Synopses & Reviews
When design expert Henry Petroski and his wife Catherine bought a charming but modest six-decades-old island retreat, Petroski couldn’t help but admire its unusual construction. He began wondering about the place’s origins and evolution: Who built it, and how? What needs, materials, technologies, historical developments, and laws shaped it? How has it fared through its various inhabitants and the weather? Sleuthing around dimly lit closets, knotty-pine wall panels, and even a secret passage—but never removing so much as a nail—Petroski zooms in on the details but also steps back to examine the structure in the context of its time and place. Catherine Petroski’s beautiful photographs capture the atmosphere, and a vibrant cast of neighbors and past residents—most notably the house’s masterful creator, an engineer-turned-“folk architect”—become key informants. As the mystery unfolds, revealing an extraordinary house and its environs, this ode to loving design will leave readers enchanted and inspired.
Review
"Petroski's prose... will make satisfying reading for architects and carpenters of the professional, amateur, and armchair varieties." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A narrative tour-de-force." David Esterly
Review
"A very close examination of a house's anatomy, garnished with far-ranging asides on how things get made... intriguing." Wall Street Journal
Synopsis
An architectural whodunit that unlocks the secrets of a hand-built home.
Synopsis
When Henry Petroski and his wife Catherine bought a charming but modest six-decades-old island retreat in coastal Maine, Petroski couldn't help but admire its unusual construction. An eminent expert on engineering, history, and design, he began wondering about the place's origins and evolution: Who built it, and how? What needs, materials, technologies, historical developments, and laws shaped it? How had it fared through the years with its various inhabitants?
Synopsis
An architectural whodunit that celebrates extraordinary design and workmanship while unlocking the secrets of a hand-built home in coastal Maine.
About the Author
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. He is the author of seventeen previous books on engineering and design, including the classics To Engineer Is Human and The Pencil.Catherine Petroski is a photographer and the author of fiction and nonfiction books, including A Bride's Passage. She and Henry live in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.