Abbeville Press

Great monasteries of Europe; architecture, art, and history.

Whatever one may think of the cloistered life, it's difficult not to admire the beauty of the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque monastic architecture presented here. Schütz (architectural history, U. of Munich, Germany) has written short histories for each of over 150 monasteries, describing the circumstances of their founding and the details of their construction and frequently, reconstruction in subsequent centuries. Though the histories are interesting, the highlight of the volume is the superb and often dramatic photographs of the monasteries — their churches, libraries, altars, cloisters, sculpture, and other details — reproduced in full-page color plates in an oversized (11x13 inches) format. The initial chapter provides a useful introduction to the topic of western monasticism. Notable are the many monasteries included from Central Europe. An appendix contains ground plans. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

New bar and club design.

Fifty bars are profiled in this heavily illustrated, oversize (10.5x10.5 inches) volume, in cities around the world. Lighting, seating, and ambience are captured in the color photos and Ryder's short descriptions. TMSK in Shanghai, Villa Zévaco in Casablanca, 747 Bar in Sicily, crobar in New York, and the CocoonClub in Frankfurt are among the very trendy drinking holes profiled. The book will appeal mainly to designers. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

New spiritual architecture.

Richardson (a former research editor at Architectural Digest) has compiled an impressive volume describing in photographs and text 41 recent architectural projects of religious buildings (all were built in the late 1990s and early 21st century). Among the buildings discussed are the Chapel of St Ignatius in Seattle, Wash.; the Jewish Cultural Centre and Synagogue in Duisburg, Germany; the Interfaith Spiritual Center at Northeastern U. in Boston; the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin, Ireland; and the Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Mirza Abdelkader Baig, Zvi Hecker, Takashi Yamaguchi, Zaha Hadid, and Jae Cha are among the architects whose work is included. A glossary is provided. Several photos, drawings, and ground plans are included for each work. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Restaurant design.

Architects and designers will be the main audience for this book, which surveys recent examples of what Ryder calls "high-style destination dining rooms" found worldwide. The restaurants are divided into categories by style: global, retro-pop, modern classic, high concept (where style is all), and new baroque (a response to minimalism). Each entry features color photos, a ground plan, and a description of the design concept and key elements. Among the restaurants included are Tangerine, Jones, Pod, and Mormoto, all in Philadelphia; Bon, Nirvana, and R in Paris; Gong in Glasgow; and Centrale in Beirut. The volume is oversized, 10.75x10.75 inches. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)