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Paris is almost as well known for its architecture as for fashion, food, wine, and lovers. This is, after all, the city of the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre - both old and new - and the Opera, Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur.
An Architect's Paris reproduces the visual and verbal musings of an architect on the prowl in this great city. Thomas Carlson-Reddig spent two months wandering about the City of Light, jotting down his reactions to its architecture and design and making sketches and watercolors of his favorite sites in order to give us a personal, incisive look at the city. While he is awed - still - by the Eiffel Tower, he finds La Defense nearby to be an arid, boring, unfortunate venue. A candlelit, music-filled Ste. Chapelle is described as though seen in a dream, while the area around the Pompidou Center, with its street people and grifters, is more like a nightmare. His combined look at Ledoux's Rotonde de la Villette and Tschumi's Parc de la Villette is at once startling and reassuringly fitting.
An Architect's Paris is organized by regions, with a bonus of a daytrip to Chartres. A color-coded map helps the reader comprehend the structure of the city and the author's wanderings within its boundaries. While the book is designed to withstand the rigors of travel and handling, its evocative, often poetic pictures encourage one to navigate these age-old streets in the comfort of a favorite armchair as well as on foot.
