Historic Preservation: An Introduction to Its History, Principles, and Practice

Book Description

A primer that covers the gamut of preservation issues, from underlying philosophy to rehabilitation economics. Historic Preservation provides a thorough overview of the theory, technique, and procedure for preserving our architectural heritage. The perfect introduction for both architecture students and the interested layperson, it covers preservation philosophy, the history of the movement, the role of government, the designation and documentation of historic structures, establishing a historic district, sensitive architectural design and planning, and the economics of building rehabilitation.

Customer Reviews:

Preservation for the real world.......2007-09-24

I had a graduate class in historic preservation, and while certain books were recommended, none was required.

If I were teaching historic preservation, this would be the text. This is a book largely about Main Street America, not about the U.N. or ICOMOS or preserving the Parthenon, but about preservation in a country that in many cases is philosophically opposed to it.

Toward the end of the book is the best explanation of the use of historic tax credits I have ever read. As Tyler notes, these tax credits are the best friend the American preservation community has today.

If you're interested in historic preservation in America, buy it and read it.

College Course in one textbook.......2007-08-27

This book provides a concise and thorough overview of Historic Preservation. It has become the building block on which I will continue my studies of Preservation.

A Great Introduction to Historic Preservation.......2005-09-20

Having recently purchased an older home in an historic neighborhood, I thought it would be a good idea to aquaint myself with the topic of historic preservation. Norman Tyler's "Historic Preservation" was originally written as a text for a college class on historic preservation. His purpose was to expose his students to the major themes in the field of preservation.

The book starts with a philosophical overview of preservation and moves onto chapters dealing with historic districts and the legal basis for preservation. I found his chapter on the documentation and designation of individual historic properties to be most valuable. Tyler concludes with chapters on design issues, preservation technology, downtown reviatalization and preservation economics.

This book is a well written introduction that will get you started in learning more about historic introduction. Highly recommended.

Excellent for any beginner........2003-07-12

Provides an easy-to-read introduction to the field of historic preservation and the key issues. Bibliography is so-so, but would recommend for students and those interested in a clear and concise overview.

Most readable and comprehensive preservation book.......2001-03-09

For the past seven years I have worked full time as a historic preservation professional, compiling historic resource surveys, writing nominations for the National Register of Historic Places, and a wide variety of other preservation related projects. I serve on our local historic district commission and have just completed a city-wide survey of Kalamazoo's historic resources. Currently I am also teaching Historic Preservation at Western Michigan University and I was delighted to find Norm Tyler's book. This book is an excellent resource for the beginning preservationist, whether they be a student in a formal academic setting or someone who just likes old buildings. My students find it to be very readable and comprehensive. I am especially pleased to find the variety of real-life examples Tyler presents reflecting the way preservation is practiced and not just idealistic theory. This book was the preferred Christmas gift among preservationists in my area in 2000. I can recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone interested in preserving our history.

Historic Preservation: An Introduction to its History, Principles, and Practice.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of the American Planning Association

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Historic Preservation: An Introduction to its History, Principles, and Practice.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of the American Planning Association
Karen Lang Kummer
Manufacturer: American Planning Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of the American Planning Association, published by American Planning Association on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 853 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Historic Preservation: An Introduction to its History, Principles, and Practice.(Review) (book review)
Author: Karen Lang Kummer
Publication: Journal of the American Planning Association (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: 67 Issue: 2 Page: 225

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

From the author of the classic Human Anatomy for Artists comes this user-friendly reference guide featuring over five hundred original drawings and over seventy photographs. Designed for painters, sculptors, and illustrators who use animal imagery in their work, Animal Anatomy for Artists offers thorough, in-depth information about the most commonly depicted animals, presented in a logical and easily understood format for artists--whether beginner or accomplished professional. The book focuses on the forms created by muscles and bones, giving artists a crucial three-dimensional understanding of the final, complex outer surface of the animal. Goldfinger not only covers the anatomy of the more common animals, such as the horse, dog, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, and rabbit, but also the anatomy of numerous wild species, including the lion, giraffe, deer, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gorilla, sea lion, and bear. Included are drawings of skeletons and how they move at the joints, individual muscles showing their attachments on the skeleton, muscles of the entire animal, cross sections, photographs of live animals, and silhouettes of related animals comparing their shapes and proportions. He offers a new and innovative section on the basic body plan of four-legged animals, giving the reader a crucial conceptual understanding of overall animal structure to which the details of individual animals can then be applied. The chapter on birds covers the skeleton, muscles and feather patterns. The appendix presents photographs of skulls with magnificent horns and antlers and a section on major surface veins. Incredibly thorough, packed with essential information, Animal Anatomy for Artists is a definitive reference work, an essential book for everyone who depicts animals in their art.

