Spanning 150 years and the reigns of four kings, the pleasure pavilions, garden follies, and chateaux of Ancien Regime France are fascinating for the stories that surround their creation as well as a visual feast and a delight. Typically the realm of scholars, the subject is given extraordinary life at the hands of the authors, through whose historically accurate, meticulously rendered watercolors the reader comes to see the sometimes grand, sometimes playful, always beautiful buildings, sculpture, and ornament as they were meant to be seen. Dams and Zega have devoted much of a lifetime to rediscovering and illuminating these great treasures of world heritage, and this volume is the fruit of more than thirty years of passionate investigation. Intensive original research and devoted exploration informs the work, capturing the genius of these buildings through the medium of watercolor, which the author-artists harness to render building materials and surfaces with sensitivity and great range.
Palm Springs is at the center of a unique tradition in architecture marked by invention and a sensitivity to local conditions that has resulted in design that exerts an influence far greater than the town's small size. The book is the first to fully explore the wide ranging forms this architecture has taken, from houses to gas stations, hotels to airports, banks to restaurants and spas.
Much more than a resort destination, Palm Springs has served as a laboratory of the Modern; here so much architectural innovation and design took form. From the steel-and-glass boxes of Richard Neutra to the earthy organic homes of John Lautner, and everything in between, the solutions of architects and designers--including notably William F. Cody, E. Stewart Williams, and Albert Frey--were diverse and are ever more relevant in the face of contemporary challenges. Their answers addressed questions that still hold urgency: How to design sustainably in harsh climates? How to use technology efficiently and creatively to meet those challenges? How to build affordable and high-quality mass-produced housing? How to reflect a region's culture, economy, and distinctive atmosphere?
Architects here responded to nature's climatological demands, and Palm Springs became a center for innovations that were rooted in practice more than theory. Benefitting from the architectural freedoms offered by the remoteness of the California desert, designers explored new approaches that we can now identify as central to the Palm Springs School, shown here in rich archival and contemporary photography.
Old Cuba presents an insider's view of the splendid colonial-era sites of the storied island nation, from the grand apartments and magnificent cathedral of Old Havana to the plantation homes of Pinar del Río.
Cuba dominates the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, fixed between the great continents to the north and to the south, and has long served as a bridge between the Old World and the New. First visited by Christopher Columbus in 1492, its history of interaction with the Old World of Europe is among the longest in the Americas, and its architecture bears testament to this: Cuba is home to some of the most ancient cities and towns in the western hemisphere. As a result, the country once known as the «pearl of the Antilles,» stands now as a treasure chest of alluring historic architecture-seasoned by European precedents mixed with colonial and Caribbean spice-and boasts an extraordinary number of Unesco Cultural Heritage sites, from the historic center of Old Havana with its original city walls and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza-the oldest extant colonial fortress in the Americas-to the sixteenth-century city of Trinidad, within the central Cuban province of Sancti Spíritus, recognized by historians and scholars as a triumph of historic preservation and whose maze of pastel mansions and churches forms one of the best collections of colonial architecture to be found anywhere.
From Old Havana to Santiago de Cuba, Old Cuba offers an intimate look at the historic architecture- the houses, apartments, monuments, charming public spaces, and centuries-old churches-of this storied country.
An exquisitely photographed collection of the great houses and mansions of the South.
In the tradition of Rizzoli's Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley and Great Houses of New England, Great Houses of the South features a stunning array of newly photographed homes that range over three centuries and are distinctive examples of the architecture of the region. While in popular imagination the "Southern Style" is embodied in the classic Southern plantation house with its Greek Revival detailing-its stately white columns, wide porch, and symmetrical shape-the houses themselves are much more various and engaging, as shown in this important volume. From stately Stanton Hall of Natchez, Mississippi, one of the most magnificent and palatial residences of antebellum America; to Longue Vue House and Gardens of New Orleans, the luxurious Classical Revival-style home of Edgar and Edith Stern; to the fabled Biltmore of Asheville, North Carolina, the opulent French Renaissance-inspired chateau and Gilded Age estate of George Washington Vanderbilt, this lavish volume is comprehensive in scope and a landmark work of enduring interest to homeowners, architects, architecture historians, and all those who love fine architecture.
Founded in 1902 by entrepreneur and senator Ferdinando Bocconi, the university is the most important and renowned private university in Italy. Established in order to provide a high level of economic education for the new Italian ruling class, in the course of its history Bocconi has trained prime ministers, great entrepreneurs, and even celebrities from the digital world. This book shows the university s structures through expansive photography taken specifically for it by photographer Massimo Siragusa. The Bocconi buildings represent a fascinating compendium of modern and contemporary architecture, having been designed by some of the most important Italian architects of the twentieth century, such as Giuseppe Pagano, Giovanni Muzio, and Ignazio Gardella, as well as recent international archistars such as Shelley McNamara and the Japanese SANAA studio.
Recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Award for Lifetime Achievement and the AIA Gold Medal, Antoine Predock was an icon of American architecture. This book is the comprehensive consideration of his life's work.
A trailblazing original, Predock was his own tour de force. In his work, steel, glass, and concrete were combined with natural materials to celebrate modern life. Initially considered a regionalist architect-one who had captured the power of the desert-he went on to re-establish the importance of place in architecture in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, Luis Barragan, and Louis Kahn. He made experience-what Kahn would have called spiritual experience-once again important in architecture.
As critic for Time magazine, writing of Predock's work, Kurt Andersen observed: «[it is] tough and sensual, fabulously imagined, altogether persuasive.» Featuring the wide range of Predock's designed and built structures, including houses, schools, hotels, parks, theaters, nature centers, and more, this is an all-encompassing career/life «memoirograph.» It charts the architect's journey from his beginnings, to his early days as a professional starting his own studio with the groundbreaking La Luz Community project, up to the present day, including the landmark Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The chronological presentation includes Predock's travel, travel sketches, and kinesthetic pursuits, encapsulating a life in architecture.
Rich and multifaceted, like the work itself, this book showcases 3,500 photographs and features more than twenty gatefolds, which open to express the full scope of this modern master.
