Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize

Traditionally we assume architecture to mean high art-from Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance palaces, and classically inspired public buildings to the skyscrapers and avantgarde homes of the wealthy today, and (on the Plains, especially) we often expect it to be elsewhere-New York or London or Berlin or Barcelona. The book prize committee this year was confronted with an unusually large field of nominees-almost thirty. [...]each member of the committee-and each member of the subcommittees formed to assist in the choice of finalists-had nine or ten books to read.