architecture urban

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Grand Avenues tells the riveting story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant and the creation of Washington D.C.--from the seeds of his inspiration to the fulfillment of his extraordinary vision.L'Enfant's story is one of consuming passion, high emotion, artistic genius, and human frailty. As a boy he studied drawing at the most prestigious art institute in the world. As a young man he left his home in Paris to volunteer in the army of the American colonies, where he served under George Washington. There he would also meet many of the people who would have a profound impact on his life, including Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe. And it was Washington himself who, in 1791, entrusted L'Enfant with the planning of the nation's capital--and reluctantly allowed him to be dismissed from the project eleven months later. The plan for the city was published under another name, and for the remainder of his life L'Enfant fought for recognition of his achievement. But he would not live to see that day, and a century would pass before L'Enfant would be given credit for his brilliant design. Scott W. Berg recounts this tale, richly evocative of time and place, with the narrative verve of a novel and with a cast of characters that ranges from Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers to the surveyor who took credit for L'Enfant's plans, the assistant who spent a week in jail for his loyalty to L'Enfant, and the men who finally restored L'Enfant's reputation at the beginning of the twentienth century.

Hardcover. NY, Whitney Library of Design, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 175 pages, color plates. A collection of fine color illustrations and text describing conversions of a variety of structures (a barn, firehouse, power station, martello tower...) to residential use. Exciting and refreshingly different homes. Great ideas in a charming book.

Hardcover. Chicago, University Of Chicago Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 364 pages, illustrated throughout in color. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Wandering the streets of Harlem for the past forty years, Camilo Vergara has noticed and miraculously recorded those moments of great human invention that have been largely overlooked by the official chronicles of architecture and urban history. For this reason, his photographs are unique and indispensable.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press , 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 364 pages, illustrated throughout in color. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Photographer Camilo Jose Vergara has been chronicling the neighborhood for forty-three years, and Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto is an unprecedented record of urban change. Vergara began his documentation of Harlem in the tradition of such masters as Helen Levitt and Aaron Siskind, and he later turned his focus on the neighborhood's urban fabric, both the buildings that compose it and the life and culture embedded in them. By repeatedly returning to the same locations over the course of decades, Vergara is able to show us a community that is constantly changing--some areas declining, as longtime businesses give way to empty storefronts, graffiti, and garbage, while other areas gentrify, with corporate chain stores coming in to compete with the mom-and-pops. He also captures the ever-present street life of this densely populated neighborhood, from stoop gatherings to graffiti murals memorializing dead rappers to impersonators honoring Michael Jackson in front of the Apollo, as well as the growth of tourism and racial integration. Woven throughout the images is Vergara's own account of his project and his experience of living and working in Harlem. Taken together, his unforgettable words and images tell the story of how Harlem and its residents navigated the segregation, dereliction and slow recovery of the closing years of the twentieth century and the boom and racial integration of the twenty-first century. A deeply personal investigation, Harlem will take its place with the best portrayals of urban life.

