This book outlines a complete programme for the restoration and preservation of historic structures and historic sites throughout the world. It is a basic text for both the novice entering the field and the specialist. Dr Fitch covers the many disciplines, concepts and technologies needed by the preservationist. He also includes discussions of the economic, legal and legislative forces acting upon historic district planning. He provides useful information on how old buildings can be moved (either intact or disassembled) to new sites via truck, rail or barge; how to heat, cool and light old buildings and still maintain the aesthetic integrity of their interiors; and how a country can develop a comprehensive policy for the care of its artistic and historic heritage.

Historic Preservation: Curatorial Management of the Built World

Fitch, James Marston

McGraw=Hill

Few books have influenced the field of architecture more than American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It. Originally published in 1947, it has emerged as a classic work on the relationships among buildings, their inhabitants, and the environment. Now comes the first major revision in over twenty-five years, bringing this essential book completely up to date for a new, more environmentally aware generation of architects and designers. In this superb volume, James Marston Fitch provides a fundamental theory of buildings. "The ultimate task of architecture," he writes, "is to act in favor of human beings: to interpose itself between people and the natural environment in which they find themselves, in such a way as to remove the gross environmental load from their shoulders." Fitch systematically examines the various aspects of the environment which buildings control for human habitation--air, temperature, light, and sound, even space, time, and gravity. He draws on scientific research to probe deeply into these problems and he sets out the most practical solutions to these and other issues in clear, precise language. Moreover, his analysis runs to the external environment as well, as he explores the impact of buildings on the outside world. American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It broke new ground in the school of thought now known as "green architecture"--the philosophy of designing buildings that require a minimum amount of energy and resources to erect and operate. For this new edition, architect William Bobenhausen has included new information on sustainable design and the latest construction technology, up-to-date statistics, case studies, photographs, and illustrations. This revised edition promises to keep this work at the forefront of our thinking about design and the natural world.

American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It

Arts & Photography

Bobenhausen, William

Architecture

Oxford University Press

Revered as the father of historic preservation in the United States, architect James Marston Fitch was hailed by the New York Times at the time of his death in 2000 as "an architect whose writings and teachings helped transform historic preservation from a dilettante's pastime into a vigorous, broadly based cultural movement." In this anthology of his writings, spanning over sixty years of his professional career, Fitch's incisive ideas and observations on a range of subjects are brought to light in a single, readable volume. Whether a lament of the loss of functionalism in the wake of modernism, a celebration of the architectural perfection embodied in the University of Virginia campus, or an appeal to architects to heed factors of climate and environment in their designs, Fitch's essays are both provocative and pragmatic and always deeply rooted in the human element. In the face of contemporary concerns such as suburban sprawl, energy expenditure, and environmental degradation, Fitch's writings resonate today more than ever. 30 black & white

James Marston Fitch: Selected Writings 1933 - 1997

Literature & Fiction

SAWIN, MARTICA

History & Criticism

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

American Building 2: The Environmental Forces That Shape It

Short Stories & Anthologies

Houghton, Mifflin Co.

Few books have influenced the field of architecture more than American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It. Originally published in 1947, it has emerged as a classic work on the relationships among buildings, their inhabitants, and the environment. Now comes the first major revision in over twenty-five years, bringing this essential book completely up to date for a new, more environmentally aware generation of architects and designers. In this superb volume, James Marston Fitch provides a fundamental theory of buildings. "The ultimate task of architecture," he writes, "is to act in favor of human beings: to interpose itself between people and the natural environment in which they find themselves, in such a way as to remove the gross environmental load from their shoulders." Fitch systematically examines the various aspects of the environment which buildings control for human habitation--air, temperature, light, and sound, even space, time, and gravity. He draws on scientific research to probe deeply into these problems and he sets out the most practical solutions to these and other issues in clear, precise language. Moreover, his analysis runs to the external environment as well, as he explores the impact of buildings on the outside world. American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It broke new ground in the school of thought now known as "green architecture"--the philosophy of designing buildings that require a minimum amount of energy and resources to erect and operate. For this new edition, architect William Bobenhausen has included new information on sustainable design and the latest construction technology, up-to-date statistics, case studies, photographs, and illustrations. This revised edition promises to keep this work at the forefront of our thinking about design and the natural world.

American Building: The Historical Forces that Shaped It

Schocken

American Building, Vol. 2: The Environmental Forces That Shape It

Dust jacket notes: "Though the international fame of Walter Gropius rests upon a distinguished career in architecture at every level - as practitioner, educator and theoretician - his most famous creation was undoubtedly the Bauhaus of pre-Hitler Germany. In this school, whose curriculum and buildings alike were designed by him, Gropius has given us a completely integrated educational response to the problems created for design by modern industrialism. Deriving from half a century of speculation which runs from the Englishmen Ruskin and Morris to the German Werkbund, Gropius' educational theories embody the best features of both the academy and the craft school, combining theoretical and practical training at a very high level. The Bauhaus, as the vital expression of this philosophy, was perhaps the most important single influence in the international design world in the decades between the wars. An outspoken critic of the social aspects of architecture, housing and city planning, as well as a consistent theoretician, Gropius was always compelled to examine the larger organism of which the individual building was just a cell. As Gropius himself put it: 'My idea of the architect as the coordinator - whose business is to unify the various formal, technical, social and economic problems that arise in connection with building - inevitably led me on, step by step, from study of the function of the house to that of the street; from the street to the town; and finally to the still vaster implications of regional and national planning.' His architecture, like his life, has been rational, grave and responsible. Marked by its explicit social commitment, his entire career as a designer has been aimed at the creation of what he has called a 'supra-personal' language of design...."

Walter Gropius (Masters of World Architecture)

Literary

George Braziller

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

University of Virginia Press

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