The discussion moves systematically through ideas, theories, research and practice of urban design from a wide range of sources. It gradually builds the concepts one upon the other towards a total view of the subject.

    When she inherits her grandparents' cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, she is shocked and curious. She persuades Paige, her mother, that they should go and stay in the cabin for a few days before they list it for sale. Jason is a carpenter by trade, but he's willing to help a friend by exterminating Maura's house. She persuades him to give the ladybugs a reprieve, and by time they part, each is trying to think of a good excuse to contact the other.Paige realizes that Maura and Jason are falling in love and does her best to discourage the relationship. When Maura insists on remaining in North Carolina, Paige flies back to Missouri without her.No one predicted that Maura's father would show up. The story he tells doesn't match facts with the story Paige has told, and Maura is convinced that neither of her parents deserve her forgiveness. According to Jason, that's why it's called grace ...

    then the victors imposed democracy on the vanquished. For a group of apprentice architects, artists, and designers, led by a visionary, the dire situation of their country was not an obstacle but an inspiration to plan and think… although they were very different characters, the architects worked closely together to realize their dreams, staunchly supported by a super-creative bureaucracy and an activist state... after 15 years of incubation, they surprised the world with a new architecture—Metabolism—that proposed a radical makeover of the entire land... Then newspapers, magazines, and TV turned the architects into heroes: thinkers and doers, thoroughly modern men… Through sheer hard work, discipline, and the integration of all forms of creativity, their country, Japan, became a shining example... when the oil crisis initiated the end of the West, the architects of Japan spread out over the world to define the contours of a post-Western aesthetic....” —Rem Koolhaas / Hans Ulrich Obrist Between 2005 and 2011, architect Rem Koolhaas and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism—the first non-western avant-garde, launched in Tokyo in 1960, in the midst of Japan’s postwar miracle. Project Japan features hundreds of never-before-seen images—master plans from Manchuria to Tokyo, intimate snapshots of the Metabolists at work and play, architectural models, magazine excerpts, and astonishing sci-fi urban visions—telling the 20th century history of Japan through its architecture, from the tabula rasa of a colonized Manchuria in the 1930s to a devastated Japan after the war, the establishment of Metabolism at the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokoy, to the rise of Kisho Kurokawa as the first celebrity architect, to the apotheosis of Metabolism at Expo ’70 in Osaka and its expansion into the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. The result is a vivid documentary of the last moment when architecture was a public rather than a private affair.

    Paul. Now, in Once There Were Castles, he offers a richly illustrated look at another world of ghosts in our midst: the lost mansions and estates of the Twin Cities.Nobody can say for sure how many lost mansions haunt the Twin Cities, but at least five hundred can be accounted for in public records and archives. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, entire neighborhoods of luxurious homes have disappeared, virtually without a trace. Many grand estates that once spread out over hundreds of acres along the shores of Lake Minnetonka are also gone. The greatest of these lost houses often had astonishingly short lives: the lavish Charles Gates mansion in Minneapolis survived only nineteen years, and Norman Kittson’s sprawling castle on the site of the St. Paul Cathedral stood for barely more than two decades. Railroad and freeway building, commercial and institutional expansion, fires, and financial disasters all claimed their share of mansions; others succumbed to their own extravagance, becoming too costly to maintain once their original owners died.The stories of these grand houses are, above all else, the stories of those who built and lived in them—from the fantastic saga of Marion Savage to the continent-spanning conquests of James J. Hill, to the all-but-forgotten tragedy of Olaf Searle, a poor immigrant turned millionaire who found and lost a dream in the middle of Lake Minnetonka. These and many other mansion builders poured all their dreams, desires, and obsessions into extravagant homes designed to display wealth and solidify social status in a culture of ever-fluctuating class distinctions.The first book to take an in-depth look at the history of the Twin Cities’ mansions, Once There Were Castles presents ninety lost mansions and estates, organized by neighborhood and illustrated with photographs and drawings. An absorbing read for Twin Cities residents and a crucial addition to the body of work on the region’s history, Once There Were Castles brings these “ghost mansions” back to life.

