Swipe Books on Advertising and Design

Tim Fraser for National Post

Swipe and BUILT are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Margaret and Phil Goodfellow, authors of the newly released Guide to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto, as they meet the public and answer questions about Toronto’s architectural renaissance on the opening day of Doors Open, Saturday May 29th, in the lobby lounge of 401 Richmond Street West from 2 pm to 3:30 pm. Please join us!

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With Doors Open Toronto 2010 just around the corner, we here at Swipe and BUILT are more thankful than ever to be part of the extraordinary arts and culture complex at 401 Richmond Street West. A prime destination during the festival, 401 is expecting several thousand visitors over the weekend of May 29th and 30th. Accordingly, Swipe and Built will be open Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm.

In celebration of this celebration of our city’s cultural, social and architectural heritage, BUILT offers a selection of Torontoniana published since last year’s post, beginning with a tremendously significant new release that documents one of the most exciting moments in Toronto’s long architectural history. That moment is, you may have guessed, right now.

A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto
✍ 2010: Margaret and Phil Goodfellow

The past two decades have seen an explosion of building in our city, and while from an urban-planning perspective much of this development might be viewed with suspicion, from a purely aesthetic perspective, many of these buildings are thoughtful, challenging and truly beautiful. Authored by Toronto Society of Architects stalwarts Margaret and Phil Goodfellow, this up-to-the-minute guide documents sixty projects completed between 1992 and 2010 that form the core of this Toronto architectural renaissance. Organized by neighbourhood, this pocket-sized guide is equally delightful whether readers choose to hit the streets or do their site-seeing from an armchair. (2010: Douglas & McIntyre; ISBN 9781553654445)

$24.95

Please join us as we host Margaret and Phil on the opening day of Doors Open, Saturday May 29th in the lobby lounge at 401 Richmond Street West at 2 pm. In the meantime, listen to an interview with Phil by Peter Stock of CIUT 89.5 FM:

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The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork
✍ 2009: Alana Wilcox & Christina Palassio, editors

New from the uTOpia team, the 40 essays in Edible City examine all aspects of the way that Torontonians feed themselves, from fancy restaurant to urban slaughterhouse, from disappearing farmland to balcony container garden. (2009: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552452190)

HTO: Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets
✍ 2008: Christina Palassio & Wayne Reeves, editors

With its harbour and sprawling lakeshore, two major river systems with a network of ravines and creeks, and a massive sewer and water-supply system, Toronto is a city of waterways. This fourth volume in the influential uTOpia series explores the city’s relationship with water, both in the landscape and in our domestic and industrial lives. (2008: Coach House Books; ISBN 9781552451946)

Historical Atlas of Toronto, paperback
✍ 2009: Derek Hayes

In this new addition to the acclaimed series, geographer Derek Hayes charts Toronto’s history, presenting more than 200 period maps that together provide a unique visual record of the city’s development. (2008: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd; ISBN 9781553654971)

The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl
✍ 2009: John Sewell

A meticulous and thoughtful account of how Toronto became ‘Greater’ Toronto, expanding on the author’s classic study The Shape of the City. John Sewell includes anecdotes on the origin and purpose of Toronto’s expressway system, the economic and political history of infrastructure in the 905, and the unlikely connection between the QEW and Adolph Hitler. (2009: University of Toronto Press; ISBN 9780802095879)

Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto
✍ 2010: Shawn Micallef & Marlena Zuber

Shawn Micallef, Eye columnist, senior editor at Spacing and a co-founder of the [murmur] project, explores Toronto’s buildings and streetscapes as dynamic cultural entities, examining not only their structure and purpose but also the ways they are used and experienced by the people who inhabit them. The thirty-two featured walks, guided by hand-drawn maps from illustrator Marlena Zuber, invite the reader to experience the city at a pace that celebrates the details as well as the grand vision. (2010: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552452263)

The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork: $24.95
HTO: Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets: $24.95
Historical Atlas of Toronto: $34.95
The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl: $24.95
Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto: $24.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

We have just received a pair of new issues of the beautiful El Croquis from Madrid.

