What elevates a house to best-of-class status? Find out in this insider's look at more than fifty award-winning homes designed by nearly three dozen A+ American architects. Regardless of their size or design style, the best new and remodeled homes share common traits. They deliver eminently livable space that can accommodate nearly any lifestyle event. They respect and relate to the natural environment. They take on the personalities of their owners. And they are works of art that no one will ever want to tear down-the ultimate test of sustainability. Comprehensive in scope, this book profiles a wide variety of extraordinary homes-from urban infill to custom homes, suburban remodels, seaside cottages, and subdivision housing. It distills their broad patterns and refined details into practical lessons with endless applications, making it an inspirational guide for designers, builders, and anyone planning their own dream home.

In The New, New Home, Boyce Thompson, the editorial director of Builder magazine for 17 years, demystifies the challenges and opportunities facing new homebuyers. In it, he lays out the new green, high-tech, aging in place, space planning and construction options available in today's market. He helps buyers determine which features will improve their living experience today and create value if they sell their home down the road. The New, New Home is the one book that anyone contemplating buying or building a new home needs to read, arming new-home buyers with the actionable information that they need to make intelligent choices.

Most people live in homes that become dysfunctional when their family circumstances change, whether it is suddenly having to work from home, new mobility challenges, or an unexpected in-law arriving on the scene. It doesn't have to be that way. Houses can be designed to accommodate family needs now and in the future. Interviews with 20 homeowners and their designers illustrate flexible solutions to a variety of living arrangements. Combined with photographs and floor plans, the case studies represent different perspectives, from young families to divorcees, single-parent households, and retirees. Tips at the end of each chapter address issues such as key lifestyle questions to ask before designing a forever house, where not to skimp, and how to plan spaces for double and triple duty. Designing an adaptable home has economic, environmental, and emotional rewards. With smart planning, it's possible to build a house that can be passed on to the next generation.

The climate is changing, and so must domestic architecture. Premium materials-brick, stone, wood-and timeless design used to be the key to building homes that would last for generations. But a warming planet, coupled with severe weather events, has changed the equation and raised the stakes, sometimes literally. Aimed at homeowners, architects, and builders, this book presents sixteen innovative homes that represent the best of resilient-home practices in four categories-earth, wind, fire, and water-plus a list of resources from organizations such as FEMA and the National Fire Protection Agency. Few local building codes provide adequate protection from the forces of global warming, which will proliferate in this century. These examples illustrate the importance of next-level home design to help resist climate change-the most urgent issue of our time.

Introduction By George L. McNew And William J. Robbins. Preface By Richard M. Klein. Contributing Authors Include Joyce A. Bentley, Poul Larsen, Torbjorn Aasheim, And Many Others.

Abraham Lincoln is widely renowned for his stance on the emancipation of enslaved people in a period when America was sorely divided over the subject. However, at the same time, there was a little-known event that took place--one that left a stain on Lincoln's legacy, and has apologists still trying to expunge it today. This work tells the quiet but bloody history of Bernard Kock, a New Orleans entrepreneur with an ill-fated attempt at establishing a cotton plantation on Ile a Vache, a deserted Haitian island, using formerly enslaved Americans. It also covers Lincoln's involvement and support of Kock's plan, as well as his pledge of $50 in government funding for each of the 453 colonists. With chapters on Lincoln's encouragement of black deportation, the establishment of the plantation, the futile attempts at damage control and more, this text reveals an untold part of Lincoln's history.