Unbuilding

“In this wonderfully urbane fantasy” the Caldecott Medal-winning author and illustrator imagines the process of dismantling the Empire State Building (Publishers Weekly). The acclaimed author of City and Pyramid now applies his inquisitive mind and stunningly detailed artwork to one of New York’s most iconic buildings. When the Empire State Building is purchased by an eccentric prince who wants to move it to the Arabian Desert, the intricate process of unbuilding begins. Along the way, Macaulay takes young readers on a tour of the skyscraper’s history and architecture and explains the many feats of engineering that went into its construction. His straightforward, informative text is illustrated with “perhaps the finest series of visually expansive, black-and-white perspective drawings, incisive renderings of the skyscraper and its celebrated ‘views’” (The Washington Post).