Encounters with Architecture

The hundred places of this book were visited over several decades, and played an important role in Davis's career. Insights come from everyday places and famous landmarks: some beautiful, some the product of fine craftsmanship, some active places of gathering or commerce, some quiet places of contemplation. All stayed in the author's memory, helping build the framework of his understandings of what is important to people in architecture and cities. Organized chronologically, the book begins with the author's encounters with buildings and places as a child in New York, and leads to his most recent architectural experiences as a seasoned professor, scholar and traveler. Each encounter is explained on two or three pages, that bring out the reasons for its significance and the lessons learned from it. Readers are encouraged to look for themselves and see how the places they encounter in their everyday lives and travels can enrich their own understandings about the built world that surrounds them. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, drawings and diagrams, the book will interest people outside architecture who are fascinated by buildings and cities, as well as teachers, practitioners and students of architecture and cities

Howard Davis is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Oregon, where his specialty is issues of culture and place in buildings and cities. He is the author of The Culture of Building, Living Over the Store, and Working Cities, and the co-author, with Christopher Alexander and others, of The Production of Houses. Davis is a Distinguished Professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and winner of the Herman Award at the University of Oregon. His travels in over fifty countries are the basis for the writing and photography in this book.

PART ONE 1957-1975 Four shops, St. Johns Place, Brooklyn Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn Meadows, Catskill Mountains, New York House, Levittown, Long Island Small towns near New York City Brooklyn Technical High School, Brooklyn, New York Foundation Building, Cooper Union, New York Library, Mount Angel Abbey, Oregon Orchard Lane, Berkeley, California London La Tourette Monastery, Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle, France Farmhouse, Tunisia Roehampton housing estate, London Arcaded streets, Bologna, Italy PART TWO 1980-1985 House, Sierra Nevada, California Christian Science Church, Berkeley, California New York Public Library West 47th Street, New York Mosque of Rustem Pasa, Istanbul Outdoor book market, Istanbul Mount Athos, Greece Little Singer Building, New York Victoria and India streets, Edinburgh, Scotland Byker Wall, Newcastle upon Tyne, England House, open-air museum, Copenhagen Washington Mews, New York A neighborhood in Cairo Kings Road House, West Hollywood, California PART THREE 1986-1991 Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene Red Fort, Delhi, India Houses and streets, Jaisalmer, India Mausoleum of Mahmud Begada, Sarkhej, Ahmedabad, India Sarabhai House, Ahmedabad, India Doges' Palace, Venice Wilhelm Pelster house-barn, Franklin County, Missouri Public housing, Vienna Karlsplatz Station, Vienna Church and orphanage, Florence, Italy Church of San Prassede, Rome Cosmati pavements, Roman churches, Italy Side of the road, India Village house, near L'viv, Ukraine PART FOUR 1992-1999 Passage des Panoramas, Paris A slum, Madras (now Chennai), India Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens Apartment terrace, Athens Entsu-ji Temple, Kyoto Daishen-in, Myoshinji, Kyoto St. James Piccadilly, London Apartment houses, New York Inner Shrine, Ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan Tung Pattana, Chiang Mai, Thailand Al-Ghansour Caravanserai, Cairo, Egypt Grand Central Terminal, New York Tinngarden, Herfolge, Denmark Pati, Patan, Nepal Newari house, Patan, Nepal Trapezoidal bricks, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal PART FIVE 2000-2004 Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle India International Centre, New Delhi Court Gardener's House, Potsdam, Germany Shop/houses in New York American Folk Art Museum, New York Arnados, Tinos, Greece Canal houses, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Seventeenth-century house interiors, the Netherlands Town hall, Hilversum, the Netherlands Artists' houses and studios, Hammersmith, London Seabird Island School, Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh PART SIX 2006-2014 Equitable Building, Portland St. Mark's Church, Bjorkhagen, Stockholm Cantonal library of Ticino, Lugano, Switzerland Commercial extensions, London Stolpersteine (stumbling stones), Hamburg, Germany Housing project, Lindenstrasse, Berlin Dunboyne Road housing, Camden, London Gillett Square, Dalston, London Thermal baths, Vals, Switzerland Cathedral, Chartres, France Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy Swimming pool, Matosinhos, Portugal Sao Bento Train Station, Porto, Portugal PART SEVEN 2015-2024 Piazza della Madonna dei Monti, Rome Winkley Estate, Bethnal Green, London Myyrmaki Church, Vantaa, Finland Town hall, Saynatsalo, Finland Three spaces, Hvittrask, Kirkkonummi, Finland Dining room, Aalto house, Helsinki, Finland Tripotamos, Tinos, Greece Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Worship Street houses, London Silkweavers' work spaces, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India Karappankadu, Tamil Nadu, India Castelvecchio, Verona Hedmark Museum, Hamar, Norway Place du Tertre, Montmartre, Paris Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York Experimental project, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico Avenida Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil