10 Books on Design (+ Independent Bookstores to Buy Them From)

Here is a new take on last year’s Top 10 Gift Guide - Designer Edition, focusing our attention exclusively on books related to the built environment, architecture, graphic and urban design. Some of these titles have been the subject of our previous musings, which are linked in the descriptions below, and some are new titles for us to share. All have provided inspiration, education, new perspectives and sometimes a welcomed escape. Of course, these are best purchased from your local independent book store; if they are not already on the shelves, they can order for you! Some of our local favorites include Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, The Village Bookseller in Mount Pleasant and the Itinerant Literate Bookstop in North Charleston. Add your favorite independent bookseller in the comments.

 

Vignelli Transit Maps

Peter B. Lloyd with Mark Ovenden

This book chronicles the Italian designer Massimo Vignelli, respectfully called the Maestro, as he pushed the world of graphic design by reimagining the transit maps of New York City and Washington DC and forcing the question ‘Can a diagram be a map?’ (Spoiler alert: yes, it can). His designs were not always embraced by all as evidenced in the Great Subway Map Debate in New York City, but always provided a thoughtful, rigorous, innovative and modern approach. This book is for those who enjoy the behind the scenes sketches and iterations of the design process and how Vignelli navigated the very public process of iconic way finding.

 
 

Lake|Flato: Nature place craft restraint

Lake Flato Architects

We have long been fans of the regional and poignant architecture of the Lake Flato team based in Austin and San Antonio, Texas; somehow the architects create epic yet humble spaces again and again at every scale and in a range of building types. This book hones in on four priorities or aspects of their design language (nature, place, craft and restraint) by presenting several of their buildings/spaces in each category. When we were in San Antonio earlier this year we stumbled upon The Pearl and knew immediately this was a gathering place that was created with a high level of creativity, commitment to history and urban place-making. Lake Flato’s work “calls attention not to itself, but to other, more pertinent aspects of the human experience.” (Kengo Kuma)

 
 

The Home Edit

Clea Shearer + Joanna Teplin

We are big fans of creating order out of chaos. Ashton Kutcher recently shared in Architectural Digest, “To feel tranquility in a space, everything needs to be in order. If the world around you isn’t in order, it’s hard to get your brain in order.” The Home Edit is a room-by-room, how-to guide to edit, organize, display/store and enjoy your possessions. It can be a little overwhelming (and extra), but if you feed off of your built environment like we do, there are definitely some strategies here that you can make your own.

 
 

30A Living

Eleanor Lynn Nesmith

If you follow our travels you have seen images from Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach and Seaside, Florida - all coastal towns along Highway 30A. From town planning principles from the creative minds of Andres Duany + Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk to the architectural fabric and details created, we find inspiration again and again. This book is a curated view and escape into nine different communities with Jean Allsopp’s photos of exterior architecture, interior design and gulf views.

 
 

CHARLESTON FANCY

Witold Rybczynski

We are a little late to the party of Witold Rybczynski’s “Charleston Fancy - Little Houses + Big Dreams in the Holy City” published in 2019 by Yale University Press, but we are here now. Rybczyncki, the celebrated architect, professor and author captures a compelling movement in Charleston metro’s built environment, urban planning and architecture world. This book shares layers of historic renovations, lessons from medieval town planning and new urbanism through interviews with local master builders, developers and designers on the reverent and humane places they have created.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

 
 

New homes for today

Paul Williams

Continuing our study of the noteworthy African-American architect, Paul R. Williams (1894 - 1980), we have been pouring over his book published in 1946, “New Homes for Today.” The plan book is light on words and heavy on images which is just how us visual learners like it. While Mr. Williams had a wide multi-faceted career based in Los Angeles, including the design of public buildings, working for the Navy and designing over 2,000 homes (even that of Frank Sinatra!), this book focuses on smaller homes, perhaps for the middle class. The structure of the book itself allows just two pages for each house design and includes the description, floor plan and classic-now-vintage perspective renderings. Home names like “The Flamingo” and “The Country Gentleman” start to paint a picture of each home’s character.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

 
 

rural studio: Samuel mockbee + an architecture of decency

Andrea Oppenheimer Dean + Timothy Hursley

This book chronicles the genesis and early years of Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction’s “Rural Studio”, a design-build architecture studio located off-campus in rural Alabama. The studio educates what founder, Samuel Mockbee, calls “citizen architects” through feet-on-the-ground researching, community immersion, collaborative design and hands-on construction in Hale County’s ‘pockets of poverty.’ What started as a new house per year has grown into chapels, community buildings and structures for much needed economic development. Paramount lessons beyond design and construction are those in human decency, class and racial differences and how both client and student are equally helping one another.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

