I've lived on the California coast all my life, so I'm no stranger to homegrown architecture. I've driven by geodesic domes tucked into canyons and hiked past shack-like mini-mansions perched on empty hilltops. My encounters have always been brief, though, and, most importantly, from afar. As he did with 2004's Home Work, Lloyd Kahn takes us inside the structures many of us wouldn't and couldn't even stumble upon, let alone venture inside. In this case, we tour the coastal creations of more than a dozen builders dotting the edge of North America all the way up from Northern CA to British Columbia. Driftwood saunas and stairwells, wave-like green roofs, bright wide-eyed yurts, hand-carved pillars and more. A wonderful collection of imagination and possibility.

-- Steven Leckart

Builders of the Pacific Coast
Lloyd Kahn
2008, 256 pages
$18
Available from Amazon

Shelter Publications, Pacific Builders of the Pacific Coast homepage