Books

edited by Stanley Abercrombie -- Interior Design, 7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Putman Style

by Stéphane Gerschel

New York: Assouline Publishing, $40

196 pages, 150 photographs

Andrée Putman's influence spans years, continents, and industries: her design of the Morgans Hotel in New York in 1984; interiors for the Concorde in 1994; Guerlain's Paris store in 2005; even a film set for Peter Greenaway's "The Pillow Book" in 1995

Now this book shows us the life behind her well-documented work, including her legendary social milieu. Who knew that at age 15, the Parisian followed intellectuals Alberto Giacometti, Antonin Artaud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir to Café de Flore? Later her social circle encompassed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and artists Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Putman herself brings a vibrancy to the book by lending personal photos and quotes. Richer still? Page-long tributes by such friends as Bernard-Henri Lévy and Louise Bourgeois. Author Stéphane Gerschel describes each as a "testimony."

The Interior Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating, and Budgeting

by Theo Stephan Williams

New York: Allworth Press

$20 paperback, 207 pages

Maybe you know this stuff already, but one good tip from a book like this can be very useful. There are sections on determining hourly rates, pricing your project, accepting pro bono work, reacting to clients who keep changing their minds, writing proposals, managing budgets, and positioning your firm. A half dozen case-study interviews and an appendix of sample business forms complete the list of tools. The author has also written a similarly handy book for graphic designers. "Having founded an organic ranch and specialty food company with her husband Joel," we're told, "her career has transcended to interior design. . . ." Any career move is more transcendent when it turns a profit.

Looking at Glass: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques

by Catherine Hess and Karol Wight

Los Angeles: Getty Publications, $15 paperback

108 pages, 81 illustrations (75 color)

Part of the J. Paul Getty Museum's "Looking At…" series—other subjects have included photographs, European ceramics, and Greek vases—this little book is a glossary of glass terms ranging from abrasion, acid etching, and alkali to window, wrythen, and zwischengoldglas. Represented are mostly objects in collections at Los Angeles's Getty Museum, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and New York's Corning Museum of Glass. The lexicon is introduced by a brief history of glass and capped by a bibliography and index. Kurt Hauser contributed the admirable cover design.

What They're Reading...

Annabelle Selldorf, principal of Selldorf Architects, New York

McKim, Mead & White: The Masterworks

by Elizabeth and Samuel G. White

New York: Rizzoli International Publications, $75 304 pages

Selldorf's favorite reading of the moment is this oversize presentation of 24 McKim, Mead & White accomplishments. "I'm really enjoying this book," she says, "because it provides an in-depth view of the quality of their quintessentially American architecture."