Building Tate Modern: Herzog & De Meuron

Book Description

Standing on the south bank of the Thames opposite the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's vast brick edifice, with its tower of 325 feet, dominates the scenery and ranks among the most imposing structures of central London. Yet, after its closure in 1981, the Bankside Power Station was rendered invisible to the public eye by its redundancy and the frequent threat of demolition. The reopening of Bankside in May 2000 as London's first national gallery of modern and contemporary art restores the grandeur of Scott's design and regenerates a much neglected area of the city.

The conversion to art gallery by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron is marked by its extreme simplicity, at once enhancing the physical presence of the original architecture and completely transforming its derelict and impenetrable interior into an accessible, light-filled exhibition center. The tremendous affinity of contemporary art with ex-industrial settings has inspired a design that retains the monumental scale of the Turbine Hall and skillfully offers a range of spaces for widely differing types of art on the multiple floors of the Old Boiler House.

This publication follows the story of the Bankside project and presents a stunning photographic account of every stage of its transformation. Including an interview with Jacques Herzog and Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, it provides a detailed analysis of Herzog and de Meuron's design and redefines the Tate's role within contemporary culture.

Customer Reviews:

A Testimony For a Humble International Modern Gallery.......2001-07-25

If readers simply want to have a general overview of the making of Tate Modern Gallery, perhaps, this book is suffice. Should the readers be curious of cogs & wheels that create the Tate Modern machine, then, there's another superb book that shouldn't be missed. It is called "The Power of Art" written by Karl Sabbagh. Perhaps, these 2 books should be combined as a total reading experience so that there's nothing is amissed. The deficiency of "The Power of Art" is that it contains too few pictures but the shortcoming is succumbed by the author's inquisitive observations & countless interviews with all pertinent professionals, which were all recorded down in his confident but fluid writing style. I enjoyed every moment reading about the showdowns among architects (Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhas, Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield during the competition stage) & subsequently, between Herzog & Norman Foster regarding linking the Millennium Bridge with the Tate Modern itself, showdowns between architects & engineers, headaches & traumas of completing the project on time & on budget, unforseen circumstances which were never expected in the scheduling, clashes of personalities, inner politicking, different mindset between professionals & builders, reality is different from the model set, comparisons between it & the Paul Getty Centre, & Bilbao Guggenheim, how the presentation was going to flow, the election of the new gallery director, the parody or mannerism of Herzog & de Meuron (the firm), the PR exercise conducted between the Gallery & its surrounding neighbours, the selection of a new landscape architect Kienast Vogt Partner, the professionals' obsession with toilets, & so forth. "Building Tate Modern" however, ignored the "tasty" bit by simply informed the readers briefly of every & each process. Pictures took precedent in this presentation & the quality was adequate. The index for the building plans, nevertheless, was too small for naked eyes. What "Building Tate Modern" exceeds Karl Sabbagh's book is mostly the allocation of one chapter to explain Bankside Power Station & its architect, Giles Gilbert Scott before it was finally converted. These 2 books are 2 different kettle of fish together & therefore, it's impossible to say which one precedes the other. Suffice to say that both publications tried to do justice to the Modern Gallery by presenting it in formats which authors & publishers deemed best. An experience not to be missed.

Building Tate Modern : Herzog and de Meuron with Giles Gilbert Scott

Average customer rating:

Building Tate Modern : Herzog and de Meuron with Giles Gilbert Scott
Rowan; Ryan, Raymund; Hardwicke, Andrian; Stamp, Gavin Moore
Manufacturer: Tate Gallery Publishing, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLTVZA

Book Description

Discover the excitement of drawing with the expert guidance of artists and teachers. Each of the guides in the Learn to Draw series is written by a professional and includes everything you need to begin: basic advice on tools and materials; a wealth of tips and techniques; simple exercises to develop skills; and clear, step-by-step demonstrations. Handsomely designed and filled with illustrations, these are excellent guides for all who aspire to draw.

