indonesia hOme iNTeriors

Search Amazon.com merchandizes using this form   - Books

Home & Interior Design books:
Country Houses of John F. Staub (Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities)

Today's info: "Best is reviewing several books first prior to purchasing at Amazon.com."

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server,
using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.

Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press

List Price: $75.00
Our Price: $47.25
You Save: $ 27.75 ( 37% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Customer Ratings:

In the early 1920s, architect John F. Staub, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, who had studied at MIT and worked in New York, came to the burgeoning city of Houston as an assistant to nationally prominent architect Harrie T. Lindeberg. Staub was charged with administering construction of three houses designed by Lindeberg for members of the city's rapidly emerging elite. He would go on to establish one of the most influential architectural practices in Houston, where he would remain until his death in 1981.

Over four decades, Staub designed grand houses in such communities as Shadyside, Broadacres, and, perhaps most notably, River Oaks. His clients included the Hoggs, for whom he created Bayou Bend; the Mastersons, his clients for Rienzi; and members of the Wiess, Cullen, Farish, Welder, Fay, and Elkins families. Although Staub also completed commissions for clients elsewhere in Texas and the United States, it was primarily in Houston that his work and influence took root.

This ambitious study of Staub's work by architectural historian Stephen Fox goes beyond a description of Staub's houses. Fox analyzes the roles of space, structure, and decoration in creating, defining, and maintaining social class structures and expectations and shows how Staub was able to incorporate these elements and understandings into the elegant buildings he designed for his clients. In the process, he contributes greatly to a fuller understanding of Houston's emergence as a premier American city.

Stunning color images by architectural photographer Richard Cheek, combined with Fox's well-grounded and expansive thesis, create a volume that will enchant, inform, and entertain. Students and aficionados of American domestic architecture of the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s will appreciate the wealth of material, and the volume's contribution to architectural history and the sociology of architecture will commend itself to readers across the nation.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 728.09764411
EAN: 9781585445950
ISBN: 1585445959
Label: Texas A&M University Press
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 408
Publication Date: 2007-11-30
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Studio: Texas A&M University Press


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Architecture of William Lawrence Bottomley
• American Country Houses of the Thirties: With Photographs and Floor Plans (Dover Books on Architecture)
• The New Classicists: Appleton & Associates, Inc. Architects
• Houses of Los Angeles, 1920-1935 (Urban Domestic Architecture)
• American Houses: The Architecture of Fairfax & Sammons


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

What happens when a modernist studies a classicist -
What happens? Architectural schizophrenia. Staub was the best neo-classicist practicing in Houston, and in Texas, in the first half of the 20th century. His houses are lovely studies in delicate classical detailing, repeated to reveal truly grand scale. His art reached its full potential because it was generously patronized by wealthy Houstonians. This book tells that story, with gorgeous photography and politically loaded language.

Now, enter the over-the-top deconstructionist archi-speak of the author, who can't decide if Staub was a real genius or just another imperial imitator. Quite annoying, really. This book should have been written by someone with an appropriate appreciation for scale, proportion, massing and form rather than another graduate from Lars Lerup's flake factory. P-L-A-S-T-I-C. Yeah, whatever.

Bottom line: This book is for browsing more than reading, so you're more likely to notice the startling work of the architect than the distracting analysis of the author. It's a shame so few people appreciate the art of building anymore. Staub did, and he was a consummate artist, more disciplined than McKim, Mead and White and more original than, say, Atlanta's Neel Reid.

Buy this book as a catalog and chronicle of the work of one of our country's most talented residential architects, and go to see the houses now before Houston has a chance to demolish them all.

Lovely to look at, but not to read -
My objections to 'Country Houses of John F. Staub' begin with the title. Why the Staub works included in the book are defined as "country houses" is quite unclear. The majority of these houses are in fairly dense urban/ suburban neighborhoods. While the architectural ancestry of many of the designs is that of English, American and even French country houses, Staub's works are very much in the mainstream of American suburban house design of the mid-twentieth century.
I lived for many years in a neighborhood rich with Staub houses, and I have always loved them for their understated and impeccable design. The earlier book on Staub by Howard Barnstone has become a collector's item and I am lucky enough to have a copy which I have read and re-read many times.
The current book, I am sorry to say, is virtually unreadable. Stephen Fox's text is laden with impenetrable sociological jargon with the thesis being, as far as I can tell, that the newly rich of Houston wished to reside in tastefully traditional houses. This 'insight' is belabored to the point of comedy. To read passages of this prose aloud will make you roll over laughing at the convoluted language used to explain the obvious.
Sadly, the overwhelming sociological point-making of the text completely dominates the book, rather than discussion of Staub's space-planning, detailing and architectural imagery.
Richard Cheek's photographs, however are positively stunning. For me, the ideal would have been a re-edition of Howard Barnstone's earlier book on Staub with the addition of Cheek's photography.

Preservation of historic Houston Architecture -
Many of us are subjected to the new mega mansions in our neighborhoods and in other areas of our city. It's not just the close in Arts & Crafts and cottages that were our once our modest childhood homes at stake anymore. Many historical structures by talented architects in Houston such as John Staub, Barnstone, etc are now be razed to build homes that more resemble bank buildings to satisfy the nouveau riche excess taste. Even in Texas, bigger is not always better. This book chronicles many of these homes that I once remembered in awe, but now gone forever. While globabl warming may be hoax, the loss of these beautiful homes is a reality that needs to be addressed. Great book for your library and memories.

A Master At Detail -
John Staub's attention to detail as illustrated in this wonderful book was second to none. The book's wonderful illustrations showcase many of the architect's beautifully designed homes in Texas. These homes would be very suitable for construction in most parts of the country and would fit right in. The floor plans show Staub's designs for the upper middle class as well as the truly wealthy class of people and reflect the quality of detail and craftsmanship prevalant in the late 1920's and into the 1930's. I assure you, this book is an asset to anyone's library who is interested in architecture.

Highly Recommend -
This book is a true tribute to Staub and the world he created for his clients--mostly Houstonians. It is a beautiful well illustrated book that gives you a historical paradigm for which to better understand and more appreciate the homes showcased within. Great for coffee table reading or for the serious student alike.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.

| Home Design | Interior Design |