BOOK of HOMES 15
Donald Canty [Editor]
Donald Canty [Editor]: BOOK of HOMES. San Francisco: Home Publications, 1959. First edition [Book Fifteen, 1959]. Original edition. Folio. Thick photo illustrated wrappers. Saddle stitched binding. 96 pp. Illustrated case studies and period advertisements. Wrappers lightly worn, otherwise a fine, fresh copy.
9.75 x 12.75 saddle-stitched edition with 96 pages devoted to “picture tours of over 30 prfessionally designed WEstern houses, 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 competitors. All photography is nicely reproduced and cropped in a very ideosyncratic fashion. Photography by Julius Shulman, Marvin Rand, George Knight, Ernest Braun, Morley Baer, Margaret Stovall, and others.
- A is for Architect
- Tree Care: Part of Home Planning
- Foreword
- Architectural Designers: Robert H. Skinner, R. G. Watanabe, George Quesada, Edward H. Killingsworth, Marquis & Stoller, Lewis Crutcher, Henrik Bull, Campbell & Wong, Richard R. Leitch, Rex Lotery, Lloyd Ruocco, E. Stewart Williams, A. O. Bumgardner, Gould, Leaf & Gillis, and John Carl Warneke.
- Interior Designers: Jeanette Kapstein, Douglas Bennett, and Winifred Shaffer.
- Landscape Architects: Eckbo, Dean and Williams, Bettler Baldwin, Royston, Hanamoto and Mays, Courtland Paul, Ari Inouye, Thomas Church, Chuck Ito, Lawrence Halprin, and Robert Babcock.
- 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.