Author: Charles Jencks
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
"A new type of achitecture has emerged in the last decade : the iconic landmark building, which challenges the traditional architectural monument. In the past, public buildings expressed shared meaning through well-known conventions. Today those conventions are superceded by commercial forces and the quest for instant fame. Public architecture is now required to be an amazing piece of surreal sculpture as well as something that appeals to a diverse audience - at once provocative and practical yet without the context that religion and ideaology once provided. Such contrary demands drive the architect toward a new convention : the enigmatic signifier. This curious sign suggests many meanings without naming of them. The most publized version of the genre, Frank Gehry's New Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, 1997, became an instant media event that forces other architects to design event buildings routinely. This 'Bilbao effect' has led to a series of landmark buildings by architects such as Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Enric Miralles, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Renzo Piano, Will Alsop, and Rem Koolhaas. Some of these buildings are successful creations, while others make us wince." -- book jacket.
The Iconic Building
Author: Charles Jencks
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
"A new type of achitecture has emerged in the last decade : the iconic landmark building, which challenges the traditional architectural monument. In the past, public buildings expressed shared meaning through well-known conventions. Today those conventions are superceded by commercial forces and the quest for instant fame. Public architecture is now required to be an amazing piece of surreal sculpture as well as something that appeals to a diverse audience - at once provocative and practical yet without the context that religion and ideaology once provided. Such contrary demands drive the architect toward a new convention : the enigmatic signifier. This curious sign suggests many meanings without naming of them. The most publized version of the genre, Frank Gehry's New Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, 1997, became an instant media event that forces other architects to design event buildings routinely. This 'Bilbao effect' has led to a series of landmark buildings by architects such as Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Enric Miralles, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Renzo Piano, Will Alsop, and Rem Koolhaas. Some of these buildings are successful creations, while others make us wince." -- book jacket.
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
"A new type of achitecture has emerged in the last decade : the iconic landmark building, which challenges the traditional architectural monument. In the past, public buildings expressed shared meaning through well-known conventions. Today those conventions are superceded by commercial forces and the quest for instant fame. Public architecture is now required to be an amazing piece of surreal sculpture as well as something that appeals to a diverse audience - at once provocative and practical yet without the context that religion and ideaology once provided. Such contrary demands drive the architect toward a new convention : the enigmatic signifier. This curious sign suggests many meanings without naming of them. The most publized version of the genre, Frank Gehry's New Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, 1997, became an instant media event that forces other architects to design event buildings routinely. This 'Bilbao effect' has led to a series of landmark buildings by architects such as Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Enric Miralles, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Renzo Piano, Will Alsop, and Rem Koolhaas. Some of these buildings are successful creations, while others make us wince." -- book jacket.
The Iconic House
Author: Dominic Bradbury
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
"The Iconic House features one hundred of the most important and influential architect-designed houses in the world."--Inside cover.
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
"The Iconic House features one hundred of the most important and influential architect-designed houses in the world."--Inside cover.
Architecture Inside + Out
Author: John Zukowsky
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500343371
Category : Architectural design
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
From ancient palaces and glorious cathedrals, to futuristic homes and striking skyscrapers, architecture continues to play an important role in the development of history and culture. Architecture Inside + Out examines fifty of the world's most impressive buildings and uncovers their structural secrets through detailed illustrations, while clear and accessible text places each building in its context. By researching original plans, notes and drawings, this book reveals the expertise and original intentions behind these magnificent creations, simulating the experience of spending time with the architects themselves.However, a building truly comes alive once it is inhabited, and Architecture Inside + Out also looks beyond the bricks and mortar to explore the principal spaces within. Photographs of striking interiors enable readers to scrutinize the most awe-inspiring aspects of these structures. The reader will discover how ancient wonders, such as the Parthenon and Colosseum, were constructed; learn the colour-coding behind the exposed skeleton of the Centre Pompidou in Paris; understand the vision behind the Brutalist housing complex, Habitat 67, in Canada; and take a tour through the Capitol Building in Washington, the seat of the United States Congress.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500343371
Category : Architectural design
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
From ancient palaces and glorious cathedrals, to futuristic homes and striking skyscrapers, architecture continues to play an important role in the development of history and culture. Architecture Inside + Out examines fifty of the world's most impressive buildings and uncovers their structural secrets through detailed illustrations, while clear and accessible text places each building in its context. By researching original plans, notes and drawings, this book reveals the expertise and original intentions behind these magnificent creations, simulating the experience of spending time with the architects themselves.However, a building truly comes alive once it is inhabited, and Architecture Inside + Out also looks beyond the bricks and mortar to explore the principal spaces within. Photographs of striking interiors enable readers to scrutinize the most awe-inspiring aspects of these structures. The reader will discover how ancient wonders, such as the Parthenon and Colosseum, were constructed; learn the colour-coding behind the exposed skeleton of the Centre Pompidou in Paris; understand the vision behind the Brutalist housing complex, Habitat 67, in Canada; and take a tour through the Capitol Building in Washington, the seat of the United States Congress.
