Review by Choice Review
Devlin (Connecticut College), an environmental psychologist, organizes this book around five types of building facilities--houses, health care facilities, schools, workplaces, and shops--in an effort to demonstrate how ideas, historical conditions, market forces, design considerations, and other related issues coalesce, and sometimes clash, to shape the built environment in the US. The stronger chapters juxtapose prominent tangible entities, such as Levittown, Seaside, Florida, and the ubiquitous phenomenon of McMansions in the chapter on houses. The workplace chapter pairs the powerhouse office furniture and environmental firm Herman Miller with diminutive BOSTI (Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation). Devlin draws extensively on the research and writings of the leading historical and contemporary figures in these five fields. The volume is heavy with data in some chapters, particularly those on schools and health care facilities, a tendency that the author has attempted to counteract, with mixed results, by writing in the first person, by drawing upon personal experience, and by references to popular culture. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; professionals/practitioners. J. Quinan University at Buffalo, SUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
