The Architecture category has 52 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 44 ratings. The most-rated is The 99% Invisible City.
The 99% Invisible City
Summary
A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean? Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? 99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs. Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.
©2020 Roman Mars (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Mind in Motion
Summary
An eminent psychologist offers a major new theory of human cognition: movement, not language, is the foundation of thought When we try to think about how we think, we can't help but think of words. Indeed, some have called language the stuff of thought. But pictures are remembered far better than words, and describing faces, scenes, and events defies words. Anytime you take a shortcut or play chess or basketball or rearrange your furniture in your mind, you've done something remarkable: abstract thinking without words. In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, understanding the flow of people, traffic, water, and ideas. Spatial thinking even underlies the structure and meaning of language: why we say we push ideas forward or tear them apart, why we're feeling up or have grown far apart. Like Thinking, Fast and Slow before it, Mind in Motion gives us a new way to think about how - and where - thinking takes place. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Barbara Tversky (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Disney's Land
Summary
A propulsive and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever”. Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin. But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates...and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, “Snow brings a historian’s eye and a child’s delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative” (Ken Burns) that “will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history” (Publishers Weekly).
©2019 Richard Snow (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio
The Plaza
Summary
Journalist Julie Satow's thrilling, unforgettable history of how one illustrious hotel has defined our understanding of money and glamour, from the Gilded Age to the Go-Go Eighties to today's Billionaire Row. From the moment in 1907 when New York millionaire Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt strode through the Plaza Hotel's revolving doors to become its first guest to the afternoon in 2007 when a mysterious Russian oligarch paid a record price for the hotel's largest penthouse, the 18-story white marble edifice at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street has radiated wealth and luxury. For some, the hotel evokes images of F. Scott Fitzgerald frolicking in the Pulitzer Fountain, or Eloise, the impish young guest who pours water down the mail chute. But the true stories captured in The Plaza also include dark, hidden secrets: the cold-blooded murder perpetrated by the construction workers in charge of building the hotel, how Donald J. Trump came to be the only owner to ever bankrupt the Plaza, and the tale of the disgraced Indian tycoon who ran the hotel from a maximum-security prison cell, 7,000 miles away in Delhi. In this definitive history, award-winning journalist Julie Satow not only pulls back the curtain on Truman Capote's Black and White Ball and The Beatles' first stateside visit - she also follows the money trail. The Plaza reveals how a handful of rich dowager widows were the financial lifeline that saved the hotel during the Great Depression, and how, today, foreign money and anonymous shell companies have transformed iconic guest rooms into condominiums that shield ill-gotten gains, hollowing out parts of the hotel as well as the city around it. The Plaza is the account of one vaunted New York City address that has become synonymous with wealth and scandal, opportunity and tragedy. With glamour on the surface and strife behind the scenes, it is the story of how one hotel became a mirror reflecting New York's place at the center of the country's cultural narrative for over a century. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Julie Satow (P)2019 Twelve
Building the Cycling City
Summary
In car-clogged urban areas across the world, the humble bicycle is enjoying a second life as a legitimate form of transportation. City officials are rediscovering it as a multipronged (or -spoked) solution to acute 21st-century problems, including affordability, obesity, congestion, climate change, inequity, and social isolation. As the world's foremost cycling nation, the Netherlands is the only country where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people, primarily because the Dutch have built a cycling culture accessible to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or economic means. Chris and Melissa Bruntlett share the incredible success of the Netherlands through engaging interviews with local experts and stories of their own delightful experiences riding in five Dutch cities. Building the Cycling City examines the triumphs and challenges of the Dutch while also presenting stories of North American cities already implementing lessons from across the Atlantic. Discover how Dutch cities inspired Atlanta to look at its transit-bike connection in a new way and showed Seattle how to teach its residents to realize the freedom of biking, along with other encouraging examples. Tellingly, the Dutch have two words for people who ride bikes: wielrenner (“wheel runner”) and fietser (“cyclist”), the latter making up the vast majority of people pedaling on their streets and representing a far more accessible, casual, and inclusive style of urban cycling - walking with wheels. Outside of their borders, a significant cultural shift is needed to seamlessly integrate the bicycle into everyday life and create a whole world of fietsers. The Dutch blueprint focuses on how people in a particular place want to move. The relatable success stories will leave listeners inspired and ready to adopt and implement approaches to make their own cities better places to live, work, play, and - of course - cycle.
©2018 Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett (P)2018 Tantor
The Liar's Ball
Summary
Harry Macklowe is one of the most notorious wheelers and dealers of the real-estate world, and The Liar's Ball is the story of the gamblers and thieves who populate his world. Watch as Harry makes the gutsy bid for midtown Manhattan's famous GM building and puts almost no money down, landing the billion-dollar transaction that made him the poster child for New York's real-estate royalty.
