Dream Homes New England: Showcasing New England's Finest Architects, Designers and Builders

Loaded with hundreds of photographs of high-end custom homes, these gorgeous books are a treat for lovers of residential architecture and a resource for people planning to build their own one-of-a-kind houses. Profiles of top architects and information on local builders and suppliers provide an overview of regional styles and preferences in each locality.

 

Representing all facets of northeastern architecture and home design, highly regarded architects present their captivating ocean-side residences of Nantucket, rustic woodland homes in upstate New York, and Boston’s aesthetic modern dwellings. Talented local architects Patrick Ahearn and Kevin Schopfer explain their ?hybrid” approach, while Jim Kellerher of Axiom Architects shares his philosophies on the significance of conservatively sized spaces and the effects of hurricane rebuilds.

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Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of New England (Bob Vila's Guides to Historic Homes of America)

The 2008 global recession and the nearly universal awareness of significant climate change have begun to alter architectural thinking. Even though architects will continue to dream up seemingly function-free building forms for the most conspicuous consumers, mainstream architects are being asked to provide energy efficient, cost-driven forms that also delight the eye. The movement to preserve and reuse existing structures has gained momentum, and the incidence of new and old architectural juxtapositions has increased. Forward-thinking planners are advocating m ore concentrated urban density, in part to decrease inefficient use of energy for transportation. As this thinking becomes public policy, architects will be challenged to adapt historically significant buildings for new uses, often by creating additions to existing forms. Although not entirely new, architectural dilemmas concerning how new meets old will occur revealing issues that most architects w ho design new buildings have not often thought about. Historic preservationists and sustainability advocates seem to concentrate solely on single issues leading to aesthetically clumsy architecture while agency review panels and the public approval process continue to erode the integrity of building designs making the creation of truly excellent designs difficult. Reclaimed Buildings: New Meets Old explores these topics in depth, with a focus on architectural design. The book addresses the question of aesthetic sustainability given the new influences and design tools that have emerged during the first decade of the 21st century. It is written for practitioners as well as students of architecture, and includes examples and case studies of built works that have successfully wrestled with the question of how new meets old in architecture.

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Old Homes of New England: Historic Houses In Clapboard, Shingle, and Stone

Old Homes of New England paints a stunning portrait of the charming and important old homes of the region, featuring storybook cottages in white clapboard as well ancient mansions in brick and stone. Cherished for its intimate, community-centered spirit, New England lays claim to some of the most wonderful architecture of the country—and, significantly, its buildings are among the nation’s very oldest. Featured here are twenty-five of the most beautiful examples, ranging from the storied House of the Seven Gables of 1668, in its magnificent colonial splendor, to the Corwin House of 1675, nicknamed the "Witch House" for its direct association to the infamous Salem witch trials, to the bucolic Cogswell farmhouse of 1728. Each house exemplifies its style, which range from early colonial Pilgrim, Puritan, and Shaker, to later Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival. With richly crafted interiors formed from old woods, fine plasterwork, thoughtfully set beams, brick, and stonework, the houses return us to a more gracious time when the simple pleasures of staying at home were paramount, a time to which many of us, even now, long to return.

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Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England

"Big house, little house, back house, barn"--this rhythmic cadence was sung by nineteenth-century children as they played. It also portrays the four essential components of the farms where many of them lived. The stately and beautiful connected farm buildings made by nineteenth-century New Englanders stand today as a living expression of a rural culture, offering insights into the people who made them and their agricultural way of life.

A visual delight as well as an engaging tribute to our nineteenth-century forebears, this book has become one of the standard works on regional farmsteads in America.

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