5 comments about Ortho's All About Creating Japanese Gardens (Ortho's All About Gardening).

1. I bought serveral books about creating Japanese gardens. This book by far the best one that I had. I built a Japanese style Rock Garden so I don't have to mow my lawn. My back yard is built based on some of the pictures and tips I read from this book. The fun part is that you put in your hard work and built the garden you wanted which pays off when your guests give you thumb up. I spent about $5000 on the materials and hours of my own labor on the project. Now I can spent my weekend golfing instead of mowing my lawn. Ouch! My back still hurting from all the hardwork.



2. The book is easy to read and explains the whole concept of Japanese gardening. I learned with it and will be using it to plan my Japanese garden. Very pleased customer!



3. I've always wanted to have a Japanese Garden but never got around to doing it. I picked up this book at the library and, WOW, it has really inspired me! Not only am I now drafting up plans to turn a corner of my yard into a Japanese Garden but I showed it to a neighbor and he's thinking of making his backyard into something like the courtyard garden on page 20. I'll probably get a library of books on Japanese Gardening but this book will be the first one I'll buy.



4. I got this book from the library and was pleasantly surprised at the details and useful, practical advice on conceiving and executing a japanese garden. The book contains detailed instructions on how to lay out, build, select plans for, and maintain a Japanese-inspired garden. It talks about rocks, rock gardening, ponds, water plants and fish, paths, stepping stones, gates, and plants and plant selections. I found it really helpful in getting ideas to give to our landscape architect. I would recommend this book for anyone that is going to actually build (rather than just enjoy looking at pictures of) a japanese garden.



5. This book is one of the best I ever buy about gardening and landscaping. The pictures alone worth the price.
   They gives details to build your garden, makes pounds and falls and it seems so easy that I am starting my own right now.

   They also list the kind of trees and plants to uses.

   Buy this book with confidence.

5 comments about Design of Cities: Revised Edition (Penguin Books).

1. Design of Cities is a classic of Bacon in the study of the urban form. The new tendences in urbanism forget many times same of the principal conditions of the place. Bacon in a very simple and sensitive way offers us the keys of a original and elemental way. Writing in the sixties is current also today.



2. This book is an excellent introduction to the nature of urban design.
   
   It illustrates, in a concise and simple way, most of the major interventions in urban design beginning with early settlements, and finishing with modern cities. E.G the route to the Acropolis, the extension of the garden of Versailles, the reorientation of Georgian London.
   
   Every point is explained clearly using great plans, sections and photographs.
   
   The book features many references to the conceptual sketches of artist Paul Klee, which Bacon uses as comparisons for urban concepts.
   
   This book had a very positive effect on my understanding of architecture and urban design, and i would recommend it to anyone interested in the field.
   
   Bear in mind that it is not a standard history book. It is more light-hearted but that is why i enjoyed it so much.



3. A very informative and well designed book. I am currently a grad. student in architecture and the ideas presented in this book are very intriguing. It takes a very practical approach to urban design. If this book were coupled with Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one could get two different but relevant viewpoints regarding this very important debate, especially in the wake of Modernism.



4. This is my favorite book on urban design....how cities work, history of city design, and the key elements that make a city exciting, livable, and functional. A key insight of Mr. Bacon is the potential for the integration of various movement systems (train, car, pedestrian, etc.), and the vitality possible at the intersections and nodes of those systems.



5. This book changed the way I looked into the conception of cities. The command of urban spaces, with beatiful examples through history, put me to new design of cities or to renew existing city centers including new perspectives for the citizen or people that just pass by.

5 comments about On Garden Style.

1. I am an avid gardener and an avid admirer of Bunny Williams. This book was a perfect combination of both. It is filled with gorgeous gardens, but it has ideas and suggestions that will fit any size of garden or budget. I particularly loved the way that the book was organized. For example, if I want to look for ideas garden design, garden walls or containers, I can go to a chapter dedicated to the subject. When you read the book, you also have a strong sense of Ms. Williams' love for gardening and her commitment to a healthly environment. She inspires you to dig in the dirt and enjoy the glories of nature. To top it all off, it's a beautiful coffee table book that, in my house, will show that it is well used!



