Customer Reviews

California Bungalow

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As the owner of a 1920's California Bungalow, I am constantly seeking information about the correct styles and furnishings for this period. Obviously, many of these homes have been heavily modified by "do-it-yourselfers" of varying skills and often bear little resemblence to their former glory.

This book provides an excellent set of original floor plans, plus the most detailed set of interior architectural elevations detailing fireplaces, kitchen cabinets, and built-in furnishings I have seen in this style of book.

The architect responsible for the plans in this book was based in Los Angeles, so if you are local to that region the California bunaglow you are interested in restoring is likely to be represented within this volume.

If you are looking for a big picture book of Golden State houses from the period between the turn of the century and the depresssion, this is not it. While the book is profusely illustrated with drawings and photographs, both from the period and from the late seventies when it was written, the real heart of the book is in the very readable text. Prof. Winter does not completely treat the form the California Bungalow in isolation, but considers at east some of the ways in which it responded to the climate, economic and social as well as physical, thta prevailed when these houses (and other buildings, schools and churches come for in for particular mention) were built. One of the "fun" bits of the book are the advertising poems and songs Prof. Winter includes at the ends of many of the chapters.