Iconic L.A.
Author: Gloria Koenig
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318680
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"Los Angeles is a city whose buildings define it, a city whose buildings are instantly recognizable. A bestseller in hardcover, Iconic L.A. has been completely updated and revised to include Case Study House #8, the famed steel-and- glass masterpiece designed by Charles and Ray Eames"--Provided by publisher.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318680
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"Los Angeles is a city whose buildings define it, a city whose buildings are instantly recognizable. A bestseller in hardcover, Iconic L.A. has been completely updated and revised to include Case Study House #8, the famed steel-and- glass masterpiece designed by Charles and Ray Eames"--Provided by publisher.
Digital Monuments
Author: Simone Brott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429535295
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
Digital Monuments radically explodes "iconic architecture" of the new millennium and its hijacking of the public imagination via the digital image. Hallucinatory constructions such as Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV headquarters in Beijing, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi are all introduced to the world by immortal digital imagery that floods the internet—yet comes to haunt the actualised buildings. Like holograms, these "digital monuments," which violently push physics and engineering to their limits, flicker eerily between the real and the unreal—invoking fantasies of omnipotence, immortality and utopian cities. But this experience of iconic architecture as a digital dream on the ground conceals from the urban spectator the social reality of the buildings and the rigidity of their ideology. In 18 micro-essays, Digital Monuments exposes the stereotypes of iconic architecture while depicting the savagery of the industry, from the Greek and Spanish crises triggered by financialised iconic development to mass labour-deaths on construction sites in the UAE.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429535295
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
Digital Monuments radically explodes "iconic architecture" of the new millennium and its hijacking of the public imagination via the digital image. Hallucinatory constructions such as Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV headquarters in Beijing, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi are all introduced to the world by immortal digital imagery that floods the internet—yet comes to haunt the actualised buildings. Like holograms, these "digital monuments," which violently push physics and engineering to their limits, flicker eerily between the real and the unreal—invoking fantasies of omnipotence, immortality and utopian cities. But this experience of iconic architecture as a digital dream on the ground conceals from the urban spectator the social reality of the buildings and the rigidity of their ideology. In 18 micro-essays, Digital Monuments exposes the stereotypes of iconic architecture while depicting the savagery of the industry, from the Greek and Spanish crises triggered by financialised iconic development to mass labour-deaths on construction sites in the UAE.
