Customer Reviews

The Louisville Guide

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

 

 

Here's a surprise for all you architectural historians out there! Louisville, Kentucky is LOADED with exceptional buildings, and this book does an excellent job of presenting them to you.

This nice, thick, heavy, well-bound and printed pocket guide is a treat. Written in AIA format, though not an AIA publication, this chunky little book brings the diverse architecture of Kentucky's old Ohio river metropolis alive. The catalog is excellent, with about 200 well-chosen entries divided between historic landmarks and important modern sites. Newcomers to Louisville architecture are likely to be shocked by what they find, because Louisville looks like something closer to Cincinnati than, say, Lexington, or Nashville or Memphis.

Each entry comes with a well-written essay which is both historical and interpretive (i.e. critical). A small monochrome photograph is also included with each site, and many of these photographs are interesting and revealing. They're well-chosen, despite being small and exclusively black & white.

A quick note about the coverage of the catalog itself (which explains my 4-star rating): The book doesn't do a thorough job with Old Louisville, and this will disappoint some readers. While it IS included, there are only a few exceptional sites mentioned. Of the 1,100 contributing buildings in this National Historic District, only about TEN are included here. Too bad. A nice feature that ALMOST makes up for this serious omission is the excursion into suburban Louisville, into places where some of the most beautiful early Kentucky plantations still stand. Louisville may look like a miniature Cincinnati, but it's set in the rolling, green, agricultural South. The area surrounding Louisville looks like rural Virginia, and there are some magnificent Federal houses that support the effect.

The book is beautifully bound and printed by Princeton University. Highly recommended for architectural historians, local historians, tourists and travelers.