Amazing Buildings

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

The Amazing Buildings portrayed by Paolo Donati and described by Philip Wilkinson in an impressive 11- x 14-inch volume run the historical gamut from the Palace of Minos, the legendary home of the Minotaur, to the Toronto SkyDome, the modern home of the Toronto Argonauts football team. Each of the dramatic spreads is dominated by a cutaway drawing of the featured building. Among the smaller accompanying insets are a floor plan and photograph. A Mayan temple, Spain's Alhambra, and New York City's Guggenheim Museum are three of the twenty-one-featured buildings.

Carolyn Phelan

This handsome, large-format book introduces readers to 20 famous buildings around the world. Each two-page section includes not only small full-color photographs, floor plans, and paintings, but also a large ink drawing tinted with watercolor washes that shows the building outside and inside, incorporating cutaway views of inner rooms and structural features. A paragraph of text introduces each site, while detaile captions point out features noteworthy for their historical or architectural interest. Among the buildings showcased are the Palace of Minos, the Mayan Temple of the Inscriptions, the Alhambra, the Imperial Palace of the Forbidden City in Beijing, Chartres Cathedral, the British Houses of Parliament, the Guggenheim Museum, the Sydney Opera House, and the Toronto Sky Dome. An intriguing book for browsers as well as for children researching any of the buildings discussed.