Product Description

From a rustic beach house on Puget Sound to a desert retreat on the high plateau of southeast Oregon to a cabin nestled in a forest of Douglas firs, vacation and retreat architecture in the Pacific Northwest is as varied as the terrain itself. The best examples of retreat architecture in the country are here, from ageless timber homes belonging to early Northwest moguls to today's "days away" architecture-- lodges, cabins, and summer cottages that communicate the exuberance for year-round outdoor adventure. With ideal terrain for hiking, rock-climbing, skiing, fly-fishing, and more, the Pacific Northwest is a mecca for lovers of the outdoors, and as a result, a flood of new wealth is being poured into lifestyle architecture in this area. Retreats here are designed to keep the terrain at the inhabitants' fingertips and to adapt to such unique demands as where to park one's glider.

These days Americans can be as remote as they want to be. This book demonstrates how retreat architecture can now respond to our recreational needs while providing comfort and beauty so we can settle down in style.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #772913 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-23
• Released on: 2002-11-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Paul (Cottages by the Sea) here turns her enthusiasm to vacation architecture of the Pacific Northwest. She's unsparing in her portrayal of the region, praising its "ragged mountains, hot desert updrafts, spires of volcanic rock dating back seventeen million years, seventy-miles-per-hour winds, misty beaches, painted cliffs, shaded forests." The retreats of this land aren't for wimps craving balmy, bucolic days, she says: here, nature needs to be reckoned with. The houses Paul features invite an exploration of the relationship between inside and outside, between human and environment. From a three-story glass beach house in the Oregon coastal community of Neskowin to a cabin nestled into the landscape of north central Washington, Paul opens up a world of retreat possibilities that defines homes "designed for ritual." Her simple but engaging descriptions grab readers by the hand, taking them inside the architecturally brilliant structures of glass, wood and stone; dozens of crisp pictures showcase expansive exteriors and intimate interiors. For the shelter-magazine crowd, Paul's book will serve as both a resource and a visually impressive journey inside nature-inspired cabins, cottages, studios and lodges. Color photographs throughout
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Linda Leigh Paul is the author of Cottages by the Sea: The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America's First Artist Community (Universe) and the coauthor of Tile & Stone (Rizzoli).

Customer Reviews

COASTAL RETREATS The Pacific Northwest
From the Seattle AIA Reviewer, Peter Sackett:

Trying to convince a reader that architecture is
good by telling them it's good is an exercise in
futility. In Coastal Retreats: The Pacific Northwest
and the Architecture of Adventure (Universe,
2002) author Linda Leigh Paul understands the
burden of her responsibility as a writer. Her
contributions reflect what images, on their own,
cannot. Coastal Retreats offers a broad
photographic sampling of Northwest vacation
homes designed over the last half-century with
editorial work that provides context for their
creation, including anecdotes from both owner and
architect, taking the architecture out of the
showroom and into the lives of the people who use
it.

A couple of years ago I ranted for eight hundred
words or so in the pages of Arcade about a
newly-published monographic account on the work
of architect Roland Terry. My beef wasn't that the
architect's work wasn't up to snuff, rather that the
book's author had done little to flatter the
architecture nor contribute a compelling narrative to
describe its significance. To judge from the editorial
content, he seemed less than convinced that
Terry's work could stand on its own without
bolstering it with sentences of fawning admiration
to make projects appear buoyant on the page.

Paul, instead, takes the trouble to tell stories
behind the homes' creation using relaxed, informal
language to describe the likes and dislikes of
clients as well as quirks of the landscape that
provide a setting for enjoyment of their
investment. The approach is both entertaining and
instructive. She includes the following in a chapter
on "Decatur Island Haven" by George Suyama
Architects:

"In the mid-1990s, while flying over the San Juan
Islands, designer Christian Grevstad's instincts led
him to alert his pilot that they were off course and
lost. As the pilot corrected the flight path, Grevstad
glanced down at a flowering meadow sitting atop a high
bluff. Below him lay the site he had envisioned for his
ideal island getaway. He headed for Seattle, where he
did the necessary footwork, and found that the price
was right."

Grevstad may enjoy a vexingly privileged lifestyle,
but it makes for a cool story.

Images and Ideas
I was surprized by the quality of the works presented but more particularly the idea of "the architecture of adventure". The premise of this book is "right on." These get-aways are not just comfortable, but expose their owner's attitudes on being at home in nature.

Great looking with great ideas...
This is a beautiful book full of beautiful houses in beautiful places. There is a wide range of projects and styles, illustrating the quality of design in the Pacific Northwest region. An attractive book in its own right, this would be a great resource for anybody thinking of building a vacation house.