2. You can look at a garden in many different ways. As a renown interior designer and president of one of the country's leading interior design firm, Bunny Williams views gardens as outdoor rooms. She applies the universal design principles that are common to architecture, landscape architecture and interior design to her garden design and achieves amazing results.
   
   "On Garden Style" has five parts that includes 15 chapters. It covers a number of topics including imagine (personal style and putting your dreams to work, etc.), good bones make good rooms (garden walls, floor and passageway, and roof overhead), furnishing the garden (containers, ornament and furniture), planting with style (inspired planting, kitchen garden, and maintenance), the gardener in winter, selected gardens, garden guides, plant lists, and container planting schemes.
   
   In "On Garden Style," Bunny Williams and Nancy Drew explain complicated design principles in plain and simple English and introduce them to ordinary garden lovers.
   
   "On Garden Style" has 288 pages and many beautiful interior photos. It is a great garden design book in plain and simple English.



3. I love Bunny Williams but this book is a big let-down. Maybe I was spoiled after reading "Affair with a House".



4. This book is a must read. It is fabulous. Lots of helpful information. Makes you see your yard in ways you never thought of before.



5. A typical garden of the rich who are possessed with image and lack of originality. The photos are very nice.

5 comments about Outdoor Rooms: Designs for Porches, Terraces, Decks, Gazebos.

1. This book will set your imagination on fire and motivate you to turn your ordinary backyard into a mini-paradise. Lots of pictures to drool over, you will find yourself thumbing thru it again and again..



2. This is a great "thumb thur" book. It has really nice pictures of outdoor areas that are very "architectural".... Not helpful for the "average joe" looking for ideas to create your own backyard/outdoor patio/room.



3. If you need ideas on how to create outdoor spaces for entertaining - this book is for you. Dining, lounging, dining, lounging... Even different photos of the same patio have different place settings on the tables to give you dining ideas. After a while, I began looking for spaces where you could do something other than dine, or lounge. Overall, nice photos of nice outdoor spaces, but limited appeal.



4. When looking for fresh ideas and inspiration on how to create the prefect outdoor space you needn't look any further than this book. From a modern symmetrical porch to lush English gardens, it showcases a wide range of styles. With so much to choose from anyone can find something to suit their taste.

   Many of the outdoor rooms have pools. It is amazing how they manage to flawlessly integrate the pools into the environment without making them seem out of place or just thrown there. The magnificent outdoor spaces truly become a part of the home.

   I love the combination of styles and how they compliment one another. One room features the creamy white walls of Greece, a timber roof and hot Mexican colors in a cushioned seat. Large color photos tell the story with brief descriptions of each example.

   In the back there is a sampler of fine furnishing and accessories form a variety of different styles including historical, rustic, Mediterranean/island, and geometric. There is also a helpful directory of design professionals, photographers and product sources.




5. Or if you love browsing Swedish furniture catalogues, buy this book! Unfortunately, I'm not a big concrete & steel fan or heavily into Swedish furniture. It's a lovely book but if, like me, you're looking for garden inspiration or expecting visions that incorporate trees and plants, look elsewhere and save your money. The designs for outdoor rooms in this book left me cold. I gave it a reasonably good rating because I realize that readers who love modern architecture will probably enjoy it.

No comments about Making the Modern Garden.

5 comments about Landscaping for Dummies.

1. This book will give you a basic understanding on what and where to place plants and flowers as well as an idea what is the best grass for the kind of weather in your area. It breaks things down to plain english and provides step by step procedures on landscaping.



2. Did not tell me what I needed to know to pick plants for my yard. I found most of what I needed in Sunset's Western Garden Book (I'm in the western US).



