Building Facades: Faces, Figures, and Ornamental Details - Tapa dura

Unique in the literature and sure to become a standard reference, here is the first guide to the identification and restoration of building facades. Featuring 2,000 b/w halftones illustrations, it chronicles in photo-essay style the diversity of facades from around the world. Images are shown within their historical and social context, and are easily accessed through cross-references to chronology, geography, location, building type, type of detail, and materials used. Select case studies (Ellis Island Museum and others) emphasize the practical aspects of preservation.

The definitive reference to the identification and restoration of building facades, featuring more than 2,000 images "This is a book of photographic images, drawings, and evocative text about building facades-their design and adornment with faces, figures, and ornamental detail. It covers their history from Egypt through the Modern Movement. . .catalogs them with cross-references. . .and features case studies of the preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of building facades today. . ."This book is an act of preservation in itself, by saving these details and faces photographically. It contains more than 2,000 images. The main focus is on the incredible beauty of the details on the facades, and how they must be protected from being destoryed in the wake of progress." author Ernest Burden. Never before has one book chronicled the history, diversity, and importance of building facades and the details that enrich them. Here is the first such guide--a rich visual sampling that engages the eye and the mind. Designed for a professional audience of architects, urban planners, perservationists, and students, Building Facades will also captivate everyone who values the world's architectural heritage.