Customer Reviews:

Good Start.......2005-03-31

I liked the book because it gets you started in drawing flowers. Then you have to practice.

doesn't do what it prentends to do.......2003-02-12

Yet another book that does not do what it pretends to, namely teaching you how to draw flowers. All it does is present you with options, techniques and tools including papers. But after going through a,b,&c it jumps to l,m, etc. Specifically the book TELLS you to draw instead of showing ways to learn, to set down shapes, how to draw forms. It jumps directly to the conclusion of the drawing. A few scriblings are aproposed as ... sketchings, only these wont inspire, help or encourage a beginner as they are as bad as ... what beginners do when they haven't received instructions and tips and what makes them say ''I'm no good.'' The illustrations (pen or sepia) serve as examples to copy at best: try and try again until your rendering begins to resemble the author's.
It's all very well to tell the beginner to ''respond to texture and pattern'' (p. 30), it would be better to demonstrate how to translate that response to paper. This is what I was after when I started. Beginners certainly feel and respond, that's what makes them want to learn how to draw. Unfortunately such a book lets one down by not leading the aspiring artist through the motions of lines, shading, lighting effects, and so on.
She then jumps directly to pastel: more unattainable goals for someone who's still struggling with pencil.
A word on the illustrations: the ones in pen are perfectly drawn and very realistic (you could be tempted to photocopy them to use in a trompe l'oeil or to paint). The pencil drawings lack life, remain 2-dimensional, laying flat on the page, and the sketchings fail to draw you into the scenes.

As a final word, I strongly recommend NOT to get any of the books from the ''Learn to Draw'' series. They all are poor in techniques, don't show much in terms of textures and setting down the basics, and so they fail to assist in establishing clear foundations to one's drawing.

There are far better instruction books out there.

Average customer rating:
Learn to Draw Flowers
Charmian Edgerton
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LVEQ8U

Book Description

This book presents the stories of three avid field biologists who over the course of 15 years frequently traveled together in search of cacti in Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. The conversational style of this travelogue allows us to share in the authors' excitement as they encounter plants that have rarely, if ever, been written about. Nearly 195 remarkable color photographs accompany the vivid descriptions of unusual cacti growing alongside non-succulent plants, at altitudes of 8000 feet or more-and even in rainforests! A Cactus Odyssey will interest gardeners, travelers, and conservationists from around the world who wish to learn more about these irresistible plants, and it is the hope of the authors that this book will inspire others to undertake their own cactus odyssey.

Customer Reviews:

WHAT A WELL DONE, DELIGHTFUL VOLUME!.......2006-09-04

I cannot remember when I have had so much enjoyment in reading a book about plants. This is not a simple "how to identify" work, but rather a story by and of three very knowledgeable men, scientists, traveling through the countries of Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, not as tourists, but rather than scientist. For a book which is primarily about plants, i.e. cactus, it is so much more. We get a wonderful and insightful travel story/book thrown in. As another reviewer pointed out, this could quite well have been a very boring read. This it was not! I have actually given this one three reads simply because it is fun! But, most importantly, this volume is simply packed with wonderful information about cacti, their history, their origins and environment. This work in not simply a field guide or a bunch of pretty, sterile pictures of cactus setting on a shelf photographed with a bunch of high tech gear, it actually gives information about these wonderful plants as they grow in their home environment, their natural state, the wild. The photographs are all field photographs and for field photos, quite well done. The text is very precise and easy to follow, not being over the head of the amature (such as my self) yet providing so much information to the advanced student. Discriptions are great. I did have trouble at first with the Latin names of course, but this forced be to pull out my old high school Latin books and do a bit of brushing up...this was good. All of the photographs are in color and well captioned. As an added note, Timber Press did a wonderful job on this book (I wonder if all their books are of this caliber). I wish all books were of this physical quality. Of even more importance than anything else, my knowledge of this particular plant family took a 100 percent jump in depth. For that I am grateful. I very much suggest you add this one to your library. Recommend highly.

Extremely entertaining knowledge!.......2005-11-28

Since I started growing my first cacti nearly 30 years ago, certain books have been of great importance for my knowledge and development, when it comes to growing and understanding cacti. But never has one single book put so many pieces together as this one! The book is just packed with knowledge and I really became overwhelmingly inspired!
The authors travel through several South American countries and habitats, diverse as they are because of the andean influence. You just want to go there and travel yourself!

After reading this book twice in a short time, I view the whole consept of cacti and environment differently. How the tectonic plates moved and forced plants and animals to evolve and adapt to the new niches and habitats, from the ancestors in Gondwana, to the first cacti in south America, later spreading into the adjoining north American continent. How the cactusgenera are related. How a cactus works.
In fact I learned too many tings to mention everything; just read the book! It could seem very technical and boring, but believe me; its not! At least if you have a relation to growing cacti. Its all in there! Highly recommended!

The Wild Wild West: Cuisine from the Land of Cactus & Cowboys

Average customer rating:

Robust fare for any and all occasions

The Wild Wild West: Cuisine from the Land of Cactus & Cowboys
Junior League of Odessa , and various
Manufacturer: Favorite Recipes Press (FRP)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Product Description

A scrumptious cookbook celebrating the legendary cowboy through food, fun, and art. Specifically created to help the cook enjoy cooking as much as the folks enjoy eating. Enjoy authentic ranch recipes, Southwest favorites, some of Ma's staples, and original artwork depicting the excitement of the legendary cowboy and the western era through vivid color.

Customer Reviews:

Robust fare for any and all occasions.......2003-11-14

The Wild Wild West: Cuisine From The Land Of Cactus & Cowboys is a veritable showcase of Texas-style cooking. Featuring recipes contributed by members of The Junior League of Odessa, Texas, this 278-page "family friendly" cookbook collection ranges from Lone Star Fondue; Indian Tea; Caldillo (Mexican Stew); and Texas' Best Chick-N-Dumplings; to Campfire Corn; Fake Fried Chicken; Lone Star Spiced and Smoked Ribs; and Cow Patty Nut Clusters, The Wild Wild West offers robust fare for any and all occasions from weekday family dining to special celebratory get-togethers with family, friends, and neighbors.

Average customer rating:

Wild Cactus

Manufacturer: Artisan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Nature & Wildlife | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In Wild Cactus, Rose Houk writes an illuminating account of these intriguing plants--exploring not only natural history secrets, but Native American folklore, ancient culinary and medicinal uses, and current conservation issues as well.

The breathtaking photographs in this volume, taken by nature photographer George Huey, richly illustrate the jewel-like splendor and exotic drama of the wild cactus. Huey traveled throughout the American Southwest, Baja California, and mainland Mexico to capture their luxuriant flowers and fruit, their impressive armor of spines, and the often surreal arid landscape where they can be found. From the wine-red flower of the claretcup cactus to acres of saguaro forest in the Sonoran Desert, from a curve-bill thrasher tucked into the spines of a cholla to a desert tortoise eating the pink fat buds of a prickly pear, Huey's portraits will entrance anyone interested in the unusual beauty of the desert realm.

Average customer rating:
Cactus Country (The World's Wild Places)
Edward Abbey
Manufacturer: Time Life UK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

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Abbey's Road

ASIN: 0705403823

Average customer rating:
Cactus flowers (A wild horizons postcard book)
Thomas A Wiewandt
Manufacturer: Wild Horizons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 187972801X

Average customer rating:
The Flowering Southwest: Wildflowers, Cacti, and Succulents in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah
Rodney Engard , and Erni Cabat
Manufacturer: Cabat Studio Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Flowers | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Cacti | By Plant | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0925263001

Average customer rating:
Wild rose and cactus
Roy Leslie Herrick
Manufacturer: R.L. Herrick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00089WVZK

Book Description

Across the United States, people are developing new relationships with the forest ecosystems on which they depend, with a common goal of improving the health of the land and the well-being of their communities. Practitioners and supporters of what has come to be called community forestry are challenging current approaches to forest management as they seek to end the historical disfranchisement of communities and workers from forest management and the all-too-pervasive trends of long-term disinvestment in ecosystems and human communities that have undermined the health of both.

Community Forestry in the United States is an analytically rigorous and historically informed assessment of this new movement. It examines the current state of community forestry through a grounded assessment of where it stands now and where it might go in the future. The book not only clarifies the state of the movement, but also suggests a trajectory and process for its continued development.

Average customer rating:
Community forestry in the United States: learning from the past, crafting the future [A book review from: Ecological Economics]
L. Fortmann
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR34X6

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Economics, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:

Average customer rating:

Fabulous

Great idea, lousy execution

An important look at consumer culture.

questions for mom???

