Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Fun Find

It has been a drill trying to get back to this blog. I have not been out exploring the countryside much the past few months. Instead I have stayed very close to home. Perhaps too much time doing this. Recently I joined the Friends of the Milton Library. My first time working in the small gift shop the organization runs was last week. While I was shelving some recently received used books, I came across one that really caught my eye. I flipped through the pages and was drawn to a few drawings and to some very interesting topics like Mosaic of Subcultures, Identifiable Neighborhood, Eccentric Nucleus, Old People Everywhere, Life Cycle, Garden Growing Wild, and many others. The book is in excellent shape and who can resist the price, $ 0.25? Best 25 cents I have spent in a long time.

What an informative book this is. I have not started to read it through but I have opened it just for fun and read a short section wherever I happen to flip it open. For a "technical" book, this is a captivating look at "towns, building and construction." Published in 1977, this is Volume 2 of Center for Environmental Structure Series. The other two volumes are Volume 1, The Timeless Way of Building and Volume 3, The Oregon Experiment. Sometime I will have to check out the other two volumes. Real Estate developers should be required to carefully read these books.

3 comments:

Alexandra said...

I love old books! They are so much fun to read through. I've been thinking about you both and hope things are looking up.

Terry Grant said...

This is a book I have meant to read for years! I have read excerpts and heard it talked about. It is a classic in design circles. I think I should try to find a copy, we should both read and then discuss when we see you in September!

June said...

Oh Carla, Pattern Language changed my whole vision of the world. A friend had a copy and let me read it, only in his presence with white gloves (well, that exaggerates a bit, but I was threatened with all kinds of beatings if I lost or damaged it). I finally bought my own copy and still read it. Our family uses the idea of the "zen view" as a kind of touchstone for the beautiful transient experience that is inexplicable and can't be experienced twice. Life is full of zen views and the book got us to appreciate them.

There's also a lovely section on the kind of room an old person (however defined) needs -- small, out of the way but near people, just a dear thought.

You are right -- this is a book that every developer and property owner should have. I lent mine to a friend who was building a house, threatening him with mayhem too if he failed to return it. He did so, somewhat reluctantly. Friendships are one thing; Pattern Language, well, almost as irreplaceable.