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A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

A Weekly Dose of...
A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books is on Substack I'm breaking my blogging silence to do two things:  Alert readers to the fact I am still writing...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
I'm breaking my blogging silence to do two things:  Alert readers to the fact I am still writing reviews of architecture books under the title A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books, but over at Substack, not Blogger. Put a new post at the top of this blog so I don't have to look...
A Weekly Dose of...
Archidose, 1999–2024 After 25 years of running this blog under various names — all of which can be lumped under the...
a year ago
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a year ago
After 25 years of running this blog under various names — all of which can be lumped under the "Archidose" monicker — I've decided to shut it down, moving this hobby, this labor of love, to Substack, which I have used since mid-2021 and where I will continue to send out weekly...
A Weekly Dose of...
Reading About Drawings Instead of digesting a new book or diving into a novel, something others do often but I do rarely, I...
a year ago
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a year ago
Instead of digesting a new book or diving into a novel, something others do often but I do rarely, I spent my holiday break reading a five-year-old book about a trio of intertwined topics I'm particularly fond of: drawings, exhibitions, and New York City. Drawing on...
A Weekly Dose of...
Favorite Books of 2023 For the fifteenth and last time on this blog, I'm highlighting my favorite books of the year,...
a year ago
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a year ago
For the fifteenth and last time on this blog, I'm highlighting my favorite books of the year, selected from the many books I reviewed or featured as "Book Briefs" on this blog, and the few titles that I reviewed at World-Architects. From the 86 books I featured in 2023, 15 (or...
A Weekly Dose of...
Three Monographs Just as last week's Places in Time III post featured a trio of books that were initially listed in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Just as last week's Places in Time III post featured a trio of books that were initially listed in my earlier holiday gift books post, two of the three monographs featured here were also on that list. As happened when I wrote this post, each book begins with a rhetorical question...
A Weekly Dose of...
Places in Time III This third and most likely last installment in the inadvertent "Places in Time" series looks closely...
a year ago
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a year ago
This third and most likely last installment in the inadvertent "Places in Time" series looks closely at three books: the first about Chicago from the Great Depression to the mid-1980s; the second one about the broader American built landscape over roughly the same period of time;...
A Weekly Dose of...
Ten Pairs of Books for Christmas This year's roundup of books to give to discerning architects for the holidays is presented in...
a year ago
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a year ago
This year's roundup of books to give to discerning architects for the holidays is presented in pairs. While at least one book in each pair is new, the other one isn't necessarily so — new, old, or not-so-old, it is related to the first in some manner, as explained in my...
A Weekly Dose of...
Eight Decades of Modern Japanese Houses A review of a new book released this week: The Japanese House Since 1945 by Naomi Pollock, published...
a year ago
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a year ago
A review of a new book released this week: The Japanese House Since 1945 by Naomi Pollock, published by Thames & Hudson, November 2023 (Amazon / Bookshop) What makes modern and contemporary Japanese houses so appealing? Much of it stems from the novelty of residential designs,...
A Weekly Dose of...
On the Future of Cities The recent publication of two books prompted me to ponder the future of cities and do a write-up of...
a year ago
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a year ago
The recent publication of two books prompted me to ponder the future of cities and do a write-up of them together: Implementing Urban Design: Green, Civic, and Community Strategies by Jonathan Barnett, published by Routledge, June 2023 (Amazon / Bookshop) Renewing the Dream: The...
A Weekly Dose of...
Visualizing the World, Visualizing Change In 1939, Otto Neurath's Modern Man in the Making was released by Alfred A. Knopf. Neurath was...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1939, Otto Neurath's Modern Man in the Making was released by Alfred A. Knopf. Neurath was director of the International Foundation of Visual Information and used the Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) system to "teach through the eye." A recent...
A Weekly Dose of...
The 'As Found' Over at World-Architects I reviewed As Found: Experiments in Preservation (Flanders Architecture...
a year ago
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a year ago
Over at World-Architects I reviewed As Found: Experiments in Preservation (Flanders Architecture Institute, 2023) edited by Sofie De Caigny, Hülya Ertas and Bie Plevoets, the companion to the exhibition of the same name at the Flanders Architecture Institute. Read my review...
A Weekly Dose of...
