Customer Reviews

Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century: Plans, Sections, Elevations

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

 

 

This is a very good reference that will appeal to practicing architects as well as students of architecture. The CD that comes with the book contains plans, elevations and sections of these key buildings and this is perhaps one of the main reasons for purchasing it. This 'strength' is also perhaps also one of the books major weeknesses as all drawings are in dxf and postscript formats, which means they are displayed in a single colour inside your CAD program and/or Photoshop. Given the size and complexity of some of the buildings in this book, having all lines as a single colour is at times very confusing for the eye. The dxf files do not contain any text, so it's a matter of looking at the drawings in both the book and on the screen at the same time; though the text in the book is also a bit on the 'light' side; and genreally you're often left to your own devices in determining the function of many rooms. All drawings are reasonably well executed but have an unfinished feel that I found quite annoying. That said, Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century is a valuable reference source for anyone wishing to study these key buildings. I don't think too many purchasers will be dissapointed with what they find inside its covers.

This book delivers as its title promises, Plans, Sections, and Elevations. However, there are few (only one per building) pictures of the spaces in each building.

I am a current architecture student in college and found this book to be a wondrful resource. So often, as students, we are urged to look at precedents to learn how other architects have solved problems, or designed for a certain climate, or what materials they used for different projects. This book provides a good insight to many famous projects by many different architects and is a good read. It also comes with scaled drawings of each project on a CD-ROM which is also a nice bonus.

A very helpful book for a student or anyone who has anything to do with architecture. The title really says it all. If you're looking for scaled drawings, you've got one book with most of the major buildings of the 20th century. Personally, I would have added quite a few more structures but, I suppose, there is only this much you can contain in one volume without making it the size of Encyclopaedia Britannica. I'm hoping the publisher will come up with additional volume(s). One downside, not all drawings are included, i.e. there are at most 2 elevations per building.

i was very excited about this book but was dissapointed to find not all the drawings in the book are included in the cd-rom. you shouldn't trust the eps files, but make your own from the dxf's. some eps files are incomplete, at least when opened from photoshop.

sometimes a layer seems to be missing- there are no walls in the section for the guggenheim new york. some buildings will have more drawings than others, which is fine, but it's confusing to see drawings in the book and then not find them in the cd-rom.

however, it's still a great and much needed resource. i just wish the cd had been more carefully reviewed.

This is an excellent book which covers many different famous buildings of the 20th Century. The photographs are great. The basic floor plans are included as well as some indoor photographs. There is a brief description about each structure and the architect. Facinating for the general public.

Amazing and complete floorplans! Gives a student a great basis to present powerful drawings and plans for presentations. But also shows the architects visions of some very well known buildings that you have yet to visit.

Not pretty enough for a coffee table book and definitely not informative enough as a resource for an architecture student.

This book is valuable for anyone in Architecture education at any level. The accompanying CD provides .DXF files that can be used by a variety of CAD/3D software programs.