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by hyggetrold 760 days ago
Same - when I saw the carpet book for sale it was over a thousand. Looks like a beautiful book but that is a lot of money.

Have you visited any of Alexander's buildings? I still need to get out and see some.

I saw a lecture from Kent Beck (a huge proponent of Alexander as you probably well know) and he talks about going to the University of Oregon and being inspired by the architecture. As the story goes, he then learned about Alexander but was too poor a college student to afford any of the books. So he read Timeless Way and Pattern Language standing at the shelf in the student bookstore. I like that story because I feel it illustrates the power of Alexander's work - if it grabs you, then it really grabs you.

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Haven't visited any because the majority are private residences (although this one in Berkeley-ish has been on and off the market https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/700-Hillside-Ave-Albany-C... ). The only ones you can just go to are West Dean in the UK and Eishin just outside Tokyo (which IIRC you need an appointment for). I suppose there's also the Fresno farmer's market but that's barely a building.

(You may also be able to go to the Mexicali compound which is apparently still standing: https://maps.app.goo.gl/UkwKqYDrGBcfQLnd6 but don't know what the story is with it.)