Low interest rates have encouraged a prolonged building and renovation boom in many parts of the US. Release of this illustrated building design and construction dictionary, aimed at engineers, architects, technicians, contractors, trades people, real estate firms, students, and homeowners is therefore timely. Burden, author of Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture (CH, Oct'98, 36-0672) and Illustrated Dictionary of Architectural Preservation (CH, Jul'04, 41-6238), offers a dictionary with over 5,000 simple definitions of design, contracting, project management, construction, renovation, eco-design, and adaptive use terms. Entries are carefully cross-referenced, written to be accessible to nonprofessionals, and range in length from 4 to 75 words. The volume includes few acronyms. In construction and architecture, a picture is worth a thousand words; hence more than 1,500 unusually high-quality black-and-white photographs, cropped working drawings, plan, maps, and construction schedules accompany entries where appropriate. This is an excellent ready-reference book for fist-time home buyers. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; undergraduates. -- J.A. Buczynski, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology Choice 20050501
