THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Have you ever seen pictures of the Washington Monument? Has it ever reminded you of asparagus?! Well that's what people were saying about it at the time it was being built. In this book by Susan Rubin, we learn about the history of ten "problem" buildings that caused a lot of controversy when they were first being built and some buildings even caused people to protest. Eventually though these buildings became recognized as important national landmarks or at least became pretty popular for tourists. Most of the buildings mentioned in the book are in the United States except for two French landmarks along with the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. For example, the Eiffel Tower in France was so hated that 47 artists, writers, poets, composers and cultural leaders got together to write a letter of protest about the new "useless and monstrous" tower. Years later some people complained that the spiraled-shaped Guggenheim Museum made them too dizzy. Read There Goes the Neighborhood: Ten Buildings People Loved to Hate to find out more interesting and sometimes amusing stories behind some famous buildings.