Rating: 
Summary: American Shelter: a definite "keeper"
Review: If your bookshelf only has room for one book on American architecture, this should be that book. Most of the books on architecture seem like a lot of style, but not much substance: many pages of pictures, often quite enticing, but leaving the reader with little knowledge of just what constitutes the various architecture styles so illustrated, or how styles relate to one another.Lester Walker spent hundreds of hours researching various American architectural styles, going to such sources as the 1900's editions of Ladies Home Journal, which published plans for "A Small House With Lots of Room in it" by a young upstart named Frank Lloyd Wright. Walker gives us the first-floor house plans, along with a birds-eye view of Wright's "Small House." In this illustration Walker uses captions and arrows to innumerate the salient features of "Wrightian" architecture. So it goes throughout American Shelter. Walker starts with the dwellings of American Indians and takes us through over 100 different styles that were popular at one time or another in our diverse history. A read through this book is a stroll through our history. The author not only points out the defining features of each style, but also tells why and how it came into vogue. Color photos are not the only "must have" features conspicuously absent. Missing is also judgmental, cavalier, snobbery. No architectural style is treated as inferior, common, or "tiresome." Quonset Hut, Converted Train Car, and Prefabricated are given just as much respect as Victorian, International, and Prairie. Examples of houses of various architects that typify or characterize each style are shown in line drawings with accompanying floor plans and often with illustrations on house building styles or techniques. For example, on page 71 a "method for making cedar clapboards" is illustrated. Balloon, Platform, and Post and Beam framing methods are explained with accompanying illustrations. The book is about individual dwelling units, not apartment houses, and not commercial or industrial buildings. For what it is, and does, it is the definitive work. I have had many hours of enjoyable reading and learning from this book. My only complaint is with the bookbinder, not the author. Some of the pages of my copy are upside down! Perhaps, like the famous upside-down airplane stamp, my copy is rare and valuable? Then again: perhaps not, but right side up, or upside down, it has been well worth the purchase price. One final piece of advise: buy the hardback copy, not the paperback. This book is a "keeper", one you will frequenly get down from the bookself to review, loan to friends (holding the friend's firstborn ransome for the book's return), and pass on in your will.
Rating:
Summary: A superb tribute to the American home
Review: Lester Walker's "American Shelter" is one of those great reference works which is not only informative, but also fascinating and beautiful. A true illustrated encyclopedia of the American home (as the subtitle says), this book covers a vast range of styles, historical periods, and geographic regions. Each short chapter--beginning with Native American earth lodges and ending with speculative space station housing--covers a specific type of home architecture in the United States. Walker's straightforward prose is accompanied by cutaway drawings, detailed floor plans, and superbly rendered drawings of home exteriors. It would be impossible in a short review to name all of the various styles covered by Walker. He covers everything from such well-known styles as the A-frame and Greek Revival to styles that may be less familiar to some: the baled hay and sod homes of 1890s Nebraska, the silo and yurt homes which gained popularity in the 1970s, and more. Another fascinating part of the book is the presence of many famous homes: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, and more. Along the way, the reader will encounter many wonderful surprises--check out, for example, the "Elephant House" designed by James Lafferty! "American Shelter" is a book that you can pick up and start reading anywhere. But if you read this from cover to cover, you will have taken a truly epic journey with a master artist-historian.
Rating:
Summary: A superb tribute to the American home
Review: Lester Walker's "American Shelter" is one of those great reference works which is not only informative, but also fascinating and beautiful. A true illustrated encyclopedia of the American home (as the subtitle says), this book covers a vast range of styles, historical periods, and geographic regions. Each short chapter--beginning with Native American earth lodges and ending with speculative space station housing--covers a specific type of home architecture in the United States. Walker's straightforward prose is accompanied by cutaway drawings, detailed floor plans, and superbly rendered drawings of home exteriors. It would be impossible in a short review to name all of the various styles covered by Walker. He covers everything from such well-known styles as the A-frame and Greek Revival to styles that may be less familiar to some: the baled hay and sod homes of 1890s Nebraska, the silo and yurt homes which gained popularity in the 1970s, and more. Another fascinating part of the book is the presence of many famous homes: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, and more. Along the way, the reader will encounter many wonderful surprises--check out, for example, the "Elephant House" designed by James Lafferty! "American Shelter" is a book that you can pick up and start reading anywhere. But if you read this from cover to cover, you will have taken a truly epic journey with a master artist-historian.
