The LPA Summer Reading List

Mon, Jun 15, 2009 Charlie Williams life at LPA, LPA summer reading list, architects, Engineers, Sustainable Design, Architecture

Over the past few weeks a few of my favorite tech personalities have posted must read lists. My favorites were posted by Leo Leport, host of podcasts such as This Week in Tech and Mac Break Weekly on the twit.tv network, and Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, and Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg and co-host of Diggnation a Podcast on the Revision 3 network.

In the spirit of these posts I'm posting my own top 5 must reads as they relate to architecture and life here at LPA:

LPA Summer Reading List1) The World is Flat by Tom Friedman: This book was read office wide a few years back and is an eye opening book about the present and future of business.

2) Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart: Cradle to Cradle is at the forefront of the sustainable design movement and a holistic approach to sustainable design. William McDonough is a leader in this arena and has even made the book itself a model of sustainable design.

3) Getting Things Done by David Allen: For us Architects, Designers and Engineers time management is a constant struggle. GTD is a great book that not only covers the philosophy of time management but very detailed methodologies.

4) Good to Great by Jim Collins: Another book read office wide a few years ago that is a case study in what personality traits make a company great.

5) The Pixar Touch by David A Price: This book is in tribute to summer reading. While it may not be directly related to architecture it is a great story about the rise of a company that has had a far reaching impact on the world of technology, business and even some of the rendering software we use here at the office.

Hope you enjoy these books like I have, and find some time this summer to read one or more off this list. If you're really pressed for time, do what I do and download the audio version to you iPod.