Inspired by a year living and teaching architecture in Florence, Italy, this book addresses the goal of keener environmental knowing, pointing out a way to see urban settings in more penetrating ways to evolve a personal urban alertness that moves us to finer levels of making sense of spaces. Emphasis is on the areas between buildings where urban life happens. The book has three sections, on urban environments, public space, and learning to appreciate, and is profusely illustrated with the author’s signature hand sketches. © 1999. 7″ x 9″ landscape, Standard B&W, 110 pages. Paperback.

The introductory design experience has always been an especially important one for the student. It offers an initial way of understanding design and so largely forms the context for making sense of subsequent design experiences. This book works with students where they are rather than demanding some fundamental change of values before beginning the study of design. And it introduces design not as some mystique which only the blessed possess but as a system of operations that anyone can and, in fact, does use daily. Profusely illustrated and hand- lettered in Prof. White’s signature style, this little volume provides an indispensable introduction to a very complex discipline. © 2003. 11″ x 8″ landscape format, Standard B&W, 112 pages. Paperback.

Great designers consider a project and all its parameters, develop a strong design concept, and then brainstorm many variations from which to edit down an appropriate, responsive, well-reasoned solution. This publication is a compilation of the author’s brainstorm sketches for that middle step. They are more memes than prescriptions, suggesting ways to think rather than how. Prof’s White’s taxonomy as reflected in the table of contents has value; use it to push your own imagination to think up even more ways to configure a stair, situate openings in walls, and respond to existing landscaping issues or complex programs. Rather than taking these sketches strictly, literally, or see them as the only options, use them as a launching point, a reminder that there are still more options out there, even after one’s own well of ideas has run dry. © 1975. Paper, 11″ x 8.5″, Standard B&W, 208 pages.

Design titles offered without revision

The two titles below are currently being updated for republishing. Piazzas of Florence is still offered as originally published by Architectural Media, Ltd. Images of Italy is not yet available.

Nine piazzas are selected here for analysis, chosen from Florence’s many wonderful urban spaces. They are chosen for their variety of configurations, contained activities, and moods, for their instructive value and explanatory power, for their mix of successes and shortcomings, because they are some of the town’s largest, most important, most intensely used exterior public places. The piazzas are not treated historically but described as they are today, as contemporary, living, architectural configurations, as public spaces in a present-day urban environment that may offer us design wisdom applicable to today’s project challenges. It is a terrific, superbly illustrated, comprehensive study of what makes urban spaces so important to community life. © 2006. Paper, 7″ x 9″ landscape format, Standard B&W, 294 pages. 

In development…

Contextual analysis is a predesign research activity which focuses on the existing, imminent, and potential conditions on and around a project site. It is, in a sense, an inventory of all the pressures, forces, and situations and their interactions at the property where a project will be built. © 1983. 11″ x 8½” landscape, Standard B&W, 182 pages. Paperback or casebound hardback.

One of our major responsibilities as architects is to design buildings that support the activities of the users of the facilities. Our building designs should positively reinforce and facilitate the performance of the operations that they house. A facility should go beyond simply containing activities and should actually contribute to the productivity of our client’s organization. © 1986. 11″ x 8½” landscape, Standard B&W, 218 pages. Paperback.

This book explores and explains building image analysis. Like “Site Analysis” and “Space Adjacency Analysis”, it provides a way to pay special attention to a particular type of design issue – in this case the issue of building image or environmental message. This can help a designer responsibly handle large amounts of design information in a systematic way, allow designers and clients to communicate better about the nature of the design problem to be solved and the reasons for design decisions, and make design processes more effective and efficient. 11″ x 8½” landscape, Standard B&W, 338 pages. Coilbound paperback or casebound hardback.

People in any discipline depend on being able to make effective presentations, which are more dependent on pre-presentation thinking than on traditional presentation activities (writing text, preparing graphics, etc.). Don’t fail to get a key commission because the key concerns of the selection committee weren’t understood. This profusely illustrated book explores the essential characteristics of strategic planning for presentations, a crucial consideration regardless of whether the audience is a teacher, a government review board, a community organization, or a private client. © 1976. Paper, 8.5″ x 8.5″, Standard B&W, 116 pages.

NEW: Facility Programming in the United States: Interviews with Architects

Fifty-five prominent architects in the United States participated in this study. Written in 1991 © 2024. 8½” x 11”, Standard B&W. 72 pages. Paperback.

NEW: Design Briefing in England: Interviews with Architects

Forty prominent developers, architects, and institutions in England participated in this study. Written in 1991. © 2024. 8½” x 11”, B&W, 210 Pages. Paperback.