 
 

the new old house

Marc Kristal

Practicing architecture in the history-rich Charleston metro area often has us thinking about how new buildings or additions should interact with historic ones - the coexistence of present and past. Marc Kristal tackles the dialogue in his book, “The New Old House” with eighteen built examples of homes that combine historic and modern architecture. This discussion becomes one of preservation (sometimes with a flexible approach), function, aesthetics, respect and sustainability.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

 

fire island modernist: Horace Gifford + the architecture of secuction

Christopher Bascom Rawlins

Architect Christopher Rawlins crafts this comprehensive look at the often overlooked architect Horace Gifford (1932 - 1992), his approach to design, portfolio of seaside pavilions and houses with in the broader context of personal challenges, social and cultural movements. “As the 1960s became The Sixties, architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York's Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford's serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation.” Rawlins

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

 

LIVING WITH PATTERN: COLOR, TEXTURE, AND PRINT AT HOME

Rebecca Atwood

As lovers of solids (usually black or grey if we are being honest) we recognize that working with color and pattern can be our blindspot. Who better to learn from than Rebecca Atwood, artist, textile designer and a recent addition to the Charleston creative space (lucky us), with her book “Living with Pattern: Color, Texture, and Print at Home.” This beautiful reference, including photographs by Emily Johnston, is organized in three main parts in addition to resources and sourcing lists. First is a design and reference ‘primer’ allowing the reader to hone their personal point of view; second is a room-by-room guide with real life examples of inspired spaces; the third section includes projects for the reader to begin their own journey. In her words, “We are all filled with contradictions, and that’s what makes life interesting. Pattern can reflect your particular oppositions, interests, aspirations, and views of the world.”

Bookshelf: Charleston Fancy

We are a little late to the party of Witold Rybczynski’s “Charleston Fancy - Little Houses + Big Dreams in the Holy City” published in 2019 by Yale University Press, but we are here now. Rybczyncki, the celebrated architect, professor and author (“The Most Beautiful Home in The World”, “Waiting for the Weekend”, “A Clearing in the Distance: Fredick Law Olmstead + North America in the 19th Century”) captures a compelling movement in Charleston metro’s built environment, urban planning and architecture world. This book shares layers of historic renovations, lessons from medieval town planning and new urbanism through interviews with local master builders, developers and designers on the reverent and humane places they have created; three of which are highlighted below.

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MIXSON - North Charleston

Chapter Ten heads north to the Park Circle area of North Charleston, the site for a new development by Vince Graham ultimately named Mixson. Park Circle was envisioned in the early 1900s as the New South Garden City. “The idea of garden cities, which were satellite communities that combined the amenities of urban living in a country-like setting, had originated in Britain at the turn of the century as a reaction to the crowded Victorian industrial metropolis.” The Park Circle masterplan is the work of William Bell Marquis and has a circular park with eight radiating avenues that contain a mix of commercial, residential and civic uses. Due to the strong military presence in North Charleston, in 1941 the Defense Homes Corporation, a wartime federal agency which provided emergency housing for defense workers, built a residential complex of pre-fab wooden buildings on the 44 acres that would become Mixson. Over the decades these homes fell into disrepair and the property for listed for sale. In the mid-2000s, Graham had acquired it and with collaborators like Tim Keane, Jacob Lindsey, George Holt and Andrew Gould set out to create a “more affordable I’On” with prospective buyers as small professional households and first time home buyers. As the masterplan process unfolded, team members questioned how a village might have developed over time and while medieval towns began when people gathered around a sacred stone or well, Holt and Gould noted two things 1) there were no sacred stones on this site but 2) ‘People gravitate to trees.’ In turn, the buildings of Mixson are arranged around existing live oak trees on the site with a familiar density and architectural robustness of the designers’ previous projects. The City of North Charleston was very agreeable to this redevelopment. “The new zoning included attached houses and some apartments as well as shops. We were even allowed to create roadways beneath buildings to reach rear courtyards, which is unprecedented.” Vince Graham

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As with many projects and good ideas, the Great Recession had its way with the Mixson development. Only a small portion of the original concept was realized with the remainder of the acreage ultimately being filled with a similar density, but divergent architecture styles, quality levels and village planning techniques. Still, for a couple of blocks, one can experience the original vision.

