Cincinnati Observed: Architecture and History features a series of walking tours that comprise a comprehensive guide to the city's architecture, institutions, and landscape. Here John Clubbe offers friendly insight into how the places and people that make up a city interact to form a vibrant urban environment.

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Joseph and Bernard Steinkamp carried on the family tradition of their grandfather and father, designing at least 300 structures in and around the Cincinnati area and as far away as Charleston, West Virginia. Some of the more well-known structures in the Cincinnati area include the Mercantile Library Building where they had their offices for 40 years, the Hotel Metropole, now the 21c Museum Hotel, and the American Building, which now houses high-end condominiums. In this book, you'll also learn: - Some of their most beautiful work was for the early Xavier College buildings in Avondale that included seven administration and school buildings in addition to the field house and the football stadium. - Over the span of their careers, they designed several Catholic schools and churches, including St. William Church in Price Hill, St. Mark's Church in Evanston, and Our Lady of Mercy Church in Dayton. Their work included the beautiful chapel at St. Ursula Academy in Walnut Hills. - Starting at the end of the 19th century, they partnered with Thomas Emery's Sons by designing many large "streetcar" apartments in Walnut Hills, Avondale, Cli on and elsewhere that allowed the populace of Cincinnati to move up the steep hills and away from the dirt and smells of downtown. - The brothers helped Barney Kroger expand by designing bakeries and several grocery stores for him when the company was growing at the turn of the century. - They also designed a number of commercial businesses, factories and garages around Cincinnati. Some are still standing and have been converted to apartments, condominiums, or restaurants.

"The process of investigation, analysis, and testing makes Architecture Research Office (ARO) as much a laboratory as a design firm. For Stephen Cassell, Adam Yarinsky, and their team, the starting point of each commission is not the development of an abstract "idea" for the project, but an intensive, hands-on occupation with a project's conditions, with its physical, economic, and social contexts. This practical approach to making architecture, to shrinking the distance between thinking and building, is much evident in their work, which manages to be simultaneously thoughtful and sensual." "The seven projects featured in this, the first monograph on the work of this firm, range from self-directed research (ARO's paper wall project), to private living spaces (the SoHo Loft), to commercial interiors (the Qiora Store and Spa), to the popular U.S. Armed Services Recruiting Station in Times Square, to the stunning Colorado House in Telluride. All of these projects challenge design conventions, while delighting the senses with their unusual materials, careful detailing, and unexpected spatial discoveries." "With essays by Stan Allen, Philip Nobel, Guy Nordenson, and Sarah Whiting."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved