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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Book on a Great Talent, September 5, 2003
This review is from: American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer (Hardcover)
This is a superior book, and for three reasons.
First, the obvious: Well researched, beautifully presented, excellent high quality images, lots-o-plans, and an engaging text.
Many readers may not consciously notice the second reason, but it makes all the difference in the world. Most architectural monographs (and many books in general) scatter images throughout a book, and it is difficult if not impossible to develop a clear understanding about individual projects. Various rooms will be many pages (and many projects) apart, and with plans grouped together (or not even included). Also, captions will be brief to the extreme, forcing one on a hunt through the text to access more information. Is there anything more irritating? Not so with American Splendor. Author Michael Kathrens and his graphic designer (and editor?) should be applauded for the clarity offered the reader - like an unexpected gift. Each house is presented on concurrent pages, with beautiful (often full page) images, and concluding (mostly) with clear plans. Ahh! Plans! While the captions are short, the relevant text is always nearby. No hunting!
The third reason is another highly useful (even thoughtful) gift to readers, yet also rarely offered. When one concludes reading about each Trumbauer creation, its current status is articulated! One is never left hanging with those two terrible, dreaded, lingering questions: Was this beautiful creation destroyed? (If yes, one wants to weep.) Or is it well loved and maintained? (If yes, a grin spontaneously ensues.) I cannot count the books that don't answer these important questions, or, again, sadistically force the reader to search and search for an answer.
So, American Splendor should be applauded for the usual reasons. But it should also be applauded for reasons that too few authors (and designers and editors) pay attention to.
Michael, thank you for these many gifts.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Splendid Book on an Under-Appreciated Architectural Genius, December 9, 2002
This review is from: American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer (Hardcover)
Mr. Kathrens could not have done a more superb job with this book. His years of research - indeed his passion for his subject matter - are reflected on each and every page. The quality of this book by Acanthus Press is in-and-of itself exceptional. The research is exhaustive and the text is amazingly thorough. The duotone photographs are rare and special. And the floor plans are well drawn, clear, and wonderfully to-scale (even on houses long non-extant). Horace Trumbauer was, without a doubt, one of the most talented Classical Revival Architects this country has ever seen. He was also one of the least "educated" and is certainly one of the most under-appreciated. This book will not fail to amaze anyone interested in grand domestic architecture or the decorative arts.
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gilded Age Glory, March 15, 2003
This review is from: American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer (Hardcover)
I remember, as a young boy at the library, being enthralled by the gilded age starting with the book, A Night to Remember, about the White Star Liner Titanic which seemed to mark the beginning of an end to a very grand lifestyle. Reading that book gave me a first glimpse at an era of gracious living on a grand scale. The Gilded Age started some twenty years early when the suddenly rich found the need to compete amongst themselves and hired the likes of Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Mead & White, and, of course Horace Trumbauer to fight their wars of social one-upmanship. There were other books in the Library that covered the Gilded Age but these were books of general knowledge and included only a smattering of photos. As an adult, some of my dreams have materialized in the publications of books dealing with the works of these famous architects; well famous in my mind at least. Of the ones in my collection, this one is without a doubt the best. Perhaps this is so because the architect himself was the best. The book describes, in wonderful detail, the creation of the houses and grounds, the lifestyles of those who occupied the houses, and the current state of those houses. It also provides many interior photos, many not previously published (I thought I'd seen them all). What I find most thoughtful is the inclusion of floor plans of nearly each and every home. It is wonderful and yet sad to have some of these images so close at hand. Wonderfully huge homes built, literally, to compete with other homes for the sole purpose of out-classing other owners of the same station in life - the world's richest people. Sad because we will never see such works of beauty, like Horace Trumbauer's, created even on a smaller scale, because the architects of today simply have lost the art creating such grand structures. It's not their fault really; Times have changed so much - even the wealthy now eat dinner on their coffee tables in the family room, in front of the TV. But with books like this available, the Gilded Age will continue to live on, if only in our imaginations.
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