Committee on Design

COD is busy preparing for its Big Cities, Big Ideas Conference in New York--May 15-18, 2014. At our Origins of Modernism Conference in Berlin last fall, architect Jean-Luc Briguet, AIA, suggested we solicit recommendations for reading and viewing to help provide background knowledge on future conference locations. To that end, I'm requesting suggestions from the collective knowledge of COD members for books and films on New York. Please respond with your suggestions to the Discussion List.

For starters: Architect Ronnette Riley, FAIA suggests:
The Power Broker by Robert Caro and
Island At The Center of The World by Russell Shorto.

I suggest:
the PBS series Treasures of New York (http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/) with its recent profiles of Stanford White and Costas Kondylis and
High Line: the inside story of New York City's park in the sky by Joshua David and Robert Hammond.



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Ann Thompson
Essex Library Association
Essex CT
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I recommend Vishaan Chakrabarti's A Country of Cities. He's a professor at Columbia and a partner at SHOP Architect. The book is a brilliant odd to the value of cities and the illustrations are wonderful and really illuminate the text ------------------------------------------- Allyne Winderman FAIA Lecturer, Cal Poly Pomona Los Angeles CA -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 02-04-2014 17:47 From: Ann Thompson Subject: Books & Films To Prepare For New York Conference COD is busy preparing for its Big Cities, Big Ideas Conference in New York--May 15-18, 2014. At our Origins of Modernism Conference in Berlin last fall, architect Jean-Luc Briguet, AIA, suggested we solicit recommendations for reading and viewing to help provide background knowledge on future conference locations. To that end, I'm requesting suggestions from the collective knowledge of COD members for books and films on New York. Please respond with your suggestions to the Discussion List. For starters: Architect Ronnette Riley, FAIA suggests: The Power Broker by Robert Caro and Island At The Center of The World by Russell Shorto. I suggest: the PBS series Treasures of New York (http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/ <http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/>) with its recent profiles of Stanford White and Costas Kondylis and High Line: the inside story of New York City's park in the sky by Joshua David and Robert Hammond. ------------------------------------------- Ann Thompson Essex Library Association Essex CT -------------------------------------------

"This is New York", by E.B. White

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Andrew Wells FAIA
Architect + Principal
Dake Wells Architecture
Springfield MO
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2014 18:13
From: Ann Thompson
Subject: Books & Films To Prepare For New York Conference

COD is busy preparing for its Big Cities, Big Ideas Conference in New York--May 15-18, 2014. At our Origins of Modernism Conference in Berlin last fall, architect Jean-Luc Briguet, AIA, suggested we solicit recommendations for reading and viewing to help provide background knowledge on future conference locations. To that end, I'm requesting suggestions from the collective knowledge of COD members for books and films on New York. Please respond with your suggestions to the Discussion List.

For starters: Architect Ronnette Riley, FAIA suggests:
The Power Broker by Robert Caro and
Island At The Center of The World by Russell Shorto.

I suggest:
the PBS series Treasures of New York (http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/) with its recent profiles of Stanford White and Costas Kondylis and
High Line: the inside story of New York City's park in the sky by Joshua David and Robert Hammond.



-------------------------------------------
Ann Thompson
Essex Library Association
Essex CT
-------------------------------------------

A great book, set in NYC Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer Millhauser, Steve This book won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I read it ten years ago but the lead character, and the hotel he builds, has stuck with me as a wonderful illustration of the spirit of New York City - of course I only visit the city, so maybe it is only an illusion. 'This wonderful, wonder-full book is a fable and phantasmagoria of the sources of our century: ''There once lived a man named Martin Dressler, a shopkeeper's son, who rose from modest beginnings to a height of dreamlike good fortune. . . . But this is a perilous privilege, which the gods watch jealously.'' ''Perilous privilege'' is the core of Mr. Millhauser's analysis of that subgenre of fairy tale, the American Dream.' from a review in the New York Times titled Heartbreak Hotel by Janet Burroway, May 12, 1996. ------------------------------------------- Jim Childress FAIA Centerbrook Architects & Planners Centerbrook CT -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 02-06-2014 17:45 From: Ann Thompson Subject: Books & Films To Prepare For New York Conference COD is busy preparing for its Big Cities, Big Ideas Conference in New York--May 15-18, 2014. At our Origins of Modernism Conference in Berlin last fall, architect Jean-Luc Briguet, AIA, suggested we solicit recommendations for reading and viewing to help provide background knowledge on future conference locations. To that end, I'm requesting suggestions from the collective knowledge of COD members for books and films on New York. Please respond with your suggestions to the Discussion List. For starters: Architect Ronnette Riley, FAIA suggests: The Power Broker by Robert Caro and Island At The Center of The World by Russell Shorto. I suggest: the PBS series Treasures of New York (http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/ <http://www.thirteen.org/programs/treasures-of-new-york/>) with its recent profiles of Stanford White and Costas Kondylis and High Line: the inside story of New York City's park in the sky by Joshua David and Robert Hammond. ------------------------------------------- Ann Thompson Essex Library Association Essex CT -------------------------------------------