ORDER ONLINE OR CALL BALCONY PRESS DIRECT @ 626.460.8339

sacred-spaces

Sacred Spaces

$59.95

Setting out to record Los Angeles’ unheralded religious history, photographer Robert Berger visited over 300 historic houses of worship over the course of three and a half years. Lively text by noted architectural historian Alfred Willis makes the buildings come alive.

Robert Berger

Robert Berger has been photographing architecture and interior design for the past 18 years. Assignments for clients ranging from furniture and lighting manufacturers to residential, hospitality, and casino designers have taken him around the world. His images have been published in various books and periodicals and have been exhibited around the country. His previous book, “The Last Remaining Seats: Movie Palaces of Tinseltown,” done in conjunction with his former business partner Anne Conser, is now in its fourth printing. Limited edition prints of the images in Sacred Spaces are available from Berger/Conser Photography in Santa Monica.

Description

Setting out in to record Los Angeles’ unheralded religious history, photographer Robert Berger had no idea he would visit over 300 historic houses of worship over the course of nearly four years. Wandering through neighborhoods that seemed as foreign as distant lands, looking for steeples, crosses and domes vaulting towards the sky, he began to appreciate the vast metropolis, its wide range of ethnicities, and its constantly changing landscape. Mostly unknown to anyone but their congregations, many of these historic buildings are threatened by neglect. In some cases he found well preserved gilded reredos an Della Robbia statues while in others animal carcasses and pigeon droppings. The wide variety of sacred buildings include works by such well-known architects as Rudolph Schindler and Wallace Neff, modest neighborhood parishes by unknown designers, and opulent fantasias created by movie-studio art directors.

Lively text by noted architectural historian Alfred Willis reawakens the colorful history of these buildings with tales of celebrity weddings and the mysterious disappearance of evangelist Aimée Semple McPherson. The oldest synagogue west of Chicago was later converted to a Welsh Presbyterian church whose choir performed in �?How Green Was My Valley’.

SACRED SPACES is a journey into a little-known but glorious set of buildings that will enlarge the reader’s appreciation for how much beautiful architecture remains hidden, and in some cases endangered, in America’s second largest city.

poly-100-polytechnic-school-centennial

Poly 100 Polytechnic School Centennial

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Poly 100 Polytechnic School Centennial”

Your email address will not be published.

1 2 3 4 5

paris-women-bicycles

Paris: Women & Bicycles

$45.00

For nearly three years, Gil Garcetti, has been photographing women riding bicycles in Paris. Women of all ages, smartly dressed, use bicycles to get to work, to visit friends, to go shopping, go to the movies or the opera, and even to funerals. The weather is never an impediment–these women ride in the snow, the rain and the heat. With evocative urban imagery and lush color, this book will inspire readers to leave their cars for their bikes wherever they may need to go—with Parisian flair.

Gil Garcetti

Gil’s lifelong love for photography began with his first camera, a gift on his thirteenth birthday from his father, who was a barber in South Los Angeles. Through his photographs, Gil discovered he could share his unique vision of the world, finding beauty in the overlooked, as well as the grand. In addition to his photography, Gil became chairman of the California Science Center Foundation in 2019. He is a producer of the hit CBS series, ALL RISE, having been a producer of the TV series THE CLOSER and MAJOR CRIMES. Gil is a frequent speaker on subjects he photographs and on social change; he is a leader in the effort to eliminate the death penalty in California. He was a teaching Fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School and President of the LA City Ethics Commission.