3. `Landscaping for Dummies' by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim and a cast of thousands is a typically ironic example of what you will find in this huge `Dummies' series of books, which started out as a series of texts for PC subjects, where the PC had a knack of making us all feel like dummies. Since then, it has expanded to touch virtually every `practical' subject in the known universe. That is, I haven't seen any `Wittgenstein for Dummies' or `Quantum Thermodynamics for Dummies', as neither of these subjects are things the average intelligent, but uninformed person is likely to pick up to brief themselves for a weekend project of as a start to a new hobby.
   
   The irony of this particular volume is that you really can't make full use of it if you don't have a good head on your shoulders and a fair amount of book learning under your belt, including such arcane High School subjects such as geometry and some building skills such as working with mortar, power saws, a level, and a full-sized shovel.
   
   The first thing you discover is that landscaping is a really big subject. You probably didn't know this, or you would not be considering buying this book. In four `parts', the book breaks the subject down into Designing, Hardscaping, Planting, Planning, and Tips for putting Landscaping to good use. Since this book (and all books in this series) advertises itself as `A Reference for the Rest of Us', I can't complain too much about the odd order of these five subjects, but it does seem that `Objectives' and `Planning' should be Parts I and II respectively, rather than Parts V and IV. I confess that I even bought the book exclusively for its Hardscaping chapter, so I didn't care if that came before or after planning.
   
   Regarding the Hardscaping material, I found it remarkably advanced for a `dummy'. The projects start with simple walkways, but quickly advance to retaining walls, brick walls, and fences. My biggest surprise was the depth to which one must build deep planning into so simple a job as a retaining wall that is installed to square off an annoying slope in your yard. Not only do you have to lay a deep foundation, you also need to worry about drainage and install a special drainage pipe to carry off rainwater. Who Knew!!!
   
   In other Parts of the book, it devotes relatively short chapters to subjects to which one could easily dedicate a whole book. One example is in the selection of a tree or trees to plant in your landscaping project. I looked at the description for Japanese maple (since I happen to have one of these) and found the entry reasonable, but possibly not as detailed as one may want, since it glossed over the fact that the difference in growing speed and average height of the different varieties of Acer Palmatum are sizable, and one will be disappointed if they get the tall lanky variety, when they wanted the low, burly `weeping' variety.
   
   But, if what you want is a first book on the subject, you could really do a lot worse. It has the one essential ingredient for an introductory book, a comprehensive bibliography, which includes not only books, but lots of magazines, professional organizations, and international web sites for getting more information.
   
   I rarely resort to books in this series, but for those of you who want to venture into do it yourself landscaping, this is probably better, and possibly far better than, for example, the `Home Depot' manual on the subject.



4. I've been working in commercial landscaping off and on for nearly four years now. I borrowed this book from a friend just to check it out. I think if you are a new homeowner and don't have much experience in landscaping then this book will probably work. If you are familiar with planting tree's and shrubs, bricklaying, fencing, and bordering, then maybe you should try and find something a little more advance. I suppose it depends on how big the project is you are working on.



5. A very informative tome, but I think its tries to achieve too much in what is a rather large and varied subject. Should focus on the basics.............but to be fair still an excellent guide

5 comments about Outside the Bungalow: America's Arts and Crafts Garden.

1. I was looking for ideas to use in planning some landscaping for my craftsman bungalow. This book met that need, and then some, with lots of detail and plenty of photos. I especially liked the period landscape designs. All in all, a good book for casually perusing or for reading in more depth.



2. I was a bit disappointed by the quality of photographs in this book. They are not sharp pictures and I found the examples of gardens less than interesting. I was hoping to obtain some great ideas to incorporate into my own gardens, but nothing jumped out at me. Nice book, but I wouldn't recommend buying it. You can borrow mine!



3. This book is full of pictures of lovely arts and crafts style homes and gardens. I got several ideas for my own yard just from leafing through the pages.



