Best Landmarks & Monuments

Now, broken and ruined, these places are documented in Christopher's book, Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences . Exploring sites like the charred remains of the Hotel Do De, the rusted cells of the Essex County Jail Annex, the sublime majesty of the Church of the Transfiguration, or the eerie and dilapidated remnants of the New Castle Elks Lodge, the work spans architectural treasures left to the elements and then all too often lost forever.

It features the city’s beloved masterpieces by Wright, including the Robie House, such milestones as the Willis Tower and the John Hancock Building, Gehry’s Pritzker Bandshell, as well as a wealth of little-known treasures from Chicago’s early days culled from the vast collection of the Chicago History Museum. "It’s hard to imagine a better compendium: Building Chicago is an important addition to any serious collection of books about the city." "...if your summer visitors finally get it in the mail at the holidays, they probably won’t look at all the selfies they took in front of Chicago’s landmarks but this well-thumbed book instead and think 'Golly!'". "For those of us who are absorbed in both Chicago’s fascinating history and its astonishing architecture, the images are reason enough to acquire the book."

The first-hand, behind-the-scenes account of the creative inspiration behind the High Line, the transformative public 'park in the sky' that has reshaped global perceptions of urban space – and become one of the most beloved and visited destinations in New York City. "A guide to the rebirth of New York City's High Line, the book shows the formerly derelict site's makeover into an alluring community space and tourist attraction." "Oversize photographs of the construction process as well as views of the finished product offer a nuanced appreciation of the architectural efforts of James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro." "A piece of performance art, a richly illustrated tour that captures not only the park's history but its blooming, buzzy feel. "Apparently imbued with almost miraculous transformational powers [The High Line] is the envy of every post-industrial city blessed or cursed with lumps of defunct infrastructure, and an image on the project mood boards of every urban regeneration consultant.

After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations.

Cleveland storyteller Dan Ruminski discovered that the 6 acres under his home were originally part of a 1,400-acre grand estate known as the Circle W Farm created by Walter White, founding brother of the White Motor Company. Cleveland native Alan Dutka authored "East Fourth Street: The Rise, Decline, and Rebirth of an Urban Cleveland Street," with Cleveland Landmark Press, and four business books.

With their idyllic settings, unique architecture and cozy interiors, the Cabin Porn photographs, are an invitation to slow down, take a deep breath, and feel the beauty and serenity that nature and simple construction can create. Photographer Noah Kalina 's editorial work has been featured in New York Magazine , Esquire , and, Food & Wine .

He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes (among some of the most renowned machines of the Renaissance) to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers' platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction--all the while defying those who said the dome would surely collapse and his own personal obstacles that at times threatened to overwhelm him. King also offers a wealth of fascinating detail that opens windows onto fifteenth-century life: the celebrated traditions of the brickmaker's art, the daily routine of the artisans laboring hundreds of feet above the ground as the dome grew ever higher, the problems of transportation, the power of the guilds. Ross King is the highly praised author of Leonardo and The Last Supper, Brunelleschi's Dom e (the Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year in 2000), Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling , The Judgment of Paris , Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power , and two novels, Ex Libris and Domino .