Your Buildings

A soaring, open-atrium, “adventure” in travel. I felt like part of the vacation was being in that place. It influenced hotel design greatly ever after that.

When travel was glamorous… More “soaring,” as in flight, than Dulles.

The largest grain elevator in the world in 1917 carried on the tradition of Buffalo's elevators set by Joseph Dart and iconic structures such as the Great Northern Elevator. The purely functional designs of these structures changed the national and international agricultural economy and inspired Corbusier among other brutalist architects for better or worse.

No single building more eloquently foretells the vast leap of modernism, both as a respectful abstraction of and homage to Wrightian Prairie and as an anticipation of the once and current dominant idiom for serious architecture, and thus literally thousands and thousands of subsequent buildings here and around the world. Its open design, eliminated ornamentation, floor-to-ceiling windows and resulting connection between occupants and their exterior environment changed not just residential architecture, but major -- and minor -- office buildings everywhere. Prior to Seagram, and yet exquisitely echoing Robie, Farnsworth is the epochal divide, as well as an unparalleled design masterpiece. Perhaps most important of all, Farnswoth House calls out the best from every young architect, and thereby serves as a friendly and alluring challenge to greatness in a world overbuilt with mediocrity. Thanks for the series and the attention to quality architecture.

Originally opened as the REGENCY HYATT HOUSE hotel in 1967, the 22 story hotel building introduced the ATRIUM concept to international hotel design. Today there are many copy cats but the FIRST atrium hotelbuilding was in Atlanta. Atop the Hyatt was another FIRST in restaurant design, the revolving floor design. Both architectual features are groundbreaking and this building found in the American South should have made the top 10 in the program.

Innovative neo-gothic skyscraper that still looks remarkable a 100 years later.

Innovative, neo-gothic, and thought provoking are a few words to describe this American Icon. A beautiful building located on Michigan Ave. in Chicago with pieces of stone from around the world. It allows admirers to take a tour of the world while standing on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.

It should be included as one of the most iconic buildings in America. Achieved a height scale that was considered unattainable at the time.

As one of the earliest high-density public housing projects, Pruitt-Igoe ushered in the era of "the projects." Housing Projects in urban neighborhoods contributed to socioeconomic segregation, concentrated violence and crime, the decay of the city, and the rise of the `burbs. While the architecture isn't inspiring, what the buildings *were* means more to the fabric of America and its struggles with equality in the 60s than how the buildings looked.

Is is of course a hilltop site for a city of the visual arts. The multiple individual units cohere through the rhythm of the rough travertine panels and the elegant inner courtyard of curved white aluminum. The integration of the buildings, courtyards, borrowed views, fountains, gardens and art have produced the most beautiful building since the Taj Mahal.

Now 60 years old, Lever House remains the cleanest and clearest curtainwall office building in NY

Probably one of the most truthful forms of architecture and a true American vernacular, Wrigley Field has endured and continues to inspire. Not the first building most people think of when they think of inspiring architecture, but this ballpark along with many others that have been lost, have helped inspire a retro movement in baseball stadium design that lasted almost 20 year.

Its daring design, unique shape - and for its time - impressive height had to have inspired so many others, including Chicago's Flatiron Building in Wicker Park. It takes my breath away every time I see it. Plus, I love anything and everything Beaux-Arts!

Revolutionary in concept and design, acoustics, lighting, air cooling. The restoration over the past 40 years is an amazing testament to preservation, combined with the endless roster of cultural, artistic and political luminaries who have graced it's stage is incomparable; it's presence (combined with the adjacent hotel) made Chicago a world-class city attracting the talented, powerful, wealthy, famous and infamous.

Sitting on a “floating” foundation that allowed this massive building to be constructed in Chicago’s marshy soil, Burnham and Root continued their innovation by providing this building with a metal frame that carries its load all the way to the ground. This makes The Rookery one of the one of the direct ancestors of the modern skyscraper, including Chicago’s Sears Tower three blocks due west, which was for decades the world’s tallest building. From its delightful synthesis of stylistic elements on the exterior to the splendid interior court later remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Rookery constitutes an important element in the list of places that make Chicago the recognized site of the founding of modern architecture. The photograph is c. 1890 and provided courtesy of the Chicago History Museum.

