Chromatic Homes: The Joy of Color in Historic Places - Hardcover

"His book features vivid and colorful photos of many (chromatic) homes, sorted by city, providing a joyful burst of eye candy perfect for a coffee table conversation piece." -- Kentucky Living "Painting houses is a worldwide practice for self-expression. It also cues in that someone of responsibility and concern is around. Color, and its maintenance, can thus be an urban force for confidence. Chromatic Homes takes such concerns seriously and helps us see what, when taken to exuberant forms, can be the delightful result." -- Harvey Molotch, author of The City as a Growth Machine "Great neighborhoods are the secret sauce of great cities and communities of all kinds, sizes, and stripes, but great neighborhoods don't happen by accident. They are continuously rebuilt, revitalized, and actively redesigned. They can, and should, be inclusive places where regeneration benefits everyone. Gilderbloom argues that the principles of chromatic design can help us create better neighborhoods and communities. This book is an important contribution to the future of cities." -- Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

Bright, vibrant, intriguing, and unique, chromatic homes are speckled across the world's landscape. These historic houses and buildings are saturated with colors - often highlighting decorative woodwork and architecture - to enhance, revive, and regenerate various neighborhoods and communities. John I. "Hans" Gilderbloom explores and celebrates the appeal of these captivating houses in Chromatic Homes: The Joy of Color in Historic Places. Highlighted in gorgeous detail are the relevance of the homes' styles and colors as well as their history -- many believed to have been around for decades in American cities such as Louisville, Cincinnati, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Miami, and around for centuries in far-flung places such as Havana, Cuba, Venice, Italy, and Moscow, Russia. Gilderbloom reveals how renewing and updating historic homes has the ability to transform and galvanize a community, and these houses serve as creative havens for artists, writers, and musicians: author Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple in one of the most famous chromatic homes in San Francisco, and Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a spectacular "painted lady" in Hartford, Connecticut. Filled with 182 engaging and eye-catching photos of homes all across the nation and the world, Chromatic Homes perfectly illustrates how the simple act of painting an ornate structure in bright or bold colors can inspire, empower, sustain and enlighten an entire community.