Customer Reviews:

Animal Anatomy for Artists.......2007-05-12

Excellent reference book. 5 stars from the first to last page.

One of the greatest animal anatomy book out there for artist.......2007-02-07

I got Goldfinger's human anatomy book, but in comparison, this is even better. Great multitude of drawings and diagrams of different species of animals, from bones to muscle to final skin with great angles. Highly recommend it.

And many of the reviews here were very helpful.

One of the most exhaustive references for artist's animal anatomy.......2006-05-21

WHOA! An animal-anatomy-for-artists book that I haven't seen before!?? I did a doubletake in the library when I found it. It's a GOOD one, too! Better than most of my animal anatomy books put together! It takes both possible approaches: the first half of the book shows the different bones and muscles part by part, as they exist in most animals, like Bammes's book does; the second half of the book shows the different animal species, bones and muscles and skin, like Adams & Singer's book does. I can tell which steel engravings some of these illustrations were based on, after Ellenberger & Baum. It also has a few species I haven't seen in animal anatomy books before, except maybe in the Zoo Books series, such as the giraffe shown on the cover. As usual, the most attention is given to horses, big cats, and dogs. I'm probably going to need to buy this for reference, since it's not the kind of thing you can just read cover-to-cover from the library, you have to use it just whenever you need it.

Very Informative.......2005-09-24

This is a very detailed book and a must have for those that need to know more about animal anatomy. This book does layout the skeletal and muscular design of the used animals very well. One thing that it does not give you is a detailed description of exactly how the joints move or muscles work. But overall a must have if you are doing an animal study for sculpture or 3-d modeling.

Features over 500 original drawings and over 70 photos.......2005-06-10

Artists who plan on focusing on animals had better pick up a copy of Animal Anatomy For Artists: The Elements Of Form: a virtual 'Bible' of animal anatomy, is features over five hundred original drawings and over seventy photos which painters, sculptors, and illustrators can use to understand the underlying anatomy of a range of common and wild animals. Forms created by muscles and bones provide artists with a three-dimensional figure of the final surface of the animal, while Goldfinger provides discussions of how each piece of animal anatomy interacts with another.

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Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form
Eliot Goldfinger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKNOP4

Book Description

This book examines the art and craft of motion picture photography through a veteran professional cinematographer's personal experiences on five major motion pictures, each selected to illustrate a particular series of challenges for the photographer.

"Every Frame a Rembrandt" is an expression heard on sound stages and locations the world over. While in most cases the expression is used lightly and not infrequently with a certain amount of sarcasm, its true meaning speaks highly of most cinematographers' commitment to producing the best, most interesting, unusual and memorable images for the screen. Through the five films he selected for this book Laszlo is able to show the broad range of complexity in motion picture photography, from the relatively simple "point and shoot" in the typcal western to complex in-camera effects. In recounting his "war stories" Laszlo is able to show the day to day activities of a cinematographer before, during and after filming the project, discussing equipment, film stocks, testing, labs, unions, agents, budget requirements, and working with the director and producer. The five films discussed are Southern Comfort, The Warriors, Rambo: First Blood, Streets of Fire, and Innerspace. The book is illustrated throughout with production stills from Laszlo's extensive collection (12 in a color insert).

The "war stories" of a seasoned Hollywood professional cinematographer
Explains how specific problems and challenges were overcome for each film
Illustrated with production stills from the author's personal collection

Customer Reviews:

Every Frame A Rembrant.......2001-08-31

If you want to read a book about Andrew Laszlo then this is the book for you. The book takes you through projects he personally encountered and has little in the way of practical advise/techniques for the individual film maker developing their own projects. The book is easy to read and entertaining,although i was looking for a text book style read.

