The Story of Architecture

This is a very interesting book and much like a history book of the architecture of the world.This was recommended for class and I can get a full understanding of how architecture has evolved through time.

Very resourceful if you are in the K-state architecture program because it will be referred to A LOT!!!

This book came recommended to me. I am almost through it but find it frustrating and disappointing. I've noticed many typos and errors throughout the text, which is shocking. It is also difficult to read frequent descriptions of conceptually perfect examples of buildings and see no images of them.I appreciate Glancey's quirky and opinionated writing but find that he has glossed over and dismissed some important facets of architectural history. He happily comes from a global perspective but his British bias is pronounced. He misses much of the importance of America's architectural story, such as:the singular influence of H.H. Richardson. He lumps Richardson in with McKim, Mead & White, which is ludicrous as they had entirely different aims and styles, and he writes off Richardson's buildings as "Impressive but bulky, they quickly became outdated" - which was not the case; their influence went on after his death in cities all across North America and in the work of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright;the central place of Louis H. Sullivan in the development of the skyscraper, the nascent Modern movement in early 20th-century Europe, and also Sullivan's fundamental influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Glancey virtually and inexplicably erases Sullivan altogether;the place of engineer-architect William LeBaron Jenney in the development of the metal-frame highrise building, instead only highlighting Charles Atwood for the "purest" skyscraper, the Reliance Building, while featuring a terrible photo of that building at its nadir.Glancey describes many 19th-20th-century European trends but hardly connects them to related major developments in America. For instance, Glancy doesn't link all of the iron-frame innovation in England that he describes at great length with the invention of the skyscraper in the U.S. He also asserts that Frank Lloyd Wright's "adventure in architecture failed to outlive the Grand Old Man," missing how Wright's long career was often in sync with the European zeitgeist, and also how Wright's influence was indeed deep, widespread, and long-lived (see: the ubiquitous Ranch-style house and open plan residential architecture).The author disregards the centrality of Chicago and its architects in the story of the skyscraper and 20th-century architecture. (He even gets the year of the Great Chicago Fire wrong, a major historic event that occurred in 1871, not 1873.) Glancey asserts that New York made the skyscraper famous. This is specious. Chicago was the first and foremost city in the world to rise to the skies on steel frame construction, years ahead of New York. Yes, NYC later overtook Chicago, but the beginnings of that entirely new building type - the skyscraper - and where it happened is virtually ignored here. Architecturally in the late 19th century Chicago influenced New York City. The 1893 Chicago World's Fair and its celebration of the neoclassical had an outsize influence on American architecture and city planning, but we don't hear anything of it. Later, Mies and mid-century Modernism comes out of Chicago, Mies built most of his designs in the city, SOM grew out of the city and Chicago again influences architecture in New York (and beyond), but the reader does not learn the importance of the place. Glancey rightly describes the significance of SOM's Hancock and Sears towers in Chicago (no photos), but overall misses Chicago's salient place in architectural history.And likewise, Glancey gives short-shrift to the origin and development of the skyscraper - that entirely new building type. He doesn't address any of the forces that led up to it nor identify those who manifested the earliest of these groundbreaking structures. In that, I believe he has missed one of the key developments in the story of architecture.One can learn a lot from this book, but know that this is merely one lens on this important history, and a lens that focuses unevenly.

This book is a very nice overview of architecture and is the wonderful quality I have come to expect from DK books. Very good photos. This is a keeper

I was looking for a readable inroduction to varied styles and history of architecture that was jargon free but not overly simplified. This book did the job well. Perhaps Glancey could have provided a bit more text to go along with the beautiful pictures, but he still informs.Recommended for newcomers or those with an incomplete education in the field of architecture.

Arrived in good time and good condition. The book is filled with great images of architectural pieces, and the chapters are relatively short and to the point. Easy to read, filled with good historical information.

In a book of only 240 pages, of which the space is at least half filled by photos, Glancey attempted to do a very difficult task of summarizing the history of thousands of years of world architecture. One would think that he then would center on the major themes of the various trends, yet he regularly emphasizes the description of individual buildings that too often are not even illustrated, making this a frustrating account for the reader. Also the book is almost exclusively a presentation of the grand architecture of cathedrals, castles, and such, with almost no discussion of domestic architecture. The book does contain many beautiful illustrations, in full color, but don't expect to learn much about how baroque differs from rococo or why. His later book, Architecture: A Visual History (2017), is an enormous improvement and twice as long.

Wish it had more modern day Architecture

I am working my way through it at present. It is written in a reasonably good way. However, he does occasionally use technical terms that are not in the Glossary.He covers a vast array of types/styles of architecture.He illustrates many of the works with photos, and plans for some of them. This is extremely useful if you have no background in architecture.It feels like a good primer for someone not conversant with the field.

During my fd in fine art I have an allowance for books and went crazy buying any art book that took my fancy. I really enjoyed reading this book and it'll alway have a spot on my shelf.

Typical Dorling Kindersley history of book.... fantastic order to it, beautiful colour illustrations. invaluable to give a good taste of the history of architecture from ancient to modern.

Worth reading cover to cover, this book is written in a lively style and has DK's usual high quality photos on every page. I bought a second copy as a gift for a friend. I wish I'd read this when I was at school - I'd have wanted to become an architect.

A really good beginners' book with interest for the knowledgeable also. The illustrations are first rate. Don't expect great depth, there are only 229 pages, but a good overview of the subject.