Is that SPAM I smell? LOL

Could be as she just registered.

I looked at this book awhile ago- to me, it seemed that it was geared for larger, more commercial developements-not a 'single' type house. I percieved it as for a commercial builder. I am looking for something for just a small house. Was I wrong? I didn't buy it because of that. If you were a city planner, starting to make plans for a huge office building, a city park, or the like, I thought it was geared more that way.

hi lindybarts and brutus,

No, actually not spam. Gardenweb appears to be a tough (and surpirsingly cynical) crowd . . . .

You'd think if I were just flogging the book, I would at least put in a link . . . but I guess I am not even a proficient spammer . . ..
Anyway, before I get too cynical, my motive was simply that I saw a lot of posts on this forum from folks citing to fairly souless (and imho poorly designed), pre-packaged home plans and thought i would share what I found helpful.

Fyi, Alexander is a professor emiritus at UC Berkeley. While I don't necessarily buy into some of the more philisophical elements in his work, I did find his "tool box" of "patterns" to be an incredibly useful in designing my own home in the Napa hills (just in the final permitting stages - fingers crossed).

To be honest, I tend to be more of a silent (but grateful) "taker" than "giver" to these types of forums and thought - for some crazy reason this morning, I would try to reverse that . . . . Anyway to everyone who is content to buy their cookie-cutter mac-mansions (or mini-mac-masion) plans - bon appetite (sorry, I am getting cynical again ...).

Ilmbg - As I tried to convey in my original post, you are right it does cover the whole spectrum. The first section has a bunch of chapters that are more focused on city/urban planning, but that is probably only a quarter or so of the book - the rest is on buildings, rooms, and construction methods. The sections on buildings, site planning, rooms form a provacative and easily digestible set of "patterns" that articulate design elements in cogent and compelling manner.

The book is more or less organized from the forest (urban planning) to the tress (buildings) to the leaves (rooms) and then a section on construction (a bit dated, but interesting). Don't feel compelled to read whole thing (I found the trees and leaves most useful) and also feel free to skip around the patterns (as I said each chapter is only 4-8 pages in length).

Architect friends I have talked to about the book tend to be slightly dismissive of it due to it "perscriptive" nature (e.g, "always have light on two sides of a room" "Never have a porch or a balcony less than 6 feet deep," etc.), but for most novice home designers it articulates many key "design prinicples" that (imho) are key to successful home design. As for its prescriptive nature, be a cricitcal reader, I found a few "patterns" that I did not necessarily agree with or did not follow in my design, but it gave me a framework for home design and helped me to more easily identify spaces (building, rooms, etc) that "worked" and understand why. Even when I disagreed with a pattern, it forced me to self-reflect on why I disagreed or why I chose to deviate from one of the "patterns" ....

I'd challenge any "would be" home designer go to the library and check out the book (not Amazon or B&N, etc) and read though a dozen or so of the patterns on buildings and rooms and not come away with new insights.

Anyway, I am frankly a bit irritated with myself for even bothering to post (or maybe more acturately to reply), but I truly hope it will stimulate some thought and discussion and wish all of you the best of luck in designing and building your homes . . . .

Goodbye.

FYI, I also am copying a few quotes I just pulled from Amazon's website on the book from the NY Times, SF Chronicle, etc. (I did not include the 76 user posts which are also worth looking at and collectively give the book 5 stars by the by)....

"Brilliant....Here's how to design or redesign any space you're living or working in--from metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space, and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous home, workplace, town will result."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Alexander may be the closest thing home design has to a Zen master."--The New York Times

"A classic. A must read!"--T. Colbert, University of Houston

"The most important book in architecture and planning for many decades, a landmark whose clarity and humanity give hope that our private and public spaces can yet be made gracefully habitable."--The Next Whole Earth Catalog

Welcome Napa -- And please don't be offended, because 90% of the time, when someone registers on this forum and immediately posts a glowing recommendation of something, it IS spam...

But that book is fabulous! And I remember tracking it down and browsing through it a few years ago after reading about it in Sarah Susanka's great home-design books. Think it's time for me to track it down again...

Cynical..not me. Skeptical...perhaps. As sweeby said, since you just registered, that is usually the tip off.

So, let me start over by saying Welcome to Building a Home. Are you in the process of building? What brought you to this Forum? Are you an architect? Student of design? Seems like you have quite a bit of knowledge on the subject....!

A more accessible version of the same concepts can be found "Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design". Silverstein and Winslow are also co-authors of "A Pattern Language".

A big "second" to "Patterns of Home" mentioned by blindstar. It is a wonderful, most helpful book, and I referred back to it many times while designing our house, as well as Sarah Susanka's very practical "Not So Big Solutions."

Anne

Spammer, huh? Y'all really know how to welcome new people. Now I know why I rarely, if ever, post here any more. The book mentioned has a copyright date in the 1970's, and there is no link, so no ability for OP to spam. Worst of all, this very book has been mentioned on these forums before.

FWIW, Patterns of Home is by the same authors, and is a lot easier to read. Copyright date is 2002, and you see no links here, so sorry...no spamming from me either. [/rant]

merj...I guess I owe an apology...to the original poster and apparently to you. I didn't mean to offend. It's just that when a poster appears out of no where and raves about a product (book, whatever) and has only registered the day before...that's the first thing that pops into my head. Sorry, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I don't think I was rude however. I just mentioned I thought it was spam. Guess I was having a bad day. I'm usually one of the nicer ones. ;c)

Love the book. I have read it several times. I did not have it when I designed my house but surprisingly I have many features that he suggests. and I do love my house as well ;)

By the way, merj, you never told me how you liked the book ;D

It did seem like spam to me originally, lindy and all. Usually when you first post you announce it is your first post, or hello, I'm new to the forum, or I've been lurking for a while but here I am with a question etc. Lindy, you of all people are a cheerleader on this board, please don't apologize anymore, there is no need. It is my DH who summarizes situations like this the very best..."If people want to be offended...they will find a way". Merj, I've never noticed your name here before to contribute in any way, shape or form. It is you, dear, who owes Lindy quite an apology.

