1 comments about The Complete Book of Home, Site and Office Security.

1. The Complete Book of Home, Site, and Office Security provides the reader with an excellent overview of security; from locks, to alarms, to lighting, to CCTV, and more. Whether you are a homeowner interested in adding some additional security to your home, or a security professional wanting a basic professional reference, this book is an excellent choice.
   
   The book is easy to read for someone with no background in security, yet contains enough technical information to make it valuable for the security professional. The author, Mr. Phillips, is the author of several other security books (all of which I enjoyed) and is more than qualified to write on this topic.

No comments about International Practice for Architects.

2 comments about The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, 13th Ed..

1. This book is an impressive accomplishment, admittedly. It is a vast amount of information, very thorough, complete, and seems to cover every aspect of professional practice for an architect. I have other editions of this book back to the 1958 copy, and they are fairly extraordinary records of the changes in the profession.
   
   The failures of this book are to some extent caused by its subject matter. Architectural practice has changed in the last decade for some firms, and this book admirably tries to reflect and analyze that change -- although this probably holds true for a very small number of firms. If you're a partner at Skidmore Owings and Merrill and trying to broadly envision where practice is heading, hey this book is perfect for you. But I imagine many firms are not going to have that much use for re-examining the nature of the "client" or "project," a lot of this material would be better served by smaller (cheaper) specialized books.
   
   It's an ambitious goal to attempt a comprehensive overview of architectural practice but its editing doesn't rise to the occasion. In between interesting insights and clear explanations of practice topics you really can't find elsewhere, you find some seriously clunky essays and information that is comically useless.
   
   For example, consider this gem in an essay on architecture and the web: "Email is a personal, direct connection to the Internet. You can send messages, attach drawings, and communicate instantly across the globe with a few clicks of the mouse. Email is much like regular mail. You send mail to particular addresses, and they write to you at yours..." Okay, this for a book published in 2001. Not 1981, but 2001. Are they also going to explain what a telephone thingy is on my desk, or what I'm supposed to do with this fax machine here? It might have been useful to have a page about email's legal status, or how a firm should set policies about email, but what we've got here is a page long description for someone who's been living under a rock and has no idea what email actually IS. Although this is simply one minor example, it is the kind of thing that makes this book wildly uneven and screaming for a competent editor. For the price of this book I think we deserve more.



2. In addition to the all-new format (thankfully no more binders!), this book really does cover EVERYTHING an architect needs to know to run a business-- from working with clients to developing added-value services-- all in one book. I especially appreciate the new section devoted to understanding client motivation, thinking, processes, and values and the new section summarizing services I can offer to expand my client base. This is definitely the book that every architect needs to keep close at hand!

No comments about Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination.

No comments about Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities 2006.

No comments about Construction Specifications: Principles and Applications.

No comments about The Dimensions of Parking.

No comments about Expressive Form: A Conceptual Approach to Computational Design.

No comments about Multifamily Housing Development Handbook (Development Handbook series).

No comments about Marketing Green Building Services: Strategies for Success.