From Day of the Dead to motorcycles and the ldquo;sickest headphonesrdquo;mdash;skulls rule! Laugh at Death over and over again through more than 250 fun; fabulous pictures of skulls in actionmdash;on the dance floor; in the parlor; zooming out of the garage; dangling from silver chains. These artisandesigned skulls range from heavy metal to granny-sweet dancing skeletons for wearing; decorating homes; scaring up shivers; and attracting a gawking crowd at every turn of the head.
#4498250 in eBooks 2013-01-10 2013-01-10File Name: B00AZRAV1G
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A focused manual and reference on architectural envelopesBy Margaret P."Exterior Building Enclosures" focuses on an architectural specialty of increasing importance with the advancement of technology and the imperative to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability. As with the other Wiley architectural reference books; the author is an expert in the field; the technical director at SOMs offices in San Francisco.A strength of this text is the focus on concepts and the design and construction processes before moving into the more specific and technical aspects. There are chapters on brick and stone masonry; concrete; metal framing; and all-glass enclosures. The examples are also very well-chosen and there is a plethora of technical drawings and photographs.The print edition has illustrations and photographs mostly in black and white so I would recommend the Kindle edition. This will also allow the drawings to be enlarged and for searching the text; although the index is well-done.4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. I recommend this book; but with a few minor comments.By K. R.This book is basically a reference book for architects; although even non-architects could find it useful. It is pretty typical of this type of book - it covers the basic elements to a point and also provides a bit more detail for some select topics.Over the years; Ive bought a number of similar books like this one. Im a draftsman and over the years I have worked at a number of firms in several different engineering disciplines. Books like this one are great for getting up to speed on a discipline new to you and for keeping on hand for when something new to you comes up. One of the things I really liked about this book is that the Author provides overviews for sixteen real-world projects as examples. I dont know about most people; but I feel that I get more out of real-world applications than I do made-up text-book examples.Some issues that I had with the book.Number One; is the lack of a glossary. I was really surprised that the author did not include a glossary. For a reference book such as this; that is a noticeable omission.Number Two; the poor image quality of some of the architectural details. I know there will be some image degradation from shrinking down details meant for large scale architectural drawings to fit on a 7"x9.5" page in a book; but some of the image compression is worse than others in the book. To the point they are useless.Number Three; BIM (Building Information Modeling) is barely covered - at most it is mentioned in a single paragraph about design process and expectations. For a book that focuses on the interrelations of different engineering disciplines; I would think there would be at least a chapter dedicated to BIM.Number Four; which is really an offshoot of number three. All of the information / project examples in the book is from the Authors experience at the one architectural firm (Skidmore; Owings Merrill). Thats good in some ways (you get the perspective of how a successful firm does things); and bad in other ways (probably the reason BIM is not mentioned is that maybe SOM hasnt yet tried to implement it).One thing I will give the publisher props for; is the index. Too many times Ive seen books like this one where the index did not match the book; where a book was heavily revised during the editing process and then was published with an index from a previous version. I did a number of spot checks with this books index and found it correct every time.Review for - Exterior Building Enclosures: Design Process and Composition for Innovative Facades; by C. Keith Baswell2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Fantastic book for amateurs like meBy GreenyIm learning a lot about structural issues in architecture from this book. Its a delight for the layman; I believe. Most of the illustrations are very helpful and some were incorrectly placed such that illegibility occurs. However; the pros outweigh the cons; providing the reader isnt as demanding as an expert in the subject.This book is immediately interesting because most of us see building enclosures all the time without understanding them deeply. The understanding of enclosure system types and the purposes they serve will enrich all that wonder at the marvel of beautiful buildings. I love this book and highly recommend it.