Architecture Books, Any Suggestions?

[Dream]

Before the big data crash and re-launch of HAIF a few years ago there was a thread about great books the participants of this forum had read and been inspired by, it was a great topic with some really good insight.

Let's bring it back.

A few of the guys mentioned a Pulitzer Prize book from the 70's called, The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert A. Caro.

Well I was intrigued and went to Amazon and bought the book, after a few false starts over a few years I finally made it through all 1162 pages. In some ways this was the greatest book I've ever read and the most difficult book I've ever read. The insight into planning, building, parks, bridges, freeways, politics, power, public housing, media, idealism, public service, racism, and building and shaping of America's greatest city, New York, are unparalleled. This book was just awesome and I would like to say thanks to the guys on this site who introduced me to such a great book.

Here is a book I really enjoyed and will be reading again is on the Civil War and also a Pulitzer Prize winner is, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara.

Thanks,

Dream

[TheNiche]

Before the big data crash and re-launch of HAIF a few years ago there was a thread about great books the participants of this forum had read and been inspired by, it was a great topic with some really good insight.

Let's bring it back.

After more than one person independently suggested to me that I read Fountainhead within the course of a single week, I took them up on the offer. Brilliance, although the conclusion is dramatic and largely implausible. But then that's not necessarily the point of philosophy posing as fiction.

I've also done City on Fire and Isaac's Storm, on the local history side of things. Each overdramatized, perhaps, although Isaac's Storm is better at keeping moderation. The author of City on Fire had a point to prove, and he overdid the blood and guts for an emotional reaction.

[dbigtex56]

I'd recommend The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (wikipedia link). Pragmatic and insightful, she had little use for the heroic posturings so prevalent among architects and city planners in the mid-20th century. Had more people listened to her, we might have been spared the worst ravages of urban renewal (from which many cities have never recovered.) Many of her conclusions seem quite obvious now, but this was radical stuff in 1961, and still pertains to city planning and development.

From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe is more fluff than substance; but still, it's a great conversation starter, and amusingly written. Also, it can be read in one sitting.

[infinite_jim]

"informal" by cecil balmond

"thinking architecture" by peter zumthor

[UrbaNerd]

"The City Assembled" by Spiro Kostof. Good stuff, about urbanism, new urbanism, etc. Houston is mentioned a few times throughout.

[nmainguy]

I just finished The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton. Great insight regarding what fits when and where. Vauge, I know but it is a good read with great B & W illustration.

Also, if you love architecture and great descriptive fiction, you can't do better than The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Regardless whether or not you subscribe to her philosophical leanings, you will see in your mind's eye every detail of every building and person she describes even though there is not one illustration in the book.

If you like Wright, read his bombastic autobiography-he's so full of himself but it's a great read and also The Natural House by the same.

The Architecture of John Staub is a great catalouge of his Houston residential architecture. It's hard to find a copy, however.

[texas911]

Anything by Kenneth Frampton. You gotta study history of Architecture before you can understand it.