“Bernard Maybeck: visionary architect”, by Sally Woodbridge

Woodbridge, Sally Byrne. Bernard Maybeck: Visionary Architect. New York: Abbeville, 1992. Print.

Maybeck was mentioned in the introduction of Jim Tolpin’s The New Cottage Home, and my interest was piqued enough to put this book on hold at the library.  As I recall, he was mentioned in the context of someone who greatly influenced American architecture early in the 20th century, being mentioned in the same breath as Greene and Greene, and Alexander Jackson Downing.

This book was interesting, but I wouldn’t say ultimately what I was hoping for.  I had hoped that by going further back I would find an architect who designed houses that actually worked, rather than artistic statements.  When I got to a building he designed that had the rafters poking out through the roof, shingled separately so that they looked like little birdhouses shooting out from the main roof, I had to put the book down.

In reading a later book I think reading about Greene and Greene might be the next logical step, although there might be a little too much choice in that case.  If you want to read about Maybeck, this does seem to be the definitive work.