    You’ll learn how to apply MongoDB design patterns to several challenging domains, such as ecommerce, content management, and online gaming. Using Python and JavaScript code examples, you’ll discover how MongoDB lets you scale your data model while simplifying the development process.Many businesses launch NoSQL databases without understanding the techniques for using their features most effectively. This book demonstrates the benefits of document embedding, polymorphic schemas, and other MongoDB patterns for tackling specific big data use cases, including:Operational intelligence: Perform real-time analytics of business dataEcommerce: Use MongoDB as a product catalog master or inventory management systemContent management: Learn methods for storing content nodes, binary assets, and discussionsOnline advertising networks: Apply techniques for frequency capping ad impressions, and keyword targeting and biddingSocial networking: Learn how to store a complex social graph, modeled after Google+Online gaming: Provide concurrent access to character and world data for a multiplayer role-playing game

    Stale, often dully composed images of corporate headquarters, roadways, bus-station parking lots, convalescent-home dayrooms, hospital cafeterias, and undistinguished motels. But look carefully, and the cards - culled from the collection of artist Martin Parr --are filled with fascinating little details. As a group, they offer readers the interesting opportunity to puzzle over the collective psyche of the people of the 1950s and '60s (the approximate vintage of the images) who were inclined to create, buy, and send these cards. What, one can't help but wonder, could be so scintillating about a room at the Fortes Excelsior Motor Lodge near Pontefract, Yorkshire? The singular force of the orange bedspreads, carpet, drapes, and walls punctuated by the inexplicably white leather upholstered panel attached to the wall unit behind each of the room's beds.The exterior of the Mirfield Modern School, shot at a distance and unimaginatively placed dead in the centre of the grey sky and green playing field? The building's Bauhaus-like lines. The tarmac of Luton Airport in London? The pink jumbo jet being towed into the frame from the left. The uniformly shaped trailers parked at the Freshwater Caravan Camp? The handwritten X that presumably marks the sender's location. The Chalets at Llandanwg? Arguably, not much. The few hundred images here, unfettered by any explanatory text, offer a far from dull diversion for any readers interested in mid-century design or the mundane details of daily life.

    Their Choices lead them to this moment. The Consequences cannot be avoided. Good and evil, light and dark, nothing is ever as it seems. Join Olivia and Holden as they fight for their impossible love in this complete three book box set. Secrets- While Olivia Martin observed life through her camera, the Abyss gazed back at her. She discovers mysterious men follow her around, people close to her are dying, and her dreams are no longer her own as she falls head over heels for a perfect stranger. A chance encounter leads to an obsession that could destroy everything she has ever known or loved. Olivia is about to find out there is a lot she doesn't know and sometimes what you don't know can kill you. Choices- Hearts break. Loved ones are lost. Life keeps moving. Olivia Martin’s afterlife was more dangerous and confusing than her life ever was. She thought she was ready to come back, to forget about Holden and to let go of the rage consuming her. Fulfilling her destiny as a guardian was all that mattered—the past could stay hidden in the crevices of her mind. However, when guardians are murdered and the evidence points towards jinn, she has to do something. To save anyone’s future, Olivia will have to confront the one person from her past she is terrified to see. Holden waited for Olivia with the hope he would see her one more time. But when she didn’t return, he found salvation in darkness. The black and twisted road made it easier to forget what he lost than to live with the memory of what he had. An unexpected promotion shoves him into a world of intoxicating power and influence. Holden will have to choose between his new life and the woman he thought was gone forever. Consequences-In the final installment of the Guardian Trilogy, hope is born, alliances change, and the fate of a world is held in the hands of two people. Forced to face the wrath of either Heaven or Hell, Olivia and Holden must choose a side before a war begins and tears their lives apart forever. They always felt an unseen force brought them together, but was it to prevent the end of their world or to ensure it?

    What’s it like to work at Walt Disney World?Amber Sewell spent two semesters “earning her ears” at the Happiest Place on Earth, first in the CareerStart Program and then in the better known Disney College Program.During her time backstage, as the Cast Member areas of the theme park are called, Amber kept a diary of her successes and her failures, her moments of delight and her moments of despair, and most of all, her discoveries about what happens when the pixie dust settles and the guests have gone home.Amber will never feel the same about Walt Disney World again.After you’ve read her book, neither will you.

