Buildings in Disguise: Architecture That Looks Like Animals, Food, and Other Things

by Joan Marie Arbogast

Imagine climbing into an elephant, sitting inside a sombrero, or working inside a basket. These things are possible with mimetic architecture—structures that mimic other objects. From north to south, from east to west, buildings designed to look like beagles, baskets, and binoculars dot the American landscape. Join Joan Marie Arbogast in this IRA Children's and Young Adults' Book Award winner as she traces the history of this funtastic form of architecture in the United States. Discover a variety of eye-catching, head-turning buildings beginning with our nation's oldest functioning example, Lucy the Elephant, to one of our youngest, a beagle named Sweet Willy. Though different in size, shape, and color, these buildings have one thing in they all grab your attention.

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture, Childrens, Art, Picture Books

48 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Joan Marie Arbogast is the author of five books and is published in numerous children's magazines. Her poetry is published in gift book anthologies. She lives in Stow, Ohio.

Reviews

[Amy]

Fabulous! I love looking at buildings designed as creatures and other interesting things like a shell for shell gas stations.

[Jessica Meetze]

Really cool seeing all these buildings, learning the history, and getting a closer look on how some of them are built. We used this for Social Studies for homeschool for my 4 & 9 year old. My 4 year old picked it out at the library. They were very interested reading it.

[Amy]

This is such a cool book! It's a little bit unfair to say that I've "read" it. My niece and I looked at all of the pictures and marveled at people's creativity and ingenuity. The book certainly sparked her interest. Many times she got excited and said, "That is so cool! I want to go see that!" It's a start. Someday I'd love to hear, "That is so cool! I *built* that," but... Baby steps. :-)

We did really and truly read the section on Lucy the Margate Elephant, and not only did my niece learn about this really beautiful, cool building, but she also got to learn about what a patent is, and what rights it bestows on a patent holder. She got to learn about what various forces of nature can do to buildings, and what activisim can do in terms of helping to save landmarks. We will keep this book for awhile and read more over time. This one is worth taking time over.

The pictures are just fantastic, and there is a general map in the book showing readers where all of these landmarks are located. I can't speak for all of the text in the book (yet), but what we did read was very accessible to kids from about 7 or 8 on up. Honestly, the section on Lucy even held my 3 year old nephew's attention, and both kids were firing questions off at me so quickly, I could barely finish a sentence!

An interesting, well done book, that is likely to intrigue kids and adults alike.

[Eric Finn]

This is a great book to use for kids to explore their imaginations in every day use, from interesting architecture like an elephant used to sell land to a massive basket used as an office space for a basket company. For all ages really to use their imagination to see what's been built and what could they think to build and then draw their concept of what would be as an activity to it, younger kids could work as a class to come up with their ideas and the teacher could draw too. There's even a spot in the book when they talk about old hotels that it's concept is used in cars the movie that you could show the clip of the movie when they stay in the road cones when they sleep over night and how it was like the old teepee buildings in the book. It's a lot of reading for some kids but I would use it as more of an, I read and take snippets from it and use the pictures more for the kids to see the grandiose architecture to visually get the idea of it all.

[Samantha]

This book ended up on the weeding list at my library and I was too intrigued to pull it from the shelves forever so I checked it out!

The author was motivated to write this book on mimetic architecture because she didn't find anything that covered this topic for a juvenile audience. The writing is clear and engaging and the photographs included are both black and white and color as many of them were taken decades ago. Many structures included have since been torn down, but the author does focus on the efforts of local communities in preserving and restoring landmarks.

A selected bibliography, informational brochures, a list of websites for further research, and a map printed on the end papers round out the additional resources.

Overall, a light read that might inspire a reader to hit the road for some sightseeing.

[Rebekah]

This was such a cool book!! I did not know that building like those existed. I even found one that did exist in my hometown of Houston, Texas! I loved reading all about the buildings, how they were made, the materials, the story behind the creation, and if they are still in operation or not. The one I read most about was the elephant. What a clever idea! I liked how smart the man who thought of it, and later it became a community project to preserve it. I was impressed! :)

[Samantha Penrose]

Good stuff.
Includes a U.S. map plotting the locations of the mimetic architecture featured within. If I ever drive across the country with the kids, I'll be sure to refer to this book.
I was a little bummed that they did not feature the giant frying pans, shopping carts, etc. I assume its because they are more statue than building...

[Kiddo]

Wacky and real. Looking forward to reading this with kido when he gets a little older.

[Mohammad]

Rea

[Joan Arbogast]

This book is eye candy for kids interested in unusual architecture.

[Lubie]

Buildings, features of non-fiction, maps, photography.

[Abraham Ray]

Great children’s book about mimetic buildings!