Top 5 Books | NoCA Shelter In Place Recommendations
Like us, maybe you have already binge-watched the latest season of your favorite TV show and are looking for some new activities while sheltering in place! Here is a list of our Top 5 books on Northern California Modernism.
Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream - Paul Adamson and Marty Arbunich
Eichler’s casual, affordable Modernism has undoubtedly left a mark on the Bay Area. Having built some 11,000 homes during his career, most of these homes were built in the San Francisco Bay Area and captured the California climate and zeitgeist with simple, beautiful materials and a strong indoor-outdoor connection.
Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream - Paul Adamson and Marty Arbunich
NorCalMod: Icons of Northern California Modernism - Pierluigi Serraino
NorCalMod provides a detailed look into Modernist design in Northern California, including many residential projects that are hidden away in the hills and may never otherwise be seen. Illustrated with gorgeous photographs, contemporary and historic, this book shows the diversity of design, materials, and form utilized in Northern California Modernism, and discusses the unique “Bay Region Style” of Modernism.
NorCalMod: Icons of Northern California Modernism - Pierluigi Serraino
Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City - Alison Isenberg
Isenberg’s book reexamines the legacy of urban renewal, architecture, art, and real estate in San Francisco during the post-World War II period. In particular, Isenberg celebrates the stories of women in the architecture and allied fields whose important contributions to the urban design of San Francisco have often been untold—such as graphic designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, publicist Marion Conrad, merchant builder Caree Rose, and architectural model builders Leila Johnston and Virginia Green. Isenberg weaves these stories into a larger reexamination of several key projects including the redevelopment of Ghiradelli Square, the Golden Gateway redevelopment competition, fight against Transamerica Pyramid, and the development of The Sea Ranch, charting the collaborations and tensions between the city’s architects, urbanists, preservationists, environmentalists, artists, activists, and politicians in the 1940s to 1970s.
Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City - Alison Isenberg
The San Ranch: Architecture, Environment & Idealism - Edited by Joseph Becker, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Phil Mariani
The SFMOMA exhibition catalog for “The Sea Ranch” explores the intersection between architectural design, environmentalism, and idealism. The catalog features photographs, drawings, and models by Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon, Richard Whitaker, and William Turnbull (MLTW), Joseph Esherick, Lawrence Halprin, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, and others. The essays investigate the beginnings of the project, theories that informed the approach of living lightly on the land, and the ongoing legacy of the community and design at Sea Ranch.
The San Ranch: Architecture, Environment & Idealism - Edited by Joseph Becker, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Phil Mariani
Mid-Century Modern: West Coast Travel Guide - Sam Lubell, photographs by Darren Bradley
Any lover of Modernism should have this travel guide in their car or weekender. Perhaps we aren’t all traveling much right now, but you may be surprised what Modern gems are in your own backyard! Take a long socially-distanced walk using this travel guide and dream of future vacations built around West Coast Modernism!
Mid-Century Modern: West Coast Travel Guide - Sam Lubell, photographs by Darren Bradley
Shortlist
There are also tons of other great books and monographs that focus on individual practitioners out there, and many more inspiring works about Northern California design and designers, and of course California more broadly. Here a few more on our shortlist if you’ve worked through the Top 5:
Visionary San Francisco - Paolo Polledri, Gray A. Brechin, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco: The Grid Meets the Hills - Florence Lipsky
Bay Area Houses - Sally Woodbridge
Living Modern: A Biography of Greenwood Common - Waverly B. Lowell
Why? Why Not? - Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
Frank Lloyd Wright and San Francisco - Paul Turner
Interior Portraits: A California Design Pilgrimage - Leslie Williamson
Appropriate: The Houses of Joseph Esherick - Marc Treib
Garrett Eckbo: Landscapes for Living - Marc Treib and Dorothe Imbert
San Francisco Modern: Interiors, Architecture & Design - Mario Botta
BART: The Dramatic History of Bay Area Rapid Transit - Michael C. Healy
The Donnell and Eckbo Gardens: Modern California Masterworks - Marc Treib
Design on the Edge: A Century of Teaching Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, 1903-2003 - Harry Bertoia and Celia Bertoia
Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity - Amos Klausner
Many local bookstores are still shipping so try to support one of your favorites—like William Stout Books, Green Apple Books, or City Lights—when picking up some of these titles.