Building: 3,000 Years of Design, Engineering and Construction

Building: 3000 Years of Design, Engineering, and Construction traces the history of modern building engineering in the Western world from ancient times to the present, bringing to life the key people, buildings, and concepts that have influenced engineering and architecture over the millennia. This comprehensive and heavily illustrated volume documents the classic texts, instruments, materials, and theories that have propelled modern engineering, and the famous and not-so-famous buildings that have resulted through the ages, from the Parthenon to Chartres Cathedral and the dome of St. Peter's, from eighteenth-century silk and cotton mills in England to the Crystal Palace, and from the first Chicago high-rises to the Sydney Opera House and the "green" skyscrapers of today.
Organized chronologically in nine chapters, Building focuses on the specific innovations and geographic centers of activity that defined each period in engineering history. Each chapter concentrates on the famous characters and unsung heroes of engineering history.
Accompanying the narrative text are more than 750 color and black-and-white photographs, archival plans and drawings, and original technical diagrams, many from rare and specialized sources around the world. Sidebars highlight key developments, including the slide rule, the evolution of the structural frame, and the glass facade; major texts such as De Architecture by Vitruvius, and brief histories of key concepts such as calculus. Also included in the book are extensive reference materials: timelines, appendices, a glossary, notes, bibliography, and a guide to further reading.