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Rating: 
Summary: Stunning photos, interesting info about architectural wonder
Review: Book has photos and information about seventy architectural wonders of the modern world: buildings, bridges, etc. Some I was unfamiliar with-for example, my favorite of the entire book, a very unusual cathedral (Unbelievable!) in progress in Barcelona. Would be a great gift for architects, engineers, and all inquisitive people.
Rating: 
Summary: Good But Could Have Been More
Review: THE SEVENTY WONDERS OF THE MODERN WORLD is the product of a
group of academics, architects, engineers describing the
great construction works of humankind, ranging from the
Alhambra to the Taj Mahal, from the Pentagon to Walt Disney
World, from the Panama Canal to Mount Rushmore. It covers
churches and mosques, palaces and castles, public buildings,
skyscrapers and towers, tunnels and bridges, canals and
dams, and great memorials.This is a range of subject matter for a reader to get his
or her teeth into, and the very pretty layout of the book
raises great expectations. It's full of very nice
photographs and drawings, all laid out with highly
professional care. It is somewhat unfortunate, then, that on reading through
the book the text does not live up to the reader's
expectations. Being written by a number of individuals,
the writing varies widely from chapter to chapter, but in
general the writing comes across as more stiff than not,
sometimes too academic, and generally too terse. SEVENTY WONDERS seems to suffer from a subtle failure to
figure out who its target market was. Given that the
chapters are all a few pages long, it seems that it should
have been targeted at the casual reader, with the chapters
written to a somewhat lower level of detail, say along the
lines of a SMITHSONIAN article or one of David MaCaulay's
books (as in BUILDING BIG). Now doing things in more
detail would have been a good thing too, though that
would have meant a much larger work in multiple volumes.
So in terms of writing SEVENTY WONDERS comes across as
being not exactly fish and not exactly fowl. However, the text is not unreadable by any means either,
and I judge this a good book, a gold mine of information
that I will consult again and again in the future. It's
just that from the looks of the book and the fascinating
subject matter I was expecting something I couldn't put
down, and it was a letdown to find that instead of
something superb I merely had something good. It could
have been so much more.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating look at man's engineering accomplishments.
Review: This well-organized, informative and concise volume offers a clearly written collection of essays on the complete history of seventy of the world's greatest engineering and construction achievements from the year 1500 A. D. to the present.
Each structure is carefully detailed in a well-researched, short entry of two to four pages long. Basic facts like who built it, where, when and why are covered, and additional information is also provided like its basic statistics, the politics associated with its construction, accounts of the project's development and other fascinating data. Moreover, for quick check-ups, each wonder is accurately placed in one of the seven categories into which the book is divided: Churches, Mosques, Temples & Shrines; Palaces & Castles; Public & State Buildings; Towers & Skyscrapers; Bridges, Railways & Tunnels; Canals & Dams; and Colossal Statues.
This reference is handsomely presented in a sturdy binding, printed in top-quality paper, and beautifully illustrated with over 350 spectacular photos, explanatory diagrams, magnificent reconstructions and historical drawings.
Featured among the showcased selection are: The Statue of Liberty, The Panama Canal, The Eiffel Tower, The Taj Mahal, and The Forbidden City; and the rest of the masterpieces included are equal testimony of man's unending imagination and its application beyond mere aesthetic power, structural virtuosity or plain utility.
As a bonus, the book includes an introduction that explains the criteria used to pick the selected structures. A comprehensive bibliography especially useful for further research and a thorough index, for specific consultations, are also included.
This is a fact-filled compendium that readers of all ages will undoubtedly refer to again and again.
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