Designer's Library of Architecture on CD-ROM: Great Buildings Collection by Kevin Matthews Ring-bound - 367 pages dual platform CD-ROM edition (July 31, 1999) Artifice Inc ISBN: 0966709845 Check price and buy it at: amazon.com , amazon.co.uk

New York Times, February 3, 1994

It's one thing to read about a great work of architecture, quite another to gaze upon it. "The Great Buildings Collection, a Designer's Library of Architecture on CD-ROM" should please demanding aficionados unsatisfied with traditional architectural reference books, which are often short on renderings.

...Users will be able to summon to their computer screens 600 examples of architecture and landscape design, portrayed in color and black-and-white photographs and supplemented with architectural drawings, three-dimensional computer models, video clips, and sound...

The buildings in the collection vary in style, age and grandeur, from the legendary Palace of Minos at Knossos, Crete, dating from about 1700 B.C. to 1400 B.C., to I. M. Pei's Pyramide du Louvre (1989). Distinctive but not well known buildings like the Gregory Farmhouse in Santa Cruz, Calif. an example of regional design, built by William Wurster in 1926 and 1927, are also included.

While the graphics are plentiful, the texts accompanying each entry are brief enough to keep architectural encyclopedias in print. "The emphasis is on the graphics," Mr. Matthews said.

Book Description

From Stonehenge to the Pyramide du Louvre, from Maya Lin to Imhotep, the Great Buildings Collection on CD-ROM documents over 750 buildings and 400 leading architects from around the world and across history, with more than 2200 photographic images and over 2500 architectural drawings, plus commentaries, bibliographies, dozens of digital video clips, and more than 300 live 3D walkthrough computer models (software included). For both Windows 95/98/NT and Power Macintosh.

Customer Reviews

ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL BOOKS, November 7, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
if you are interested in architecture, this is a great book for you, at least it is something that you would go back to from time to time for architecture students, this book is a must. enough said. :)

Touring Europe without leaving home, November 16, 2000
Reviewer: Kathleen Meredith (Eugene, Oregon)
I recently returned from Europe, and wanting to revisit some of the buildings I'd seen, I turned to Great Buildings Collection. I was able to view the buildings, and in some cases even walk through them at my leisure (no tourists in my way!) This is a "one of a kind" CD that enables the user to browse through centuries of great architecture without ever leaving home. I'm especially impressed by the numerous ways in which one can browse: by architect, country, city, and other cross references. Anyone with an interest in architecture would enjoy finding this CD in their christmas stocking.

I've also visited the GreatBuildings.com website, where you can see hundreds of the buildings free of charge, but it's even better having it on the CD , because there are thousands more images, and you're not slowed down by the modem.