Softcover. Durham NC, Duke University Press, 5th pr., 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 250 pages, b&w illustrations. This entertaining and playful book views Disney World as much more than the site of an ideal family vacation. Blending personal meditations, interviews, photographs, and cultural analysis, Inside the Mouse looks at Disney World's architecture and design, its consumer practices, and its use of Disney characters and themes. This book takes the reader on an alternative ride through "the happiest place on earth" while asking "What makes this forty-three-square-mile theme park the quintessential embodiment of American leisure?" Turning away from the programmed entertainment that Disney presents, the authors take a peek behind the scenes of everyday experience at Disney World. In their consideration of the park as both private corporate enterprise and public urban environment, the authors focus on questions concerning the production and consumption of leisure. Featuring over fifty photographs and interviews with workers that strip "cast members" of their cartoon costumes, this captivating work illustrates the high-pressure dynamics of the typical family vacation as well as a tour of Disney World that looks beyond the controlled facade of themed attractions. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 224 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. 200 illustrations in color. Foreword by Jennifer B. Lee, Performing Arts Curator, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University. Index. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Joseph Urban is a lavish celebration of this prolific artist, architect, and designer, whose accomplishments include magnificent Art Deco buildings, spectacular Ziegfeld Follies productions, and dramatic sets for the Metropolitan Opera. Joseph Urban (1872-1933) began his career as an architect and artist in Vienna before moving to America in 1911. In 1914 he moved to New York, where he ultimately signed on as set designer of the Metropolitan Opera. He also became immersed in an astonishing array of outside projects, designing nightclubs, hotel lounges, skyscrapers, theaters, stage and film sets, and even children's books. Though his creative output was immense, little remains of his work except the Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, and the New School and the base of the Hearst Tower in New York.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 292 pages. No dj issued. An insightful look at the dynamic relationship between modern art and modern urban life in 1920s Paris through the lens of Fernand Léger's masterpiece The City. With his landmark 1919 painting The City, Fernand Léger (1881-1955) inaugurated a vitally experimental decade during which he and others redefined the practice of painting in confrontation with the forms of cultural production that were central to urban life, ranging from graphic and advertising design to theater, dance, film, and architecture. This catalogue casts new light on the painting (reproducing all of its studies together for the first time), the avant-garde use of print media, and Léger's fascination with cinema and architecture, and contextualizes a network of international avant-gardes--including Blaise Cendrars, Le Corbusier, Jean Epstein, Piet Mondrian, Amédée Ozenfant, Francis Picabia, and Theo van Doesburg--in relation to Léger. Featuring nearly 250 images of paintings, architectural designs, models, posters, set designs, and film stills and an anthology of relevant historical texts not previously published in English, this handsome volume conveys the spirit of experimentation of the 1920s. Scholars in the fields of art, architecture, and film history offer a deeper understanding of the relationship between art and the modern urban experience that defined this significant chapter in the history of modern art.

Softcover. New York, Syracuse University Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. 276 pages. Black and white photographs. Foxing on top edge.

Hardcover. NY, Phaidon Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, This slip-cased, oversized book, weighing 20 pounds and containing over 2000 illustrations, summarizes the life and work of the most important modern architect of the 20th century: the legendary, controversial, and confrontational Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier was not exclusively an architect but an artist (painter and sculptor), urbanist, author, furniture designer, world traveler, and media figure. What is most impressive in this volume are the huge-scale photographs drawn from the Le Corbusier archives at the Fondation Le Corbusier in France. These photographs are personal, professional, indicative, anecdotal, illustrative, and symbolic of the entire saga of Le Corbusier's life and career over 60 years. They make this book an absolute gold mine for anyone wanting to understand and steep themselves in the spirit and character of this greatest modern architect of the last century. The written material is also first-rate: Jean-Louis Cohen, France's best-known historian of modern architecture, contributes an informative introduction, and Tim Benton, a well-known British architectural historian, writes opening texts for individual chapters. Recommended for architecture and art libraries as well as public libraries with serious art collections.--Peter S. Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr. NOTE; DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT THIS VOLUME CANNOT BE SHIPPED OUTSIDE THE U.S.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 200 pages. The City of Refuge complex--commissioned by the Salvation Army as part of its program to transform social outcasts into spiritually renewed workers--represents a significant confluence of design principles, technological experiments, and attitudes on reform. It also provides rare insights into the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest architects, Le Corbusier. Brian Brace Taylor draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct each step of the architect's attraction to the commission, his design process and technological innovations, the social and philosophical compatibility of the Salvation Army with Le Corbusier's own ideas for urban planning, and finally, the many modifications required, first to eliminate defects and later to accommodate changes in the services the building provided. Throughout, Taylor focuses on Le Corbusier's environmental, technological, and social intentions as opposed to his strictly formal intentions. He shows that the City of Refuge became primarily a laboratory for the architect's own research and not simply a conventional solution to residents' requirements or the Salvation Army's program.

