Publisher Description

Scorched Earth is the first book to chronicle the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment, where, even today, more than 3 million people—including 500,000 children—are sick and dying from birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses that can be directly traced to Agent Orange/dioxin exposure. Weaving first-person accounts with original research, Vietnam War scholar Fred A. Wilcox examines long-term consequences for future generations, laying bare the ongoing monumental tragedy in Vietnam, and calls for the United States government to finally admit its role in chemical warfare in Vietnam. Wilcox also warns readers that unless we stop poisoning our air, food, and water supplies, the cancer epidemic in the United States and other countries will only worsen, and he urgently demands the chemical manufacturers of Agent Orange to compensate the victims of their greed and to stop using the Earth’s rivers, lakes, and oceans as toxic waste dumps. Vietnam has chosen August 10—the day that the US began spraying Agent Orange on Vietnam—as Agent Orange Day, to commemorate all its citizens who were affected by the deadly chemical. Scorched Earth will be released upon the third anniversary of this day, in honor of all those whose families have suffered, and continue to suffer, from this tragedy.

This book is another high-calibre volume in IMAGES’ acclaimed Master Architect Series of monographs. The Architecture of Adrian Smith, SOM: Toward a Sustainable Future showcases a body of work that has made a significant contribution to contemporary world architecture. Adrian Smith has brought design solutions with enduring value to the entire planet. He’s designed buildings in China, England, Germany, Brazil, Kuwait, Canada, Korea, Guatemala, Bahrain, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and the United States. His expertise covers areas as broad as operations, marketing, finance, and professional services. He is truly one of the few architectural polymaths, a person who has a great diversity of skills and immense intellect. Smith is perhaps most recognized for designing exceptionally aesthetic and functional tall buildings. He understands scale, community, and context as few others do. He is passionate about (and celebrates) well- designed buildings of all shapes and sizes, and has earned accolades for designing the tallest building in the world. Some of Smith’s most renowned works include Banco De Occidente, United Gulf Bank, Rowes Wharf, 10 Ludgate, Jin Mao Tower, Burj Dubai, and Pearl River. When it comes to important buildings, Adrian Smith and SOM have provided us a beacon by which to steer. In these richly illustrated pages, Adrian Smith illuminates, showing us how to engage, energize, and inspire students, architects, and clients to do and to be their very best.

This comprehensive and insightful illustrated survey of 500 of America's most distinguished buildings provides a unique overview of the thousand-year architectural development of the United States. It examines our nation's architecture from its earliest days to the present, ranging from cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago to James Ingo Freed's Holocaust Museum in Washington. Indispensable in any library, it also serves as a general introduction to American architecture or as a splendid guide for tourists.

Known for her well-reasoned and passionately held beliefs about architecture, Ada Louise Huxtable has captivated readers across the country for decades, in the process becoming one of the best known critics in the United States. Her brilliance over so many years is unmatched, and her range has always been vast-from a plea to save a particular architectural treasure to an ongoing discussion about whether modern architecture is dead. Her keen eye and vivid writing have reinforced to readers how important architecture is and why it continues to be both controversial and fascinating. Since so much of her writing has been in newspapers, it has quickly become unavailable to her many fans. On Architecture will bring together her best work from the New York Times, New York Review of Books, her more recent essays in the Wall Street Journal, and her various books. She is personally selecting and organizing the pieces into sections like "Art and Culture" and "The Art of Architecture," and is revising them as needed to bring them up to date. Whether you love modern architecture or desire a return to Beaux Arts design, this book will give you insight into the mind and heart of a critic who has artfully brought the discussion of architecture, architects and our environment to readers for five decades.

This is a survey of the history of art and architecture of Western civilizations. The textbook extends from the age of the Renaissance until the end of the 20th Century. The textbook includes illustrations, graphs, and reconstruction images curated from Creative Commons material. The textbook includes original text not protected intellectual property.

Over the past century, luxury has been increasingly celebrated in the sense that it is no longer a privilege (or attitude) of the European elite or America’s leisure class. It has become more ubiquitous and now, practically everyone can experience luxury, even luxury in architecture. Focusing on various contexts within Western Europe, Latin America and the United States, this book traces the myths and application of luxury within architecture, interiors and designed landscapes. Spanning from antiquity to the modern era, it sets out six historical categories of luxury - Sybaritic, Lucullan, architectural excess, rustic, neoEuropean and modern - and relates these to the built and unbuilt environment, taking different cultural contexts and historical periods into consideration. It studies some of the ethical questions raised by the nature of luxury in architecture and discusses whether architectural luxury is an unqualified benefit or something which should only be present within strict limits. The author argues how the ideas of permissible and impermissible luxury have informed architecture and how these notions of ethical approval have changed from one context to another. Providing voluptuous settings for the nobles and the leisure class, luxury took the form of not only grand palaces, but also follies, country and suburban houses, private or public entertainment venues and ornate skyscrapers with fast lifts. The Architecture of Luxury proposes that in Western societies the growth of the leisure classes and their desire for various settings for pleasure resulted in a constantly increasing level of ’luxury’ sought within everyday architecture.

In this study of the international modern movement in architecture Alan Colquhoun explores the complex motivations behind its revolutionary new style and assesses its triumphs and failures.

Architecture and Capitalism tells a story of the relationship between the economy and architectural design. Eleven historians each discuss in brand new essays the time period they know best, looking at cultural and economic issues, which in light of current economic crises you will find have dealt with diverse but surprisingly familiar economic issues. Told through case studies, the narrative begins in the mid-nineteenth century and ends with 2011, with introductions by Editor Peggy Deamer to pull the main themes together so that you can see how other architects in different times and in different countries have dealt with similar economic conditions. By focussing on what previous architects experienced, you have the opportunity to avoid repeating the past. With new essays by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Ellen Dunham-Jones, Keller Easterling, Lauren Kogod, Robert Hewison, Joanna Merwood-Salisbury, Robin Schuldenfrei, Deborah Gans, Simon Sadler, Nathan Rich, and Micahel Sorkin.