Thank you for the opportunity provided to those of us among many others who value the built world be it a garden, a structure, or a city and whose buildings you have allowed to tie for 11th place. The Monadnock Building (built between 1891-1893) and the Reliance Building (built between 1890 - 1895) now the Burnham Hotel are near neighbors in Chicago. In a way they are like bookends. The Monadnock Building at 17 stories high represents a certain type of construction literally at its apogee as what has been characterized as the "tallest commercial iron frame building with a load-bearing masonry exterior wall ever constructed". Such a design conclusively demonstrated, if not merely the structural, at least the economic limits of such a design and similar approaches, given the thickness of masonry load bearing walls on lease-able space on lower floors. The Reliance Building at a more modest 14 floors however exhibits in design, construction methods, and aesthetic the paradigm that would and has driven twentieth and early twenty-first century architecture and building. The Reliance Building’s architects employed structural steel, a reinforced concrete foundation, and large plate glass windows configured in what sometimes has been described as “the Chicago window” that provide an elegant and light facade as well as substantially increased natural lighting inside the building. These key elements foreshadow and prefigure the signature trademarks of the Bauhaus school prevalent in Europe, imported to the United States by architects such as Mies van der Rohe, and replicated in cities in the U.S. and elsewhere. While recognizing the work and the contribution of architects in every place and in various eras, together with the work of another architect with Chicago roots, Frank Lloyd Wright, I believe that the Reliance Building provides eloquent testimony to the unique place of that city in the architecture and built universe of our country and our world as well as the unique place of this signature building.

Opened on April 9, 1965 and dubbed as the "eighth wonder of the world," the Astrodome is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium. Revolutionary at is time the building was designed to facilitate both football and baseball and uses movable lower seating areas to modify the structure to accommodate different seating and field configurations. It was the predecessor to many domed stadiums to come such as the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI, Georgiadome in Atlanta, Alamodome in San Antonio and Superdome in New Orleans as well as retractable roof stadia such as Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, SkyDome (Rogers Centre) in Toronto and Reliant Stadium also in Houston. The building was not without its faults, however. Originally conceived to have real turf fields daylight by a roof of skylights quickly proved to be problematic. The turf did not grow properly and the daylight caused glare which made it hard to see a baseball hurling through the air. Many of the skylights were painted over to eliminate the glare issue and the real turf was replaced with an artificial turf product originally called "ChemGrass." That product was rebranded as AstroTurf in homage to its largest and most famous installation in the Astrodome in 1966.

This building is a milestone in modular and slip form construction and was completed in a record 202 working days. The challenge was to construct and open a 500-room hotel in 9 months so that it was ready for Hemisfair '68, a world's fair that was scheduled to open in April 1968. This schedule was impossible to meet using traditional construction so modular construction was used. A 4-story base and core tower were erected using traditional construction techniques, but each of the guest rooms were constructed as modular units in a location 8 miles from the construction site. Each of the rooms, complete with plumbing, electrical, furnishings and of course a bible in the night stand were trucked to the site and hoisted into place. At a nationally televised event Henry Bartell Zachry, Jr. and his wife Molly were the first people to check-in and "ride" their room (n0. 522) into the hotel as it was hoisted into place.

Sitting on a “floating” foundation that allowed this massive building to be constructed in Chicago’s marshy soil, Burnham and Root continued their innovation by providing this building with a metal frame that carries its load all the way to the ground. This makes The Rookery one of the one of the direct ancestors of the modern skyscraper, including Chicago’s Sears Tower three blocks due west, which was for decades the world’s tallest building. From its delightful synthesis of stylistic elements on the exterior to the splendid interior court later remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Rookery constitutes an important element in the list of places that make Chicago the recognized site of the founding of modern architecture. The photograph is c.1890 and provided courtesy of the Chicago History Museum and the Historic American Buildings Survey.

