In this issue of arcCA, we look at the current state of the architectural press. We’ve sought a variety of points of view, ranging from a critique (by Thomas Fisher, former editor of Progressive Architecture) of the dominance that our sister McGraw-Hill publication, Architectural Record, enjoys in the American marketplace, to a history of architectural journals in California, to a “how-to” guide to setting up your firm’s media relations strategy.
arcCA does not regularly publish book reviews, but in an issue on the architectural press I thought I might mention three impressive new books.
Ray Kappe: a Retrospective, 1953- 2003, published by the A+D Museum to accompany a recent exhibition, is an elegant and well-illustrated compendium of the work of the founding director of SCIArc (Los Angeles: A+D Museum Publishing, 2003). For the many of us who have grown weary of the perennial republication of vintage photos (lovely as they are),
Donlyn Lyndon’s The Sea Ranch, with over 300 wonderful new photographs by Jim Alinder and essays by Donald Canty and Lawrence Halprin, beautifully brings our understanding of this seminal coastal development up-to-date (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004).
And I am particularly delighted by the publication of Delta Primer, by Jane Wolff, the first fragment of which was originally published in arcCA 00.2, “Common Ground.” As Margit Aramburu, Executive Director, Delta Protection Commission, writes, “I have worked in the Delta for ten years, and Delta Primer took me places I hadn’t seen and introduced me to history I hadn’t heard. It’s hard to describe: it’s beautiful artwork, it’s a geographic study of a unique landscape, and it’s a political primer about the future of water and land uses in the State of California.” Available as both a book and a deck of playing cards that allows one to work out for oneself the complex exchange of values required to manage the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta, Delta Primer is the tenth publication of William Stout Publishers (San Francisco: William Stout Publishers, 2003).
Originally published 1st quarter 2004 in arcCA 04.1, “Press Check.”
