The Place of Houses

With a new epilogue

Richly illustrated with houses large and small, old and new, with photographs, plans, and cutaway drawings, this is a book for people who want a house but who may not know what they really need, or what they have a right to expect.

The authors establish the basis for good building by examining houses in the small Massachusetts town of Edgartown; in Santa Barbara, California, where a commitment was made to re-create an imaginary Spanish past; and in Sea Ranch, on the northern California coast, where the authors attempt to create a community. These examples demonstrate how individual houses can express the care, energies, and dreams of the people who live in them, and can contribute to a larger sense of place.

Charles Moore (1925-94) was Dean of the School of Architecture at Yale, Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, and O'Neil Ford Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas. Donlyn Lyndon, Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, has served as Chair of the Departments of Architecture at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Oregon. Gerald Allen was an editor of Architectural Record when this book was written; he now practices architecture in New York. All three authors have designed noteworthy houses.