El Croquis 147 – Toyo Ito, 2005 – 2009

El Croquis 148 – Collective Experiments

✍ 1982 (2010): Fernando Márquez Cecilia & Richard Levene

Founded in 1982, El Croquis (‘the Sketch’ in Spanish) is consistently the most beautiful architectural periodical published anywhere in the world. With editorial in both Spanish and English, El Croquis examines the work of the world’s notable architects in an ongoing series of beautifully designed, bimonthly hardcover monographs. Unique to the publication is the comprehensive manner in which each architect’s projects are documented, with plans, sketches, and insights into all aspects of the design process. It is this level of detail, coupled with Hisao Suzuki’s gorgeous photography, that has made El Croquis BUILT’s most requested publication – despite the somewhat painful price.

In addition to the current issue, we will be stocking some of El Croquis’ most popular back issues including those on Rem Koolhaas and OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Steven Holl, and Tadao Ando.

El Croquis 20/64/98 – Rafael Moneo, 1967 – 2004: $219.95
El Croquis 44/58 – Tadao Ando, 1983 – 2000: $149.95
El Croquis 52/73/103 – Zaha Hadid, 1983 – 2004: $179.95
El Croquis 78/93/108 – Steven Holl, 1986 – 2003: $179.95
El Croquis 86/111 – MVRDV, 1991 – 2002: $149.95
El Croquis 87/120 – David Chipperfield, 1991 – 2006: $179.95
El Croquis 109/110 – Herzog & de Meuron, 1997 – 2002: $129.95
El Croquis 123 – Toyo Ito, 2001- 2005: $99.95
El Croquis 129/130 – Herzog & de Meuron, 2000 – 2006: $129.95
El Croquis 131/132 – OMA/Rem Koolhaas Volume 1: $149.95
El Croquis 134/135 – OMA/Rem Koolhaas Volume II: $149.95
El Croquis 139 – SANAA/Sejima Nishizawa, 2004 – 2007: $129.95
El Croquis 141 – Steven Holl Architects: $99.95
El Croquis 143 – Gigon / Guyer, 2001 – 2008: $99.95
El Croquis 144 – EMBT Enrique Miralles / Benedetta Tagliabue, 2000-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 145 – Christian Kerez, 2000-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 146 – Souto De Moura, 2005-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 147 – Toyo Ito, 2005-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 148 – Collective Experiments: $99.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Launched in 1997, 2G International Architecture Review, from Barcelona-based Editorial Gustavo Gili, has, in the short time since its introduction, become the most respected chronicle of contemporary architecture. Each issue is divided into three sections. The first two offer a critical examination of the work of a single architect, beginning with an introductory essay by renowned critics and colleagues, and followed by an in-depth presentation of 10 to 15 representative projects documented with full-page photographs and detailed plans and elevations. The final section, called Nexus, provides the featured architect an opportunity to write about their own work and to present their ideas as they see fit. Thus, 2G offers a unique opportunity to contrast the architect’s stated intent with critical interpretations of their work.

2G #52: Sauerbruch Hutton
✍ 2010: Barry Bergdoll, Louisa Hutton, Matthias Sauerbruch & Philip Ursprung

Dividing their time between London and Berlin, Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton are known for a practice that eschews the straight line and a muted palette, designing curvaceous buildings with bold, bright colours. (2010: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425223365)

$59.95

2G #51: MGM Morales Giles Mariscal
✍ 2009: Laurent Beaudouin, Sara de Giles, Jose Morales & Carlos Muro

This issue examines the work of another iconoclastic regional practice: in this case the Sevillean studio MGM Arquitectos. In both their high-density residential projects and public buildings, MGM infuses a distinctly contemporary architecture with the traditional interplay of interior and exterior space typical of Andalusian architecture. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425223143)

$59.95

2G #50: Sou Fujimoto
✍ 2009: Toyo Ito & Julian Worrall

Sou Fujimoto is the most representative practitioner of a distinctively Japanese style in contemporary architecture which incorporates traditional Japanese attitudes toward nature and the relationship between interior and exterior space. Fujimoto is one of the youngest architects to be profiled in 2G, and his work has been restricted primarily to smaller residential projects and a variety of conceptual exercises. The issue features a critical assessment by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, in many ways Fujimoto’s conceptual antecedent. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425222931)