Serious and enjoyable reading

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity
Marilyn Halter
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Consumer Behavior | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Research | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Ethnic Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Marketing and Consumer Identity in Multicultural America

The New Mainstream : How the Multicultural Consumer Is Transforming American Business

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Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration

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ASIN: 0805210938
Release Date: 2002-07-23

Amazon.com

As one toy-company executive put it in the early '90s, "The color of money is green, and you get it from whatever skin tone has got it." Accordingly, with the annual buying power of minority customers exceeding $1 trillion, U.S. companies now spend $2 billion each year on advertising specifically designed to attract and engage these "New American" consumers. Who are they? More importantly, who do they think they are? And how are they expressing that self-identification through what they buy? In Shopping for Identity, Marilyn Halter explores these and other questions with an academic's critical eye and illustrates her research with an engaging variety of statistics, examples, and anecdotes.

Until well into the second half of the 20th century, America was seen as a cultural melting pot. Immigrants were expected to assimilate into the mainstream culture, and cultural pluralism wasn't officially recognized, let alone encouraged. That changed significantly with the passing of the Ethnic Heritage Act of 1974, which contributed to the growth of "ethnic celebrations, a zeal for genealogy, increased travel to ancestral homelands, and great interest in ethnic artifacts, cuisine, music, literature, and, of course, language." At the same time, corporate America began moving away from mass marketing and toward segmented marketing techniques, and these newly demonstrative ethnic constituencies quickly became one of the most targeted and profitable marketing segments. Multicultural marketing experts have proliferated and act as their companies' in-house ethnographers, learning and responding to the cultural nuances of their audiences. At the same time, ethnicity in itself is becoming increasingly optional and malleable, as individuals choose to take on certain identifying aspects of their cultural group while rejecting others. Halter's book poses some interesting questions: How does commercialism both enhance and make a commodity of ethnic identification? And what is authentic ethnic identification? Consider the non-Jewish. fourth-generation Irish leader of the organization for fostering Yiddish culture and education, who has immersed himself in living and promoting a Yiddish identity; or the way that certain ethnic peculiarities have become so ingrained in the culture that they've lost their obvious differences. Demonstrating the extent of cultural hybridism in the U.S., Halter quotes a Newsweek article as stating that "As the United States' Muslim community grows, so does the availability of halal products and pro-Islam tchotchkes." The Yiddish term for knickknacks hardly seems appropriate for pro-Islamic merchandise, and yet today's cultural hybridism often blinds us to such ironies.

Halter's extensive research calls attention to these everyday marketing techniques, which no longer seem strange in our pick-and-choose cultural milieu. In its examination of how Americans express their ethnicity in and through a commodity-driven, consumer culture, Shopping for Identity is a revealing study of how far we have come from the days when Margaret Mead could pronounce that "Being American is a matter of abstention from foreign ways, foreign food, foreign ideas, foreign accents." As Halter shows us, money does indeed talk in many different languages; her examination of both sides of the ethnic dollar is informative, provocative, and surprisingly entertaining. --S. Ketchum

Book Description

In America today, you can connect to your ethnic heritage in dozens of ways, or adopt an identity just for an evening. Our society is not a melting pot but a salad bar--a bazaar in which the purveyors of goods and services spend close to $2 billion a year marketing the foods, clothing, objects, vacations, and events that help people express their (and others') ethnic identities. This is a huge business, whose target groups are the "hyphenated Americans"--in other words, all of us.

As immigrant groups gain economic security, they tend to reinforce--not relinquish--their ethnic identification. Marilyn Halter demonstrates that, to a great extent, they do it by shopping. And their purchasing power is enormous. How has the marketplace responded to this hunger? Instantly and wholeheartedly: tweaking old products and inventing new ones; launching new brands in supermarkets, new music groups, vacation itineraries, language courses, toys, greeting cards, et cetera. This nexus of business and ethnicity is already seen as the hottest consumer development of this decade, and Halter is uniquely qualified to describe its origins, the exponential growth of products and advertising, and the phenomenal sales of items from salsa to Chieftains CDs.
She addresses her subject with an abundance of anecdotal evidence, telling examples of ethnic marketing, and interviews with entrepreneurs (many of them immigrants) who are vigorously seizing the opportunities offered by the business of ethnicity.

