1930s, and shot more that 3,000 color images during his lifetime. Very few of these photographs, however, were published or exhibited. As Adams remarked late in life after observing the advances in color printing techniques, "People are skeptical about my thoughts on color. I do not blame them, as I have protested it and have not shown my color pictures. I feel the urge now and wish I were sixty years younger!" The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, working with the distinguished photographer Harry Callahan, decided to share this remarkable body of work, reproduced in accordance with Adams' exacting standards, through state-of-the-art color imaging and printing technology. These images, accompanied by an introductory essay by James Enyeart and a selection of Ansel Adams' thoughtful, often contradictory writings on color photography, add a fascinating new dimension to Adams' enduring legacy.

Customer Reviews:

Alternative View.......2005-12-24

Any decent photographer knows about the work of Ansel Adams. Sure, he is well known for his black and white work, but many of us have wondered about his work in color. This book presents some good photos, but the main thing is the text (and there isn't too much of it, which is good). It includes analysis, but also comments from Ansel himself (articles, interviews, etc.). Definitely worth reading. I was going to just breeze through the pretty pictures, but when I started reading the text, I had to read all of it.

A work in progress.......2004-10-12

I got a copy of this recently and it is a truly interesting book.
The use of colour displays a profound vision and shows a great
understanding of the necessity for colours to work together in an image,
sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in contrast.

It is truly as great as the B&W work Adams is so well known for?
To be honest no, but he was still working towards a vision of
how to use colour in his work, so it remains a work in progress.
Given another 50 years I have no doubt that Adams would have
colour work every bit as good as his B&W.

You could learn a lot from the images in this book, possibly
all the more because it isn't a really polished work which can
seem a bit inaccesible to us lesser mortals.

Will the Real Ansel Adams Please Stand Up.............2002-07-13

Many reviewers make quite clear a fact about Ansel Adams regarding his own colour photography: That he did not want it published, for his own lack of control over the medium was substandard to the exacting methods he employed in his black-and-white prints. Without reservation, agreed.

But what most of Ansel Adams' most fervent admirers won't admit was that this book of colour prints made from transparencies belie the legendary artist's alleged "genius" for composition. Many of the compositions within are colour versions of famous black-and-white prints, the most famous being Half Dome at Yosemite.

I wish that aspiring photographers' introduction to Ansel Adams be similar to that of a Japanese photography assistant I once employed. She had never seen Adams' work (not as popular in the Far East as in the States) prior to this book. Her words regarding this book were "he takes pleasant photographs of pretty subjects in nature." I later introduced her to Adams' black-and-white "greatest hits" that Little, Brown, also published. Her assessment: "His compositions are generally conventional, but not novel. But, with a red filter while shooting and many darkroom methods and formulas, he uses technique to bring drama to his prints."

Ditto. It was refreshing to hear this opinion of Adams, because my friend did not have the yoke of artistic correctness hanging about her neck to remind her to speak of Adams in reverent, hushed, tones as some great "master" as though he were the photographic equal of Rembrandt, Vermeer or Rodin.

What Adams' admirers most fear about this book is that it will lay waste to all the decades of carefully designed PR Adams' publicity machine and his heirs have promulgated in their hagiographic transmogrification of a pretty good artist and a peerless technician into "St. Ansel."

The truth of the matter was that Ansel Adams made pretty pictures of pretty landscapes. And, that's what you'll get in this book. If you want the illusion of great art, turn to any of his volumes in black-and-white.

But, if you want truly great, earth-shattering black and white photography that inspires both intellect and emotion, then turn to the true masters: Walker Evans, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Robert Frank and Leni Riefenstahl.