Softcover. New Haven CT, Yale School of Architecture/Norton, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 194 pages illustrated in color and b&w. The fifth in a series documenting the Edward P. Bass Visiting Fellowship in Architecture at Yale, this book chronicles the collaboration of Fellow Chuck Atwood, the former vice chairman of Harrah's board of directors, with Davenport Visiting Professor David M. Schwarz, assisted by Brook Denison and Darin Cook. Focusing on Las Vegas's lack of pedestrianism, they asked the students to investigate vital urban sites around the world and then apply theses lessons learned to the automobile-centric Strip. The students met with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman, and private-equity managers David Bonderman and Marc Rowman as they devised ways to transform the world's premiere themed playground into a livable and pedestrian-oriented city. Documents the development of plans for a campus of resorts on the Las Vegas Strip by a studio of ten Yale students. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Prestel, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 160 pages. This photographic homage to Los Angeles presents a timeless depiction of the great city. In his book New York Sleeps, Christopher Thomas traveled the empty streets of New York City shooting dreamy cityscapes with a large-format Polaroid camera. For this new book he focuses his lens on Los Angeles, capturing in duotone images of the iconic buildings and spaces in the city: the Chinese Theatre without tourists, the Griffith Observatory peacefully alone, the Hollywood Boulevard without celebrities or onlookers. Around the city's artdeco buildings and mid-century drive-ins, sidewalks, and parking lots are vacant. Shot in the early morning, with the sun's rays just hinting between buildings, or at dusk, when the light is inchoate and mournful, these pictures are a tender valentine to Los Angeles. Fans of New York Sleeps will be thrilled to encounter another sublime project by Thomas. And residents and lovers of Los Angeles will be awestruck at this new interpretation of the City of Angels.

Softcover. New York, Monacelli Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 183 pages, illustrated in color and b&w.Since 1988, New York-based architect Michael Bell has created a series of projects and essays that explore architectural and urban design for California, New York, and Texas -- the three most populous regions of the United States and, coincidentally, the three states in which he has lived and practiced. The first monograph on the architect, Michael Bell: Space Replaces Us; Essays and Projects on the City, includes both design work and writings.Bell has organized and designed two important installations, both of which include his work: "Endspace: Michael Bell and Hans Hofmann," at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, and "16 Houses: Owning a House in the City," at DiverseWorks in Houston, which featured his seminal Glass House @ 2 Degrees. Other projects included are an urban renewal scheme for a huge site in Far Rockaway, New York, and a series of residential projects, including the Ghent House, a modernist glass house currently under construction in upstate New York. Complementing the design projects are three major essays: "Having Heard Mathematics: The Topologies of Boxing," "Eyes in the Heat: RSE," and "New York City."

Hardcover. Ontario CA, Vanwell Publishing St. Catherines, Ontario, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 344 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 245 pages, b&w and color photographs and illustrations. Light edgewear to dust jacket. Else a very clean, tight copy. The move to liveable communities--ideal ``small towns'' and neighborhoods where people work, live, play, and walk from place to place--is on. Profit from what a visionary group of architects leading this movement has learned about designing new ``small towns'' in Peter Katz's The New Urbanism. You'll discover the amazing potential for this kind of work as well as case studies, site plans, project analyses, and 180 beautiful photographs. This unique reference also tackles--and answers--the critical issues of crime, health, traffic, environmental degradation, and economic vitality and opens a startling window on the look and feel of future communities.

Hardcover. NY, powerHouse Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 120 pages. An insightful and unbiased account of a much-maligned and rapidly growing culture around the world, taken in perhaps the one place in the world where all manifestations of religious adherents live and work: New York City. The book features photographs, essays, and interviews documenting the mosques that New York's Muslim communities have built at their center, revealing the ways these buildings reflect and create identities for Muslims within a dense and diverse urban fabric. "... Mr. Grazda's penetrating black-and-white photographs and Ms. Dodd's insightful commentaries reveal the range of the city's Islamic houses of worship and their ethnic congregations...."--The New York Times