$59.95

2G #48–49: Mies van der Rohe : Houses
✍ 2009: Beatriz Colomina, Moises Puente & Hans Christian

This double issue focuses an aspect of Mies’ body of work that, up to now, has been poorly documented. All of Mies’ single-family dwellings, in both Germany and the United States, are examined in new commissioned photos from Hans-Christian Schink, along with the original drawings and other archival material. Essays by Beatriz Colomina and Moises Puente provide critical context and a special section catalogues the known unbuilt residential projects. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425221880)

$129.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
✍ 2009: Jo Steffens, editor; with an essay by Walter Benjamin

A great way to annoy friends or loved ones with an interest in popular culture is to consistently look past the celebrities in the glossy magazines at the books on the shelves behind them (“Look at her arms; do you think she’s anorexic?” “I don’t know, but don’t you think she’s a bit old to be reading Ayn Rand and Hermann Hesse?”). More than any other conceit, an individual’s library provides reliable insight into their their self image. This delicious little book, based on an exhibition at Urban Center Books (The Architecture Bookstore of the Municipal Art Society of New York), showcases the libraries of twelve renowned architects, simultaneously cataloguing their intellectual influences and betraying their intellectual affectations. Editor Jo Steffens, who previously edited Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York City, offers a series of photographs of each library with the books in place on their shelves, recording the library’s aesthetic and organizational context along with its contents.

In addition to the photographs, each participant is asked to provide a reading list of the ten books that have most influenced them and interviews allow each to assess the  importance of their libraries to their careers. One wonders if, after the initial flattery of being approached for the project, any of the twelve experienced trepidation at the thought of all those strangers looking at their books. While allowing guests to snoop our books is something that we readily tolerate, one’s library is undoubtedly more revealing than the medicine cabinet we keep locked, or the porn collection and notebook of juvenile poetry we hide so scrupulously. (2009: Yale University Press; ISBN  9780300158939)

$22.95

Oh, and the architects whose libraries and reading lists are featured are:

Stan Allen
Henry Cobb
Liz Diller & Ric Scofidio
Peter Eisenman
Michael Graves
Steven Holl
Toshiko Mori
Michael Sorkin
Bernard Tschumi
Todd Williams & Billie Tsien

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

The product of a collaboration between LEGO and celebrated architectural artist (and LEGO Certified Professional) Adam Reed Tucker, whose educational company, BrickStructures, Inc., specializes in the design and execution of scale replicas of architectural masterpieces in the ubiquitous plastic bricks. Or rather, not replicas. Tucker makes this point on the BrickStructures web site: “I first and foremost do not view my models as literal replicas, but rather artistic interpretations that capture the essence of their sculptural form.” Furthering his educational mission, Tucker’s ‘artistic interpretations’ are currently the centerpiece of an exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry. “With products such as the line of souvenir sets and educational events, we wish to promote an awareness of the fascinating worlds of architecture, engineering and construction in a new and unexpected way.” Tucker states. In the newly released Frank Lloyd Wright licensed series, as in the entire LEGO Architecture program, Tucker’s artistry is equally evident in the individual designs and in the overall concept, which puts to shame anything that’s come out of Billund recently. They are simple, honest and to the heart of what has made LEGO a mainstay of Twentieth-Century childhood.

Lego Architecture Landmark Series

Sears Tower
✍ 2008: Adam Reed Tucker, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Bruce Graham & Fazlur Khan

The first in the LEGO Architecture series, this striking black-and-white replica of the famous Sears Tower in Chicago measures 9 inches (228 mm) tall.

John Hancock Center
✍ 2008: Adam Reed Tucker, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Bruce Graham & Fazlur Khan

Another Chicago landmark, this model of the John Hancock Center measures 7.5 inches (192 mm) tall.

Empire State Building
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Lamb & Harmon Shreve

The Empire State Building, third in the LEGO Architecture Landmark series, proudly standing 7.4 inches (188 mm) tall.

Space Needle
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker, Edward Carlson, John Graham & Victor Steinbrueck

This futuristic tower, Seattle’s famous Space Needle created for the 1962 World’s Fair, is the fourth in the LEGO Architecture Landmark series.

Each set: $29.95

Lego Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright Series

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Frank Lloyd Wright

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of New York City’s best-known museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim set stands 4 inches (102 mm) tall and includes a booklet describing the history and construction of the classic 5th Avenue landmark.