Ansel Adams at his worst.......2002-05-06

At first, I thought I would buy this book to complete my Ansel Adams collection, despite all the bad reviews. I found this book in a library and changed my mind. This book is not worth its price for 3 reasons.
1. The quality of the color prints is very bad. The colors have faded, probably because the pictures were taken decades ago and the color technology was not good back then. Don't let the cover fools you, it is probably the best one in the whole book.
2. The reproduction is even worse. The pictures are so small you can barely make out the details.
3. Adams took a very different approach for his color photographs. The viewpoint he chose is narrow and lacking in perspective, the two most serious sins in landscape photography.
It makes me think that, instead of trying to make a reader like Adams' color photographs, the publisher of this book is trying very hard to make sure that a reader will hate them - just to prove Adams' own point.
If you still want a book on Ansel Adams' color photograhs, wait until a better book comes along. This book is not even worth considering.

Interesting Perspective on the Limits of Adams' Genius.......2000-11-16

"I can truthfully say I can remember only two or three color photographs that are worth remembering." -- Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams long felt that color photography was not art and not consistent with his vision of his own photography. What we have in this volume are almost totally unpublished and unexhibited images from his transparencies that he chose not to publish or exhibit. In other words, these are mostly his rejects. So, this is like pawing through his working files of sketches rather than his finished work, in an unauthorized way. How does that make you feel? Hmmm.

For me, the benefit of this volume was to better understand the brilliance of how his processing of black and white images played into the success of his best work. This book contains 50 images that clearly do not have the full Ansel Adams feel and impact.

The strength of this volume is the plenitude of material on what Adams had to say about color photography in general and his own. These points are nicely characterized in the essay by James L. Enyeart. One of the key problems for Adams was that he could "see" the final black and white image he wanted to create in his mind before taking a photograph, but could not "see" the color image in advance. He was not one to take hundreds of exposures hoping to have one or two turn out to be interesting. The art of photography for him was always a deliberate one, not an accidental process. While many color photographers used Polaroid stills as tests in this way, Adams did not want to do so.

Another problem was that early color processing did not allow him the control over the final image that black and white processing did.

Perhaps the ultimate problem was that "the most difficult subject for color photography was landscape." "The image -- to the photographer -- is a very different experience from what the viewer might receive from it." Think of a photograph then, as "a simulation of a perception of the world around us . . . ." A color photograph tended to destroy Adams' preference for understatement, and desire to show subtle connections. In fact, you will often see poor photography literally shouting with color that overwhelms the senses to no purpose.

Harry M. Callahan took on the thankless task of picking out some images to put in the book. He did this solely on aesthetic grounds, reflecting his own taste. While I do not know what he did not select, I was interested to see that a few works seemed to carry off Adams' desire for subtlety in new ways by showing additional detail in the shadows that are missing in his parallel black and white images. These works include:

Yosemite Falls, c. 1953

Green Hills, c. 1945

Mount McKinley, Grass, 1948

Pool, 1947

El Capitan, Texas, 1947

Waimea Canyon, 1948

Clearing Storm, Yosemite, c. 1950

Detail of Mammoth Pool, Yellowstone, 1946

Mono Lake, 1947

Bad Water and Telescope Pool, Death Valley, c. 1947

The Grand Canyon, 1947

If you want to see Ansel Adams' best work, skip this book. If you want to understand why his black and white work is so great, take a look at this book.

Whether you decide to look or not, I have a challenge for you. Do you have anything in your files that is not intended for the public to see? Take a lesson from the experience of this book and destroy that material today.

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VERY FUNNY!

American Idle: A Lola Collection (Lola Books)
Steve Dickenson , and Todd Clark
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0740741373

Book Description

A little bit of Lola lives inside all of us. Now, if we could just discover how to let her out! Lola's the 70-something firecracker who graces a comic strip by the same name. She's snappy. She's quick with a comeback. She not only knows exactly what she wants, she gets it with great regularity.Now with American Idle: A Lola Collection, Lola delights readers with more than a year of her best single-frame and strip senior adventures. She's full of her trademark vim, vigor-and vinegar-every step of the way. This aged wonder may live with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, but she follows no one down the path of life. Where man has gone before-be it bowling, a favorite park bench, or behind the wheel-this cigar-chomping woman will go . . . faster, more fearlessly, and with far more attitude.Since Tribune Media first undertook Lola's syndication in 1999, the irreverent comic strip has grown a solid following in more than 100 newspaper markets, including New York, Cincinnati, Denver, Orlando, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Seattle, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. But Lola won't stop until she runs over everyone in the country, and you can bet they'll all go down laughing.

