Coastal Retreats: The Pacific Northwest and the Architecture of Adventure

From the Seattle AIA Reviewer, Peter Sackett:Trying to convince a reader that architecture is good by telling them it's good is an exercise in futility. In Coastal Retreats: The Pacific Northwest and the Architecture of Adventure (Universe, 2002) author Linda Leigh Paul understands the burden of her responsibility as a writer. Her contributions reflect what images, on their own, cannot. Coastal Retreats offers a broad photographic sampling of Northwest vacation homes designed over the last half-century with editorial work that provides context for their creation, including anecdotes from both owner and architect, taking the architecture out of the showroom and into the lives of the people who use it. A couple of years ago I ranted for eight hundred words or so in the pages of Arcade about a newly-published monographic account on the work of architect Roland Terry. My beef wasn't that the architect's work wasn't up to snuff, rather that the book's author had done little to flatter the architecture nor contribute a compelling narrative to describe its significance. To judge from the editorial content, he seemed less than convinced that Terry's work could stand on its own without bolstering it with sentences of fawning admiration to make projects appear buoyant on the page. Paul, instead, takes the trouble to tell stories behind the homes' creation using relaxed, informal language to describe the likes and dislikes of clients as well as quirks of the landscape that provide a setting for enjoyment of their investment. The approach is both entertaining and instructive. She includes the following in a chapter on "Decatur Island Haven" by George Suyama Architects: "In the mid-1990s, while flying over the San Juan Isl

I was surprized by the quality of the works presented but more particularly the idea of "the architecture of adventure". The premise of this book is "right on." These get-aways are not just comfortable, but expose their owner's attitudes on being at home in nature.

This is a beautiful book full of beautiful houses in beautiful places. There is a wide range of projects and styles, illustrating the quality of design in the Pacific Northwest region. An attractive book in its own right, this would be a great resource for anybody thinking of building a vacation house.

Definitely, Linda Leigh Paul should be very proud of her work....It really captures the spirit of Northwest design...When one asks, "Why hire an Architect",,,all one needs to do is show this book,,,it tells all....Again, a job well done!!!