Description

For nearly three years, Gil Garcetti, has been photographing women riding bicycles in Paris. Women of all ages, smartly dressed, use bicycles to get to work, to visit friends, to go shopping, go to the movies or the opera, and even to funerals. The weather is never an impediment–these women ride in the snow, the rain and the heat. With evocative urban imagery and lush color, this book will inspire readers to leave their cars for their bikes wherever they may need to go—with Parisian flair. This book is one component of a community bicycling initiative in Southern California.

performative-skyscraper-tall-building

Performative Skyscraper: Tall Building Design Now

$45.00

“PERFORMATIVE SKYSCRAPER: TALL BUILDING DESIGN NOW examines current trends in high-rise design and the technologies that are shaping the new forms. Scott Johnson, a well-known architect of tall buildings, describes how the combination of highly sophisticated modeling software and demands for ever increasing environmental sustainability have led to an overwhelming emphasis on high-performance. Johnson takes the reader through examples of high-performance window-walls, state-of-the-art parametric modeling for super-tall structures, and the current state of vertical mixed-use towers.”

Categories: ,

Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson is the Design Partner at Johnson Fain, an international architecture, planning and interior design firm based in Los Angeles. A prolific designer of residential, institutional and commercial buildings, a number of his best-known designs are widely published and have become landmarks. Current work includes the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City; a renovation of Philip Johnson’s Chrystal Cathedral in Garden Grove; The Great Wall Winery Hotel and Visitor Center in China, as well as multiple residential towers and mixed-use projects throughout Los Angeles.

Description

“PERFORMATIVE SKYSCRAPER: TALL BUILDING DESIGN NOW examines current trends in high-rise design and the technologies that are shaping the new forms. Scott Johnson, a well-known architect of tall buildings, describes how the combination of highly sophisticated modeling software and demands for ever increasing environmental sustainability have led to an overwhelming emphasis on high-performance. Johnson takes the reader through examples of high-performance window-walls, state-of-the-art parametric modeling for super-tall structures, and the current state of vertical mixed-use towers.”

Technologies and practices that allow the construction of seemingly limitless forms are turning our cities into futuristic landscapes. But the forms are far from an architect’s whim. PERFORMATIVE SKYSCRAPER examines the creation of these new forms and explains how buildings can now respond intelligently to climate, optimize the use of structural materials and more sensitively reflect their cultural sources. Scott Johnson, a prolific architect well-known for tall buildings, describes how the combination of highly sophisticated software and demands for ever increasing environmental sustainability have led to an overwhelming emphasis on high-performance. Appealing to our cultural attraction to science and enabled by our ability to measure all things, designers, clients and their teams come together as never before to create performative skyscrapers. Johnson takes the reader through examples of high-performance window walls, state-of-the-art parametric modeling for super-tall structures, and the current state of vertical mixed-use towers. The final chapter looks at conditions in seven diverse world capitals to explore the urban context as a factor in how well these marvels of architecture and engineering perform. PERFORMATIVE SKYSCRAPER captures the breadth and immediacy of tall building design now.

photographing-architecture-and-interiors

Photographing Architecture and Interiors

$39.95

Photographing Architecture and Interiors is Shulman’s first book and he still considers it his most genuine reflection on the profession and his own artistic philosophy. Originally published in 1962, it includes a forward by Richard Neutra. Frank Lloyd Wright once said that to his mind no better photos had been taken of Taliesin West than those of Julius Shulman. Now reprinted intact with a new foreword by Julius Shulman and digitally scanned reproductions from original prints, this new edition of a classic work is better than the original.

Out of stock

Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph “Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect.” The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman’s photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world.

Description

Photographing Architecture and Interiors is Shulman’s first book and he still considers it his most genuine reflection on the profession and his own artistic philosophy. Originally published in 1962, it includes a forward by Richard Neutra. Frank Lloyd Wright once said that to his mind no better photos had been taken of Taliesin West than those of Julius Shulman. Now reprinted intact with a new foreword by Julius Shulman and digitally scanned reproductions from original prints, this new edition of a classic work is better than the original.

nell-brooker-mayhew-paintings-on-paper-grouped

Nell Brooker Mayhew: Paintings on Paper

Nell Brooker Mayhew: Paintings on Paper, the first monograph of her work, features new research as well as numerous color images taken directly from the original paintings. Mayhew brought a bold and bright new spirit to the Southern California art scene at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Alissa Anderson

Specializing in 19th Century European and American art, Alissa Anderson has developed a special knowledge of California art. As an art historian she conducted a rediscovery with thorough research producing the first-ever published Encyclopedia of Women Artist of the California Central Coast.