Listen in on the secret conversations, back-door deals, and blackmail that put Macklowe and his cronies on top - and set them up for an enormous fall. Discover how Harry Macklowe ruthlessly clawed his way to the top with the help of his loyal followers, each grubbing for a piece of the real-estate pie.
In this is a real-life tale of extravagance, ambition, and power, Vanity Fair contributing editor Vicky Ward skillfully paints the often scandalous picture of the giants who owned the New York skyline until their empires came crumbling down in the 2008 financial crisis, revealing their secrets and telling the tale of business as usual for this group - lying, backstabbing, and moving in for the kill when things look patchy.
Based on more than 200 interviews with real-estate moguls like Donald Trump, William Zeckendorf, Mort Zuckerman, and David Simon, Liar's Ball is the never-before-told story of the egomaniacal elites of New York City.
©2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
On Architecture
Summary
For more than half a century, Ada Louise Huxtable's keen eye and vivid writing have reinforced to readers how important architecture is and why it continues to be both controversial and fascinating - making her one of the best-known critics in the world. On Architecture collects the best of Huxtable's writing from the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, and her various books. In these selections, Huxtable examines the 20th century's most important architectural masters and projects, cataloging the seismic shifts in style, function, and fashion that have led to the dramatic new architecture of the 21st century.
©2008 Ada Louise Huxtable (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Why Architecture Matters
Summary
Why Architecture Matters is not a work of architectural history or a guide to styles or an architectural dictionary, though it contains elements of all three. The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to "come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually" - with its impact on our lives. "Architecture begins to matter," writes Paul Goldberger, "when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads." He shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the "vast, flowing" Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the highly sculptural Guggenheim Bilbao and the Church of Sant'Ivo in Rome, where "simple geometries... create a work of architecture that embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination." Based on decades of looking at buildings and thinking about how we experience them, the distinguished critic raises our awareness of fundamental things like proportion, scale, space, texture, materials, shapes, light, and memory. Upon completing this remarkable architectural journey, listeners will enjoy a wonderfully rewarding new way of seeing and experiencing every aspect of the built world. The book is published by Yale University Press.
©2009 Paul Goldberger (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks
Saving Italy
Summary
When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes—artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt—embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli.
©2013 Robert M. Edsel (P)2013 Recorded Books
Notre-Dame
Summary
"The wonderful cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the greatest achievements of European civilization, was on fire. The sight dazed and disturbed us profoundly. I was on the edge of tears. Something priceless was dying in front of our eyes. The feeling was bewildering, as if the earth was shaking." (Ken Follett) "[A] treasure of a book." (The New Yorker) In this short, spellbinding book, international best-selling author Ken Follett describes the emotions that gripped him when he learned about the fire that threatened to destroy one of the greatest cathedrals in the world - the Notre-Dame de Paris. Follett then tells the story of the cathedral, from its construction to the role it has played across time and history, and he reveals the influence that the Notre-Dame had upon cathedrals around the world and on the writing of one of Follett's most famous and beloved novels, The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follett will donate his proceeds from this book to the charity La Fondation du Patrimoine.
©2019 Ken Follett (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Brunelleschi's Dome
Summary
On August 19, 1418, a competition concerning Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore was announced: "Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome...shall do so before the end of the month of September." The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build. The dome would literally need to be erected over thin air. Of the many plans submitted, one stood out. It was offered not by a master mason or carpenter, but by a goldsmith and clockmaker named Filippo Brunelleschi, who would dedicate the next 28 years to solving the puzzles of the dome's construction. In the process, he did nothing less than reinvent the field of architecture. Brunelleschi's Dome is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius. He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers' platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction.
©2000 Ross King (P)2020 Tantor
Water 4.0
Summary
The little-known story of the systems that bring us our drinking water, how they were developed, the problems they are facing, and how they will be reinvented in the near future
Most of us give little thought to the hidden systems that bring us water and take it away when we’re done with it. But these underappreciated marvels of engineering face an array of challenges that cannot be solved without a fundamental change to our relationship with water, David Sedlak explains in this enlightening book. To make informed decisions about the future, we need to understand the three revolutions in urban water systems that have occurred over the past 2,500 years and the technologies that will remake the system. The author starts by describing the early Roman aqueducts, fountains, and sewers that made dense urban living feasible. He then details the development of drinking water and sewage treatment systems - the second and third revolutions in urban water. He offers an insider’s look at current systems that rely on reservoirs, underground pipe networks, treatment plants, and storm sewers to provide water that is safe to drink, before addressing how these water systems will have to be reinvented. For everyone who cares about reliable, clean, abundant water, this book is essential.
