Publisher: Library Parliament of Victoria, ISBN: 9780645261912, Author: Gideon Haigh, Contributor: Peter Elliott, Format: hardcover, 327 x 240 mm, 277pp

Victoria's Parliament House is widely regarded as one of Australia's most significant public buildings. Planning for it began in the early 1850s and today, some 170 years later, the building remains a grand but unfinished masterpiece.

Peter Kerr is the architect whose inspired design has come to represent the aspirations and visions of our founding democracy. Kerr toiled on and off over a 40-year period with a gentle tenacity, weathering numerous setbacks and political crises. He is an inspiration to every architect.

He could draw beautifully, producing hundreds of exquisite drawings in very quick time, and was clearly a man of many talents who brought a sophisticated design sensibility, innovative thinking and capacity for meticulous detailing to every aspect of the building.

His great achievement though is the manner of the architecture, conceived at the very foundation of the city. This monumental structure, intended to evoke the splendour of imperial Rome, embodies the highest ideals of 19th-century civic architecture. As the architectural historian George Tibbits observed, the great spaces in this building are more than a delight to the eye; they afford a deep satisfaction to the intellect and spirit.