Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry is the latest book by Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger. “Architecture begins to matter,” writes Paul Goldberger, “when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” The purpose of his book Why Architecture Matters is to “come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually”—with its impact on our lives.

What makes great architecture? When does a building become architecture, become art? What kind of an art is it that you not only look at but also live in? Goldberger starts with these questions, as old as architecture itself, and then explains the sometimes conflicting elements of great architecture.

He is an excellent and humane storyteller deeply knowledgeable about both the inside nitty-gritty and grand purposes of architecture.