Great Houses Of Texas
by Lisa Germany
from Abrams
Dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day and scattered across the state from the East Texas town of Jefferson to El Paso, from the cosmopolitan cities of Houston and Dallas to the grasslands of South Texas, many of these houses are marked by their response to the Texas landscape. It is this landscape—combined with the larger-than-life personalities who were drawn to it, the brutal hardships of the frontier, and the architects—that is the unifying theme at work in Great Houses of Texas.
When world-renowned architects like Philip Johnson, Maurice Fatio, Steven Holl, and Paul Rudolph add their voices to Texas’s own homegrown talents, such as O’Neil Ford, Ted Flato, David Lake, and Chester Nagel, the state becomes the locus of an extraordinary residential architecture. Photographer Grant Mudford has captured it all in his exciting images, commissioned especially for this book.
Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency
by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean
from Princeton Architectural Press
For almost ten years, Samuel Mockbee, a recent MacArthur Grant recipient, and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama's Hale County. Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings that bear the trademark of Mockbee's work, which he describes as "contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture." In a time of unexampled prosperity, when architectural attention focuses on big, glossy urban projects, the Rural Studio provides an alternative of substance. In addition to being a social welfare venture, the Rural Studio--"Taliesin South" as Mockbee calls it--is also an educational experiment and a prod to the architectural profession to act on its best instincts. In giving students hands-on experience in designing and building something real, it extends their education beyond paper architecture. And in scavenging and reusing a variety of unusual materials, it is a model of sustainable architecture. The work of Rural Studio has struck such a chord-both architecturally and socially--that it has been featured on Oprah, Nightline, and CBS News, as well as in Time and People magazines. The Studio has completed more than a dozen projects, including the Bryant "Hay Bale" House, Harris "Butterfly" House, Yancey Chapel, Akron Chapel, Children's Center, H.E.R.O. Playground, Lewis House, Super Sheds and Pods, Spencer House addition, Farmer's Market, Mason's Bend Community Center, Goat House, and Shannon-Dutley House. These buildings, along with the incredible story of the Rural Studio, the people who live there, and Mockbee and his student architects, are detailed in this colorful book, the first on the subject. "I tell my students, it's got to be warm, dry, and noble"--Samuel Mockbee
Casa California: Spanish-Style Houses From Santa Barbara to San Clemente
by Elizabeth McMillian
from Rizzoli International Publications
This book showcases Southern California's most historically significant and beautifully preserved Spanish-revival houses of this century. Twenty-one private homes built between 1922 and 1991 are featured in stunning color photography that captures exterior and interior architectural details, Spanish and Mexican antique furnishings and folk art, and lush landscaping and tiled fountains. Among these are the Adamson House in Malibu, with its extraordinary collection of custom tile from Malibu Potteries; the contemporary Greenberg House in Brentwood, by Ricardo Legorreta; The Andalusia Courtyard Apartments in Hollywood; and Casa Pacifica, the former home of Richard Nixon, overlooking the ocean in San Clemente. Brief narratives highlight the history of each building and its design influences on the Spanish-revival movement in California.
The Spanish revival grew in popularity around the turn of the century when many young American architects traveled to Spain, Italy, and Mexico, bringing back sketches and, as the foreword notes, romantic memories of "graceful foliage...small Indian towns...tiled dome and rococo towers." Hundreds of Spanish-style houses, apartments, and bungalows were built throughout Southern California in the following decades, many of them commissioned for movie stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.
The Spanish revival is marked by two main phases: the mission revival, which incorporates the white stucco, cloistered patios, tile roofs, and exposed-beam ceilings typical of eighteenth-century California missions; and the more elaborate Mediterranean revival, influenced by Spanish and Italian Renaissance sources, eighteenth-century Spanish plateresque and churrigueresque forms, and Moorish-Andalusian styles.
Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town
by A. Hays Town
from Louisiana State University Press
Creole Houses: Traditional Homes of Old Louisiana
by Steve Gross
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Creole houses, found from New Orleans to northern Louisiana, are one of the nationÂ’s unique architectural treasures. A blend of French and Spanish colonial styles, with West Indian, Canadian, and other influences, these lovely houses were astutely designed to withstand their sultry, subtropical environment. Significantly, most major examples withstood the devastating hurricanes of 2005.
No other book of photography evocatively examines the development of this singular American style, embracing architecture and interior decoration, which thrived from the early eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century. Creole Houses offers an appreciation of Creole culture as seen through its historic homes and celebrates not only a memorable way of life, but the history, and the unique sensibility, that produced it.
Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon
by Howard E., Jr. Covington
from Wiley
"What William Cecil has accomplished at Biltmore Estate is one of the great preservation success stories of all time. He has set a high standard for what all historic house museums strive for: magnificently preserved buildings and grounds, engaging interpretation, and—perhaps most challenging of all—economic self-sufficiency. It is no surprise that Biltmore Estate is widely recognized as one of America's finest places to visit."
—Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
"Biltmore is a glorious national historic landmark that, through creative vision and entrepreneurial management, preserves and provides insight into a way of life in the early 1900s. Bill is the imaginative and multifaceted leader who has built this great monument to enrich his community. George and I admire his dedication and success."
—George and Abby Rockefeller O'Neill
"Bill Cecil and his team at Biltmore Estate have sure proved that they know how to build a successful business. They did it the old-fashioned way: embrace a bold idea that others said could not be done and—through commitment, determination, and hard work—bring it to life. Their achievement against the odds is inspiring, and their vision and perseverance are valuable lessons to us all."
—Don Logan, Chairman, Media & Communications Group, Time Warner
"If George Vanderbilt did nothing more than engage the two most prominent and storied designers of their time, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, to carry out his vision of a European estate in the southern Appalachians, he would have created an American icon. The beauty of the method by which the estate was executed and, even today, the meticulous attention to detail, in the presentation and care of the estate by William Cecil, have brought history to life."
—Gary J. Walters, Chief Usher, The White House
Key West: A Tropical Lifestyle
by Leslie Linsley
from Monacelli
Architecture on Florida's Key West reflects the diverse and colorful nature of those who have shaped this remote island's character: the grand classical homes of sea captains from New England, the cobbled-together wooden dwellings of ships' carpenters, the humble but charming cottages of cigar makers from Cuba. Today's equally varied population of artists, writers, and political figures contributes to that heritage by designing interiors and landscape that complement the vibrant tropical location, quirky isolationist tradition, and relaxed atmosphere.
In Key West: A Tropical Lifestyle, author Leslie Linsley presents the true character of this unique American place in twenty-two residences. Engaging anecdotes drawn from interview with homeowners, designers, and architects and lush, full-color photographs reveal the historic and contemporary interiors and gardens. Reflecting the style and personalities of their owners, these house simultaneously respect and extend a distinctive legacy.
Donald Judd: Architecture in Marfa, Texas
by Urs Peter Flückiger
from Birkhäuser Basel
As one of the most important exponents of American minimal art, Donald Judd (1928–1994) has exerted a lasting influence in the field of architecture. Among the lesser-known aspects of his work is a large collection of architectural designs, which explore the relationship of architecture and art. Of special importance for Judd’s work in this field is a former military fort in Marfa, Texas, part of which he purchased and then, beginning in 1971, systematically transformed into one of the largest existing ensembles of contemporary art.
This book is the first to address Judd’s built work from an architectural perspective. With this in view, the Marfa buildings have for the first time been carefully measured and drawn to scale by the author and his students. Using standard CAD drawings together with historical and contemporary photographs, this volume illustrates Judd’s architectural alterations to the buildings in Marfa, and discusses and describes them in its accompanying text. The result is an invaluable source of inspiration for contemporary architecture.
Virginia Plantation Homes
by David King Gleason
from Louisiana State University Press
South Carolina's Plantations & Historic Homes
by Paul M. Franklin
from Voyageur Press
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