Dingbat 2. 0: the Iconic Los Angeles Apartment As Projection of a Metropolis
Author: Thurman Grant
Publisher: Doppelhouse Press
ISBN: 9780983254058
Category : Apartment houses
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Dingbat 2.0 is the first critical study of the most ubiquitous and mundane building type in Los Angeles: the dingbat apartment. Often dismissed as ugly and unremarkable, dingbat apartments have qualities that arguably make them innovative, iconoclastic, and distinctly "L.A." For more than half a century the idiosyncratic dingbat has been largely anonymous, occasionally fetishized and often misunderstood. Praised and vilified in equal measure, dingbat apartments were a critical enabler of Los Angeles' rapid postwar urban expansion. While these apartments are known for their variety of midcentury decorated facades, less explored is the way they have contributed to a consistency of urban density achieved by few other twentieth century cities. Dingbat 2.0 integrates essays and discussions by some of today's leading architects, urbanists and cultural critics with photographic series, typological analysis, and speculative designs from around the world to propose alternate futures for Los Angeles housing and to consider how qualities of the inarguably flawed housing type can foreground many crucial issues facing global metropolises today. Dingbat 2.0 gives an often-maligned Los Angeles building type its long overdue moment in the sun, not only advancing a sophisticated typology of dingbats, but also reimagining the potential of the dingbat for the twenty-first century--at a moment when the imperative to create livable and modest affordable housing is more pressing than ever. - Ken Bernstein, Principal City Planner, Los Angeles Department of City Planning and Office of Historic Resources This book is extremely valuable for designers, particularly when one considers that architects generate species of buildings. An in-depth study of this particularly indigenous species to Los Angeles allows architects to not only become familiar with the causes and effects of the dingbat, but also the many possibilities for its future morphologies. - Jimenez Lai, founder and creator of Bureau Spectacular One of the many brilliances of this great book is the telling comparison of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye--raised on its skinny pilotis to create an entirely ornamental void--and the dingbat--likewise lally column-upped in the air but usefully making room for cars beneath. Ever not quite modern, Corb pontificated about "machines for living" while never quite knowing what to do with their true enabler: the machine for leaving. The indelible dingbat is a sandwich of necessity and desire that bespeaks the throwaway (and getaway) modernity uniquely Made in L.A. -- Michael Sorkin, Architect, Urbanist and Author; Principal, Michael Sorkin Studio
Publisher: Doppelhouse Press
ISBN: 9780983254058
Category : Apartment houses
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Dingbat 2.0 is the first critical study of the most ubiquitous and mundane building type in Los Angeles: the dingbat apartment. Often dismissed as ugly and unremarkable, dingbat apartments have qualities that arguably make them innovative, iconoclastic, and distinctly "L.A." For more than half a century the idiosyncratic dingbat has been largely anonymous, occasionally fetishized and often misunderstood. Praised and vilified in equal measure, dingbat apartments were a critical enabler of Los Angeles' rapid postwar urban expansion. While these apartments are known for their variety of midcentury decorated facades, less explored is the way they have contributed to a consistency of urban density achieved by few other twentieth century cities. Dingbat 2.0 integrates essays and discussions by some of today's leading architects, urbanists and cultural critics with photographic series, typological analysis, and speculative designs from around the world to propose alternate futures for Los Angeles housing and to consider how qualities of the inarguably flawed housing type can foreground many crucial issues facing global metropolises today. Dingbat 2.0 gives an often-maligned Los Angeles building type its long overdue moment in the sun, not only advancing a sophisticated typology of dingbats, but also reimagining the potential of the dingbat for the twenty-first century--at a moment when the imperative to create livable and modest affordable housing is more pressing than ever. - Ken Bernstein, Principal City Planner, Los Angeles Department of City Planning and Office of Historic Resources This book is extremely valuable for designers, particularly when one considers that architects generate species of buildings. An in-depth study of this particularly indigenous species to Los Angeles allows architects to not only become familiar with the causes and effects of the dingbat, but also the many possibilities for its future morphologies. - Jimenez Lai, founder and creator of Bureau Spectacular One of the many brilliances of this great book is the telling comparison of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye--raised on its skinny pilotis to create an entirely ornamental void--and the dingbat--likewise lally column-upped in the air but usefully making room for cars beneath. Ever not quite modern, Corb pontificated about "machines for living" while never quite knowing what to do with their true enabler: the machine for leaving. The indelible dingbat is a sandwich of necessity and desire that bespeaks the throwaway (and getaway) modernity uniquely Made in L.A. -- Michael Sorkin, Architect, Urbanist and Author; Principal, Michael Sorkin Studio
The History of Architecture
Author: Gaynor Aaltonen
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1782127976
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 710
Book Description
This book takes a bird's eye view of architecture in time, and explores the different ways architects have responded to civilizations, giving them the buildings and cities they deserve.