One of the 'Great Books' in the Industry........2000-10-28

I first met Andy Laszlo some eight or ten years ago when he gave a two day seminar on Cinematography at NYU while I was director of the Department of Film, Video and Broadcasting at NYU's School of Continuing Education. One or two hundred students enrolled the first day, and as word spread across the campus of Andy's insights and trenchant comments, the attendance doubled on day two. When I learned of the existence of his book, I purchased it immediately. It is of immense value, not only to cinematographers, but also to directors, producers and writers: in short to anybody currently in film and video, or anybody who aspires to enter this field. It is immensely readable, written in clear, concise English and amply illustraed with some extraordinary examples, and a treasure trove of practicle knowledge. It is highly, highly recommended.

A "must read" for aspiring cinematographers & film students........2000-08-04

Cinematographer Andrew Laszlo has filmed more than thirty motion pictures, numerous television shows, TV movies and commercials in a career spanning more than fifty years. In Every Frame A Rembrandt: Art And Practice Of Cinematography Laszlo draws upon his immense expertise and experience to provide the reader with a comprehensive, single-volume introduction to this fundamental aspect of filmmaking. Laszlo' reveals the day-to-day activities of a cinematographer before, during and after filming a project, and discusses such critical and central issues as equipment, filmstocks, testing, labs, unions, agents, budget requirements, as well as working with directors, producers, and crews. Clearly and concisely written (and enhanced with additional material by Andrew Quicke), Andrew Laszlo's Every Frame A Rembrandt is a "must" for any aspiring cinematographer, and an essential reference title for professional and academic collections.

oustanding cinematographer tells all.......2000-07-29

Laszlo's Hollywood career speaks for itself. Now, with great style and eloquence, he has set down a vital and helpful look at his field. As director of the University of Miami's Motion Picture Program, I can report that this book has proven useful and valuable to undergraduates and graduates. More than a technical manual, it will prove informative and rewarding to anyone who loves film.

Every Word a Laszlo.......2000-06-22

The envelope please--best book by a cinematographer (or anyone else for that matter) about cinematography. Essential reading.

There are books of theory, there are books of anecdotes, and there are books on how-to. This has the best of all.

Andrew Laszlo, ASC is a wonderful storyteller, inspirational teacher, terrific writer as well as a distinguished cinematographer. His credits include Shogun, Owl and the Pussycat, One Potato-Two Potato, Newsies and many others.

The book is a wealth of film criticism, tricks of the trade, technical details, wonderful anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories.

For example, Laszlo discusses how he lit a scene from Rambo with one match, and then explains that a second one was hidden behind. He is funny and iconoclastic at times: "I hate dailies," or "Taking a stand in the film industry is not an everyday event." But behind every attention-grabbing statement is a complete and highly intelligent, articulate explanation.

The book covers five of his films: "Southern Comfort, The Warriors, First Blood, Streets of Fire, and Innerspace." There is insight into the politics, diplomacy and psychology of filmmaking--dealing with directors, producers, studios and crew members. Through the writing, we watch a truly masterful problem solver, consummate professional and talented artist at work and reflecting upon that work.

Interviews done by Andrew Quickie (Film and TV Professor at Regent Univ.) punctuate the chapters.

I eagerly await the sequel to this book, perhaps to be called "Son of Rembrandt," or "Every Frame a Laszlo." Certainly there would be enough anecdotes and information from his 42 or more other films to fill a dozen standard volumes.

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Oh God! Its' Grimm
Mike Peters
Manufacturer: Day Dream Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1558240640

Amazon.com

Thomas Sowell is known for speaking--and writing--his mind, even when his opinions won't win him any popularity contests. In thoughtful, straightforward books like The Quest for Cosmic Justice and Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? he questioned affirmative action and expressed frustration with government bureaucracy, elaborating on his ideas of personal freedom and responsibility in the process. In A Personal Odyssey, we're shown glimpses of the man behind the ideas, and while the narration is sometimes frustratingly distant, it's an enjoyable history of a fascinating man. Beginning with his early life in North Carolina, where his encounters with white people were so limited that he didn't really believe that "yellow" was a possible color for hair, Sowell details his childhood with humor and appreciation for the adults who raised him with love, attention, and high expectations. Throughout the experiences that follow, from the U.S. Marines to Howard and Harvard Universities to his fellowship at Stanford's Hoover Institute, Sowell's strong opinions make him stand out from the herd. His brother sums up this trait in describing Sowell's son: "Tommy, when I see a dozen kids, all doing the same thing, and in the midst of them is one kid doing something entirely different, I don't have to guess which one is our mother's grandson." You don't have to be familiar with Sowell's scholarly works to appreciate his life--this is a read for any freethinking iconoclast. --Jill Lightner

Book Description

This is the gritty story of one man's lifelong education in the school of hard knocks, as his journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place.