$62.95

Fallingwater
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Frank Lloyd Wright

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934, Fallingwater is the most famous residential architectural design in the world. The assembled model stands 10 inches (256 mm) wide and includes a booklet with facts about the building, its construction and its history.

$149.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Twenty + Change 01: Emerging Toronto Design Practices
Twenty + Change 02: Emerging Canadian Design Practices

✍ 2009: Heather Dubbeldam & Lola Sheppard , editors

Founded in 2007, Twenty + Change is a biennial exhibition programme intended to highlight the work of young Canadian architects and urban designers who have yet to receive widespread public and media attention. The most recent exhibition, launched at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto in June of 2009, is documented in this attractive two-volume catalogue. The first volume features projects from 21 emerging Toronto architects and the second volume showcases the work of 21 additional young architects from across the country. Edited by Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Design Architects and Lola Sheppard of Lateral Architecture, and published by the Riverside Architectural Press, the catalogue captures not only the current cutting-edge but gives some sense of the future potential of the of the industry in Canada. (2009: Riverside Architectural Press; ISBNs 9781926724010 & 9781926724003)

$19.95 each volume

Among the featured practices are:

5468796 Architecture Inc, Winnipeg
AGATHOM Co., Toronto
Altius Architecture Inc., Toronto
Campos Leckie, Vancouver
D’Arcy Jones Design Inc, Vancouver
Dubbeldam Design Architects, Toronto
EVOKE International Design Inc., Vancouver
Gow Hastings Architects Inc., Toronto
Khoury Levit Fong, Toronto
Lapointe Architects, Toronto
Lateral Office, Toronto
Marko Simcic Architect, Vancouver
mcfarlane | green | biggar ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN, Vancouver
naturehumaine [architecture + design], Montreal
NIPpaysage, Montreal
North Design Office, Toronto
Paul Raff Studio, Toronto
RVTR, Toronto
spmb, Winnipeg
Susan Fitzgerald Architecture, Halifax
The Acre Collective, Saint John
Urban Republic arts society/ph5 architecture inc., Vancouver

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

The aesthetic congruity between Japanese and Scandinavian design is self-evident. Both traditions hold a similar attitude toward nature and natural form, both tend to minimalism and share a reverence for craftsmanship. In the field of architecture there was a reciprocal influence between the cultures throughout the Twentieth Century, with Alvar Aalto, who is essentially revered by modern Japanese architects, being particularly vocal in his appreciation of traditional Japanese architecture and design. In graphic and pattern design, the Japaneque is very much a part of the design vocabulary of Marimekko, while contemporary Japanese designer Yurio Seki has collaborated with Swedish craft maven Lotta Jansdotter and is responsible for the design of the first monograph on the work of renowned graphic designer Olle Eksell to be published outside of his native Sweden.

Yurio Seki: Japanese Graphic Designer
✍ 2008: Yurio Seki

This is the first comprehensive monograph on the work of Yurio Seki and her brand Salvia. Seki is one of the most popular graphics designers in Japan with an instantly recognizable style and palette. Along with a complete presentation of the Salvia pattern and product designs, this book features an extensive selection of her book designs and other print work. Unfortunately, as this is a specially imported domestic publication from Pie Books, all text is in Japanese. (2008: PIE Books; ISBN 9784894446496)

$49.95

Olle Eksell: Swedish Graphic Designer
✍ 2007: Olle Eksell

Olle Eksell (1918-2007) was a pioneering figure in Swedish graphic design.Typical of the industry in Sweden, Eksell maintained a diverse practice, working in illustration, corporate identity and editorial design, fabric and textile design, and as a design educator and writer. However, it was his advocacy of the modern conception of graphic design and his 1964 textbook Design-Economy that were most influential in the development of the industry in Sweden. His work is uniformly subtle, beautiful and gentle. Another domestic publication from Pie Books with the majority of its text in Japanese. (2007: PIE Books; ISBN 9784894445475)

$44.95

Alvar Aalto: Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban
✍ 2007: Shigeru Ban, Juhani Pallasmaa & Tomoko Sato

