This look at the loose alliance of designer-builders known as "Jersey Devil" and their eccentric, design-as-you-go projects of the last 25 years is a book for endless perusal. The three principal founders of Jersey Devil, Steve Badanes, Jim Adamson, and John Ringel, aren't registered architects, although they have studied architecture. They have built together, separately, and with various friends and associates, but all they share, corporately, is a post-office box. They've created some of the most innovative, outrageous, lovingly crafted, energy-efficient, curvaceous homes around, none of which looks like any we've seen in our neighborhood. Their fun and funky architecture is usually called "alternative," but it is, in fact, both practical and highly principled. Which is why Jersey Devil is trickling into the mainstream, with wise designs for such important buildings as, for example, a Montessori school. --Margaret Moorman