This authoritative and comprehensive resource offers all levels of professionals in the building industries--from architects and construction engineers to builders, contractors, and inspectors to suppliers and facilities engineers--the first up-to-date reference on construction terms and phrases to have been published in recent years. The coverage is wide ranging, from familiar terms like "concrete" to arcane terms like "elutriator." Entries are explained...

Once upon a time, seven wonders of the world stood tall and brilliant and, it must have seemed, would stand forever, impervious to time and gravity. Now only one remains--the pyramid at Khufu, in the Egyptian desert near Cairo. All of the others have fallen down. Modern technologies, computerized designs, and new materials have minimized structural failures nearly to the vanishing point. Even so, we can learn from ancient as well as recent history....