Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

In this brilliantly conceived study, Zinguer (Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union) examines the relationship among architecture, play, and toys using four case studies that span the 19th and 20th centuries: Froebel gifts, Anchor Stone blocks, Meccano and Erector Sets, and the Eames's Toy and House of Cards. Zinguer uncovers an astonishing trove of interconnectivities between and among designers, inventors, architects, pedagogists, philosophers, engineers, and theoreticians associated with these toys. The particular genius of this book is that Zinguer manages to convey the pleasure and excitement of her subject even as she draws on the highest intellectual voices of each of these four generations of toys. Discussion of Froebel is informed by Kant and discussion of the Lilienthals (makers of Anchor Stones) by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Gottfried Semper. John Dewey and Herbert Spencer lend support to the Meccano and Erector Set discussion, and Charles and Ray Eames are sustained by friends Buckminster Fuller, Conrad Wachsman, and Reyner Banham and predecessor Alexander Graham Bell. Zinguer concludes with an essay that draws on observations by Barthes, Benjamin, Freud, Baudelaire, Agamben, and Levi-Strauss--a poignant reminder of the importance of play in childhood.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals; general readers.

Deconstructing the High Line explores various aspects of the High Line, a linear park set atop an abandoned raised rail line along the West Side of Manhattan and--for much of its length--within view of the Hudson River. The project, which opened in 2009, quickly became one of the world's most celebrated public urban spaces. The book consists of an introduction, in which Lindner (Univ. of Oregon, Eugene) and Rosa (The Graduate Center, CUNY) provide a history of the High Line's development, and 12 essays divided into four sections. Part 1, "Envisioning the High Line," covers the funding and design of the park; part 2, "Gentrification and the Neoliberal City," looks at the park's clientele, which is primarily tourists rather than local residents; part 3, "Urban Political Ecologies," examines the activities supported by the High Line; and part 4, "The High Line Effect," compares the High Line with other parks, including less well-funded New York City parks and three parks in other parts of the world that, like the High Line, occupy abandoned transit facilities. The contributors' insights are unique and valuable, highlighting what can learned from a fundamentally new type of urban park. The essays can be appreciated individually or as a group. Taken together they do much to explain the widespread interest in the High Line.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Most studies of hotel design as it pertains to hospitality services emanate from the social sciences and appear in hospitality industry publications rather than books published by academic presses. For the most part these studies focus on increasing the allure of the "servicescape" and thereby its profits. Housekeeping by Design is very different in both content and literary quality: it deals with the ethics of design, and it is a good read. Brody (design studies, Parsons School of Design, New School) argues that building design that does not attend to those who maintain the building is morally questionable and functionally/economically inefficient. In the course of this discussion he also probes other moral issues, like "green" posturing that allows corporate savings only at the expense of an increased burden on the workers. Brody's admonishments are based on substantive archival research and on-the-ground investigation, including interviews with staff at all levels. The author highlights the discussion with anecdotes from his own experience--his encounters with both the unexpected (e.g., an exploding fireplace) and the pleasurable (scenic views of Kauai). This is a thorough consideration of the physical aspects of architecture, historical conditions in the hotel services, and the all-too-often overlooked needs of the hospitality industry's labor force.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; students in vocational programs; professionals.

Stevens (urban design, RMIT Univ., Melbourne) and Franck (School of Architecture and Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology) undertake a broad study of memorial designs and their impact on viewers. Focusing on modern memorials (especially in the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia), the authors start with a succinct overview of trends in design before getting to their core interest: how visitors knowingly or unknowingly interact with memorials in public venues. The authors concentrate on London's Diana Memorial Fountain and Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (or Holocaust Memorial), but they make numerous references to memorials in the US, for example, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, DC) and the 9/11 Memorial (NYC). The last section includes useful considerations of managing memorials (through an examination of historical examples) and choosing, funding, and maintaining sites. Accessible, well illustrated, and thoroughly researched, this exceptional study is required reading for those interested in memory studies, art, art history, urban design, and cultural studies.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Anyone interested in English landscape design will love this book on the life and work of landscape architect Lancelot ("Capability") Brown (1716-83). Shields (professional garden photographer, writer, and historic landscape consultant) describes the book as "celebratory," and it is indeed that. Lavishly illustrated with Shields's own photographs (which often resemble woodblock prints by 19th-century Japanese artist Hiroshige), the book follows Brown's career throughout England, beginning in his birthplace in Northumberland and continuing to his work as an engineer and architect--as a sculptor of land and creator of waterways; a planter of trees, shrubbery, and ha-has; and a designer of fountains and inventor of pumps. Brown was known for creating breathtaking views. Stunning photographs of his work at some of the most famous gardens--Stowe House, Hampton Court, Petworth Park, Sherborne Castle, Wotton House, Warwick Castle, Langley Park Gardens, and Burghley House, to name a few--are accompanied by sketches, paintings, site plans, diagrams, engravings, planting layouts, and letters from illustrious patrons. Beautifully organized and including an excellent bibliography, this book will be invaluable to scholars and connoisseurs of landscape design and 18th-century studies in general, and it will delight Anglophiles.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.