Description

Nell Brooker Mayhew was a pioneering woman artist whose work broke the bounds of social and artistic convention at the turn of the nineteenth century. She brought a bold and bright new spirit to the Southern California art scene. With color and energy as her tools, Mayhew quickly established herself as a noteworthy artist, speaker and teacher among a freethinking Los Angeles art crowd. During her lifetime, she was widely exhibited and well-respected. Mayhew’s legacy has been unjustly neglected, until now.

This first monograph of her work features numerous color images taken directly from the original paintings and brings together previously dispersed research.

moody-nolan-design

Moody Nolan Design

$75.00

Moody-Nolan’s work responds naturally to site and programmatic requirements, but the complex themes of transparency, layering and massing evoke a responses in the visitor that ensure their work will stand the test of time. Moody Nolan Design presents Moody-Nolan’s complete oeuvre revealing core values in architectural forms. A thorough compendium of the work of one of the country’s leading African-American architects.

Categories: ,

Curtis Moody

More than 35 years ago, Curt Moody decided to start an architecture firm. Driven by a passion to break into a field with little minority representation, he took a considerable risk and opened the doors of Moody and Associates in 1982 — in the midst of a depressed economy. At the beginning, the firm was just Curt and a graduate architecture student. But by the end of the first year, the firm had grown to nine staff members, eight of whom are still with the firm today. Sensing an opportunity to position the firm for growth, Curt joined forces with the engineering firm Howard E. Nolan & Associates, and Moody Nolan was born.

Description

Moody-Nolan’s work responds naturally to site and programmatic requirements, but the complex themes of transparency, layering and massing evoke a responses in the visitor that ensure their work will stand the test of time. Moody Nolan Design presents Moody-Nolan’s complete oeuvre revealing core values in architectural forms. A thorough compendium of the work of one of the country’s leading African-American architects.

Mastery in architecture comes only after years of experience. An architect’s career path typically starts with a number of small projects which allow the fledgling designer to hone the formal, technical skills of the profession. Then a series of larger projects follow in which the architect learns how materials actually look in the sun and in overcast skies, what scale is most pleasingly experienced, and where contextual design adds value in the cityscape. Curtis Moody founded the firm Moody Nolan more than 30 years ago in an old house in a transitional neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. There were few amenities at his disposal, and the home’s bathtub served as an ad-hoc drawing file. As one of a very few black architects, Moody effectively broke race barriers and has risen to become nationally recognized as a premier designer of public, private and institutional buildings.

Moody’s career has been that of an entrepreneur, not an academic. As a designer with artistic ambition he might have had an easier time teaching, while keeping a boutique firm on the side that designed an avant-garde house or two. But Moody is an organization builder by temperament. He has chosen perhaps the most difficult route in architecture — the vertical ascent. Office buildings, affordable housing, residential towers, university buildings, sports facilities, health care and retail — few architects have this range of work to their name. In those years, the firm has opened eight offices in six states and the District of Columbia and has designed projects in more than 40 states. From a small local firm fighting to survive to one that is now a national pace setter, Moody Nolan’s primary mission has been to create functional yet iconic design statements that respond to ever evolving space, aesthetics and site dynamics. With entrepreneurial persistence and an outsized talent, Moody Nolan has mastered a consistent design ethos centered on human values as a mode of inquiry.

miami-modern-metropolis

Miami Modern Metropolis

Miami at mid-century was simultaneously an escape from post-World War II Middle America and one of its most characteristic places. It was a rapidly growing metropolis in its own right, one whose story parallels many others. But unlike others, it was crucially shaped by the desires—real, imagined or artificially induced—of people from out of town. Miami was one of the few places where the nation’s fantasies were played out on a grand scale. Miami modernism was characterized by spare international-style structure appliquéd with thematic decorative elements often inventive and frequently flamboyant. Morris Lapidus is reputed to have said of his famous outrageous hotels, “no place like home.”

