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 Islands, designer Christian Grevstad's instincts led him to alert his pilot that they were off course and lost. As the pilot corrected the flight path, Grevstad glanced down at a flowering meadow sitting atop a high bluff. Below him lay the site he had envisioned for his ideal island getaway. He headed for Seattle, where he did the necessary footwork, and found that the price was right."

Grevstad may enjoy a vexingly privileged lifestyle, but it makes for a cool story.

Seattle architect Jim Castanes AIA (whose own work is featured in the book) has remarked "When one asks, 'Why hire an architect?' all one needs to do is show this book." I'd argue its worth not only looking at, but reading, which is seldom the case with genre books such as these. It's not that this particular book will find itself on a first year architecture student's required reading list, but it does try to make sense of why the projects within its pages are, at least, noteworthy.

BY & ABOUT: Click to view other recent publications reflecting the Northwest design scene.