# Landmark Blueprints: Five Structures, Drawn Like Structures Golden Gate, Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower, LA City Hall and Griffith Observatory as technical elevations drawn to real proportions. Poster from $29. - Article page: https://www.blueprinthelm.com/blogs/news/landmark-blueprint-prints-architecture-wall-art - Published: 2026-07-29 - Publisher: Blueprint Helm --- There is a specific kind of landmark art that everyone has seen: the skyline silhouette, black on white, city name in wide-tracked capitals underneath. It is fine. It is also decoration about a place rather than a drawing of anything. The Architecture collection takes the other route. Each landmark is drawn as an elevation — the structure at its real proportions, with the members that actually hold it up rendered as members, dimension lines where an engineer would put them, and a drafting title block along the bottom. ## The five landmarks - [Golden Gate Bridge](/products/blueprint-helm-golden-gate-bridge-blueprint-print-architecture-wall-art-cyanotype) — the towers, the main cable sag and the suspender spacing at correct relative proportion. The one people recognise from the far side of a room. - [Brooklyn Bridge](/products/blueprint-helm-brooklyn-bridge-blueprint-print-architecture-wall-art-cyanotype) — the gothic masonry arches and the diagonal cable stays that make it read as Brooklyn and nowhere else. Opened 1883, and the drawing keeps the stay geometry that dates it. - [Eiffel Tower](/products/blueprint-helm-eiffel-tower-blueprint-print-architecture-wall-art-cyanotype) — the iron lattice drawn as lattice rather than a shaded outline, with the platform levels called out. Built for the 1889 exposition and still the clearest example of structure as ornament. - [Los Angeles City Hall](/products/blueprint-helm-los-angeles-city-hall-blueprint-print-architecture-wall-art-cyanotype) — the stepped tower and its lantern top, in straight elevation. - [Griffith Observatory](/products/blueprint-helm-griffith-observatory-blueprint-print-architecture-wall-art-cyanotype) — the central rotunda and flanking domes, drawn symmetrically. The most decorative of the five, and the easiest to live with in a bedroom. All five are in [the Architecture collection](/collections/architecture). ## A note on what is not in this collection The Empire State Building was drawn and then dropped. Its silhouette is actively protected as trade dress by the building's owner, and Blueprint Helm's rule is that every drawing sources from expired patents and public-domain structures with zero trademark exposure. It was cheaper to lose a good drawing than to sell one we could not defend. The five above are structurally public domain. ## Sizing a landmark print These are the tallest drawings in the catalogue, and they benefit from it. The bridges are the exception — the Golden Gate and Brooklyn read wide, so they suit a spot above a sofa or a headboard where a vertical piece would look stranded. The Eiffel Tower, City Hall and the Observatory want vertical space: a narrow wall between windows, a stairwell, or the gap beside a doorway. If you are buying for an office rather than a home, go one size up from what the wall seems to ask for. Technical drawings lose their detail first, and detail is the reason to buy one. ## Formats and prices Matte poster $29–$49 (12×16, 18×24, 24×36). Framed $89–$159 (12×16, 16×24, 20×30), black wood, ready to hang. Gallery-wrapped canvas $99–$179 (12×16, 18×24, 24×30) at 1.5" depth. Orders over $75 ship free inside the U.S. Each is printed to order at 300 DPI on archival stock, so production takes a few business days before it ships. All sales are final because nothing is pre-stocked — but a piece that arrives damaged or wrong gets reprinted free if you email a photo within 14 days. Browse [Architecture & City Prints](/collections/architecture), or the full [technical wall art](/collections/technical-wall-art) catalogue. ## Are these drawn from the real structures? They are drawn as elevations at the structures' real relative proportions, which is a different exercise from tracing a photograph. Tower spacing, cable sag, arch geometry — those relationships are the subject. What you will not find is invented detail added to fill space. ## Where can I see the official measured drawings? The Library of Congress holds the [Historic American Buildings Survey and Historic American Engineering Record](https://www.loc.gov/collections/historic-american-buildings-landscapes-and-engineering-records/about-this-collection/) — more than 581,000 measured drawings, large-format photographs and written histories covering 43,000 structures, the Golden Gate Bridge among them. It is free, it is the primary record, and it is the best possible way to spend an evening if this is your sort of thing. ## Which landmark for which room? The two bridges carry a long horizontal wall better than the buildings do — they are wide subjects. City Hall and the Observatory are vertical and suit a narrow stretch beside a door or between windows. The Eiffel Tower is the most vertical of the five and wants height above it. ## Related reading - [Gifts for engineers and architects](/blogs/news/gifts-for-engineers-and-architects) — Buying one of these for somebody else. - [How a patent drawing is made](/blogs/news/how-a-patent-drawing-is-made) — The conventions behind the linework. --- ## About the Store Blueprint Helm is a technical wall art studio: patent-style technical drawings redrawn line by line and printed to order as a matte poster, framed print, or gallery canvas. Subjects are nautical, medical and anatomical, coffee and espresso, and architectural landmarks. Every drawing comes in three colorways — Cyanotype, Vellum, and Ink. All prices are in USD and every piece is printed to order in the United States. - [Journal index](https://www.blueprinthelm.com/blogs/news) - [All wall art](https://www.blueprinthelm.com/collections/technical-wall-art) - [Site overview for AI systems](https://www.blueprinthelm.com/llms.txt)