NOVEDADES

Some travelers dig deep, with a sharp appetite for knowledge and minds wide open to what’s old and what’s new. In Cultured Traveler, the latest in the travel book collaborations between The New York Times and TASCHEN, these adventurers hum to Mozart in Vienna and tap their toes to dance music in Dar es Salaam. They pursue Hamlet in Elsinore, Picasso on the French Riviera, and Le Corbusier in India. They follow in the footsteps of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackie Kennedy, and even Jesus.

Passionate about designing buildings and neighborhoods that quietly transform the urban environment, Torti Gallas is committed to improving cities, towns, and distressed communities throughout the United States and around the world. This fully illustrated book shows how they have combined the disciplines of architecture, planning, and urban design into a single practice, creating housing and mixed-use buildings that bring catalytic change to urban neighborhoods: the mixed-use apartment buildings, rowhouses, and single-family homes that comprise the fabric of a city. Their work hearkens back to a tradition that, before World War II, created some of the country’s finest neighborhoods, including Forest Hill Gardens in Queens, Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and Russian Hill in San Francisco. Featuring 60 built projects, this book shows how Torti Gallas is dedicated to raising the level of this architecture to a new high.

Revealing the richly visual and cultural details that are the essence of Mexican style, award-winning design editor and photographer Newell Turner has done for Mexican design what legendary culinary pioneer Diana Kennedy did for Mexican food. Elegantly organized around nine decisive decorative periods that have shaped México’s unique design journey to the present day, Mexican: A Journey Through Design establishes a visual dialogue with the reader that beautifully captures the depth and subtleties of the country’s aesthetic legacy.

Innovatively combining period and contemporary furniture and art in a sophisticated mix, the homes of Isabel López-Quesada are inspirational and unforgettable. In At Home, the Spanish designer tells her own story. The perfect gift for admirers of her work, and an ideal introduction for those new to the designer.

Much more than a resort destination, Palm Springs has served as a laboratory of the Modern; here so much architectural innovation and design took form. From the steel-and-glass boxes of Richard Neutra to the earthy organic homes of John Lautner, and everything in between, the solutions of architects and designers—including notably William F. Cody, E. Stewart Williams, and Albert Frey were diverse and are ever more relevant in the face of contemporary challenges. Their answers addressed questions that still hold urgency: How to design sustainably in harsh climates? How to use technology efficiently and creatively to meet those challenges? How to build affordable and high-quality mass-produced housing? How to reflect a region’s culture, economy, and distinctive atmosphere?

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar Kaufmann Sr., his wife, Liliane Kaufmann, and their son, Edgar Kaufmann jr., Fallingwater is lauded for its architectural daring and drama. Here the Kaufmanns sought to live in harmony with the natural world. The rooms of the house reflect this ideal and remain suffused with a natural aesthetic that embraces stone and wood, handwork and craftsmanship. In the living room, the great stone floor flows riverlike toward the horizon of Wright–designed built-in sofas and large-paned casement windows, where views open to balconies, to forest, and to cascading falls. From here “the hatch” opens to the flowing stream below. Pools and the waters of Bear Run were beautiful and for swimming. Relaxed elegance was the order of the day. Delicacy, softness, tactility are everywhere in evidence.