Hardcover. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 223 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. What Pennsylvania Station was, is, and might be in the future, through knowledgeable text and excellent pictures and drawings. A good read for those who want a detailed look at one of New York City's most famous architectural treasures, how it was lost, and how it might be reborn once again. The section on its rebirth in the Farley Post Office building was written before work was delayed on the project. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 156 pages, no dj issued. An insightful new look at two renowned photographers, their interconnected legacies, and the vital documents of urban transformation that they created. In this comprehensive study, Kevin Moore examines the relationship between Eugene Atget (1857-1927) and Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) and the nuances of their individual photographic projects. Abbott and Atget met in Man Ray's Paris studio in the early 1920s. Atget, then in his sixties, was obsessively recording the streets, gardens, and courtyards of the 19th-century city--old Paris--as modernization transformed it. Abbott acquired much of Atget's work after his death and was a tireless advocate for its value. She later relocated to New York and emulated Atget in her systematic documentation of that city, culminating in the publication of the project Changing New York.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 156 pages, no dj issued. An insightful new look at two renowned photographers, their interconnected legacies, and the vital documents of urban transformation that they created. In this comprehensive study, Kevin Moore examines the relationship between Eugene Atget (1857-1927) and Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) and the nuances of their individual photographic projects. Abbott and Atget met in Man Ray's Paris studio in the early 1920s. Atget, then in his sixties, was obsessively recording the streets, gardens, and courtyards of the 19th-century city--old Paris--as modernization transformed it. Abbott acquired much of Atget's work after his death and was a tireless advocate for its value. She later relocated to New York and emulated Atget in her systematic documentation of that city, culminating in the publication of the project Changing New York.

Hardcover. Lawrence KS, University Press of Kansas, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover with a bright dust jacket. B&w vintage photos throughout. The Midwest's one-room schools were, Fuller observes, the most democratic in the nation. Located in small, independent school districts, these schools virtually wiped out illiteracy, promoted democratic values, and opened up new vistas beyond the borders of their students' lives.Entire communities, Fuller shows, revolved around these schools. At various times they were used as churches, polling places, sites of political caucuses, and meeting halls for local organizations. But as America urbanized and the movement to consolidate took hold in rural counties, these little centers of learning were left at the margins of the educational system. Some were torn down, some left to weather away, some sold at auction, and still others transformed into museums.

1973, Book: Very Good, Color art by Davidson of hundreds of buildings with small patches of greenery. 8 3/4 X 12", very good. PLEASE NOTE: The image shown is a scan of the actual product you are purchasing. What you see is what you get. The sheet may have some imperfections beyond the cropped area shown. You are buying THE COVER ONLY- not the entire magazine. Your order will be placed carefully between stiff paper in clear plastic envelope, then packed in a rigid cardboard sleeve to prevent bending.

1974, Book: Very Good, Color art by Weber of a two-story building squeezed between skyscrapers. 8 3/4 X 12", very good. PLEASE NOTE: The image shown is a scan of the actual product you are purchasing. What you see is what you get. The sheet may have some imperfections beyond the cropped area shown. You are buying THE COVER ONLY- not the entire magazine. Your order will be placed carefully between stiff paper in clear plastic envelope, then packed in a rigid cardboard sleeve to prevent bending.

Hardcover. Paris, Editions de Lodi, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, glossy boards in a matching bright dust jacket. Large format, 484 pages, FRENCH TEXT. A collection of over 500 historical photos of old Paris printed in sepia tone. Around 1832 Parisian-born Charles-Francois Bossu (1813-1879) shed his unfortunate last name (bossu means hunchback in French) and adopted the pseudonym Marville. After achieving moderate success as an illustrator of books and magazines, Marville shifted course in 1850 and took up photography, a medium that had been introduced 11 years earlier. His poetic urban views, detailed architectural studies, and picturesque landscapes quickly garnered praise.By the end of the 1850s, Marville had established a reputation as an accomplished and versatile photographer. From 1862, as official photographer for the city of Paris, he documented aspects of the radical modernization program that had been launched by Emperor Napoleon III and his chief urban planner, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann. In this capacity, Marville photographed the city's oldest quarters, and especially the narrow, winding streets slated for demolition. Even as he recorded the disappearance of Old Paris, Marville turned his camera on the new city that had begun to emerge. Many of his photographs celebrate its glamour and comforts, while other views of the city's desolate outskirts attest to the unsettling social and physical changes wrought by rapid modernization. Taken as a whole, Marville's photographs of Paris stand as one of the earliest and most powerful explorations of urban transformation on a grand scale. Clean, bright copy.