Genius of Place

Genius of Place
Author: Justin Martin
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2011-05-31
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0306818817

This definitive, first full-scale biography of Olmsted--famed designer of New York's Central Park--reveals him also as a brilliant political and social reformer.

A Genius for Place

A Genius for Place
Author: Robin Karson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2013-08
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781952620218

In this lavishly illustrated volume, Robin Karson explores the development of a distinctly American style of landscape design. Analyzing seven country places created by some of the most imaginative landscape practitioners of the era in the context of professional and cultural currents, Karson draws a richly comprehensive picture of the artistic achievements of the period. Striking contemporary black-and-white photographs by Carol Betsch and hundreds of drawings, plans, and period photographs further illuminate their histories.

The Geography of Genius

The Geography of Genius
Author: Eric Weiner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2016-01-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1451691688

Tag along on this New York Times bestselling “witty, entertaining romp” (The New York Times Book Review) as Eric Weiner travels the world, from Athens to Silicon Valley—and back through history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times. In this “intellectual odyssey, traveler’s diary, and comic novel all rolled into one” (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. A “superb travel guide: funny, knowledgeable, and self-deprecating” (The Washington Post), he explores the history of places like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. With his trademark insightful humor, this “big-hearted humanist” (The Wall Street Journal) walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?” “Fun and thought provoking” (The Miami Herald), The Geography of Genius reevaluates the importance of culture in nurturing creativity and “offers a practical map for how we can all become a bit more inventive” (Adam Grant, author of Originals).

Consulting the Genius of the Place

Consulting the Genius of the Place
Author: Wes Jackson
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2011-09-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 158243848X

Locavore leaders such as Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and Barbara Kingsolver all speak of the need for sweeping changes in how we get our food. A longtime leader of this movement is Wes Jackson, who for decades has taken it upon himself to speak for the land, to speak for the soil itself. Here, he offers a manifesto toward a conceptual revolution: Jackson asks us to look to natural ecosystems—or, if one prefers, nature in general—as the measure against which we judge all of our agricultural practices. Jackson believes the time is right to do away with annual monoculture grains, which are vulnerable to national security threats and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs. Soil erosion and the poisons polluting our water and air—all associated with agriculture from its beginnings—foretell a population with its natural fertility greatly destroyed. In this eloquent and timely volume, Jackson argues we must look to nature itself to lead us out of the mess we've made. The natural ecosystems will tell us, if we listen, what should happen to the future of food.

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams
Author: Charles King
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2011-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393080528

Winner of a National Jewish Book Award "Fascinating.…A humane and tragic survey of a great and tragic subject." —Jan Morris, Literary Review From Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist renegade Vladimir Jabotinsky and filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, an astonishing cast of geniuses helped shape Odessa, a legendary haven of cosmopolitan freedom on the Black Sea. Drawing on a wealth of original sources and offering the first detailed account of the destruction of the city's Jewish community during the Second World War, Charles King's Odessa is both history and elegy—a vivid chronicle of a multicultural city and its remarkable resilience over the past two centuries.

The Genius of the Place

The Genius of the Place
Author: John Dixon Hunt
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1988-09-09
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262580922

A garden classic, The Genius of the Place reveals that the history of landscape gardening is much more than a history of design and style; it opens up a wide perspective of English cultural history, showing how landscape gardening was gradually transformed over two centuries into an art that has been widely imitated throughout Europe and North America. The English landscape garden is richly documented in this anthology. Over 100 illustrations accompany writings that range from Francis Bacon to Jane Austin; from the early 1600s, when Englishmen began to determine their own concept and form of the garden, through the first half of the eighteenth century when its distinctive feature emerged, to the heyday of the landscape garden under "Capability" Brown and the reactions to his pure formalism under Repton and Loudon in the 1800s. This edition contains a new introduction and bibliography covering the many developments in garden history during the last dozen years.

Context

Context
Author: Eric Parry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2015-05-08
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 111894674X