The vignettes of the people and places that made an impression on Thomas Sowell at various stages of his life range from the poor and the powerless to the mighty and the wealthy, from a home for homeless boys to the White House, as well as ranging across the United States and around the world. It also includes Sowell's startling discovery of his own origins during his teenage years.

If the child is father to the man, this memoir shows the characteristics that have become familiar in the public figure known as Thomas Sowell already present in an obscure little boy born in poverty in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression and growing up in Harlem. His marching to his own drummer, his disregard of what others say or think, even his battles with editors who attempt to change what he has written, are all there in childhood.

More than a story of the life of Sowell himself, this is also a story of the people who gave him their help, their support, and their loyalty, as well as those who demonized him and knifed him in the back. It is a story not just of one life, but of life in general, with all its exhilaration and pain.

Download Description

This is the powerful story of Thomas Sowell's life-long education in the school of hard knocks, as the journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place.

Customer Reviews:

Not profound but enticing.......2007-01-11

Perhaps nothing profound is in this book, but it
can lead the reader to suspect that Thomas Sowell
has written other, deeper things. It is full of
stories about various sorts of irrational bureaucrats
in academia, in government, and in the military,
maybe not _quite_ as extreme as the pointy-haired
boss in _Dilbert_, but definitely the sort who could
have inspired that character. Thomas Sowell could be
considered a sort of minor patron saint (or "patron
hero" if such a thing exists) of the virtues of
sticking to one's guns, calling the shots as one
sees them despite heavy pressure from those who
don't understand, refusing to follow any party
doctrine as if it were infallible dogma, and caring
about one's students.

Powerful.......2006-08-23

Thomas Sowell's autobiography is powerfully written, insightful, and a great American story. Dr. Sowell doesn't box himself into any category, but shows himself to be a free thinker and independent spirit. I couldn't put this book down (reading it at 3 a.m.).

From living in Southern sharecropper country, to a move to NYC, to finding and losing families, to emancipation at 17, to the Marine Corps, to working his way through college and grad schools, including Harvard, to his adult careers, I found myself rooting for him every step of the way. I found particularly interesting his descriptions of working for government agencies and what a joke they can be.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

The Making of a Hero.......2006-05-11

Like anyone who would bother to read an autobiography on someone like Thomas Sowell I am obviously a huge fan of the man. Throughout the years I have found his books and articles not only informative on a variety of topics but also personally instructive into a style of thinking and analysis that I've tried to adopt in my day-to-day life. Dr. Sowell has helped make me much smarter than I actually am.

In `Personal Odyssey' Sowell discusses the major events that shaped his life, influenced his intellectual development and gave him an appreciation of the practical wisdom that often does not come from academics and intellectuals. However, as illuminating it was to learn of Dr. Sowell's experiences, challenges and how he got his tough as nails personality, my sense was that he was being too modest and could have revealed more about certain aspects of his life. For a man who is one-fourth the age of the U.S., he ironically has written books longer than his own autobiography.

Nevertheless, the book is a wonderful read and it is rich with lessons about life. Dr. Sowell's life has certainly been an odyssey and the world is better off because of it.

THREE CHEERS.......2006-03-22

My current favorite Sowell-saying is, `Reality constrains them' (in `Basic Economics', early on). Although long a well-known US economist, Thomas Sowell has little profile in the UK, but having read the aforementioned excellent and eye-opening `Basic Economics' (through a recommendation on my favorite radio show), and having picked up a few morsels on the Stanford University Hoover Institution site, I just had to read this autobiography - it is more a series of life snapshots really - and also to order a few more of his works, of which I have the highest hopes. He is a man with a steely grasp of certain realities. Born in North Carolina, he grew up poor but not unhappy, and moved a few hundred miles north to New York. By the age of twelve he was beginning to show his ability in school. He was the first black boy to be sent to a certain summer camp, and they got him there by telling him there would be other black kids. His comment: `It was...my first encounter with the notion that people who think they are doing something noble don't have to tell the truth.' (p.25). That's Socialism for you.

