Great book and overview of Adler's extensive work. Having grown up in Albert Lasker's Lake Forest estate; Mill Road Farm (p74), I was thrilled to see the arial photo's of the massive estate in it's heyday. One of Adler's most excellent sub-architects Jerome Cerny deserves recognition for his contributions to many of these beautiful houses. Indeed he and his family occupied part of the Mill Road Farm estate while I lived there. Enjoy!

Though I must say, that I agree that this book could have used some color plates, it in my opinion does not distract from the fact that this is a wonderful book on a fine architect. I personally love the archieval black and white plates, they are so vivid and the Adler homes are quite old, so it somehow seem to fit. This book covers in detail Adler's best country homes, his work was just amazing and the attention to detail in his homes ranks with Horace Trumbaur and McKim, Mead, and White as the best of this age. Chicago is most blessed with his homes, but the Crane Estate, in the Boston suburbs is, in my opinion, his most interesting home and this book does a fine job of covering it. If you have any interest in great American residental architecture, or Mr. Adler's work itself, then I can't imagine you being disappointed in this book.

oh i wanted to LOVE this book-- it is FINE--but not amazing-- a bit too "textbook"--

I really love David Adler. I was thrilled to find out that this book was in the making. But when I finally got my hands on it I was furious to find that there were no color plates in the entire book. All photographs are archival. The Richard Crane mansion in Ipswich is a tremendous house, and I appreciate the old view from the beach, but how does that compare to the view now that all of the landscape has come to maturation. Not including color plates and more contemporary shots was a cruel tease to play.

growing up in Lake Forest, IL...I, too saw these beautiful country estates -- but never knew the common theme was David Adler. Such a wealth of information and history that I have to thank Mr. Salny for. We are talking an era of architecture that included not only the design of a building, but also the design of the gardens, the interiors, etc. A fabulous book -- beautiful and inspiring in so many ways!