    With stunning images and expert illustrations, experience and appreciate the most famous sights on earth in an exciting new way.

    Lots of suspense, mystery, and romance. No cliffhangers! Altering the Ego My boss told me to hire a psychiatrist to do an evaluation on a client. It should have been a simple thing. We were an investigative firm. Our client is most definitely not a serial killer. My task? Hire a shrink. Get her to agree that the client isn’t a psychopath. Boom. Except the boom wasn’t my task getting checked off my list. It was more like my life exploding into a million pieces because nothing is simple when it comes to Dr. Harley Seward. The woman is mental health dynamite and when I’m around her there is no shrinking going on. Cat’s Claw The world is full of a whole lot of sickos. That’s no real surprise. Since I’m a private investigator by trade, I might be biased. But right now I’m looking at a whole string of bodies and a justice system that wants to put the wrong man in jail. So pardon me if I’m not real impressed with the local detectives right now. And double pardon me if I have orders from my boss to get in their way and make myself a regular nuisance while I try to get these guys to do their job. Not that it’s a hardship since the guy I’m following around happens to be the best looking guy in the department. Of course he’s also a big of an odd duck. He seems to be immune to my charm and that is what I call a challenge. Judge Not Someone is threatening to kill my mother. Of course it’s not that I’ve never felt like the woman needed a few good threats, but I’m her daughter. That’s sort of my right. See my mother is a judge and someone really wants to sway her opinion on a case she’s currently presiding over. So what better way to do that than to threaten her family? Of course if the idiots knew her at all they’d focus on my sister. She’s the favorite. But me? I’m the tough one. My mother might be willing to turn down a little help from an outside private investigations company, but I’m not. If a super hot investigator named Zeke wants to help me find out who’s threatening my family. I’m all in. No matter what it takes. Bending the Rules I am sick to death of my job as a private investigator and ready for a change. Is there a man out there who doesn’t cheat, lie, or completely wimp out when the chips are down? If there is, I can’t find him, and that absolutely includes the parade of MMA fighters I’ve been dating recently. Of course my search for Mr. Nonexistent will have to wait until after I deal with the joker that my boss has ordered me to work with on his current pet project. Not only does he live upstairs, but he’s also a lawyer. The fact that he sort of fascinates me is irrelevant. Really. If my boss’s daughter wasn’t such a good friend, I think I would have walked away. When it All Falls Down Letting my wife divorce me was probably the stupidest thing I ever did. I would never say that out loud though and I’ll deny it if anyone asks. Colleen is an amazing woman. I just wish she would stay out of the way and let me use every resource at my fingertips to find our daughter. Does the woman not understand that the city is a powder keg and we’re running around out there with matches? I know what to do. I know where to look. I’ve got a crack team of investigators and I’ve assembled all of the specialists I could ever want. In the end though, it’s going to take both of us to find our little girl.

    Complete & Unabridged

    This collection contains all six Lying Game novels, plus two digital original novellas, The First Lie and True Lies.Separated at birth, twin sisters Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer never had a chance to meet. And now they never will. Someone murdered Sutton and forced Emma into taking her place. Sutton can only watch from beyond the grave as Emma tries to figure out who killed her—and why.But as Emma digs deeper, the girls discover that the truth may be far more terrible than they'd ever imagined—and the killer may be a lot closer to home….

    In Let the Storm Break, Vane discovers more of what it means to be a windwalker, and Audra struggles with her deepest desires. And in the final book of the trilogy, Let the Wind Rise, Vane and Audra have already struggled and triumphed over amazing challenges, but they’re about to meet their biggest obstacle yet—the consequences of their own decisions.

    However, when unexpected guests attend Akira and Zane's wedding, her life will change forever. But for better or for worse? For fans of the Tassamara series, this short story (16,000 words) takes place at the wedding of the main characters from A Gift of Ghosts, after the events of A Gift of Time. One reviewer calls it, "a super fun, sassy, and supernatural story you don't want to miss!"

    It will then be about them only. It will be all about the one they loved like thunder, about the one they struggled hard to keep, about the one who had left them in the middle of their 'forever', about their world shattering into pieces, about them gluing together every piece, and about them falling in love one more time.And if you still think it is about you and me, you haven't loved someone like thunder, yet.