Copyright question - describing buildings and landmarks

Really, all you need to worry about is whether anybody would mind. Most books carry a disclaimer in the front (This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used ficiciously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental). But there are certainly books that break the rules. The true answer is that if you believe that nobody can be harmed by your using a real place, go right on ahead. And if you get down to publishing, and there is something that could be deemed offensive, or defamatory, or actionable by lawsuit in any form, I am sure that the publisher will alert you to it, and help you to remove it.

-giusti

Welcome to the board.

I'm not sure if this comes under "copyright" or not, but these places exist, so use them in your novel by all means.

I'd avoid detailing security measures used in government buildings, or other potentially sensitive issues.

-Derek

as an architect, I can not think of a single instance of anyone being fined for describing a building. If you reproduce construction drawings, or any other drawing without permission, that can be a copyright violation; all drawings produced for a building are copyrighted and only the owner and the architect or engineer can reproduce them. However, I can't imagine anyone fining you if you were to draw your own plan, or merely describe it.

Unless, of course, it were a classified facility.

A public building however, is owned by the public. Any place you are allowed to go to you should be allowed to describe, unless, possibly, if you work there and have access to restricted areas.