4. This book covers the architectural aspects of the property surrounding the bungalow - gates, arbors, fences, walls, paths, steps, water features, courtyards, patios, pergolas, porches, outdoor furniture, etc. The photography and color illustrations are superb and it is hard to take your eyes off the photos to actually read the text! And although the photos were taken at the present, the authors have not neglected the history of these dwellings and have included beautiful colored postcards that were so popular during the 1920s and 1930s. An introductory sections discusses the movers and shakers of the Arts and Crafts Movement, like William Morris, William Robinson, Gertrude Jekyll and Gustav Stickley. The final chapter is devoted to the architectural firm of Greene and Greene, whose style was a major influence. Most of the houses and gardens photographed here are on the West Coast (mainly Seattle, WA, Portland, OR and Pasadena, CA) although there are some Rhode Island properties included as well. A final section is devoted to planting the garden and includes lists of plants which are good for any situation imaginable. This is a wonderful book - beautiful, unique and inspiring!



5. Disclaimer: I'm a bit biased, because its my home on the cover, despite this, the book is a crucial tool, there was so obvious a need for a book on this topic, one that relates to what people were wanting to do with their homes, and helping them to avoid. to a point, having to scrounge through years of bound periodicals in the library, and random drives through promising neighborhoods in search of inspiring examples....not that you would get to see the back yards.
   Doug and Paul have gone out of their way to search out appropriate examples for all three of their bungalow books together, ranging always from the garden shed to the Gamble house. This is the only in-print book I'd recommend for the topics of Arts & Crafts fencing, walls, paths, site integration etc.
   Having seen many of these sites in person, I can say that photographer Doug Keister, has brought a focus that many would miss in person. My wisteria only blooms 4-5 weeks a year, but of course, they got it then.
   My only complaint is that the photos are so compelling that many might never get to read all the text, which is what the book is all about.
   There is some validity to the point above about a West-Coast bias to the topics, but when you consider that virtually every other A & C garden book has a English tilt, it seems less a problem. There is room for a knowledgeable Mid-Westerner to write a good book as well. "Outside the Bungalow" is not the last book that should be written on the topic, just the best, by far, so far.

No comments about Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit.

5 comments about The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community.

1. I grew up in what new urbanists would probably call a paradise. It was a real community in which neighbours were really neighbours. People did sit on their verandahs and converse with their neighbours on the street. There was an understanding that one could borrow things if the owner wasn't using them. It was considered polite to tell the owner if he was there but if he was away one could just borrow the thing and tell him when he came home if one was still using it. In short it was everything new urbanism wants. This was in a moderately large city in Canada.

   There were two things wrong with this paradise:

   a) it was not about verandahs, facing the street etc. It was about control and conformity. The neighbourhood protected itself by frowning on unexpected behavior. There was an expected range of interests and an expected range of activity. If someone went out of this range, one could expect social sanctions unfailingly. The dark side of Jacobs 'eyes-on-the-street' is Foucault's 'gaze.' The neighbourhood worked as an exercise in power. The verandahs and street life were instruments of that power. Heaven help anyone who had non-standard interests.

   b) the neighbourhood was unsustaining. With the growth of the personal rights ethos, the ability of the neighbourhood to control its inhabitants fell away. No longer could the neighbourhood fathers take action to control petty teenage misbehaviour. Instead personal rights and social policy took these controls away from the neighbourhood and gave them to government agencies. As a result the neighbourhood is now perhaps not unsafe but definitely uncomfortable. No one leaves tools or equipment out now in case a neighbour needs to borrow it. Everything is locked up. The doors are firmly closed and neighbours now complain to the police instead of discussing thier joint problems.

   New urbanism seems to miss this point. Neighbourhoods are about local power. For some people this produces a comfortable paradise. For those slightly different it creates a jail of conformity. Some people thrive in it. Some peole will be stifled. Neighboourhoods are an exercise in hopefully beneficent control. Architecture does not create this control. It can destroy it certainly and make it impossible but it cannot create it.




2. I have only had the book a day and already it has given me great pleasure and joy. I love the fantastic pictures and diagrams. The computer digitalizations on a few existing towns today and what they could be like were truely fasinating. I couldn't help not liking the indepth descriptions of numourous cities, towns, and villages from around the country and canada as well. This book had colorful photos and diagrams, this book to me is pure genus!