The Past and Future of Architecture Books The recent receipt of two review books got me thinking about the past and the future of architecture...
a year ago
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a year ago
The recent receipt of two review books got me thinking about the past and the future of architecture books. The first one is This is Architecture: Writing on Buildings, a collection of excerpted texts about buildings, spanning from the mid-1800s to the 2010s.  This is...
A Weekly Dose of...
A Modernist Reads About Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, the English architect who was born in 1869 and died in 1944, that is....
a year ago
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a year ago
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, the English architect who was born in 1869 and died in 1944, that is. Although a famous name, Lutyens was not an architect I had much familiarity with before I received a review copy of the first volume of The Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens....
A Weekly Dose of...
From Slow House to Blue Dream Blue Dream is a house designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro for Julia "Julie" Reyes Taubman and her...
a year ago
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a year ago
Blue Dream is a house designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro for Julia "Julie" Reyes Taubman and her husband Robert "Bobby" Taubman. The house, located in East Hampton, on the South Fork of Long Island, was completed in 2017, nearly 30 years after the architects were commissioned...
A Weekly Dose of...
42 Years of Critical Regionalism (Covers of some of the books discussed in this post) If your first reaction to the title of...
a year ago
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a year ago
(Covers of some of the books discussed in this post) If your first reaction to the title of this post is something along the lines of, "Wait, isn't critical regionalism just 40 years old?," then everything you think know about critical regionalism is partial, in both senses...
A Weekly Dose of...
The Latest from MoMA: Emerging Ecologies Like many people with a lot of books, I keep track of my library with an app/website, tagging books...
a year ago
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a year ago
Like many people with a lot of books, I keep track of my library with an app/website, tagging books with keywords to better filter and find them. The tags I use move from general terms like "architecture" (the most) and "fiction" (the least) to specific terms that reflect a high...
A Weekly Dose of...
Places in Time II Last week dose explored three "places in time": St. Louis in the early decades of the 20th century;...
a year ago
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a year ago
Last week dose explored three "places in time": St. Louis in the early decades of the 20th century; Detroit between 1935 and 1985; and Chicago suburb Oak Park ca. 1906, when Frank Lloyd Wright completed Unity Temple. Those three US-centric books were split between two historical...
A Weekly Dose of...
Places in Time I Like most human beings, I can be contradictory at times. One area where this manifests is...
a year ago
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a year ago
Like most human beings, I can be contradictory at times. One area where this manifests is architectural surveys: books that usually collect buildings of a certain typology, but also ones spanning a particular timeframe or through some other theme. I've written a few of them...
A Weekly Dose of...
Four Monographs Of the numerous books publishers send me for review — be they requested by me, pitched by them, or...
a year ago
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a year ago
Of the numerous books publishers send me for review — be they requested by me, pitched by them, or arriving at my doorstep unsolicited — the highest percentage of them are monographs. This fact goes against the occasional sirens over the irrelevance and anachronistic nature of...
A Weekly Dose of...
Summer in the City From the middle of March, when a family emergency put this blog on hiatus, until the middle of July,...
a year ago
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a year ago
From the middle of March, when a family emergency put this blog on hiatus, until the middle of July, when a funeral mass was held for my dad, my life was split almost evenly between my home in New York City and my parent's home in Central Florida. The emergency in March was an...
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #49 The most recent numbered installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring...
a year ago
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a year ago
The most recent numbered installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog, was #48, back in December. I wasn't planning on continuing the...
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #35 Revisited Last week I cobbled together eight books, some of which publishers had sent me more than a year ago,...
a year ago
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a year ago
Last week I cobbled together eight books, some of which publishers had sent me more than a year ago, in an effort to write a "Better Late Than Never" installment of "Book Briefs,"  something I had done back in April 2018 with Book Briefs #35. But, sensing I would not be able to...
A Weekly Dose of...
My Biennale Haul Two weeks ago I was in Venice for the Biennale, covering the 18th International Architecture...
a year ago
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a year ago
Two weeks ago I was in Venice for the Biennale, covering the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko for World-Architects. It was my first trip back to Venice since the 2018 Biennale, which was the 16th edition and was curated by Yvonne Farrell and...
A Weekly Dose of...
