Buildings surround and affect us all. In this clear and concise introduction to buildings Thom Gorst demystifies the culture of architecture and shows how an interest in our environment - whatever our cultural position - can be of great value to us.

The Golden Gate Bridge links the urbanity of San Francisco with the wildheadlands of Marin County, as if to suggest the paradox of Californiaand America itself-the place that Fitzgerald saw as the last spotcommensurate with the human capacity for wonder. The bridge, completedin 1937, also announced to the world America's engineering prowess andfull assumption of its destined continental dominance. The Golden Gateis a counterpart to the Statue of Li...

In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents a fascinating analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their unique ability to both delight and provoke us. He illuminates America’s obsession with public memorials and the changing role of art and museums in our society. From Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, (considered “too big, bold, and gory” when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial, this is an...

Why the American Revolution, of all the great revolutions, was the only enduring success.Through the Founders’ own voices—and in the homes they designed and built to embody the ideal of domestic happiness they fought to achieve—we come to understand why the American Revolution, of all great revolutions, was the only enduring success.The Founders were vivid, energetic men, with sophisticated worldviews, and this magnificent reckoning of their successes draws...

A fascinating journey into the past—and under the ground—that offers "an insightful look at the what-might-have-beens of urban mass transit" ( The New York Times).From the day it broke ground by City Hall in 1900, it took about four and half years to build New York's first subway line to West 145th Street in Harlem. Things rarely went that quickly ever again.The Routes Not Taken explores the often-dramatic stories behind unbuilt or unfinis...

As San Juan nears the 500th anniversary of its founding, Arleen Pabón-Charneco explores the urban and architectural developments that have taken place over the last five centuries, transforming the site from a small Caribbean enclave to a sprawling modern capital.As the oldest European settlement in the United States and second oldest in the Western Hemisphere, San Juan is an example of the experimentation that took place in the American "borderland" from 1519 to 1898, when Spanish...

This substantive yet easy-to-use guide to selected French gothic churches and cathedrals provides profiles of fourteen important religious buildings. They are located in different parts of France, were constructed at different times and in different styles, and include both well-known and less well-known churches and cathedrals. They range from the tiny church of Saint Maclou in Rouenperhaps the best example of flamboyant designto the worlds most visited Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame in Par...

Postmodernism, multiculturalism, the alleged decline of the United States, deconstruction, leadership, and values—these topics have been at the forefront of contemporary intellectual and cultural debate and are likely to remain so for the near future. Participants in the debate can usefully enlarge the perspective to a comparison between the Greco-Roman world and contemporary society. In this thought-provoking work, a noted classics scholar tests the ancient-modern comparison, showing what...

A classic book authored by the foremost architectural historian in America, this fully illustrated history of American architecture and city planning is based on Vincent Scully's conviction that architecture and city planning are inseparably linked and must therefore be treated together. He defines architecture as a continuing dialogue between generations which creates an environment across time. This definitive survey extends beyond the cities themselves to the American scene as a whole, ...

Auténticas recetas italianas del famoso platillo de Gaeta, Italia. La Tiella consiste de dos capas delgadas de masa ondulada en los bordes que conitnen un relleno de mariscos o vegetales. Su nombre viene del molde en el que se hornea. En Gaeta, el dialecto local utiliza la palabra "tiella" para referirse al molde de paredes bajas que abren hacia afuera. Es por esto que el platillo creado en ese molde recibe el mismo nombre. El libro incluye muchas fotografÃas y videos.

Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew were pioneers of Modern Architecture in Britain and its former colonies from the late 1920s through to the early 1970s. As a barometer of twentieth century architecture, their work traces the major cultural developments of that century from the development of modernism, its spread into the late-colonial arena and finally, to its re-evaluation that resulted in a more expressive, formalist approach in the post-war era. This book thoroughly examines Fry and Drew's hi...

Studies in Hellenistic Architecture is a detailed analysis of the development of the major building-types of the Hellenistic age – the mid-fourth century B.C. to the time of the Roman conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean. In this meticulous work, Frederick E. Winter reveals how the architects of the period went beyond anything achieved by their Classical Greek predecessors, and how these impressive skills prepared the way for many of Rome's later architectural achievements.