Copyright law protects original, creative works such as music,
literature or film. Architecture is a creative art form that is
seldom discussed in connection with, but is equally protected by,
copyright law. When one conjures images of the Guggenheim Museum,
the Parthenon or the Sistine Chapel, it is easy to understand why
Frank Lloyd Wright deemed architecture "the mother art,"
explaining that "without an architecture of our own, we have
no soul of our own civilization." These highly imaginative
structures surely warrant protection as works of art. But, does
every architectural design merit the same degree of protection
regardless of its level of creativity?
Most architectural designs lie somewhere on the continuum
between predominantly creative to entirely functional. The breadth
of copyright protection available for any particular design is
primarily dictated by how many nonfunctional, artistic features are
expressed. Most modern architectural projects are largely
