Book Description
Returning to the subject of their bestselling book Barn (1992), David Larkin, with barn preservationists Elric Endersby and Alexander Greenwood, takes the reader on a tour of barns throughout America. Featuring all-new sites and structures, Barn is a perfect introduction for those not yet initiated into the world of barns as well as a definitive resource for all barn owners and architecture enthusiasts.
The book discusses the form and function of American barns. It gives their complete history-from Colonial times to the present, the old and the new-and illustrates the incredible range of styles of these structures. From rural villages in New England to the farmlands of the Midwest, from the Deep South to the Southwest, and up and down the West Coast, Barn: Preservation & Adaptation fully demonstrates the adaptability and enduring charm of one of the most iconic forms of American vernacular architecture.
Today there is great activity restoring and converting barns. No longer used just for farming, barns have been converted into bookstores, theaters, restaurants, garages, and even houses. Barn: Preservation & Adaptation explores renovations, interior design options, and structural and cosmetic changes that have kept these traditional farm buildings vital and functional into the twenty-first century.
This highly engaging history and the profound beauty of these handcrafted structures will enchant all barn aficionados interested in their architecture and their historic preservation.
About the Author
David Larkin is an editor, author, and book designer whose books include American Home, Barn, Shaker Style, The Treehouse Book, and Mill.
Elric Endersby majored in the history of architecture at Trinity College, Hartford, and studied history and American folklife in the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Founder and director of the Princeton History Project, Endersby edited The Princeton Recollector for twelve years.
Alexander Greenwood worked as a restoration carpenter before studying historic preservation at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts.
Since 1980, Greenwood and Endersby have been partners in the New Jersey Barn Company, a design and restoration firm in Princeton, New Jersey, that specializes in saving and relocating threatened historic structures.