3. A very good appraisal of design examples of new communities with also a consistent theoretical approach to New Urbanism concepts. This is a necessary reading to those that want to be updated with the best design practices of integrated urban spaces.



4. The basic principles presented in this book are the stuff that dreams are made of. I have shared the ideas presented in this book with many of my friends and they all want to live in communities such as this. We've been strip-malled, mega-malled and automobilized to near-death. New Urbanism as presented here is like a million breaths of fresh air.

   It is best to read the basic principles presented in the front of the book first. It may look like dry reading at first but as you get into it, your interest will be piqued at first, then grabbed, and you won't want to put it down till you've read it all. Having read this part you will be armed with the knowledge that, to date, no development or developer has had the guts to follow the principles completely. All of the projects presented include some elements of New Urbanism but none of them have it right. One of the other customer reviewers of this book, Ken Wing, missed this entirely. Hey Ken, there is no people in the Seaside pictures because they want the reader to see the architecture! Those who don't get it, or are afraid of change, tend to trivialze New Urbanism and mis-represent it.

   Once you have read this book, you, like myself will want to immediately pack up and move to a New Urbanist community. Better ones are coming out of the ground each year and I hope to see one near me real soon.




5. This is a good book about bad ideas which-because of their influence-simply must be read. The problems with New Urbanism stem from five implicit premises it shares with other approaches to city planning. Consider them in turn.

   1. The same design approach is appropriate for both cities and suburbs.

   Peter Calethorpe claims the application of urban design principles "regardless of location: in suburbs and new growth areas as well as within the city" is a "simple but unique contribution of this movement." City planning, however, has often applied suburban principles-such as buildings as islands in a sea of grass-in both cities and suburbs. New and old share the underlying belief that the design problem of cities and suburbs is similar. Yet 40 years ago, Jane Jacobs showed us that cities were places where people had to feel safe amidst strangers, which fundamentally distinguished them from suburbs and small towns. The result when premise meets reality is laughable.

   For example, the chapter on the upscale, private golf community of Windsor, FL devotes four full pages to the castle-like entrance building where visitors must pass a security checkpoint. Perimeter walls form an important design element of South Brentwood Village, CA. The text and captions don't mention them, but they show clearly in the illustrations. Unless New Urbanism's model is the medieval walled city, it is hard to see these as urban.

   2. Community is primarily a matter of buildings and their arrangement.

   Those who have not received years of professional training easily fall into the trap that community has to do with people. Planners know better. Community is about buildings and the spaces they enclose. The planners' view is most apparent in the illustrations they choose. Seaside, FL's chapter is typical. Seaside requires front porches, because they supposedly encourage sociability. Seaside's front porches appear in 17 photos. Exactly one porch is in use. Of the six photos showing Seaside's public pavilions and gazebos, but one is in use. The photo of the pedestrian-friendly sand walkway is empty. The planners are proud of their porches, pavilions, paths and gazebos. They constitute "community." Who needs people?

   3. Appearance is more important than functionality.

   Planners design and evaluate with primary reference to aesthetic standards. The design must work at some level, but that limits rather than drives what the planner does.

   For example, the proposed conference center entrance in Montreal is a grand staircase, but it is hard to imagine anyone using it except joggers seeking a challenging exercise regimen. A large stair is also proposed for a park in Communications Hill, CA, not to get up and down, but to "terminate the view from a nearby street."

   The plan for part of Brooklyn, NY, shows a seven block length of Atlantic Avenue taken up by five buildings with nearly identical facades, three one-block long, and two two-blocks long, blocking two cross streets. The centerpiece of this stretch? A two-block-long parking garage. Does anyone really believe vibrant street life could exist here?