Based on a 2007 exhibition by the same name held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, this beautifully produced catalogue examines the development of Aalto’s architectural style, reproducing models, drawings, photographs and artifacts from 14 of his key projects. Curated by renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who, despite the generational and geographical divide, is perhaps the most most legitimate heir to Aalto’s architectural vision. (2007: Black Dog Publishing; ISBN 9781904772644)

$54.00

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

While it is correct to view Mid-Century Modern more as a category of collectibles than as a coherent design movement, the term is also useful as a shorthand for the pseudo-futuristic style that swallowed Modernism and regurgitated it as American roadside kitsch. It is unfortunate that the wash of nostalgia for Naive Modernism and Mid-Century decor has swept up the work of designers, like George Nelson or Charles and Ray Eames, who were clearly more ambitious. One wonders also at the current popularity of Brazilian Modernist master Oscar Neimeyer, who, along with Lucio Costa, realized the most ambitious urban development scheme in modern history: the de novo creation of the new Brazilian capital, Brasília. Neimeyer’s contribution to the development of Modernism as it is applied to institutional and civic architecture go far beyond his stylistic experimentation with reinforced concrete. One sees the enduring influence of Brazilian Modernism more in the form and structure of the suburban planned communities of the 1960s, such as Toronto’s Don Mills, than in the curvy concrete details of their embedded shopping malls.

Oscar Niemeyer Houses
✍ 2006: Alan Hess & Alan Weintraub

Oscar Niemeyer Houses showcases the houses built by this seminal modern architect with large-format images, design sketches and architectural renderings. Viewed as a collection, these houses demonstrate the wide range of Niemeyer’s skill and show a side of his work that is little known and underappreciated. (2006: Rizzoli; ISBN 9780847827985)

$89.95

Oscar Niemeyer Buildings
✍ 2009: Alan Hess & Alan Weintraub

Niemeyer is known primarily for his large-scale institutional and civic designs throughout Brazil and Europe – daringly conceptual works that challenged Twentieth-Century Modernist orthodoxy with their iconoclastic structure and use of materials. This comprehensive book, a companion to Rizzoli’s Oscar Niemeyer Houses, presents a reevaluation of his greatest buildings, in all-new color photography specially commissioned for this book. (2009: Rizzoli; ISBN 9780847831906)

$89.95

Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence
✍ 2008: Styliane Philippou

Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence explores the development of Niemeyer’s extraordinary body of ideas and forms as well as his role in the construction of Brazil’s modern image and cultural tradition. With insightful essays and extensive floor plans, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the Niemeyer’s important buildings, from his Mid-Century projects as chief architect for the new capital of Brasília to the spectacular Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 1996. Highly recommended. (2008: Yale University Press; ISBN 9780300120389)

$81.95

CASE: Lucio Costa Brasilia’s Superquadra
✍ 2005: Fares el-Dahdah ed.

No discussion of Brazilian modernism can be complete without reference to Lucio Costa’s ambitious (and infamous) urban plan for Brasília, the Plano Piloto. While Costa’s plan could never be implemented today, it remains useful as a starting point in questioning the role of urban design. In this volume of Case el-Dahdah has collected essays from acclaimed scholars discussing Costa’s unique contribution to urban planning. (2005: Prestel Publishing; ISBN 3791331574)

$39.95

Brazil’s Modern Architecture
✍ 2007: Elisabetta Andreoli ed. & Adrian Forty ed.

An incredibly comprehensive guide to Brazil’s architectural Modernism, as viewed by contemporary Brazilian scholars. Editors Andreoli and Forty opt to divide the book thematically, rather than chronologically, a move which provides fresh perspectives into this unique period in architectural history. Accompanied by gorgeous photographs and schematics from the period. (2007: Phaidon; ISBN 9780714848457)

$49.95

An extensive interview from Vice TV in which Neimeyer, age 101, recollects the Brasília project.

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Muriel Cooper (1926-1994) is a regrettably overlooked figure in the history of graphic and interactive design. Her designs for the MIT University Press, which include its trademark, number some five hundred books, nearly a hundred of which were recognized with professional distinction. Though a monograph of Cooper’s work has yet to be realized (get on it MIT!) designer David Reinfurt, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, has prepared the wonderful, online-only This Stands as a Sketch for the Future PDF which only begins to suggest the extent of her tremendous influence.

Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago
✍ 1969: Hans M. Wingler

Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago, winner of an AIGA Book Design Award in 1969 is arguably, Cooper’s best known work. Weighing in at fourteen pounds and 670 pages, Bauhaus is a staggering experiment in publication design with its innovative use of grids and recycled full colour plates. Edited and compiled by Hans M. Wingler, Bauhaus stands alone as the definitive text of the activities of the German design institution. (1969: MIT Press; ISBN 026223033x)

$299.95

Learning from Las Vegas, Revised Edition
✍ 1977: Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour

Less known however, is Cooper’s 1972 design for Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour’s Learning from Las Vegas. In what Edward Tufte would describe as an “escape from flatland,” Cooper’s edition literally animates the maps, charts, and other graphic material featured in Learning from Las Vegas. This stands in stark contrast to the better-known paperback edition, which, for economic reasons, omitted nearly all of Cooper’s experimental layouts. The difference between the two editions is so great that an Ohio State professor felt it necessary to write an entire book about the two.

I Am A Monument
✍ 2008: Aron Vinegar

Aron Vinegar’s I Am A Monument explores the tension between Muriel Cooper’s 1972 design of Learning from Las Vegas and its subsequent revision in 1977 by Denise Scott Brown. The authors, particularly Scott Brown, were so incensed by Cooper’s design that plans to publish a second edition of the book were already in the works before the printing of the first edition. (1977: The MIT Press; ISBN 9780262720069; 2008: The MIT Press; ISBN 9780262220828)

While Cooper’s first edition now fetches thousands of dollars in the antiquarian book trade, Venturi and Scott Brown’s paperback can be had for under thirty dollars. If however, you’re looking to approximate the look and feel of the first edition, may we suggest a parallel reading alongside the very popular Las Vegas Studio, featured in an earlier Swipe post. Las Vegas Studio includes a selection of the photographic research collected for the publication of Learning from Las Vegas. These photographs were unceremoniously omitted from the second edition, but are here beautifully reproduced, with essays by Hilar Stadler and Martino Stierli. The Rem Koolhaas contributions don’t hurt, either. This title is the sort that is unlikely to be reprinted, so please stop by Built to have a look before it disappears! We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Learning from Las Vegas, Revised Editon: $31.95
I Am A Monument: $39.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

With Doors Open Toronto 2009 just around the corner we here at Swipe and BUILT are more thankful than ever to be part of the extraordinary culture complex at 401 Richmond Street West. A prime destination during the festival, 401 is expecting several thousand visitors over the weekend of May 23rd and 24th. Accordingly, Swipe and Built will be open both days from 10 am to 6 pm.

In celebration of this celebration of our city’s cultural, social and architectural heritage, BUILT offers the following selection of recently published Torontoiana, beginning with a look at the history of local urban sprawl from one of the most sagacious figures in Toronto municipal affairs, ‘Mayor Blue Jeans’ himself, John Sewell.

The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl
✍ 2009: John Sewell

A meticulous and thoughtful account of how Toronto became ‘Greater’ Toronto, expanding on the author’s classic study The Shape of the City. When BUILT opened it’s doors for the first time last week a photo was needed for the 401 Richmond Street newsletter and it was (rightly) deemed unnewsletterworthy to simply shoot one of us behind the counter so, on the flimsy pretext of a book signing, former Mayor John Sewell was lured down to the shop where he graciously agreed to have his picture taken. After recounting a series of fascinating anecdotes, taken from the book, on the origin and purpose of Toronto’s expressway system, the economic and political history of infrastructure in the 905, and the unlikely connection between the QEW and Adolph Hitler, Mr Sewell was off on his bicycle and back to work (despite the fact that he has every right just to sit at home all day muttering “I told you so.” over and over). Hard to imagine that, back in the Seventies, riding a bike to Council meetings was an occasion for snide derision in the Toronto SUN and elsewhere. (2009: University of Toronto Press; ISBN 9780802095879)

$24.95

Toronto’s Visual Legacy: Official City Photography from 1856 to the Present
✍ 2009: Steve MacKinnon, Karen Teeple & Michelle Dale