"Sedlak...has contributed a gem to the growing shelf of books on the emerging crisis surrounding water.... An erudite romp through two millennia of water and sanitation practice and technology." (Nature)
"The book is filled with intriguing historical detail...[and] stimulates political reflection as well." (Los Angeles Review of Books)
"An intriguing history of human water use. Packed with riveting stories and examples." (Mathis Wackernagel, Global Footprint Network)
©2014 David Sedlak (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
Higher
Summary
This riveting, true account of the 1929 race to build New York City's tallest skyscraper evokes the glory of an exciting time long past. The Roaring Twenties were all about ambition, and New York embodied this mentality more than any other place in the world. In the spirit of the times, Walter Chrysler (of the Chrysler Building) and young financier George Ohrstrom (of the Manhattan Bank Building) competed to erect a structure that would reach to the skies. Behind it all were two brilliant architects, two men with a common past, but very different visions for the future. Every bit as riveting as the best fiction, Higher takes fascinating characters and throws them into an extraordinary setting. The result is an unforgettable story filled with rich anecdotes and astounding feats.
©2003 Neal Bascomb (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC
Soho
Summary
Soho - illicit, glamorous, sordid, louche, poverty-stricken, squalid, exhilarating. One of Britain's best loved historians, Dan Cruickshank, grants us an intimacy with centuries of rich and varied history as he guides us around the Soho of the last 500 years. We learn of its original aspirations towards respectability, how it became London's bohemian quarter and why it was once home to its criminal underworld. The bars, clubs and theatres and their frequenters are described with detail that evokes the heart of the district. The history of Soho is written in its surviving architecture. Cruickshank points out the streets that were the stamping grounds of criminal dynasties and directs our attention towards the homes of renowned prostitutes, revealing Georgian sexual mores and surprising visitors - amongst them 18th-century painter Joshua Reynolds, whose peculiar 'caprice' was simply drawing the girls. Soho has been home to characters as diverse as Mrs Goadby's girls to the Maltese mafia, and Cruikshank draws these threads together with kaleidoscopic verve. Even as he mourns some of the changes, he pays testament to the district's resilience. He observes how the common denominator over the centuries is that it has always been a destination for immigrants: from French Huguenots to the East European Jewish community and recent Chinese diaspora - and that this is the foundation of its spirit and success. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.
©2019 Dan Cruickshank (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Nerone e la Domus Aurea
Summary
La storia dell'Imperatore Nerone e della costruzione della sua reggia da sogno. La ricostruzione delle fasi dell'incendio del 64 d.C., che distrusse la capitale dell'impero e della dorata reggia di Nerone in una imperdibile opera di Altair4 Multimedia & LA CASE Books che racconta lo splendore della città eterna ai tempi di Nerone. Dalle fatiscenti insulae della Suburra alle sontuose architetture della domus Aurea, dal Lago di Nerone al Colosseo, dai portici Neroniani sulla via Sacra ai fasti dei Fori Imperiali, dalla mole imponente del Colosso di Nerone alla rivoluzione architettonica dell'Aula Ottagona, un viaggio senza tempo dentro all'opera più ambiziosa di un artefice visionario.
©2017 La case USA (P)2017 La case USA
Skyscraper
Summary
In Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century, Benjamin Flowers explores the role of culture and ideology in shaping the construction of skyscrapers and the way wealth and power have operated to reshape the urban landscape. Flowers narrates this modern tale by closely examining the creation and reception of three significant sites: the Empire State Building, the Seagram Building, and the World Trade Center. He demonstrates how architects and their clients employed a diverse range of modernist styles to engage with and influence broader cultural themes in American society: immigration, the Cold War, and the rise of American global capitalism. Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2010. The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.
©2009 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
Ancient Rome (The wonders of Archaeology)
Summary
A wonderful journey through the splendors of the Eternal City: Forum Romanum, Pantheon, Baths of Caracalla, Theater of Pompey, Forum of Augustus, Colosseum and Palatine.
