The purpose of ornament-to articulate a realm of the imagination-is as important as it is misunderstood. Kent Bloomer, an outstanding sculptor and ornamenter whose work adorns the Harold Washington Library, Chicago, Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC, and other buildings, maintains that ornament is neither pure "art" in the contemporary sense of the word nor mere decoration, but rather a category unto itself, with its own unique language. He describes the key elements of ornament, rhythm and metamorphosis, and shows their application in such figures as the foliated scroll. Illustrated with the author's evocative line drawings and photographs of ornament from ancient Greece to the modern cityscape, the book is a hymn to the riches of architectural ornament.

Brilliantly written essays on the aesthetic principles and enduring motives of architecture.

A classic of architectural history and theory, Heavenly Mansions interprets architecture as a reflection of the age in which it flowers, and traces the alternating themes of fantasy and functionalism as exemplified in various styles and in the works of a number of influential men, including Wren, Viollet-le-Duc, William Butterfield, and Le Corbusier. Succinctly summarizing 800 years of viewpoints about architecture, it ranges from Gothic architecture to the Renaissance to the influence of modern abstract art on twentieth-century architecture.

• "Each essay is a voyage of discovery. What is so interesting and what makes Mr. Summerson the architectural critic of his generation . . . is [an] aversion to dogma. . . . It is supremely well worth reading."—Spectator