New York’s Beaux-Arts masterpiece
Elisabetta Gasparoni | 12 June 2006 The New York Public Library – majestic columns and arches, grand marble staircases, high, elaborately decorated ceilings – stands magnificent and inviting at the intersection of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Begun in 1899 and completed in 1911 it is a continuing monument to knowledge and research. The Beaux-Arts style employed by architects John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings...
Gardens of Canal Houses
‘Behind the Facades: Gardens of Canal Houses’ by Renate Dorrestein, Koen Kleijn and Harold Strak D’Arts/Architectura & Natura; 2005. 226pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 9 March 2006 This book comprises a long essay on the history of gardens in Amsterdam and photographs of those individual gardens over the seasons. Excellent and revealing though most of the images are, it is the historic overview that makes this book....
Mobilising Active Citizens
Dave Clements | 4 March 2006 At election time every politician faced with a drubbing claims to have no time for opinion polls. For the rest of us, the general view seems to be that consultation is all very well but there’s a lot of it about and nothing much seems to come of it. The more cynical talk about government by ‘tick box’ or ‘focus group’. And to be fair, there may be something in this. After...
Cities
‘Cities’ by John Reader; William Heinemann, 2004. 358pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 13 January 2006 I thoroughly enjoyed this book although at times I was quite confused by the author’s critique. Funnily enough, this, for me, made it an even more enjoyable exercise, absorbing the engaging facts and entertaining stories while trying to work out what the author really thought about it all. This is an intellectual...
Collapse
‘Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive’ by Jared Diamond; Allan Lane, 2005. 590pp Reviewed by Peter Smith | 9 November 2005 With Collapse, Jared Diamond has essentially written two books. Firstly, a series of four case studies examining ancient societies that subsequently collapsed; the East Islanders, the Anasazi in the south west US, the Maya in the Yucatan which forms part of Mexico today and the Norse in...
Taking a Risk
Austin Williams | 8 September 2005 On the very day that the Architects’ Journal was holding its conference on changes in Health and Safety legislation, focussing on how to manage risk, so the House of Lords was hosting a conference focussing on worries that risk culture had gone too far. So at the same time that I was getting a short shrift from Stephen Wright of the Health and Safety Executive for questioning what I called the...
Orhan Pamuk’s ‘Snow’
‘Snow’ by Orhan Pamuk; Faber and Faber, 2005. 440pp Reviewed by Michael Willoughby | 10 May 2005 In Greece, the loved ones of sick people hang votive offerings at the altars of saints in the belief that it will help the sick person’s recovery. These Tamata are rectangular pieces of metal with miniature body parts attached to them. Orthodox churches are festooned with the images of sick feet, kidneys, ears and eyes....
The Anxious City
‘The Anxious City: British Urbanism in the late 20th Century’ by Richard J Williams; Routledge, 2004. 281pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 28 April 2005 This is a very well researched, incredibly detailed and thoroughly insightful critique of the apprehensive period in which we live represented in a critique of a number of British cities. Through a series of case studies of cities across the UK, Richard J Williams, lecturer...
The vacuity of ‘critical pluralism’
‘Sustainable Architecture: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America’ by Simon Guy and Steven Moore (Eds); Spon Press, 2005. 269pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 3 March 2005 Yet another tome from the Newcastle home of new-sustainability with a hands-across-the-sea research link with American and north European Universities. Guy, together with Graham Farmer who also has an essay here, are both from Newcastle’s School...
The Story of Creative Engineering
‘Masterworks of Technology: The Story of Creative Engineering, Architecture and Design’ by EE Lewis; Prometheus Books, 2004. 328pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 20 September 2004 What a refreshing change, as they say. This is a book that oozes calm intelligence and an ease of imparting knowledge that at once informs and avoids patronising its audience. ‘Unlike scientists,’ he says, ‘who seek comprehension of the natural...
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