BOOK of HOMES Book 12
California, Mountain States, Pacific Northwest
T. W. Anderson [Editor]
T. W. Anderson [Editor]: BOOK of HOMES [California, Mountain States, Pacific Northwest]. San Francisco: Home Publications, 1956. First edition [Book Twelve, Spring - Summer 1956]. Original edition. Folio. Thick photo illustrated wrappers. Wire spiral binding. 94 pp. Illustrtaed case studies and period advertisements. Faint chipping to crown of spine, otherwise a fine, fresh copy.
9.75 x 12.75 spiral-bound edition with 94 pages devoted to “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 Julius Shulman, Art Hupy, D. W. Evans, Phil Palmer, and others.
Architectural Designers: Derrall Ballard, Mario Cimapi, Mario Corbett, Ira E. Cummings, John Funk, Kenneth Gordon, Robert F. Gordon, Greta Magnusson Grossman, Henry Hill, Jack herman, Robert Inge Hoyt, A. Quincy Jones, Howard R. Lane, Paul Laszlo, Francis Lockwood, Robert B. Marquis, Germano Milono, Richard J. Neutra, John Payne, Burton Alexander Schutt, Morgan Shaw, Thomas Albert Smith, Raphael Soriano, Carter Sparks, Sumner, Spaulding and John Rex, Robert Hyle Thomas, B. David Thorne, Bolton White, Richard Woods, and Harold B. Zook
Interior Designers: Lucile Stockwell Chatain, Helen Conway, Jeanette Kapstein, Virginia Lewis, Blanche Morgan, Arthur Morgan, Maurice sands, Walter Sawicki, and John Siler
Landscape Architects: Angelo Balzarini, Douglas Baylis, Thomas D. Church, Arthur Cobbledick, Robert Cornwell, Kemp DeWitt, Eckbo, Royston and Williams, Leon Frehner, Herman E. Heim, Warren Jones, Mrs. Paul Laszlo, Helen Newbauer, Robert A. Moore, Osmundson and Staley, and Peter Reidel.
Features the Dave Brubeck Residence in Oakland designed by B. David Thorne: “Dave Brubeck, a well-known figure in the world of jazz music, conducts jam sessions far into the night—not a restful atmosphere for five young children. The architect’s chief problem was to build a house which would accommodate both the jam sessions and the needs of the Brubeck children.”
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.