Description

Miami at mid-century was simultaneously an escape from post-World War II Middle America and one of its most characteristic places. It was a rapidly growing metropolis in its own right, one whose story parallels many others. But unlike others, it was crucially shaped by the desires—real, imagined or artificially induced—of people from out of town. Miami was one of the few places where the nation’s fantasies were played out on a grand scale. Miami modernism was characterized by spare international-style structure appliquéd with thematic decorative elements often inventive and frequently flamboyant. Morris Lapidus is reputed to have said of his famous outrageous hotels, “no place like home.”

Covering a range of architectural topics including hotels, retail, aerospace and residential, Miami Modern Metropolis is at once thoroughly researched and entertaining. It is a long-overdue look at one of the country’s most distinctive urban confections.

merhdad-yazdani

Merhdad Yazdani

$29.95

Mehrdad Yazdani, the first monograph of his work, presents a collection of 25 projects, large and small, built and unbuilt, illustrate Yazdani’s responsiveness to issues of public engagement, program complexity, and site context.

Categories: ,

Joseph Giovannini

A Pulitzer nominee in criticism who trained in architecture at Harvard, Joseph Giovannini has led a career that has spanned three decades and two coasts. He has served as the architecture critic for New York Magazine and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and was long a staff writer on design and architecture for The New York Times. On a contractual or freelance basis, he has contributed to many other publications, including The New Yorker, Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, Art in America, Art Forum, Architecture Magazine, Architect Magazine, Industrial Design Magazine, and Interior Design. A prominent figure in American architecture, he has been an activist critic with a record of discovering emerging talent for major mainstream publications and professional journals.

Description

Architect Mehrdad Yazdani has won the respect of critics and clients alike for his imaginative approach to the design of commercial and civic buildings. Mehrdad Yazdani, the first monograph of his work, presents a collection of 25 projects, large and small, built and unbuilt, that illustrate Yazdani’s responsiveness to issues of public engagement, program complexity, and site context.

In the book’s highly engaging text, architect and noted critic Joseph Giovannini explores the role that drawing and painting have played in guiding and inspiring the work of the Iranian-born and Texas-educated Yazdani.

light-and-illusion-the-hollywood-portraits-of-ray-jones

Light and Illusion: The Hollywood Portraits of Ray Jones

$24.95

Light and Illusion is the story of Ray Jones, the first still photographer to win an Academy Award as head of Universal Studio’s still photography department during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Lavishly illustrated with vintage star portraits, this book celebrates his work and describes the role studio photographers played in the growth of the Hollywood mystique.

Tom Zimmerman

Tom Zimmerman is a native of Los Angeles whose photographs are in the permanent collections of the United States Library of Congress, National Trust for Historic Preservation, California State Library, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles Conservancy, Brooklyn Museum, Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive, and Fortress of Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has taken historic recordation photos of the Ambassador Hotel, Olympic Swim Stadium, Tom Gilmore’s Old Bank District in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Repair Yards in San Bernardino, State Armory in Santa Barbara, the last orange packing plant in Irvine, and hundreds of others. He is the author of the Angel City Press books Paradise Promoted: The Booster Campaign that Created Los Angeles 1870-1930, Downtown in Detail and Spectacular Illumination.

Description

Light and Illusion is the story of Ray Jones, the first still photographer to win an Academy Award as head of Universal Studio’s still photography department during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Lavishly illustrated with vintage star portraits, this book celebrates his work and describes the role studio photographers played in the growth of the Hollywood mystique.

Over 100 striking vintage portraits and informative text tell the story of Ray Jones, the head of Universal Studios’ stills department through Hollywood’s Golden Era.

812 Fremont, Suite 205, South Pasadena, CA 91030 626.460.8339 contact@balconypress.com
Orders can be placed online or by calling Balcony Press directly.