   4. Inside the boundary, plan. Outside, ignore or conquer.

   A convention of the planning field concerns how the area surrounding that planned for is portrayed in plans and renderings. Of course, the planner's work is always shown in living color and full detail. Two basic approaches are followed in showing surroundings. In one, surroundings are simply left out, as if the planned area were a space station, or the sole settlement on a virgin continent. In the second, surroundings appear in monochromatic outline, making the viewer aware there is a context, but giving little information about it. Whether this convention is cause, effect, or coincidence, what is clear is that it strongly parallels planners' values and thought process.

   This premise can be seen in action in what is perhaps the worst single design feature in the book. A "major goal" for the Clinton area of New York City was preservation of the few remaining low-rise buildings, including a corner gas station. To the planner, this meant the gas station was "outside" the planning area. Not content with surrounding it with an eight-story building taking the rest of the block along both street frontages, the planner proposed building a canopy on air rights over the gas station, thus engulfing it, amoeba style. Such bizarre design makes sense only when one starts from the planner's premise that what is outside the plan is at best something to be ignored, and at worst an obstacle to be overcome.

   5. Give planners complete control. They know best.

   The desire of planners for complete control is evident from the opening essays, where the wants and ideas of "businesses and public officials" are referred to as "hurdles," and the changes a planner makes to incorporate others' ideas are called "accommodations" and "compromises." Examples of building codes to limit architects and builders to the planners' vision grace several chapters. The pinnacle of control is achieved in Mashpee Commons, MA, where the developer retained ownership of streets to avoid zoning setback requirements.

   The premise that we would all be better off if we would just do what the planners want stems from their deep seated belief that they know best. I hope it is apparent by now that this hubris has no basis in ability or performance.

   As horrifying as these five premises are, it hasn't stopped New Urbanist planners from getting plenty of work, and in many cases getting their plans built. For suburban developers trying to create a simulacrum of pre-WWII, small-town America ala Disneyland's Main Street, the New Urbanism is probably harmless. For cities, the stakes are considerably higher. Cities have already suffered immensely at the hands of planners, and in their current state can hardly afford another round of arrogant ignorance. New Urbanist planners have already been to work on New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal. Read this book before they come to a city near you.

5 comments about In the Company of Stone.

1. Dan Snows stonework may be some of the best in the world. Of all the stonework I have seen over the years his stands of as the best of the best.
   This book illustrates much of Dans work demonstrating what is possible.
   Most of this work is dry laid stone which is an art in itself. For those who like work utilizing mortar I recommend Lew Frenches book. Buy this book if you love to view stonework that makes you say " WOW!"



2. Over a decade ago, Dan Snow repaired the hundred-year-old dry stone walls that wander across our property in Vermont. The tumbled stone had been evocative, but the symmetry of the reassembled walls has been an irresistible delight. I do not know Snow--he worked while we were away--but I have thanked him a million times for his art. In this book, he has somehow captured with words the sensory pleasure of organizing and reorganizing stones. The art of walling, as evidenced by Peter Mauss's photographs, and the skill of walling, as described by Snow, are compulsively fascinating, an adventure for the armchair dreamer.
   The text and illustrations blend carefully, and the color photographs sparkle. The reproduction of the black and white photographs varies in quality, alas. This is a charming book. An excellent companion book is Gordon Hayward's "Stone in the Garden."



3. If you love stones and stone work you'll appreciate the pictures but a book just can't manage to "show" the art involved in working with stone



4. This is not a "how-to" book - it's better than that. It's a "why" book. The author expresses in his understated manner the "why's" of working with stone and for anyone who feels about stone the way he does (and I do)it is a delight to read - and look at. This book is absolutely inspirational and a joy.



5. Being a native resident of Vermont this book is very precious to me. I lived on a dairy farm with dry stone walls that were very plain. Dan Snow made the process into an art form as well as for practical use. The back of the book gives locations of some of his work here in VT and NH and I look forward to seeing some of it next summer. This book is one that should sit on a coffee table to be picked up and scanned by your guests rather than sitting on a bookcase shelf. The book is not only about the work of Dan Snow but a showcase of the photos by Peter Mauss, in color as well as black & white. It is a book you will treasure.