A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

This last post of 2017 looks back at some highlights from this year: books I read and reviewed, exhibitions I saw, buildings I visited, and news I covered. I've tried to limit the list to a few in each category, and in some cases I've included one item from this year that I've yet to blog about but am looking forward to next year. It was a busy year for me – among other things,  two books I wrote  ( 100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs  and  How to Build a Skyscraper ) came out – and therefore one with fewer posts than usual. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of good things to look back upon. Books // Easily the most unexpected and engrossing book I reviewed in 2017 is Keith Krumwiede's Atlas of Another America: An Architectural Fiction , published by Park Books. He combines architectural theory, old paintings, and, of all things, builder plans by the likes of the Toll Brothers into a poetic critique of the American way of living on the land. // One book I retu...

It's December so posts here are pretty slim. Soon I'll be adding a post with some of my favorite things -- books, buildings, exhibitions -- from 2017, but in the meantime, here's a link to the Year in Review I did at World-Architects.

The Getty Center, designed by Richard Meier, opened to the public on December 12, 1997. I was fortunate to visit the complex in 2003, writing about Robert Irwin's garden on this blog . To celebrate the Getty Center's 20th anniversary, the J. Paul Getty Museum is hosting an exhibition of photographs by Robert Polidori that document the museum 20 years ago. I did a quick write-up of Meier's building and Irwin's garden at World-Architects; head over there to read it .

Here are some photos of the  Centro Botín  (2017) in Santander, Spain, by  Renzo Piano Building Workshop . (Photos:  Ximo Michavila .) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

"Book Briefs" are an ongoing series of posts with two- or three-sentence first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that make their way into my library. These briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than can find their way into  reviews on this blog . American Libraries 1730-1950  by Kenneth Breisch | W. W. Norton | 2017 |  Amazon Fittingly, the cover of this history of libraries in the United States from the mid-1700s to just after World War II is graced by the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, designed by Edmund G. Lind and completed in 1878. Oddly, a photo of the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, designed by Thomas Beeby and completed in 1991, is found on the back cover. Turns out the latter is included in the Afterword, coming after six chapters (one devoted to Carnegie libraries) loaded with photos and drawings from the Library of Congress, and illustrating how public libraries ar...

Over the weekend I was running errands around Union Square and came across the construction site for the renovation of the old Tammany Hall building at the northeast corner of the park. Designed by BKSK Architects , the new project, 44 Union Square East, features a glass dome atop the old building. [Rendering: BKSK] Recently the building was used for a theater, but the new project converts it to retail and office space, with the first at the base and the second beneath the dome. Compare the above rendering with a period photo of the 1929 building and before/after sections of the project. [Drawing: BKSK] One glass-topped renovation near Union Square is an anomaly, but two of them is the start of a trend (though not a full-blown trend). The second project is DXA Studio's proposed expansion, spotted at New York YIMBY , of two landmarked buildings on Broadway between 12th and 13th Streets, across from the Strand Book Store. [Rendering: DXA Studio] While BKSK's plans...

Grabbing my morning pastry today, I noticed an enticing sign on the door of the coffee shop: What struck me just as much as the image and the subject of the exhibition – architecture and photography – is the venue: New York Presbyterian Church. If that name and its Long Island City address don't ring a bell, maybe this photo will: Korean Presbyterian Church, as it's also known, is the transformation of an old laundry factory into a church by Greg Lynn, Douglas Garofalo and Michael McInturf. Although it was completed in 1999 and I've lived in the neighborhood for eleven years, I've yet to go inside. Now I have a perfect excuse. Here is some more information on the exhibition taking place on Sunday, December 10 (4pm-7:30pm), from the  Forte New York Chamber Music Series website : Architecture, Art Works and Photography Exhibition by architects Adrian Subagyo and Joey Giampietro Space in Sound is an exhibition that critically engages with the relationship...

Here are some photos of  La Muralla Roja  (1973) in Calpe, Spain, by  Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura . (Photos:  Lukas Schlatter , who has more shots of the park in  this Flickr set .) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects , published by  Rizzoli , 1998. Paperback, 176 pages. ( Amazon ) The Complete Zaha Hadid, Expanded and Updated , published by  Thames & Hudson , 2017. Hardcover, 320 pages. ( Amazon ) Back in 1998, six years before she would win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Rizzoli published The Complete Buildings and Projects of Zaha Hadid, featuring an introductory essay by Aaron Betsky, over sixty buildings and projects, and one spread of furniture and objects. At only 176 pages, it is a slim volume, about half as big as the latest expanded and updated  Complete Zaha Hadid , published recently by Thames & Hudson. Between the first edition and latest update there were a few more: in 2009, 2013, and 2016, when I wrote about it briefly . The number and frequency of the updates testify to the increasing output of Hadid's eponymous firm after her Pritzker Prize win, but the latest comes so soon after the previou...