BOOK OF HOMES 14
Donald Canty [Editor]
Donald Canty [Editor]: BOOK OF HOMES. San Francisco: Home Publications, 1958. First edition [Book Fourteen, 1958]. Original edition. Folio. Thick photo illustrated wrappers. Saddle stitched binding. 96 pp. Illustrated case studies and period advertisements. Wrappers lightly worn and rubbed, middle page loosened from staples and laid in, otherwise a very good or better copy.
9.75 x 12.75 saddle-stitched edition with 96 pages devoted to “picture tours of over 30 prfessionally designed Western homes, gardens and interiors.“ Features “information on Architecture, Interior Design, Landscaping, Remodeling and the types and uses of Basic Materials . . . . Hundreds of pictures and floor plans of homes designed by outstanding Western Architects, presenting practical design features and valuable ideas for your own building or remodeling plans.”
Wonderful pitch-perfect period page design and typography separates the BOOK OF HOMES series from their competitors. All photography is nicely reproduced and cropped in a very ideosyncratic fashion. Photography by Wynn Bullock, Julius Shulman, Ernest Braun, Dale Healy, Marvin Rand, Dean Stone, Hugo Steccati, Roger Sturtevant, Douglas Simmonds, Rondal Partridge, and others.
- Selecting your Architect
- Foreword
- Architectural Designers: Mario Corbett, William Muchow, Raymond I. Kappe, John Lord King, Marquis & Stoller, Charles Moore, Richard J. Neutra, Francis Joseph McCarthy, Lutah Maria Riggs, Carl Maston, Sim Bruce Richards, Albert Sigal, A. Quincy Jones & Frederick E. Emmons, Robert Billsbrough Price, Roger Lee, James M. Hunter, and J. Martin Rosse.
- Landscape Architects: Osmundson & Staley; Royston, Hanamoto & Mayes; C. Mason Whitney, Robert Cornwall; Robert Deering; Thomas Church; Eckbo, Royston & Williams; Douglas Baylis, etc.
- Interior Designers: Adele Faulkner, Delcena Bair, Meredith Leedy, and Colavita, Bertholf & Associates.
- Highlights: A special section on the details that make up good design
- Construction Outlines: Products and materials in this issue’s houses
- Advertiser’ index
Each featured residence includes a Construction Outline with pertinent specifications, such as square footage, construction type, exterior and interior walls , floors, roof, doors, windows, masonry, plumbing, counter tops, electrical, hardware, kitchen equipment, heating and insulation. Owners of homes from this era should find this information of great value.
California provides a showcase for some of the most adventurous domestic architecture in the world --ingenious in its use of space, harmonizing indoors and out, with a planned interplay between the living space and its natural surroundings. The extraordinarily varied landscape -- mountains, foothills, a long coast-line, desert lands, rich and fertile valleys, has long attracted people of individuality who welcome a striking setting to their lives, Californian architects have risen to this challenge, which results in very varied and interesting treatment of sites.
New ideas have involved the use of new materials and methods of construction; prefabricated sections in steel and wood of the utmost precision have been developed. The extremes of weather and climate, from the lushest vegetation to arid wastes, have had to be considered. Yet, despite the effect of spaciousness which is a feature of these houses, costs are often no higher than those of conventional buildings.