Buildings in Disguise: Architecture That Looks Like Animals, Food, and Other Things by Joan Marie Arbogast

Beverley Fahey - Children's Literature

Memetic is the term architects use to describe buildings that resemble objects like teapots, Indian wigwams, windmills, and ships. Readers can take a visual and nostalgic journey across America to visit these unusual buildings many of which were built when better roads and affordable cars made travel easier. In Margate, New Jersey, a 65-foot elephant was constructed for the sole purpose of attracting real estate purchasers; a gas station owner in Colorado built his service station to resemble a petrified forest; and in 1931 milk, butter and eggs were sold from a 120-foot high, milk bottle. While many of these buildings were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s to attract the traveling public, architects today are still being called upon to execute unique designs. In 1997 visionary founder Dave Longaberger defied skeptics and built his company headquarters to resemble a large market basket and Sweet Willy, a thirty-foot beagle built in 2003, houses a chainsaw art studio. With lots of eye-catching color and black and white photos and well-positioned text that describe each incredible structure this is a whimsical as well as enlightening tour. Kids eyes will pop at the fantastic building and they will be begging their parents to take them to see some of these sights. One look and parents may be gassing up the family car to have a look for themselves at the gigantic highboy in North Carolina or the realistic bulldozer that is home to the United Equipment Company. A large map on the endpapers will help to plan that trip. Budding architects just may get inspired. 2004, Boyds Mills Press, Ages 8 up.

Kirkus Reviews

Architecture at its most vernacular, the dozens of oversized concrete wigwams, kettles, animals, and food-related items that pack this survey of American roadside attractions make irresistible eye candy. As the endpaper maps show, Arbogast ranges from coast to coast, opening with Lucy, the Margate, NJ, elephant still in use after almost 125 years, closing with Sweet Willy, a 30-foot-high Idaho beagle completed just last year. In between, she profiles an entire office building shaped like a picnic basket, Long Island's renowned Big Duck, South Dakota's Corn Palace, plus arrays of hot dog and fried-chicken stands, quirky motels, and gas stations. The author supplies statistics and background notes for most of her examples, describes how several were (or were not) saved from demolition, and closes with a multimedia resource list. The various Disney enterprises and their ilk don't make these pages-but that just points up the endearingly rough-hewn charm of what does. (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Product Details