2010 May 29
Yes, I'm a sucker for Macaulay.

***

It's fiction, but it's wonderfully educational. It would never have occurred to me to ask how one would de-construct the Empire State building, assuming one wanted to. But I marvel at the engineering necessary to un-build. Plus, more cool stuff about the building of the Empire State than I knew before.

2013 May 5

It's spring and a woman's fancy returns to the Empire State Building. I love this book.

Library copy ( )

I liked the illustrations, as with all of Macauley's books, but the story was too contrived and took away from the drawings. ( )

Once you get past the absurd but brilliant premise that an Arabian prince purchased the Empire State Building just to have it moved overseas, David Macaulay's illustrated account of the "unbuilding" of the iconic skyscraper is a joy. It's clear and intelligent about the various devices and methods used for taking a building apart, and in turn the reader learns about how a building goes together. After all, the depiction of the unbuilding is from top to bottom, mirroring the way the building went up. But the book is more than a way of describing construction; it's also a fable about the modern world, with an ending even more bizarre than the book's premise. ( )

Great for your spacial learners. Helps show students the actually size of the building. Great illustrations. ( )

In "Wolkenkrabber" besluit een rijke eigenaar van een Arabische oliemaatschappij om het Empire state building te kopen, te demonteren en in de Arabische woestijn weer op te bouwen als hoofdkantoor van zijn onderneming. In dit boek geeft Macaulay weer wat er komt kijken bij de demontage van dit gebouw, zodat men tevens een goed inzicht krijgt in hoe het destijds opgebouwd is. Evenals zijn andere boeken een aanrader! ( )