Tom Kundig

"In Tom Kundig: Works, the celebrated, Seattle-based architect presents eighteen new projects, from Hawaii to Whistler to New York City. Kundig's award-winning houses, known for their rugged yet elegant and welcoming style, are showcased in lush photography with drawings and sketches, and appear alongside commercial work--from multi-story complexes to the Tacoma Art Museum to a line of hardware (handles, door pulls, hinges, and more). In firsthand accounts, Kundig describes the projects and design process with many personal anecdotes. For the Rimrock Residence, located in Spokane, Washington, Kundig reflects on building in the majestic landscape of his hometown. He notes, "In a sense, I was coming home to do it. The clients came to me specifically because they saw me as a local boy who did OK . . . Being on site resonated at a deep level. It was so utterly familiar." [In a way, the book feels like an alternative biography of the architect, told through the photographs and stories of the work itself.] The book also includes an essay by journalist Pilar Viladas and three revealing conversations with the architect and his frequent collaborators: gizmologist Phil Turner (the man behind the amazing gizmos featured in Kundig's work), contractor Jim Dow of Schuchart/Dow (master builder and craftsman responsible for many of the projects in these pages), and clients Shane Atchison and Jack Anderson"--