A volume that spans nearly 250 years of architecture, this handsome publication features projects—known as Diploma Works—by some of the most illustrious members of the Royal Academy of Arts. Diploma Works were presented by the architects upon their election to the Academy and represent the scope and vision of their creative process. They include Sir John Soane’s designs for a new House of Lords, Sir Robert Smirke’s reconstruc­tive interpretation of the Acropolis at Athens, William Wilkins’s designs for the gateway and screen at King’s College, Cambridge, Alfred Waterhouse’s Manchester Town Hall, Sir Edwin Lutyens’s work in New Delhi, and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw’s Waterloo International Terminal. The incisive text illuminates each work.

Neil Bingham is an architectural historian and design commentator. He was a curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects for nearly 20 years and is presently consulting curator of architectural drawings at the Royal Academy.