Tour Eiffel By Bertrand Lemoine

A building height of 984 feet now seems quaint, but when Gustave Eiffel's tower was rising in Paris in 1889, the “iron colossus” turned heads. Taschen's magical reproduction of a period souvenir book, La Tour de 300 Metres, recalls the construction of the Eiffel Tower in drawings and photographs, artfully reproduced in an XXL format. The original edition was made available only in a run of 500, with 4,300 technical drawings. The contemporary edition features 53 double-page plates and a map of Paris as seen from the top of the tower. Taschen; $125

Eliot Noyes By Gordon Bruce

Architect and designer Eliot Noyes (1910–1977) has long been overshadowed by his midcentury contemporaries. Now comes the first monograph on the life and work of this remarkable visionary. As the first director of industrial design at New York's Museum of Modern Art, and later as design consultant for IBM, Mobil Oil, and Westinghouse, Noyes taught Americans how to fuse design and business. Our passion for corporate branding is still firmly in his grasp. Phaidon; $75

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Edited by Alex Steff en; designed by Stefan Sagmeister

Billed as a Whole Earth Catalog for the 21st century, this compendium of resources for sustainable living is designed to challenge readers to live up to their ideals. The editor is cofounder of Worldchanging.com, a nonprofit global combine aimed at helping individuals contribute to a kinder, gentler planet. Worldchanging is helping by partnering with Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr's Architecture for Humanity, which helps architects volunteer in disaster zones. Harry N. Abrams; $37.50

Philip Trager Foreword by Jeremy Adamson

This retrospective monograph reveals the genius of a photographer who specialized in architecture and dance. Images of New York in the 1970s, Palladio's villas in the 1980s, and Paris in the 1990s make this volume a compendium of architectural insights. An exhibition of Trager's work will travel the country until 2008, when the photographer's archive comes to rest at the Library of Congress. Steidl/DAP; $75

Domus 1928–1999: A Privileged Insight Into Architecture and Design

Edited by Charlotte and Peter Fiell

Consider expanding your library to make room for this distinguished reprint, which captures the essence of 20th century architecture and design in 20,000 images, 6,960 pages, and 12 volumes. For more than 75 years, the Italian journal domus has directed the aspirations of generations of forward-looking architects and designers around the world. Founded by Milan architect Gio Ponti, the publication has always focused on identifying the coming styles of the next wave, so the reprint series serves as a catalogue of the great works of the avant-garde, beginning with Art Deco and proceeding to the modern movement, functionalism, pop, postmodernism, and so on. Graphics, objects, and personalities come to life in vintage articles accompanied by provocative commentary from present-day thinkers such as Deyan Sudjic, now director of London's Design Museum, and Ettore Sottsass Jr., a founding force of the Memphis movement, that brief burst of postmodern fantasy that domus documented so well. Taschen; $600

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future

Edited by Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht; with essays by Mark Coir, Sandy Isenstadt, Reinhold Martin, Will Miller, and Vincent Scully

The 20th century has Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) to thank for a host of icons, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the expressive concrete vaults of the TWA Terminal at New York's JFK Airport. The Finnish-American architect, whose sleek pedestal table for Knoll remains a hallmark of contemporary interior design, left a legacy of fearless modern forms that even today exude the aspirations of the American century. Until the publication of this book and the creation of an accompanying exhibition now touring Europe, the complete works and the creative process of this second-generation modernist master were waiting to be explored in depth. A donation of Saarinen's archives by Kevin Roche, his close collaborator, to Yale University has taken the dust off photographs, plans, and working drawings of more than 100 built and unbuilt works, including technological advancements that allowed Saarinen to expand the architectural vocabulary beyond what he called “the measly ABC.” Among the book's highlights is a reassessment by Yale historian and critic Vincent Scully, who for years argued that Saarinen's work was “curiously lunar and remote.” The book's illustrations–313 in black and white and 160 in color–will whet the appetite for the companion exhibition's stateside debut at Cranbrook Academy of Art on Nov. 17. After making the rounds to Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and St. Louis, the exhibition will close at Yale in 2010, the centenary of Saarinen's birth. Yale University Press; $65