Clark and Menefee

Rating:
Summary: Clark & Menefee
Review: A well designed and beautiful book of the competitions and completed built work of this well known firm. The text is readable and thoughtful, and superb and restrained graphics accompany numerous black and white photographs of many private houses closed to the public.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Architectural Apologia
Review: This is a small, exciting, book that packs in big ideas. To paraphrase Mr. Clark, building rises to the level of "architecture" when it atones for the loss nature suffers through human intervention by replacing nature with something that can be seen as beautiful and necessary...Anything short of this high standard is "only building." This book, then, explains and illustrates the architecture of Clark and Menefee through fifteen projects (a few unbuilt) which were undertaken before the firm dissolved in 1999.

The layout of the book is beautiful. Floor plans are included as well as architectural drawings. There is one quibble: all of the photos are black and white. This makes the book very much in vogue with what is perceived as "high art" - but the wonderful color photo on the jacket makes one hungry for more.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Architectural Apologia
Review: This is a small, exciting, book that packs in big ideas. To paraphrase Mr. Clark, building rises to the level of "architecture" when it atones for the loss nature suffers through human intervention by replacing nature with something that can be seen as beautiful and necessary...Anything short of this high standard is "only building." This book, then, explains and illustrates the architecture of Clark and Menefee through fifteen projects (a few unbuilt) which were undertaken before the firm dissolved in 1999.

The layout of the book is beautiful. Floor plans are included as well as architectural drawings. There is one quibble: all of the photos are black and white. This makes the book very much in vogue with what is perceived as "high art" - but the wonderful color photo on the jacket makes one hungry for more.