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TULLY AND CHARLES - CHARLESTON “Creating a sense of place in a neglected neighborhood”

Chapter Two maps out the evolution of Tully Alley near the intersection of Saint Phillip and Cannon streets on Charleston’s peninsula with local renovator / developer George Holt at the forefront. During the early 1990s, this part of Charleston had many vacant and neglected houses as well as high crime rates. Over the next several years, George and his partners invested in, repaired and renovated the existing structures allowing them to be occupied thus creating a critical mass of permanent residents. New homes were designed in varying architectural styles, which along with the organic, dense master plan were supported by former the City of Charleston Planning staff. “I don’t think we would have been allowed such architectural exuberance without the support and encouragement of the city architect, Charles Chase. Charles explained to the individual board members what was going on architecturally and why he thought what we were proposing would work for its location.” George Holt. The resulting micro-master plan marries urban density, architectural diversity with pride of place - a win for its occupants and the Charleston at large.

 

I’ON - MOUNT PLEASANT “They had it right the first time.”

Chapter Eight and Nine introduces the reader to Vince Graham, a “passionate advocate for advancing human-scaled urbanism” through his early development work in Beaufort (Newpoint which took cues from Beaufort’s “Old Point”) and subsequent introduction to the principles of New Urbanism. “New Urbanism is a planning and development approach based on the principles of how cities and towns had been built for the last several centuries: walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces. In other words: New Urbanism focuses on human-scaled urban design.” (Congress for the New Urbanism) It was these principles along with studying historic neighborhoods like the Old Village in Mount Pleasant, that Graham used to create a new community in Mount Pleasant called I’On in the mid-1990s, building out his team with Andres Duany and Victor Dover. Despite the Town of Mount Pleasant recently adopting a master plan sympathetic to the new urbanist principles and calling for “a compact mix of residential, commercial and civic uses”, the development met a great amount of resistance / nimbyism mainly stemming from the levels of density proposed. Ultimately, the density and mix of uses was dialed down for a proposed master plan that would eventually be approved. Nearly two decades later, I’On is an established community, primarily residential with robust architectural standards. “Community can’t be created by one person, it has to emerge from people living or working some place. But you can create the conditions the enable it…create conditions where people can connect with one another.” Vince Graham

 

Fire Island Modernism | Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction

One of the best things about growing up on Long Island was spending summers working on Fire Island where the commute typically involved coffee (“light and sweet”), my best friend and a ferry ride across the Great South Bay to Ocean Beach, NY. I worked for a flower shop and landscape company, with the best days spent as the extra set of hands for the landscape crews. I would deliver and/or plant flowers at the second homes of Manhattan’s prominent and intriguing inhabitants (looking at you Zabars and Lobel’s). The houses ranged from the expected - quaint beach cottages with clever names and a salt air patina - to the unexpected and, for me, immensely magnetic - the bold, modern, sculptural objects that I needed to know more about. Enter, author Christopher Bascom Rawlins, some 30 years later, with his epic ode, Fire Island Modernist, detailing the modern architecture and culture on Fire Island through the eyes of architect an architect I wish I knew about sooner.

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Rawlins crafts this comprehensive look at the often overlooked architect Horace Gifford (1932 - 1992), his approach to design, portfolio of seaside pavilions and houses with in the broader context of personal challenges, social and cultural movements.

“As the 1960s became The Sixties, architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York's Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford's serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation.” Christopher Rawlins.

Travis-Wall House, Fire Island Pines, 1972-1975

Travis-Wall House, Fire Island Pines, 1972-1975

Burge Pavilion, Fire Island Pines, 1965 A majestic presence on the beach which harkins to the massing of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Company Administration Building.

Burge Pavilion, Fire Island Pines, 1965

A majestic presence on the beach which harkins to the massing of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Company Administration Building.

Fishman House, Fire Island Pines, 1965“Twelve robust columns, containing closets above and below, lifted the Fishman residence into the air. Early Fire Island cottages squatted akimbo upon skinny pilings, evoking the architectural equivalent of “mar…

Fishman House, Fire Island Pines, 1965

“Twelve robust columns, containing closets above and below, lifted the Fishman residence into the air. Early Fire Island cottages squatted akimbo upon skinny pilings, evoking the architectural equivalent of “martini legs.” Gifford composed and selectively clad his own version of these posts, realizing a muscular base still in harmony with the surrounding architecture.” (excerpt from Fire Island Modernist)

Fishman House Floor Plans

Fishman House Floor Plans

Please read this book for an exact insight (both colorful and heartbreaking) into Horace Gifford’s world, American architectural history and the mid-century modernist movement. "The injustice of Horace Gifford's early death was compounded by the fact that his important contribution to American domestic architecture of the 1960s and 70s has been overlooked by history.” Paul Goldberg