( CNN ) -- It 's a Jonah-and-the-whale kind of moment . You wake up , and your guest room appears normal . But as you get your bearings , you realize that you 're in the belly of a reptile -- otherwise known as Australia 's Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn . The curious trend of zoomorphic architecture -- that is , buildings that look like animals -- has been around for millennia ( ever heard of the Sphinx ? ) . And new species of animal-like buildings continue to turn up in concrete jungles like Bangkok , along roadsides or in national parks . Even serious tastemakers like Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry have been inspired to inject a playful animalistic motif into their building plans . For the Vila Olímpica in the seaside city of Barcelona , Gehry managed to capture the sleek , muscular movement of a fish in motion in a way that is utterly sublime . Read on for more strange buildings that -- beastly or beautiful , by design or by accident -- pay tribute to the animal kingdom . Long may these crazy critters stand . See more buildings shaped like animals . Church by the Sea , Madeira Beach , Florida . Times were hard at the end of WWII , but this small community managed to cobble together a collection plate large enough to buy land . Volunteers flooded to help , including an architect who unwittingly constructed two eyes and a beak from the bell tower , eventually inspiring the nickname Chicken Church . When the bell rings it makes a clucking sound—well , not really , but it looks like it should . Travel + Leisure : World 's coolest futuristic buildings . Vila Olímpica , Barcelona . In the late 1980s , many architects were obsessed with Grecian columns . Frank Gehry felt that postmodernists were n't looking back far enough . He surmised that we are all descended from fish and , for the 1992 Olympics , set about creating a structure near the Hotel Arts that would reflect our 300-million-year-old ancestor . The metal canopy , measuring roughly 114 by 177 feet , is supported by a wood and steel space frame and was the first of several fish-inspired buildings Gehry created . Cat Kindergarten , Wolfartsweier , Germany . This ingenious preschool is so adorable that it makes any work seem like play . Artist Tomi Ungerer and architect Ayla Suzan Yöndel designed it so that children enter through the cat 's mouth , where the classrooms and cafeteria are located , and exit into the backyard via a slippery dip for a tail . Travel + Leisure : Cutest baby animals at U.S. zoos . Observation Tower , St. Georges de Windsor , Quebec . About two hours east of Montreal , on the drive toward the Maine border , is a roadside attraction worth a detour . Local artist Josée Perreault designed an observation tower from boulders painted to look like a cow reclining in a field . Upon climbing the squat tower , travelers are rewarded with a view of real-life cows reclining similarly in green pastures . Ladprao Tuk Chang , Bangkok . You 'd have to have a thick hide to work in the 335-foot-tall Elephant Tower , easily a contender for one of the world 's ugliest buildings . Architect Ong-ard Satrabhandhu 's creation is certainly one of the most famous in Bangkok , thanks to three towers -- the pachyderm 's thick legs and trunk . Travel + Leisure : World 's most mysterious buildings . Universum Science Center , Bremen , Germany . A giant silver clam shell and a giant chrome sperm whale rising from the reflecting pool are two popular interpretations of Thomas Klumpp 's design . Inside the Universum Science Center , opened in 2000 , are interactive exhibits also meant to provoke and engage the visitor : you can , for example , feel sound waves vibrate throughout your entire body . Lucy the Elephant , Margate , New Jersey . Lucy was the first example of zoomorphic architecture in America , with the patent to prove it . Built in 1882 to sell New Jersey real estate , Lucy then found use as an office , a bar and a summer home . The patented 65-foot-tall tin and wood construction was meant to be one of a pack , but giant elephants did n't take off the way the architect intended . To this day , Lucy stands proudly alone . Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn , Kakadu National Park , Australia . Upon arrival , you do n't immediately appreciate how true this hotel is to its name : the low-lying , curved corridors could simply be a way to give each room a unique view of the landscape , rich with kangaroos and other wildlife . A bird's-eye view , however , reveals that the entire hotel is shaped like one of the region 's most feared residents , the crocodile , and that every guest has been swallowed whole . See more buildings shaped like animals . Planning a getaway ? Do n't miss Travel + Leisure 's guide to the World 's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation . All rights reserved .
The curious trend of zoomorphic architecture has been around for millennia . Modern interpretations include Frank Gehry 's sleek fish structure in Barcelona . A cat-shaped kindergarten and a church resembling a chicken are whimsical examples .