Pueblo style and regional architecture /

This ambitious volume, based on a symposium, is a collection of some 20 essays by architects, archaeologists, art historians, planners, artists, and critics. The editors view this as "a first attempt at an interdisciplinary understanding of culture, architecture, and place in the American Southwest." This collection will remain a model to follow because of its scope and diversity and its, at times, penetrating texts; moreover, it is all the more valuable because of the list of references that follows each essay. To cite but a few of the essays: Amos Rapoports's "On Regions and Regionalism" is a dense and rich argument on the provenance and future of regionalism by a distinguished writer in the field. More specific in its analysis, yet also widely applicable, is Louis Hieb's essay "The Metaphors of Hopi Architectural Experience in Comparative Perspective." In summing up his investigations of Hopi and Navajo metaphors, he states "the meanings and values of an architectural form are attributed to it; they are not inherent in it." An essay titled "Georgia O'Keeffe's New Mexico," by Ethel Goodstein, describes the artist's discovery of, identification with, and exhortation of New Mexico. The illustrations, regrettably all black and white, too often seem as if printed from color photographs. A concluding 20-page portfolio of photographs illustrates important buildings cited in the texts. Highly recommended. -B. Jacob, University of Minnesota