DnA-s window into the world of holiday windows- Spoon (Phaidon)
100 designers and 10 curators, including LA-s own Brooke Hodge, the TK over at MOCA. This great overview of the most exciting designers and products includes two locals: Frank Nuovo, chief designer at Nokia, and Jorge Pardo, who turned his own house into a LACMA exhibition.
Available at design bookstores including Fitzsu at 7970 Melrose Avenue, where you can also buy some of the products. Coast to Coast: Contemporary American Graphic Design (Die Gestalten Verlag)
A sampling of US designers- lots of new designers, most under 40. What a Happy Life and Death (Die Gestalten Verlag)
About Furi Furi, a Japanese design collective that designs T-shirts, video-game characters, and MTV spots in a bold cartoony style. Great American Houses and Gardens by Chuck Fischer (Rizzoli) Landscrapers: Building with the Land by Aaron Betsky (Thames & Hudson)
The book explores the notion of designing in harmony with the land. That doesn-t mean just in eco-materials but shaping the building so it blends in or grows out of the landscape. A school by Thom Mayne of Morphosis in Pomona is included. Landmark L.A., edited by Jeffrey Herr (City of Los Angeles- Cultural Affairs Department and Angel City Press)
A survey of landmarks from houses to civic buildings. Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall by Gil Garcetti (Balcony Press)
Photo essay of the construction workers building Disney Concert Hall, with a forward by Frank Gehry. Raphael Soriano by Wolfgang Wagener (Phaidon)
A study of the architect, with photos by Julius Shulman. Available at Form Zero 811 Traction Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream by Paul Adamson (Gibbs Smith)
About the progressive developer Joseph Eichler. Available at Form Zero. Jean Prouve/Charles & Ray Eames (Vitra)
Two great constructors, a look at their parallels and differences as they reinvented chair design in California and France. Available at Vitra, 1327 5th Street, Santa Monica.
KCRW