Customer Reviews:

VERY FUNNY!.......2005-07-22

Bought this for my mother who adores the Lola comic strip. It is a wonderful collection of Lola's wit and senior "attitude."

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A learning experience

Portrait of a Lady: The Biography of Elizabeth Menges Ramirez-Graham
Stanley B. Graham
Manufacturer: Belding Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0967485215

Book Description

Dear Book Browser:

Thanks for stopping to look at this book.

What is it about? It is the story of a remarkable woman who reared her children in two different cultures--Mexico and the United States--endured some misfortunes and heartache, some happiness, and always challenges on her journey to finding the perfect life. Elizabeth felt that there was nothing extraordinary about her life until I explained that her life--because of her varied work and living experiences in two diverse cultures--was the ideal subject of a biogaphy. It's true that most biographies in the market place are about the lives of celebrities--the rich, the famous, and the infamous--but I feel it is also important to chronicle the lives of ordinary people who have handled the vicissitudes in their own unique ways. Besides being a good homemaker, she worked in the American Embassy in Mexico City, taught Spanish and Fench in American high schools, was a medical transcriptionist, and founded the Greater Akron Chapter of the American Association for Medical Transcription--the first one in Ohio.

This book is dedicated to her four children and their heroic attempts to live their lives with an optimistic attitude, with honesty and sincere deciation to their careers and their families, and also to her friends and acquaintances, notably the members of the Great Akron Chapter of the American Association for Medical Transcription.

In he late life she married the man she refers to as her "Prince Charming." I am flattered but am happy that I woke up "Sleeping Beauty." Throughout all of her life, Elizabeth has demonstrated remarkable courage, good humor, intelligence, and loving kindness--traits worthy of imitation. I feel that I unearthed the extraordinary in the ordinary.

STANLEY B. GRAHAM

(Author/Publisher & Her Husband)

Customer Reviews:

A learning experience.......2002-03-18

A well written book. The author paints an informative picture of an American woman who learns to cope with living in Mexico under difficult and sometimes frightening conditions. She had the courage to withstand adversity and move on to a better life for herself and her children back in the USA. She worked hard for everything and found a soulmate in her new husband.

Book Description

Sport Success Series: The Human Drama of Women's Athletic Competition

In the past several months the thrill of women's soccer, the storybook tale of the Williams sisters in tennis, the continuing success of the WNBA, the increasing popularity of women's ice hockey and the birth of women's football have made women's sports the number one sports story of 1999.

With so many children playing soccer and being more interested than ever in many different sports, a new series from Barron's, for children 10 years old and up will offer valuable insight to budding athletes and be entertaining reading. Winning Women in Soccer and Winning Women in Ice Hockey explore in-depth the dynamic world of women's soccer and ice hockey for young readers.

Barron's Winning Women in Ice Hockey includes a brief history, a how-to-play section, a glossary, a hockey connections list, a further reading list, a bibliography, web sites and an index.

Profiles of such women hockey stars as Cammi Granato, Manon Rheaume, Erin Whitten and Hayley Wickenheiser comprise the majority of the book.

Both books explore the drive, determination and talent behind the athletes that have propelled women's sports into the forefront of competitive athletics. Along with serving as a practical guide and handy reference source, each book tells one of the most compelling stories in sports today.

Customer Reviews:

Winning Women in Ice Hockey.......2000-04-11

This was a great book with biographies of four great womens icehockey players and their road to success. It also gives a history ofthe game at the beggining of the book. My favorite part was the players advice at the end of their biography.

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