Customer Reviews

An Architectural Guidebook To Philadelphia

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How many guidebooks can you read through like a novel? I have several times, and each time is better than the last. This book is informative and entertaining. It's amazing how many new things you can learn about a city you thought you knew. And how can you not love a book where even the index is fun to read?

Francis Morrone has written a breezy, insightful, and opinionated guide that's intellectually stimulating and generally well-grounded in its wide-ranging judgments, whether they involve cheesesteak sandwiches, architecture, or the comparative merits of William Penn and Ben Franklin. Morrone appreciates the city's strong architectural culture, but also isn't afraid to tweak the noses of a few local design icons, including those with the initials M/G, LK, and RV. (But alas, he dotes on the usually boring and bloodless Paul Cret.)

I just wish there were more of this book -- more illustrations and more buildings (such as the universally-overlooked Medical Building, one of the slimmest pre-war skyscrapers anywhere.) With significant structures such as Rafael Vinoly's Verizon Center, Robert Stern's Comcast Center, Cesar Pelli's Cira Centre, and Citizen's Bank Park having come on the scene since the book was published eleven years ago, it's time for an expanded second edition.

James Iska's uncommonly well-crafted photographs enhance the book, but deserve better treatment than the low-contrast reproduction afforded by the publisher.

All in all, a wonderful architectural guidebook to America's most underrated city.

I found this book to be a diappointment. I expected a book which would discuss the architecture of the buildings of Philadelphia. Instead the book is about the history of the city and its buildings with scant discussion of the architure. A Better title for this book would be , The Historical Significance of The Buildings of Philadelphia. For a guide book their were surprisingly few (black and white) photographs. I would suggest , Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide To The City; by The Foundation For Architecture .

I wanted a book that gave me lots of facts, not that gave the authors opinion on hippies and other irelevant things.