Amy

now i usually do not get too involved in these drama threads, but why in the world amyks, does merj owe an apology? He/she is very correct in what they posted. Just because someone is "cheerleader" as you say does not mean they get to say what they want.

btw, if my memory serves me correct (which is not always the case..cough, cough) merj posts on here all the time. usually with very imforative posts.

Just more technical than my brain is ready for- or ever will be- I am just looking for plans and ideas...

mikeyvon, a simple search of the BAH forum would have yielded two hits for merj, this thread and another. Do your homework if your memory doesn't always serve, as it apparently hasn't in this situation. People will find offense if it is their intention to do so.

Amy

Amy, much easier is to click on the my page and see that merj has been a member since 2002. The fact that she has not contributed recently to be familiar to you is not any indication. Also the search feature is still not working reliably to make any assumptions based on that.

I have also been a long time member and several years ago was very active on this board. I almost never read here anymore and hang out more in decorating and buy/sell forum.

I don't know how well the search function is or isn't working, I think it still gives a relatively good idea about whether or not mikeyvon's assertion that he/she "posts on here all the time. Usually with very informative posts." is somewhat accurate. Search the entire site, not just this forum, and come up with 27 matches, which may or may not be correct, meaning they may not all be attributable to that particular poster.

The OP seemed like spam to me as well. Lindy and brutuses asserted that before I had a chance to. Just standing up for someone who IS a familiar face around here.

Amy

Thanks for coming to my defense Amy. ;c) Geez, it was a one line comment. Mea Culpa

I'm not going to comment further and hope this thread dies a quick death. I will say that if the OP is still out there lurking, if you are in the process of building or would like to introduce yourself maybe you could start another thread. Like I said before, you sound like you have quite a bit of knowledge on architecture.

It's a little early for all the drama, dontcha think?

Lindybarts, I accept your apology, but I think OP is gone for good. That's a shame.

Mikeyvon and punamytsike are mistaken. They know me from another place...a place where we don't attack new people, and actually try to help one another. Amyks, you do not know my name because you have been registered here less than two years. As noted in my previous post, I "seldom, if ever, post here any more." For good reason.

It'd be nice if you would give new (or in my case, infrequent) posters a break, and not immediately go on the offensive.

Punamytsike, both books are great. I borrowed Pattern Language from the library, and took copious notes. I bought Patterns of Home, and refer to it often. Amazingly I find that I have intuitively incorporated a lot of the principles in design too. (And no, I'm not spamming for either book.)

merj, i was close. nice to see you over here!

merj, for the record, I was on the defensive, you were on the offensive;-) I think. If your history here predates my time, then that explains it. That is why I don't "know" you. The thing is, I wouldn't go to the ba(hr)r where everyone knows your name and jump red on a thread because although I am a member there, I am not a poster. I would introduce myself, or re-introduce myself if I had been away a long time, but that's just me. I think of this forum in that way, kind of like friendly conversation. Things around here are usually pretty calm and helpful. Sorry for whatever reason you left this board initially, but to jump into a thread where people smelled spam (and if you look at the thread honestly and the date the person joined you would think it was, although it wasn't) and sieze that honest mistake as an opportunity to bash the forum, holding it up as justification for leaving is unfortunate. Please don't be offended that I didn't recognize you from years ago. I was trying to have the back of someone I know wasn't being nasty, but was being portrayed so.

Amy

Yeah but if the firewall had 5/8" fire code wall board, but they wanted 1", couldn't you just skin over it w/ 3/8"?

sounds good to me sierraeast!!!! (i am guessing you posted in the wrong thread) (=

Or maybe he's just trying to bring a little levity!!:-) In which case my reply would be (since I know nothing about firewalls or codes) Yeah, since 5/8 plus 3/8 equals an inch, why not?

Amy

just trying to break it up a little w/ a sordid attempt at humor. Rock on! :-)

I think quite a few folks here have chimed already. IMO, it is true that for a newcomer trying to become visible by posting something useful this kind of "welcome" might seem daunting if not an outright put-off.

Yet, going from another perspective, this is one of the most helpful forums that is kept alive by people who are genuinely interested in helping others and spreading the knowledge; and it is very vulnerable to being misused. That is why, though the people here might sound a bit overzealous in protecting others from business interests not necessarily aligned with those of others, I think it is required to keep this forum the way it is.

Can you imagine, if everyone just tried to ignore by being silent, how many spams there would be?

It is somewhat like calling your bank to retrieve your lost PIN or password. I have done that more than a few times. The bank was very suspicious and they made me answer tons of questions, to let me access an account, that was mine. Should I have been upset? It was a pain for sure but it was all for the sake of my security.

Hi, I just read this REALLY great book. It's called Robinson Crusoe (or Pride and Prejudice, or you insert the classic) It's great, you should read it ;-)

hey ya'll well my family and i only have so much money but we've had this mobile home for awhile now and all my life it's juts been the mobile. We all think it's bout time to get a real house. where we all can just feel comfortable in, we know only so much but we want a house thats made of wood that looks like a cabin but not too small or too big.. like i said tight budget!We want maybe ceder only we know ceder wood is lot more exspensive then regular lumber wood. What book do u think we should look at? we are new at this.. and i am scared if we start building a house were gonna put in so much money in it and mess it all up.. b/c we never built one before.
thanks
~*redneck princess~*