This unexpectedly beautiful book, published in conjunction with the City of Toronto Archives to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the city’s incorporation, brings together a selection of official City of Toronto photographs chosen by City archivists from their collection of hundreds of thousands of images. Among our favourites, this 1913 scene at 21 Elizabeth Street with the perfect juxtaposition of poverty and power which, unfortunately, characterizes the area around City Hall to this day. (2009: Lorimer; ISBN 9781552774083)

$44.95

Art Deco Architecture in Toronto: A Guide to the City’s Buildings from the Roaring Twenties and the Depression
✍ 2009: Tim Morawetz

With a friendly and accessible writing sytle, Art Deco Architecture in Toronto combines the elegance and flair of a coffee-table book with the accurate, practical information and anecdotal background of a guidebook. This important new book will provide the lay-person, architectural historian or Art Deco aficionado with a meaning ful appreciation of this important architectural style as it manifested itself in Toronto.

Concrete Toronto: A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies
✍ 2007: Micheal McClelland & Graeme Stewart

Concrete Toronto acts as a guide to the city’s extensive inventory of significant concrete buldings and re-examines the unique value of the material and design idiom. Included are the insights of many of the original concrete architects along with a wealth of new and archival photos and drawings. (2007: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552451933)

Endangered Species
✍ 2007: John Martins-Manteiga, ed.

In partnership with The School of Design at George Brown College, Dominion Modern catalogues twenty-six formative examples of Canadian Modernist architecture threatened with demolition and seeks to engender a wider debate about the value of this aspect of Canadian design heritage. (2007: Dominion Modern; ISBN 9780968193327)

GreenTOpia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto
✍ 2007: Alana Wilcox, ed. with Christina Palassio & Jonny Dovercourt

In this third volume in the influential uTOpia series, green-minded Torontonians are invited to imagine a more environmentally responsible and humane city. Included is a directory with profiles of green organizations in the GTA, as well as a how-to guide and a fun-facts section. (2007: Coach House Books; ISBN 9781552451946)

Historical Atlas of Toronto
✍ 2008: Derek Hayes

In this new addition to the acclaimed series, geographer Hayes charts Toronto’s history with more than 200 period maps, providing a unique visual record of the city’s development. (2008: Douglas & Mcintyre Ltd; ISBN 9781553652908)

Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s
✍ 2006: Sally Gibson

Recognized with a Heritage Toronto award in 2006, this lovely book combines 260 vintage images with extensive original research to document the rarely recorded places where Torontonians lived and worked at the turn of the last century. (2006: Cormorant Books; ISBN 189695195)

Mean City: From Architecture to Design: How Toronto Went Boom!
✍ 2007: John Martins-Manteiga

Mean City captures the spirit of an unparalleled boom period in Toronto architecture and industrial design when, from 1945 to 1975, young architects and designers attempted to defy convention in a most conventional city. The book also persuasively laments the indifference that has lead to the loss of so many great modernist buildings in Toronto. (2007: Key Porter Books; ISBN 1556239126)

TSA Guide Map: Toronto Architecture 1953-2003
✍ 2005: Toronto Society of Architects

This Guide Map is intended to encourage the public to explore modern architecture in the City of Toronto, cataloguing both well known buildings and those deserving of wider recognition. We are happy to report that he TSA is currently working on a new Guide Map on Open Spaces, which is scheduled to be completed later this year.

Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been
✍ 2008: Mark Osbaldeston

A tremendously engaging approach to the social history of architecture and urban planning, Unbuilt Toronto examines the aspirations of the city by looking at significant building projects that were never realized, from St. Alban’s Cathedral and Eaton’s magnificent College Street tower, to the Spadina Expressway and the Queen subway. The book inspired a very successful exhibition at the ROM last winter, which is currently being remounted at Urbanscape in the Junction. (2008: Dundurn Press; ISBN 1550028359)

Art Deco Architecture in Toronto: $39.95
Concrete Toronto: A Guide to Concrete Architecture from the 50s to the 70s: $29.95
Greentopia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto $24.95
Historical Atlas of Toronto: $49.95
Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s: $59.95
Mean City: From Architecture to Design: How Toronto Went Boom!: $26.95
TSA Guide Map: Toronto Architecture 1953-2003: $7.95
Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been: $26.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.