Demonstrates how a building's setting should inform and inspire rather than constrain architectural design Context-Architecture and the Genius of Place is a highly engaging, informative discussion of context in architectural theory and practice. Eric Parry, one of the UK's most highly regarded architects — whose work has been widely lauded for its innovative response to its setting — addresses the contemporary definition of context and its importance for sustainable everyday living and urban design. Looking beyond the formal agenda to explore the fundamentals that give new social and cultural perspective to this vital point of departure for designers, this book turns the urban statistician's telescopic focus on global trends inside out for a better understanding of the cultural and physical conditions that make archetypes like the Parisian Café, the London High Street, the Baltic City Square, and the Mumbai Market part of the architect's lexicon. From pavement to landscape, readers will examine how context must be taken into account at every stage in the design process. This book draws on the author's extensive experience within complex urban settings to show how the existing fabric and social conditions can provide an essential starting point for new design, offering a framework for thinking about design responses and their relationship to cultural origins of place. Discover the importance of orientation Develop a sequential understanding of urban space Hear the dialogue between parts within a whole Differentiate the uses of formal and informal Whereas existing urban settings, particularly historic city centers, are generally regarded as limiting to architectural creativity, this book presents context as grounds for inspiration rather than constraint. When used correctly, these techniques create the feeling that a new building has always been there, simply because it "fits". Context explains the methods behind brilliant architecture, helping designers create buildings that not only belong, but can provide a catalyst to urban life.

Jane and the Genius of the Place

Jane and the Genius of the Place
Author: Stephanie Barron
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2009-01-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307486532

In three highly diverting mysteries, Jane Austen has shown herself a clever hand at unraveling the deadly knots woven by the unscrupulous. Now, in her latest engrossing adventure, Jane is called upon to solve a shattering crime that may begin and end in one man's heart--or encompass the fate of an entire nation. In the waning days of summer, Jane Austen is off to the Canterbury Races, where the rich and fashionable go to gamble away their fortunes. It is an atmosphere ripe for scandal. But even Jane is unprepared for the shocking drama that ensues when a raven-haired wanton in a scarlet riding habit takes center stage. She is Françoise Grey, a flamboyant French beauty who has cast a spell over the gentlemen of Kent...and her unbridled behavior at the races invites the most scandalous speculation. What can Mrs. Grey be thinking, Jane wonders, to so brazenly strike a gentleman with her whip? And what recklessness then spurs her to leap the rail on her fleet black horse and join the race? Only hours after Mrs. Grey has departed the race grounds in triumph will Jane realize the full import of her questions. For in a shabby chaise less than a hundred feet from where Jane sat, the impossible is revealed: Mrs. Grey's lifeless body, gruesomely strangled, her ruby riding habit nowhere to be found. As those around her rush to arrest the owner of the chaise--a known scoundrel with eyes for Françoise--Jane looks further afield to find a number of others behaving oddly, including the dashing military man caught rifling through the dead woman's desk, the widower who does not appear to be grieving, and the shy governess curiously overpowered by the horror of the Frenchwoman's death. As rumors spread like wildfire that Napoleon's fleet is bound for Kent, Jane begins to suspect that Françoise Grey's murder was an act of war rather than a crime of passion. The peaceful fields of Kent have become a very dangerous place...and Jane's thirst for justice may exact the steepest price of all--her life. Deliciously sinister and splendidly wrought, Jane and the Genius of the Place is a stylish puzzler that only the incomparable Jane Austen could hope to crack. And in her capable hands, the solving of it is a pleasure to watch.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
Author: Josh Lieb
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101150939

Family Guy meets Election in this hilarious young adult debut! Twelve-year-old Oliver Watson’s got the IQ of a grilled cheese sandwich. Or so everyone in Omaha thinks. In reality, Oliver’s a mad evil genius on his way to world domination, and he’s used his great brain to make himself the third-richest person on earth! Then Oliver’s father—and archnemesis—makes a crack about the upcoming middle school election, and Oliver takes it as a personal challenge. He’ll run, and he’ll win! Turns out, though, that overthrowing foreign dictators is actually way easier than getting kids to like you. . . Can this evil genius win the class presidency and keep his true identity a secret, all in time to impress his dad?

Michael Faraday and The Royal Institution

Michael Faraday and The Royal Institution
Author: J.M Thomas
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780750301459

A self-educated man who knew no mathematics, Michael Faraday rose from errand boy to become one of Britain's greatest scientists. Faraday made the discoveries upon which most of twentieth-century technology is based and readers of this book will enjoy finding out in how many ways we are indebted to him. The story of his life speaks to us across the years and is a fascinating read, especially when the tale is told with the understanding and gusto that Professor Thomas-one of the UK's leading scientists-brings to the telling. Faraday took great trouble to make the latest discoveries of science, his own and others', intelligible to the layman, and the tradition he fostered has been kept alive ever since, so that the Royal Institution is as well known for its contributions to education as for its research. Written in a concise, nontechnical style, Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place is a human account that provides an introduction to the roots of modern science and ways in which scientists work. The book is lavishly illustrated with drawings, cartoons, photographs, and letters-many never before published. There is no similar book on Faraday that interprets his genius in modern, everyday terms, making it understandable, interesting, and exciting reading for scientists and nonscientists alike.