In an age of lightning-fast mobile devices that provide access to information with the swipe of a finger, books can seem archaic.

With an expansive glazed facade and warm wood ceilings that subtly reflect light, the Los Gatos Public Library emits a soft glow at all waking hours, but the best time to see it is at dusk.

The industrial yellow-brick building one block north of Toronto’s Dundas Square in the heart of the city has been home to the Ryerson University School of Image Arts since the late 1960s.

When Hungarian-born Eva Zeisel died in 2011 at the age of 105, she left behind a legacy as one of the most influential ceramic artists and designers of her generation.

A hodgepodge of tightly packed additions connected to an 1878 Neo-Renaissance building by German architect Oskar Sommer, the Städel Museum dominates a stretch of cultural institutions along Frankfurt's Main River with an eclectic formality.

As if sparked by divine intervention, a design team led by Thomas Heatherwick completed and revitalized an important Modernist church by Francis Pollen (1926'87) for a historic Benedictine abbey, illuminating the late British architect's vision with craft and 21st-century technology.

Creating a space that inspires is a weighty responsibility for architects and designers.

Awe is a concept central to Judaism, and awe is the feeling you get as you enter Temple Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue in Wellesley, Massachusetts.