Architectural Graphic Standards

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: As a Construction Superintendent I previously used the sixth edition and was looking forward to the new 10th Edition. What a disapointment. Much of the useful text has been replaced with useless dimensions for every type of furniture imaginable. Many chapters have been stripped down to brief over views, and turned into "that's what this is called" details.

If that's the type of book your looking for there are many other less expensive options out there.

If you need serious details, try some of the previous editions since the means and methods of construction don't change significantly. You may find some of the newer materials aren't included in previous editions, however, what good is it to you if the 10th Edition only shows you a cross section of the material.

Rating:
Summary: Be careful, this is the 1932 edition!
Review: I bought this book thinking that it was the recent version, but it's a reissue of the 1932 edition! The publishing date is 1998 and the title makes no mention of the antiquated material. This book is an interesting historical work but is useless as a contemporary reference. Make sure you get the "10th Edition" published in 2000 if you want the recent one. I'm trying to return my 1932 antique now.

Rating:
Summary: An Architect's Best Friend
Review: I find this book is so powerful, because I can find any things for a architect want to know from this book. I call this book is the encyclopedia for me. I really want to buy this book, but unfortunately, I am a Australian architect, and we are using metric unit (metre), and it is quite trouble to understand the inch dimension for us. So editor, Could you please publish a "Architectural Graphic Standards in Metric" in the following edition, please.

Rating:
Summary: the encyclopedia for architects
Review: I find this book is so powerful, because I can find any things for a architect want to know from this book. I call this book is the encyclopedia for me. I really want to buy this book, but unfortunately, I am a Australian architect, and we are using metric unit (metre), and it is quite trouble to understand the inch dimension for us. So editor, Could you please publish a "Architectural Graphic Standards in Metric" in the following edition, please.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Hay, but Very Few Needles
Review: Once again the editors of Graphic Standards have promised a useful reference for architects, and have fallen way short. In architecture school (1972), I purchased the sixth edition and found it better than most reference books for students of architecture. However, even then I noticed many sections of questionable value. Pages and pages of dimensions of designer furniture and kitchenware fall into this category.

Recently, after practicing architecture for 20 years, I was suckered back by publisher Wiley's siren song of how the new tenth edition is new, informative, refreshing, up to date, etc. Fooled again. Sure, the Graphic Standards is a fair source of information, but I question the editors' judgement as to what is worth publishing between the wonderfully bound front and rear cover. For example, look up "R-value" in the index and you are directed to 55 words on page 486 how R-value relates to windows and that it's the inverse of U-values. Nothing on the R-value of all exterior skin construction materials or how the R-value relates poorly to thermal massing materials. These things should be very important to architects and are disappointingly absent from the Graphic Standards. However, if you ever need to know what a Zamboni looks like, or need to know the dimensions required for a rodeo barrel race, this is your book! Want an entire page showing ten pieces of gymnastics equipment (pg. 777) or how to draw an ellipse using pen or pencil (pg.999)? Seek no more. Twenty four pages of kitchen utensils and garden tools are still there. This is the best place to find loads of pages of barely useful information of dubious worth.

Once the editors of Graphic Standards discover that a meaningful discussion on R-values in building materials deserves more space than the dimensions of a belt sander, then I might reconsider purchasing a later edition, but I won't hold my breath. Oh, one more thing, for you architects out there working on a Macintosh platform, the accompanying CD-ROM is useless.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Hay, but Very Few Needles
Review: Once again the editors of Graphic Standards have promised a useful reference for architects, and have fallen way short. In architecture school (1972), I purchased the sixth edition and found it better than most reference books for students of architecture. However, even then I noticed many sections of questionable value. Pages and pages of dimensions of designer furniture and kitchenware fall into this category.

Recently, after practicing architecture for 20 years, I was suckered back by publisher Wiley's siren song of how the new tenth edition is new, informative, refreshing, up to date, etc. Fooled again. Sure, the Graphic Standards is a fair source of information, but I question the editors' judgement as to what is worth publishing between the wonderfully bound front and rear cover. For example, look up "R-value" in the index and you are directed to 55 words on page 486 how R-value relates to windows and that it's the inverse of U-values. Nothing on the R-value of all exterior skin construction materials or how the R-value relates poorly to thermal massing materials. These things should be very important to architects and are disappointingly absent from the Graphic Standards. However, if you ever need to know what a Zamboni looks like, or need to know the dimensions required for a rodeo barrel race, this is your book! Want an entire page showing ten pieces of gymnastics equipment (pg. 777) or how to draw an ellipse using pen or pencil (pg.999)? Seek no more. Twenty four pages of kitchen utensils and garden tools are still there. This is the best place to find loads of pages of barely useful information of dubious worth.

Once the editors of Graphic Standards discover that a meaningful discussion on R-values in building materials deserves more space than the dimensions of a belt sander, then I might reconsider purchasing a later edition, but I won't hold my breath. Oh, one more thing, for you architects out there working on a Macintosh platform, the accompanying CD-ROM is useless.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed from Texas
Review: The early editions of this book are must-haves for architects. Much of the information, especially residential details, is relevant today. As a literal graphic standard, this work presents visual information that was the genesis of modern professional working drawings. The clarity and richness of information as presented here can stand up in as well as inform today's CADD environment. One note: With a little effort, you can find an original(2nd or 3rd)edition in good condition for less than the cost of this reprint.The first three editions contain nearly identical information.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent all around quick reference
Review: This affordable Architectural Graphic Standards reference has a great index and offered all of the details that I sought over a couple of months as a junior in a five year professional architecture program. It is compact, as complete as one would need for a quick reference, and it seems to have all of the normal standards required in school and at work, too.