This almost 1800 page treatise on mechanical and electrical design as it relates to architecture is one of a kind. It is not an artistic book on the subject, although some artistic ability is always needed in any aspect of building design. Instead it is a very technical book that shows how the architect must be part electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, electrician, physicist, plumber, safety specialist, and transportation engineer in order to design the modern building. And to top it all off, you need to be knowledgable of current mechanical and electrical equipment - their specifications and their costs.

The book has plenty of examples with step by step instructions on how to perform various subtasks. Many of these examples contain numerical calculations, so it will help if you have had freshman engineering physics, especially in the sections on illumination, acoustics, and electricity where calculations, tables, and equations abound.

The book is broken into nine parts encompassing nearly every technical decision involved in designing a modern building. The first section is an introductory one on the context of design. That is followed by sections on thermal control, illumination, acoustics, water and waste, fire protection, electricity, signal systems, and finally in-building transportation. A lengthy appendix contains a great deal of supplemental information, including climate data for various parts of the United States, solar geometry, sound transmission data, and a listing of software that can be helpful in performing the tasks discussed in this book, and how that software can be obtained.

I highly recommend this book to aspiring architects and also to civil engineers that are interested in the construction of modern buildings. It's been the flagship book on the subject for seventy years in its various editions, and probably will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Excellent. The best book I have seen on the subject.

That a book has gone through ten editions says something about the acceptance of that book. In the case of this book, it says that this is basically the Bible of the subject, after all it's been around since the first edition in 1935. And it's subject is basically everything not covered by the structure of the building. This includes heating, cooling, electricity, lighting, water, plumbing fixtures, even acoustics, fire protection, and for bigger buildings such things as burglar alarms, elevators and moving stairways, and more.

In this book, each of these subjects is treated to at least a chapter, perhaps a whole series of chapters. This book describes the state of the art, be it in solar heating, or low water usage toilets.

It is intended for the student as well as the professional architect or engineer. I would also recommend it highly to anyone thinking about designing their own house. Here is information of value to the design if he is working alone or with an architect.