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1782127976
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 710
Book Description
This book takes a bird's eye view of architecture in time, and explores the different ways architects have responded to civilizations, giving them the buildings and cities they deserve.
ICONIC
Author: Scott McKain
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1948677075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Named by Forbes Inc. as one of the Top Ten business books of 2018. Scott McKain, award-winning speaker and author, explains how to move beyond being distinctive and to take your brand and business to the next level, to become iconic by knowing your customer and audience and providing the Ultimate Customer Experience every time. What if merely “standing out” from your competition isn’t enough to take your brand and business to the highest level? How do you become an iconic organization or leader? Being distinctive in the marketplace used to be the pinnacle of success. In today’s global marketplace, that mountain has become significantly more difficult to climb. And, with the explosion of social media, the competition for attention -- and customers -- is more intense than ever before. Standing out is not only more challenging than ever, it now has less of an impact on sustained growth. To be a lasting company, leader, or brand on a positive trajectory today, one must become iconic. In his new book, ICONIC, award-winning author and speaker Scott McKain examines what an iconic organization or leader is -- and helps you attain and retain that rare status. If your company has slipped in its standing (for example, think Sears or Nokia), McKain teaches you how you can regain your position. This is accomplished through unconventional ideas such as: • Go negative for greater success • Do not “under-promise/over-deliver” • Quit selling your products and services ICONIC is filled with insightful advice and practical examples. It’s not a book merely expressing an unproven, unrealistic theory. ICONIC teaches the critical, specific steps required to attain the highest level of distinction. Each chapter includes study questions to be used in company-wide or departmental focus groups to help you achieve iconic status. And, the examples used are not merely another recitation of praise for Starbucks, Apple, Google, Southwest, and Amazon. You will discover the only two factors upon which customers and employees judge your organization. You’ll meet and learn from the millionaire chimney sweep…the valet parking attendant building an iconic craft brewery…the single store steakhouse in the Midwest with higher revenue than New York City’s famed Tavern on the Green…and many more. ICONIC delivers powerful, practical, and precise steps for anyone from a Fortune 500 CEO to a solo-entrepreneur. From major industries to network marketing, there are critical insights awaiting you in ICONIC. The goal of this book is to is to help you and your organization achieve iconic status through sound research and practical wisdom. After reading ICONIC, you will be ready to take your business to the highest level.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1948677075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Named by Forbes Inc. as one of the Top Ten business books of 2018. Scott McKain, award-winning speaker and author, explains how to move beyond being distinctive and to take your brand and business to the next level, to become iconic by knowing your customer and audience and providing the Ultimate Customer Experience every time. What if merely “standing out” from your competition isn’t enough to take your brand and business to the highest level? How do you become an iconic organization or leader? Being distinctive in the marketplace used to be the pinnacle of success. In today’s global marketplace, that mountain has become significantly more difficult to climb. And, with the explosion of social media, the competition for attention -- and customers -- is more intense than ever before. Standing out is not only more challenging than ever, it now has less of an impact on sustained growth. To be a lasting company, leader, or brand on a positive trajectory today, one must become iconic. In his new book, ICONIC, award-winning author and speaker Scott McKain examines what an iconic organization or leader is -- and helps you attain and retain that rare status. If your company has slipped in its standing (for example, think Sears or Nokia), McKain teaches you how you can regain your position. This is accomplished through unconventional ideas such as: • Go negative for greater success • Do not “under-promise/over-deliver” • Quit selling your products and services ICONIC is filled with insightful advice and practical examples. It’s not a book merely expressing an unproven, unrealistic theory. ICONIC teaches the critical, specific steps required to attain the highest level of distinction. Each chapter includes study questions to be used in company-wide or departmental focus groups to help you achieve iconic status. And, the examples used are not merely another recitation of praise for Starbucks, Apple, Google, Southwest, and Amazon. You will discover the only two factors upon which customers and employees judge your organization. You’ll meet and learn from the millionaire chimney sweep…the valet parking attendant building an iconic craft brewery…the single store steakhouse in the Midwest with higher revenue than New York City’s famed Tavern on the Green…and many more. ICONIC delivers powerful, practical, and precise steps for anyone from a Fortune 500 CEO to a solo-entrepreneur. From major industries to network marketing, there are critical insights awaiting you in ICONIC. The goal of this book is to is to help you and your organization achieve iconic status through sound research and practical wisdom. After reading ICONIC, you will be ready to take your business to the highest level.