Self-Published Books by BNIM and KPF Over at World-Architects I wrote about two self-published books recently published by BNIM and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Over at World-Architects I wrote about two self-published books recently published by BNIM and KPF: ALL - The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center by BNIM Design in Detail by Kohn Pedersen Fox The "Found" feature also includes responses to a few questions on why the firms opted to...
A Weekly Dose of...
Learning from the 2023 Book Fair This year's New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is my third, following the 2022 book...
a year ago
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a year ago
This year's New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is my third, following the 2022 book fair and, just days before lockdown, the 2020 book fair. Three hardly makes me an expert, even in my specialization of architecture books, but it does help with gauging the value given...
A Weekly Dose of...
2023 in Architecture Books, So Far Life, they say, throws you curve balls, and that's just what happened last month, when a family...
a year ago
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a year ago
Life, they say, throws you curve balls, and that's just what happened last month, when a family emergency had me put this blog on hiatus. This post, appearing on a Friday instead of its regular Monday, does not mean regular weekly posts will resume, as I'll be dealing with said...
A Weekly Dose of...
On Hiatus Monday is when I would normally post a new book review, but instead, this blog and its related...
a year ago
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a year ago
Monday is when I would normally post a new book review, but instead, this blog and its related newsletter are going on hiatus indefinitely due to a family emergency.
A Weekly Dose of...
Architectural Exhibitions and Their Books Preparing for this post I counted roughly one hundred books in my library that are related to...
a year ago
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a year ago
Preparing for this post I counted roughly one hundred books in my library that are related to exhibitions. Surprisingly, given that I tend to buy catalogs and other companion books to exhibitions I visit, only a quarter of those hundred are exhibitions I have seen in person....
A Weekly Dose of...
From the Mouths of Architects I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I went from disliking interviews — preferring texts...
a year ago
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a year ago
I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I went from disliking interviews — preferring texts written by architects, much of it in the vein of theory — to gravitating to them. Now I find myself opting to read interviews, be they online or in printed matter, over other...
A Weekly Dose of...
Changing Ideals in Architectural Criticism On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism edited by Wilfried Wang, published by Park Books...
a year ago
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a year ago
On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism edited by Wilfried Wang, published by Park Books and University of Texas at Austin, 2022 (Amazon / Bookshop) Who Is the City For?: Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago by Blair Kamin with photographs by Lee Bey,...
A Weekly Dose of...
On Case Studies "What is a case study?" you might be asking, or maybe, "Is it different than a monograph?" Although...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
"What is a case study?" you might be asking, or maybe, "Is it different than a monograph?" Although the word monograph literally applies to any book devoted to any individual subject — be it a person, a place, a thing, or even an idea — in the realm of architecture books that...
A Weekly Dose of...
For the Love of (Architecture) Books Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I put together a list some things I love ❤️ about architecture books...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I put together a list some things I love ❤️ about architecture books — and just as many things I don't love 💔 about them: 20 pairs in 4 categories. I can't be alone in having these opinions and I might be a bit harsh in my criticisms, but if I...
A Weekly Dose of...
Three Lessons from Three Monographs Writing a blog devoted to architecture books means featuring monographs — lots of monographs. Not...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Writing a blog devoted to architecture books means featuring monographs — lots of monographs. Not exclusively, of course; but before this blog transitioned to its current weekly format, one of the thematic days of the week was appropriately devoted to monographs: Monograph...
A Weekly Dose of...
Rereading the Nineties Some of the references consulted during the research phase of my 2021 book Buildings in Print: 100...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Some of the references consulted during the research phase of my 2021 book Buildings in Print: 100 Influential & Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books, but not mentioned in the book's "selected bibliography," were old catalogs from the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, the beloved and...
A Weekly Dose of...
On Awards When Arata Isozaki died at the end of 2022 at the age of 91, nearly all of the news stories and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
When Arata Isozaki died at the end of 2022 at the age of 91, nearly all of the news stories and obituaries mentioned that he was a Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, and quite a few also included mention of the Pritzker Prize in the headline. Although the Pritzker has long...
A Weekly Dose of...
