Message from Edward Allen
Dear Students, Teachers, and Builders:
Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods is now in its fourth edition. It has been nearly twenty years since the first edition made its appearance. Some of you have been working with the text and have seen the improvements from edition to edition for this entire time. I think you will agree that the fourth edition is by far the best yet. Those of you who are coming to this book for the first time will find it a pleasure to use.
There's lots of new information in this edition. Most prominently, there is an essay on sustainability and 'green' building in Chapter 1, and sidebars in nearly all the chapters that discuss the specifics of these topics as they relate to the material under discussion. Also new is a set of illustrated essays entitled From Concept to Reality, created by Joseph Iano. Each is a small case study of how technical knowledge about materials and methods of construction came into play in translating an architect's design ideas into finished construction. Additionally, Lon Grohs has prepared a number of new photorealistic drawings; these are especially prominent in the chapter on precast concrete construction, but they appear in other chapters as well. And there have been thousands of changes both large and small in the content of the chapters to bring them up to date and as clear and readable as possible.
Another new feature of this edition is web links for each chapter that can be utilized as points of entry into the wealth of information on construction that is available online. Our own web site has been vastly expanded, with new features by Profs. Stephen Diamond, Dennis Bausman, and Hitesh Doshi that you'll find especially useful.
It's been gratifying to see Fundamentals accepted so enthusiastically by the building community. Wherever I go, I see it on students' desks and on reference shelves, usually worn and dog-eared, above drafting stations in professional offices. I hear many tales of the warm feelings that people have for the book. I have worked very hard to make this new edition as deserving of this loyalty as its predecessors.
I think you will be pleased with the changes in the new edition. I look forward to hearing your comments.
With my best wishes for your success,
Edward Allen
allenarch@compuserve.com