©2017 ALTAIR4 MULTIMEDIA ROMA (P)2017 LA CASE Books & ALTAIR4 MULTIMEDIA ROMA
Metropolis
Summary
La storia d'Italia è anche geografia: quella delle nostre città così ricche di monumenti, palazzi e scorci, connessi da un intrico di vie sotterranee che sono una metafora dei percorsi della nostra memoria. In questo dedalo ci accompagna Hans Tuzzi, guida d'eccezione alla scoperta dei segreti di quattro città italiane servite dalla metropolitana: Roma, Milano, Napoli, Torino. Attraversiamo le vie della Roma dei Cesari, saliamo a piazza di Spagna, "la più bella del mondo" per Gabriele D'Annunzio, teatro degli amori di Elena Muti e Andrea Sperelli, e scendiamo a Cavour per passeggiare fino all'Istituto di Fisica di Via Panisperna, dove negli anni Trenta studiarono gli astri nascenti del mondo scientifico. Saliamo a Cairoli, sulla linea 1 della metropolitana di Milano, che ricorda la mater dolorosa del nostro Risorgimento - "Le tombe dei vostri figli saranno altari", le scrisse Giuseppe Mazzini nel 1869 - per scendere a Duomo, dove i fratelli Bocconi aprirono il primo negozio di abiti preconfezionati. Ci spostiamo a Napoli, dove, non lontano dalla fermata Vanvitelli visitiamo la residenza di Maria Carolina, che sposò giovanissima il guaglione rozzo e sanguigno passato alla storia come re Nasone. Saltiamo un secolo e da Dante, sulla linea 1 della metropolitana di Torino, arriviamo al parco del Valentino, dove nel 1902 venne organizzata l'Esposizione Internazionale di Arte Decorativa Moderna in un'efflorescenza liberty estranea alla lineare anima cittadina.
©2012 Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency (P)2020 Audible Studios
Egyptian Mythology
Summary
Few civilizations hold the lure and appeal of ancient Egypt. Renowned for their colossal temples and ornate tombs and an elaborate god mythology, ancient Egypt is a land of romance, mystery, and appeal for young and old. Since the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in the early 19th century the world has been fascinated by one of the oldest empirical civilizations, and for good reason. Egyptian Mythology: Tales of Egyptian Gods, Goddesses, Pharaohs, & the Legacy of Ancient Egypt explores a world lost to time and imagination. A world of impossibilities with lasting effects. Combining historical data with the sprawling system of gods, Egyptian Mythology examines the cause and effect of the gods on daily life. Egyptian Mythology goes beyond the trials of Egypt and discusses who their belief system influenced numerous other cultures as they began to interact on a global scale. The foundation of the famed Silk Road helped spread the lore of Egypt across the Middle East and deep into Asia. Distinguished ancients Plato and Pythagoras are said to have found major influence from Egyptian beliefs. Prepare to be amazed as you dive deep into one of the most influential and rich cultures the world has ever seen. Here is what is inside: The Egyptian creation myth Mythical creatures, magic, and rituals Funerary rituals in ancient Egypt Slavery in ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian warfare and famous battles Volcanic eruptions and revolts in ancient Egypt The seven year famine Tales from ancient Egypt And much, much more! Download this amazing audiobook and start listening today!
©2019 Dale Hansen (P)2019 Dale Hansen
Paris, City of Dreams
Summary
Acclaimed historian Mary McAuliffe vividly recaptures the Paris of Napoleon III, Claude Monet, and Victor Hugo as Georges Haussmann tore down and rebuilt Paris into the beautiful City of Light we know today. Paris, City of Dreams traces the transformation of the City of Light during Napoleon III’s Second Empire into the beloved city of today. Together, Napoleon III and his right-hand man, Georges Haussmann, completely rebuilt Paris in less than two decades - a breathtaking achievement made possible not only by the emperor’s vision and Haussmann’s determination but by the regime’s unrelenting authoritarianism, augmented by the booming economy that Napoleon fostered. Yet a number of Parisians refused to comply with the restrictions that censorship and entrenched institutional taste imposed. Mary McAuliffe follows the lives of artists such as Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Claude Monet, as well as writers such as Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, and the poet Charles Baudelaire, while from exile, Victor Hugo continued to fire literary broadsides at the emperor he detested. McAuliffe brings to life a pivotal era encompassing not only the physical restructuring of Paris but also the innovative forms of banking and money-lending that financed industrialization as well as the city’s transformation. This in turn created new wealth and lavish excess, even while producing extreme poverty. More deeply, change was occurring in the way people looked at and understood the world around them, given the new ease of transportation and communication, the popularization of photography, and the emergence of what would soon be known as Impressionism in art and Naturalism and Realism in literature - artistic yearnings that would flower in the Belle Epoque. Napoleon III, whose reign abruptly ended after he led France into a devastating war against Germany, has been forgotten. But the Paris that he created has endured, brought to vivid life through McAuliffe’s rich illustrations and evocative narrative.
©2020 Mary McAuliffe (P)2020 Rowman & Littlefield