A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

A Field Guide to American Houses, The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture  by Virginia Savage McAlester, published by  Knopf , 2015 (second edition). Paperback, 880 pages. ( Amazon ) My high school offered drafting and architecture classes, something I took for granted at the time but realized later was quite exceptional, especially given the fact that every other year our class would design a house that would be built by the building trades class. Much of the class focused on single-family houses, not surprising given the suburban location outside Chicago. One class assignment that springs to mind as I hold Virginia Savage McAlester's weighty guide to American houses in hand was a study of a particular style: mine was Colonial Revival (super-abundant in the area), but every student had a different style. To carry out the assignment, I researched the traits of the style – side-gabled roof, dormers, symmetrical front with...

Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies by James Sanders, published by Knopf , 2001. ( Amazon ) Billed as a "tale of two cities - both called 'New York'," James Sanders - a practicing architect and a co-writer of Ric Burns's New York: A Documentary Film - takes a look at the real and the mythic city through the medium of movies. The book begins at the beginning, when the movie camera was invented and New York City was its star in 19th century "actualities", scenes of daily life in the big city. Moving on to Hollywood's constructed reality, where the Big Apple was recreated and redefined in the eyes of expatriate writers and other creatives, the book abandons a chronological take ...