A History of New York in 27 Buildings
Author: Sam Roberts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 162040981X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
From the urban affairs correspondent of the New York Times--the story of a city through twenty-seven structures that define it. As New York is poised to celebrate its four hundredth anniversary, New York Times correspondent Sam Roberts tells the story of the city through bricks, glass, wood, and mortar, revealing why and how it evolved into the nation's biggest and most influential. From the seven hundred thousand or so buildings in New York, Roberts selects twenty-seven that, in the past four centuries, have been the most emblematic of the city's economic, social, and political evolution. He describes not only the buildings and how they came to be, but also their enduring impact on the city and its people and how the consequences of the construction often reverberated around the world. A few structures, such as the Empire State Building, are architectural icons, but Roberts goes beyond the familiar with intriguing stories of the personalities and exploits behind the unrivaled skyscraper's construction. Some stretch the definition of buildings, to include the city's oldest bridge and the landmark Coney Island Boardwalk. Others offer surprises: where the United Nations General Assembly first met; a hidden hub of global internet traffic; a nondescript factory that produced billions of dollars of currency in the poorest neighborhood in the country; and the buildings that triggered the Depression and launched the New Deal. With his deep knowledge of the city and penchant for fascinating facts, Roberts brings to light the brilliant architecture, remarkable history, and bright future of the greatest city in the world.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 162040981X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
From the urban affairs correspondent of the New York Times--the story of a city through twenty-seven structures that define it. As New York is poised to celebrate its four hundredth anniversary, New York Times correspondent Sam Roberts tells the story of the city through bricks, glass, wood, and mortar, revealing why and how it evolved into the nation's biggest and most influential. From the seven hundred thousand or so buildings in New York, Roberts selects twenty-seven that, in the past four centuries, have been the most emblematic of the city's economic, social, and political evolution. He describes not only the buildings and how they came to be, but also their enduring impact on the city and its people and how the consequences of the construction often reverberated around the world. A few structures, such as the Empire State Building, are architectural icons, but Roberts goes beyond the familiar with intriguing stories of the personalities and exploits behind the unrivaled skyscraper's construction. Some stretch the definition of buildings, to include the city's oldest bridge and the landmark Coney Island Boardwalk. Others offer surprises: where the United Nations General Assembly first met; a hidden hub of global internet traffic; a nondescript factory that produced billions of dollars of currency in the poorest neighborhood in the country; and the buildings that triggered the Depression and launched the New Deal. With his deep knowledge of the city and penchant for fascinating facts, Roberts brings to light the brilliant architecture, remarkable history, and bright future of the greatest city in the world.
