America by Design

This companion volume to a Public Television Series by the same name presents a panorama of towns and cities across the American continent. Kostof (A History of Architecture) set himself the task of scanning ""the fabric of man-made America,'' seeking a pattern that could illuminate who we are as a people. Individual chapters focus on the house, the workplace, the street, the public domain and the contours of the land. Kostof, whose earlier book is considered the standard work in the field, sees in the design of our environmentfrom the banal to the beautiful, Frank Lloyd Wright houses to suburban tract housing, office cubicles to state capitolssocial consequences that reveal much about us as a nation. This ambitious undertaking, supplemented with 300 photographs, provides an impressive tour of America's built environment. Kostof is professor of architectural history at the University of California, Berkeley. $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. (September 24)