Rating:
Summary: Reference Combines Fun & Information
Review: Lester Walker's AMERICAN SHELTER is one of the monst entertaining and enlightening books in my personal library. Each page features drawings and details of American homes from simple Earth Lodges to complex post-modern homes or all sizes and shapes. Along the way, Mr. Walker gives insight into why particular styles came to be popular and how they have influenced architectural trends. I personally purchased the book to use as an art reference, but there are as many potential uses are there are readers. Even those with only a modicum of knowledge and a passing interest in architecture can't help but be drawn in. Thank you Mr. Walker for a terrific book!
Rating:
Summary: Quick & Easy reference
Review: Over 1,000 Blk & wht line drawings depict housing on land designated as the mainland U.S.A. Beginning with Native American lodging of 300 AD and progressing chronologically to early settlers and eventually even to mobile homes & campers, and lastly to a futuristic space station(!), this book shows variety. The 1970's section is especially fun for me where the author reviewed the Geodesic Dome, house boats, passive and active solar, modular, inflatable, and earth sheltered homes, plus more (including the more conventional). I appreciate the vertically exploded illustrations that start with a sample floor plan on the bottom, show framed construction in the middle, and finish with a view of the exterior on top. These views were always at an angle, so that the resulting 3-D view shows the roof, a side, and the front. A concise glossary is in the back. My complaint: Even though titled "American Shelters" please note that the author did not include those homes native to Hawaii or Alaska. I have a casual interest in architecture -- I am no professional, nor have taken any classes on the subject -- but I do own almost 200 books on architecture and consider this a GREAT Addition to my shelf! Another great book I like that concentrates on blk & wht photographs: A Field Guide to American Houses by Virgina & Lee McAlester. These two make good companions.
Rating:
Summary: Quick & Easy reference
Review: Over 1,000 Blk & wht line drawings depict housing on land designated as the mainland U.S.A. Beginning with Native American lodging of 300 AD and progressing chronologically to early settlers and eventually even to mobile homes & campers, and lastly to a futuristic space station(!), this book shows variety. The 1970's section is especially fun for me where the author reviewed the Geodesic Dome, house boats, passive and active solar, modular, inflatable, and earth sheltered homes, plus more (including the more conventional). I appreciate the vertically exploded illustrations that start with a sample floor plan on the bottom, show framed construction in the middle, and finish with a view of the exterior on top. These views were always at an angle, so that the resulting 3-D view shows the roof, a side, and the front. A concise glossary is in the back. My complaint: Even though titled "American Shelters" please note that the author did not include those homes native to Hawaii or Alaska. I have a casual interest in architecture -- I am no professional, nor have taken any classes on the subject -- but I do own almost 200 books on architecture and consider this a GREAT Addition to my shelf! Another great book I like that concentrates on blk & wht photographs: A Field Guide to American Houses by Virgina & Lee McAlester. These two make good companions.
Rating:
Summary: excellent, concise, clear written and verbal presentation
Review: This book prsents with unusual clarity an explanation of the many architectural styles people often refer to without actually knowing what they mean. A huge amount of information has been absorbed, condensed and presented in a very accessible manner. The actual depth of this book belies its apparent simplicity. This book succeeds at presenting a body of work which would be interesting to laymen as well as professionals and organizes it in a very fascinating timeline of development of styles and subsequent reactions. This book can really set your imagination going or help you focus your otherwise random thoughts about home design, styles and their real roots.
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