Product Description

$39.95 hardcover · 1-58685-033-4

8 ½ x 11 in, 192 pp, 235 Color Photographs, Rights: W, Design

The Yucatán has undergone a remarkable restoration renaissance of late: ancient pyramids now share the dense jungle landscape with revived haciendas, and colonial homes boasting high-beamed ceilings and cool tile floors posture amidst elegant plazas and renovated nineteenth-century mansions. A dazzling photographic journey, Casa Yucatán focuses on architectural elements, water spaces, and open-air living in houses both colonial and contemporary, including haciendas and coastal retreats.

Award-winning authors of the Mexican design series-Mexican Country Style, The New Hacienda, Casa Adobe, and Adobe Details-Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr are the owners of Texture, an interior design firm and gallery specializing in hacienda style. They have been at the forefront of the Mexican design movement for more than twenty-five years. They divide their time between homes in Austin, Texas, and the Yucatán.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #708303 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From the Publisher
A dazzling photographic tour, Casa Yucatán invites you to step into the cool, gracious galleries and gardens of colonial homes, old haciendas, and art-filled seaside escapes that dot the Yucatán Peninsula.

From the Inside Flap
A land of legend, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula possesses a unique natural beauty where limestone plateaus, tropical jungles and subteranean rivers are the settings of two magnificent cultures. In its mysterious mix of Mayan temples and Spanish Colonial architecture, the region is undergoing a remarkable restoration renaissance, heralding the grandeur of Yucatan's colonial epoch and the emergence of an innovative and uniquely Yucatan design style.

In Casa Yucatan, award-winning authors and interior designers Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr travel under the Mayan sun to discover the vitality and virtues of this rich design community, catapulted into the international design spotlight by a new generation of architects honoring prehistoric and colonial legacies while creating a bracing blend of old and new. Ancient pyramids now share the jungly landscape with revived haciendas, and colonial homes boasting high-beamed ceilings and cool tile floors posture amidst elegant plazas and renovated nineteenth-century mansions.

From city to countryside to coast, the Maya's masterful legacy--carved stone and stucco ornaments-- are everywhere in evidence. Sun-drenched colors of burnt ochre, colonial red, and Mayan blue ignite walls and bring subtle traditional details to life: mesmerizing stone-chinked surface patterns, ornate stucco designs, and intricate stencils. Interiors glisten with wall fountains, reflecting pools, and bathtubs that channel to outdoorpools. Hammock-lined portales beckon with leather butacos, daybeds provide restful summits in gardens, and shady courtyards invite respite and reflection.

A dazzling photographic tour, Casa Yucatan invites you to step into the cool, gracious galleries and gardens of colonial homes, old haciendas, and art-filled seaside escapes that dot the Yucatan Peninsula.

About the Author
Award-winning authors of the Mexican design book series - Mexican Country Style, The New Hacienda, Casa Adobe and Adobe Details - Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr were awarded the 2000 Pluma de Plata (Silver Pen) from Mexico's Ministry of Tourism for The New Hacienda. As interior designers and antique dealers, they have been at the forefront of the Mexican design movement for more than twenty-five years.

Customer Reviews

Casa Yucatan - To see the best homes and haciendas
We wish we had known about and read Casa Yucatán, before we had our wonderful three-week vacation in the Yucatán, in August/September, 2002. If you're planning to go to the Yucatán, be sure to take Casa Yucatán with you. We discovered (and stayed at)three of the marvellous hacienda hotels: the Temozón, Santa Rosa and San José. Each one has unique architecture, adapted from its original use with panache and refined good taste. When we saw them in the book, it was like re-visiting them. Our appetite was whetted to try to see more of the beautifully-photographed and knowledgeably-described homes on our next visit. At the back of the book, there's a 4-page Travel Guide, filled with useful information. Mexican design is beautiful and probably no non-Mexicans know more about it than Karen and Joe, having dedicated decades to studying it seriously and having visited and photographed many outstanding examples for inclusion in their books. One place we'll be sure not to miss is Hacienda Petac, the restoration of which was just completed in December 2002. Karen and Joe are partners in that enterprise, the design center of which offers a showcase for Mexican antiques, architectural elements and decorative accents. Hacienda Petac also offers accomodations to guests. We would hope that some of the architects whose projects are featured in Casa Yucatán and whose names addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses are shown, might be willing to arrange with the owners for interested readers to visit their beautiful homes.

Casa Yucatan
This is another marvelous book on Mexican & Spanish Architecture, furnishings, & landscaping. The colors & textures used are exceptional. The lush landscaping is something we are trying to recreate in our our home.

This book & their others have inspired us to do some very creative things with our desert property.

Magnificent Architectural Summary of Beauty and Charm
I love architecture and interior design and am currently in the process of designing a home thirty miles south of Cancun. In working with an architect from France and the relevant language issues (French, Spanish and English) I needed a starting point to state my ideas of what I wanted to design. I have many other books such as Casa California but needed something with specific architecture in the Yucatan Peninsula.

After our original drawings I bought this book. My architect laughed at our next visit as he had the same book with much more wear on it. His other clients had been using it to describe thoughts and just referring to page numbers. In my case our ideas were established prior to discovering this book. But the book allowed me to visualize many of the ideas incorporated by our architect. The pictures are beautiful and the author does a great job providing a historical perspective on the styles. My architect said it is worth planning a trip to view many of the homes in the book and I hope to do so in the future. My compliments to the author for successfully capturing the culture of this unique area of Mexico.

In the next year I hope to buy authentic Mexican furniture. I have heard in Guadalajara there are places to buy this furniture prior to massive mark-ups through distribution. Please email me if you know of any ideas on where I should consider shopping and also if there are internet sites to view, [...].