10 Buildings That Changed America
Author: Dan Protess
Publisher: Agate Publishing
ISBN: 1572847247
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
10 Buildings that Changed America tells the stories of ten influential works of architecture, the people who imagined them, and the way these landmarks ushered in innovative cultural shifts throughout our society. The book takes readers on a journey across the country and inside these groundbreaking works of art and engineering. The buildings featured are remarkable not only for aesthetic and structural reasons, but also because their creators instilled in them a sense of purpose and personality that became reflected in an overarching sense the American identity. Edited by the staff of WTTW, the Chicago PBS affiliate that is the most-watched public television station in the country, 10 Buildings will be released alongside the national broadcast of an hour-long special by the same name. This television event will be promoted over digital media, on-ground events, and educational initiatives in schools, and the book will be a significant component to all of these elements. 10 Buildings retells the shocking, funny, and even sad stories of how these buildings came to be. It offers a peek inside the imaginations of ten daring architects who set out to change the way we live, work, and play. From American architectural stalwarts like Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, to modern revolutionaries like Frank Gehry and Robert Venturi, this book examines the most prominent buildings designed by the most noteworthy architects of our time. Also profiled are Americans less noted for their architectural acumen, but no less significant for their contributions to the field. Thomas Jefferson, a self-taught architect, is profiled for designing the iconic Virginia State Capitol. Taking its inspiration from ancient Rome, America's first major public building forged a philosophical link between America and the world's earliest democracies. Similarly, Henry Ford employed Albert Kahn to design a state-of-the-art, innovative factory for Ford's groundbreaking assembly line. Reinforced concrete supported massive, open rooms without any interior dividing walls, which yields the uninterrupted space that was essential for Ford's sprawling continuous production setups. What's more, Kahn considered the needs of workers by including astonishingly modern large windows and louvers for fresh air. The design of each of these ten buildings was completely monumental and prodigious in its time because of the architect’s stylistic or functional innovations. Each was also highly influential, inspiring a generation or more of architects, who in turn made a lasting impact on the American landscape. We see the legacy of architects like Mies van der Rohe or H.H. Richardson all around us: in the homes where we live, the offices where we work, our public buildings, and our houses of worship. All have been shaped in one way or another by a handful of imaginative, audacious, and sometimes even arrogant individuals throughout history whose bold ideas have been copied far and wide. 10 Buildings is the ideal collection to detail the flashes of inspiration from these architects who dared to strike out on their own and design radical new types of buildings that permanently altered our environmental and cultural landscape.
Publisher: Agate Publishing
ISBN: 1572847247
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
10 Buildings that Changed America tells the stories of ten influential works of architecture, the people who imagined them, and the way these landmarks ushered in innovative cultural shifts throughout our society. The book takes readers on a journey across the country and inside these groundbreaking works of art and engineering. The buildings featured are remarkable not only for aesthetic and structural reasons, but also because their creators instilled in them a sense of purpose and personality that became reflected in an overarching sense the American identity. Edited by the staff of WTTW, the Chicago PBS affiliate that is the most-watched public television station in the country, 10 Buildings will be released alongside the national broadcast of an hour-long special by the same name. This television event will be promoted over digital media, on-ground events, and educational initiatives in schools, and the book will be a significant component to all of these elements. 10 Buildings retells the shocking, funny, and even sad stories of how these buildings came to be. It offers a peek inside the imaginations of ten daring architects who set out to change the way we live, work, and play. From American architectural stalwarts like Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, to modern revolutionaries like Frank Gehry and Robert Venturi, this book examines the most prominent buildings designed by the most noteworthy architects of our time. Also profiled are Americans less noted for their architectural acumen, but no less significant for their contributions to the field. Thomas Jefferson, a self-taught architect, is profiled for designing the iconic Virginia State Capitol. Taking its inspiration from ancient Rome, America's first major public building forged a philosophical link between America and the world's earliest democracies. Similarly, Henry Ford employed Albert Kahn to design a state-of-the-art, innovative factory for Ford's groundbreaking assembly line. Reinforced concrete supported massive, open rooms without any interior dividing walls, which yields the uninterrupted space that was essential for Ford's sprawling continuous production setups. What's more, Kahn considered the needs of workers by including astonishingly modern large windows and louvers for fresh air. The design of each of these ten buildings was completely monumental and prodigious in its time because of the architect’s stylistic or functional innovations. Each was also highly influential, inspiring a generation or more of architects, who in turn made a lasting impact on the American landscape. We see the legacy of architects like Mies van der Rohe or H.H. Richardson all around us: in the homes where we live, the offices where we work, our public buildings, and our houses of worship. All have been shaped in one way or another by a handful of imaginative, audacious, and sometimes even arrogant individuals throughout history whose bold ideas have been copied far and wide. 10 Buildings is the ideal collection to detail the flashes of inspiration from these architects who dared to strike out on their own and design radical new types of buildings that permanently altered our environmental and cultural landscape.