From Web to Print Recently I was watching a news program, most likely PBS Newshour or an MSNBC show, and was struck by...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Recently I was watching a news program, most likely PBS Newshour or an MSNBC show, and was struck by one of the talking heads speaking via Skype or Zoom being described as "a writer working on turning her blog into a book." I don't remember her name or even the subject, as the...
A Weekly Dose of...
On Guidebooks A portion of the paperback wrapper of A Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., published by...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A portion of the paperback wrapper of A Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., published by the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1965.  Are guidebooks still a valid and useful subgenre of architecture books? Do architects...
A Weekly Dose of...
This Blog in 2023 One year ago, in the first post of 2022, I shifted this blog from (almost) daily posts about...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
One year ago, in the first post of 2022, I shifted this blog from (almost) daily posts about architecture books to just once a week, changing the name of the blog to reflect that. In the fifth of five bullet points reasoning why that was happening, I wrote: "I'm planning on...
A Weekly Dose of...
Favorite Books of 2022 For this last post of 2022 I looked back at the dozens of books I reviewed or featured as "Book...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
For this last post of 2022 I looked back at the dozens of books I reviewed or featured as "Book Briefs" on this blog, and the ones I reviewed on World-Architects. From those books I gathered just over a dozen favorites, grouping them into some common themes that happened to come...
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #48 This latest installment of "Book Briefs" — the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This latest installment of "Book Briefs" — the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog — features six books in three pairs. Obviously, these briefs are not...
A Weekly Dose of...
Conceiving the Plan Conceiving the Plan: Nuance and Intimacy in Civic Space Edited by Yael Hameiri Sainsaux Skira,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Conceiving the Plan: Nuance and Intimacy in Civic Space Edited by Yael Hameiri Sainsaux Skira, August 2022 Hardcover | 12-1/4 x 12-1/4 inches | 240 pages | 170 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9788857246543 | $45.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: In Honor of Diane Lewis...
A Weekly Dose of...
Ando and Le Corbusier Ando and Le Corbusier is a two-volume project that shows how the works of two pioneers of modern...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Ando and Le Corbusier is a two-volume project that shows how the works of two pioneers of modern architecture – Le Corbusier and Tadao Ando – connect human experience to the basic givens of existence: interactions among human beings and personal encounters with nature, including...
A Weekly Dose of...
The Minimal Intervention The Material Imagination Birkhäuser, October 2022 Paperback | 5 x 7-1/4 inches | 166 pages | 13...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The Material Imagination Birkhäuser, October 2022 Paperback | 5 x 7-1/4 inches | 166 pages | 13 illustrations | English (translated from German by Jill Denton) | ISBN: 9783035625301 | $26.99 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Lucius Burckhardt (1925–2003) outlined his theory of the...
A Weekly Dose of...
G. E. Kidder Smith Builds G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography AR+D Publishing, August...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography AR+D Publishing, August 2022 Hardcover | 8 x 11 inches | 272 pages | English | ISBN: 9781954081536 | $60.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: George Everard Kidder Smith (1913–1997) was a multidimensional figure within...
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #47: Three Altrim Titles Here is the next installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Here is the next installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog. Obviously, these briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to...
A Weekly Dose of...
The Architecture of Suspense The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock University of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock University of Virginia Press, September 2022 Paperback (also available in hardcover and ebook) | 6-3/4 x 7-3/4 inches | 274 pages | 66 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780813947679 | $29.50 PUBLISHER'S...
A Weekly Dose of...
American Modern Home American Modern Home: Jacobsen Architecture + Interiors by Simon Jacobsen Rizzoli, October...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
American Modern Home: Jacobsen Architecture + Interiors by Simon Jacobsen Rizzoli, October 2022 Hardcover | 11 x 11 inches | 224 pages | English | ISBN: 9780847872053 | $75 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the legendary architect and late co-founder with his son,...
A Weekly Dose of...
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015 Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings Edited by Peter Allison Thames...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings Edited by Peter Allison Thames & Hudson, October 2022 Hardcover | 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 300 pages | 500 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780500343807 | $90 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Following Adjaye: Works...
A Weekly Dose of...
Olmsted Trees Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker, Mindy Thompson Fullilove Hirmer Publishers, August 2022 Hardcover | 9 x 11 inches | 160 pages | 100 illustrations | German/English | ISBN: | $X.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Central...