Alternately lauded as the future of architecture or dismissed as pure folly, revolving buildings are a fascinating missing chapter in architectural history with surprising relevance to issues in contemporary architectural design. Rotating structures have been employed to solve problems and create effects that stationary buildings can't achieve. Rotating buildings offered ever-changing vistas and made interior spaces more flexible and adaptable. They were used to impress visitors, treat patients, and improve the green qualities of a structure by keeping particular rooms in or out of the sun.

The follow-up to his critically acclaimed book A-frame, Chad Randl's Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings that Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot explores the history of this unique building type, investigating the cultural forces that have driven people to design and inhabit them. Revolving Architecture is packed with a variety of fantastic revolving structures such as a jail that kept inmates under a warden's constant surveillance, glamorous revolving restaurants, tuberculosis treatment wards, houses, theaters, and even a contemporary residential building whose full-floor apartments circle independently of each other. International examples from the late 1800s though the present demonstrate the variety and innovation of these dynamic structures.

Randl, a PhD candidate in architectural history at Cornell U., specifically features buildings that rotate, swivel, and pivot in this stylishly designed and presented title suitable for architecture aficionados and historians alike. While featuring numerous illustrations including color photos, renderings, drawings, and plans, Randl traces the evolution of the rotating building chronologically from the earliest examples but focuses primarily in the twentieth century, examining both the buildings and the cultural atmosphere surrounding the concept at the places and times. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)