Shopping for Identity is provocative, intriguing, and farseeing, illuminating an important aspect of our contemporary way of life while validating the yearning we all feel for connection to our roots.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous.......2003-05-21

Shopping for Identity is a great book. It has humor embedded into a well-documented research about culture diversity. It leads right to the heart of issues that we are dealing with in our society. I learned so much from it. What does make it more exhilarating while you are reading through the chapters, is that it applies automatically to our real life. True, the concepts are sophisticated, but the writing is so accessible. Even though an academic has written it, it can be read by all of us. Highly recommended.

Great idea, lousy execution.......2003-05-16

There is little doubt that Marilyn Halter has hit upon an important concept: the part-time indulger in ethnicity, who buys products that resonate with her/his heritage. Halter shows how many companies ally themselves with new marketing schemes to appeal to an increasingly diverse American market. This is a solid sociological insight, and Halter's work mines this theme for all its worth.

However -- many of the chapters are nothing but an endless list of examples; and because the thesis of her work is all-pervasive, what you end up with is an entire book of near indistinguishable chapters. There seems to be virtually no progression to the writing here. I'm not sure if this is a new strain of pop market sociology, but this is not an example of good writing. Where the main thesis should be explored, there is instead a barrage of examples that shift rapidly (e.g., one moment it is the kosher foods market, the next it is new wedding services), and IMHO real analysis is sacrificed in favor of bowling the reader over with a collection of information that is supposed to be hard research. Yes, it is impossible not to ask important questions about one's own ethnicity while reading the book; but, this seems to come at the expense of Halter really digging in to some meaty cultural analysis and instead surrending to more journalistic approach.

While I am deeply interested in this topic, I have to express an overall disappointment with 'Shopping for Identity.' It's a book that reads like chaotic mush.

An important look at consumer culture........2001-05-03

This is an excellent study of consumer culture. Many investigations assume a monolithic "consumer" and Halter adds subtlety and nuance by looking at the ways ethnicity impacts consumption. Highly recommended.

questions for mom???.......2000-11-17

I read Mariyln Halter's book, Shopping for Identity and found it fascinating. Not only is the book about the marketplace but it touches the emotions of being an American and loving your own heritage. After reading about the Boston Irish firefighters I called my mother and asked very specific questions about my forebears and the struggles they had overcome. Shopping for Identity gave me permission to explore my own personal ethnic identity. I have shared the book with others because it is a great read and an important contribution to understanding the current trends in American culture.

Serious and enjoyable reading.......2000-10-29

I read Marilyn Halter's Sopping for Identity and liked it so much I couldn't keep myself from sharing my enthusiasm with others. First of all because it is really enjoyable reading. I read the book as I would read a good novel, in spite of being the outcome of serious research. And this is rare. Then I liked it because it helped me understanding American society. As an European who admires American culture, reads a lot of American books and sees a lot of American films the book was an eye opener. I can now understand things that didn't make sense to me for lack of knowledge on a changing society. In this global world we tend to think it's enough to read some books and watch CNN and we'll know what is going on. Reading Marilyn Halter I realized that's not enough, but one book can make the difference. And Shopping for Identity made the difference for me. I hope it will be translated soon, so more people in this part of the world can enjoy it the way I did. Congratulations Marilyn, it's a great book!

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity

Average customer rating:

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity
Marilyn Halter
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KDS93M

Shopping Identity The Marketing of Ethnicity

Average customer rating:

Shopping Identity The Marketing of Ethnicity

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0965005836

Product Description

Publisher: Edition: first

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity.(Review): An article from: American Jewish History

Average customer rating:

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity.(Review): An article from: American Jewish History
Warren Belasco
Manufacturer: American Jewish Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FEF4I
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Jewish History, published by American Jewish Historical Society on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 907 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: Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity.(Review)
Author: Warren Belasco
Publication: American Jewish History (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2001
Publisher: American Jewish Historical Society
Volume: 89 Issue: 1 Page: 151

Article Type: Book Review

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