At sixteen he delivered telegrams to the poor white folks, some of whom who could not even read them. `It was my first realisation that life is tough all over.' (p.47). In his late teens he discovered the works of Karl Marx and spent a decade as a believer, but reality kept constraining him, and eventually he turned from the Dark Side. He did Parris Island US Marine training and passed, specialist in photography, Stateside posting. This turned out to be quite character-forming. For instance, he found that the officer who was popular with everyone was a self-centred nothing when it came to supporting him in a spot of trouble, and the hard-nut disciplinarian got him out of a jam by having the guts to simply state the truth, even if some superiors wanted him to suffer. He also learned when to go by the book, and when to bend the rules (like the time two bullets went missing), and how to skip procedure when someone is sneaking up on you on night sentry duty. One comical anecdote relates trying to hide to get out of delivering pistol-firing training for the ladies; and a combination of brains and nerve got him out of a great deal of unnecessary rifle-cleaning.

He went to Howard Univ., and then his test scores got him into Harvard. He saved ten dollars for underwear, but spent it on the third volume of `Das Kapital'. A proper scholar. At Chicago Univ. he learned the difference between `an equation and an identity' (p.127), (which I only figured out myself a few years ago from teaching math using forensics equations instead of just GCSE linear equations! Some graphs are real, some are just lines). Then there is the art of framing non-tautologous definitions of terms, enabling and hopefully leading to, non-circular reasoning. He got a job at the US dept. of Labor and almost solved an economic problem on sugar production in Puerto Rico, but just in time they buried the idea because they did not want to really solve the problem, because the problem kept Johnny Beaureaucrat in a job. By 1960 his faith in Marxism began to wane, but slowly, so it was soft landing, unlike other Marxists who fall away sharply and get the hard landing: still, such is the nature of reality, which constrains them.

He went to teach in a small college and got shocked by the shallowness of the women students who want to get grades not education (mercy, mercy!). He challenged the rise of political correctness in academe and paternalistic affirmative action that damages those it presumes to help. He teaches at Cornell; Israel defeat the Arab coalition in the Six Day war (1967), but his trendy friends will not discuss it; his son John shows some exceptional intellectual talent but is a late-talker. He got his Ph.D from Chicago in 1968. Brandeis Univ. gave him a good break as an academic (rather like Ancient Near East expert Cyrus H. Gordon, who also wrote an autobiography entitled `A Personal Odyssey', also published in 2000! Strange but true.). He discovers the paradoxical truth that when in 1962 he got his first teaching position as a young, barely published unknown he got more automatic respect than in the 1970s as a Ph.D and a professor with many publications to his name. Why? Because of `affirmative action' hiring of minority faculty which had devalued the acheivement of all black scholars (chap.10, p.247). By 1973 he has published several books, become well-known and he discovers `that most conservatives seem to have been left-wingers in their youth, as I had been.' (p.241). The quality of reality constraineth them! At UCLA one of the students asks him for help with a passage in a textbook, and having gotten it, asks `Are you sure?'. Sowell replies, `Yes...I wrote the textbook'. You could not make it up.

He meets some US presidents and gets offered some government jobs, he does not take the jobs and never votes, yet he is now an establishment conservative. He completes his book `Knowledge and Decisions' in 1979, which has a great effect on his career. He meets more champagne socialists, meets President Reagan, gets big profile publishing `Ethnic America'. He deals with bullet-headed media types (hint - if an answering machine records them, they get more polite). His book, `Late-Talking Children' is published 1997, the culmination of his research following experiences with his own son. He rates his best professional work as `Knowledge and Decisions', `A Conflict of Visions', and `The Quest for Cosmic Justice', written at Stanford's Hoover Institution where he is still is, as I write. So, let us be upstanding: I propose three cheers for Tom Sowell, for he's a jolly good fellow.

Well written reflections of this nation's most accomplished intellectual.......2006-01-31

Thomas Sowell is an economist at the Hoover Institute, he's a syndicated columnist and he has written books on economics, race, education and on slow talking children. His story isn't that simple though. He was born in poverty, dropped out of school, was drafted in the Marine Corps and had to deal idiot bureaucrats his entire life. He gives an overview of his life in this book. He discusses his intellectual development from a Marxist to the leading classical economist of the day. It's really a wonderful book, easy to read and entirely fascinating.

The Odyssey of a North American Educator

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The Odyssey of a North American Educator
William Jimmerson Holloway
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0738855499

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