One of the first of the skyscraper designed buildings. A major shift from "clones" of the U.S. Capitol model. Integrated art and philosophical works. Was built pay-as-you-go in a fashion that allowed the work of the state to continue almost non-stop during construction. http://capitol.org/building

This was the first "retro" style ballpark for a Major League team. It started the trend throughout baseball and these new retro style ballparks are at least partly responsible for the growth of intrest not only in major league baseball but also for the minor leagues.

Built in 1828, the Arcade is the nation’s oldest indoor shopping mall and remains the historic heart of Providence’s downtown. This beautiful structure with its distinguished Greek Revival columns, granite walls and classic facades still stands barely touched through its more than 183 years watching over Westminster and Weybosset Streets. For years, those who worked in, lived in or visited the city have walked up the Arcade’s wide, granite steps into the open center atrium to frequent the bustling eateries and shop in the small stores. This icon of Providence and lobby of the city’s financial district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1976, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. It is being revitalized to include micro apartments on the upper levels and will continue the tradition of shopping on the first floor.

Designed in 1908 by the Kansas City architect, Louis S. Curtiss, The Boley Building is truly the first example of the modern, curtain wall sky scraper. The August, 1963 issue of "Progressive Architecture" stated: "The Boley Building was the masterpiece of Louis Curtiss. Pointing the way for the future and departing from established custom, it is enclosed in flat planes of glass and steel and is conspicuously lacking in the ornamentation and overhanging cornices so popular in 1908. It was considered stark and barren, even ugly, but in reality it anticipated by more than 40 years, the entire range of metal and glass curtain wall construction that became architectural idiom in the 1950's." The rolled steel columns used in the building were the first steel columns produced by Bethlehem Steel - until that time, columns were made by bolting together steel plates. The columns are set back from the face of the building 6 feet. The floor slabs taper out to meet the steel & glass facade. Predating Polk's Hallidie Building [Polk was a member of the Kansas City Sketch Club that was founded by Curtiss] by almost 10 years. The building has been maintained over the years and is currently the home of Andrews McMeel / Universal Press.

Soaring 150 feet toward the Colorado sky, the Air Force Academy Chapel is an all-faith house of worship designed to meet the spiritual needs of cadets. It contains a separate chapel for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist religious faiths, plus two all-faiths worship rooms. There are two main levels, with the Protestant nave on the upper level. The Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels are located beneath it. Beneath this level is located a large all-faiths room and two meeting rooms. Each chapel has its own entrance, and services may be held simultaneously without interfering with one another. The aluminum, glass and steel structure features 17 spires. There is no significance to this number. Original designs were judged to be too expensive, so changes were made, among them a reduction in the number of spires. The changes did not alter the basic design or the interior square footage of the chapel, however. The shell of the chapel and surrounding grounds cost $3.5 million to build. Furnishings, pipe organs, liturgical fittings and adornments of the chapel were presented as gifts from individuals and various organizations. A designated Easter offering was also taken at Air Force bases around the world in 1959 to help complete the interior. The principal designer-architect of the chapel was Walter A. Netsch Jr. of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. Construction was by Robert E. McKee, Inc., of Santa Fe, N.M (http://www.usafa.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9415)

Cliff May's innovative ranch home designs give him a place of honor in the residential hall of fame. He introduced comfort and convenience into postwar '50s homes, from motorized skylights and bathroom vanity cabinets to single-lever faucets and whole-house intercoms. He incorporated features of large, custom ranches into more modest and affordable ranch homes, and gave them a sense of spaciousness as well as strong connections between inside and outside. May's work incorporated environmental design before it was recognized as such, says Dan Gregory, author of Cliff May and the Modern Ranch House. Careful consideration of sun angles, wind directions, vegetation and more went into his designs — concepts that many now seem to be just revisiting.

This massive new structure, opened in 1829, became one of the most expensive American buildings of its day and soon the most famous prison in the world. The concept plan, by the British-born architect John Haviland, reveals the purity of the vision. Seven cellblocks radiate from a central surveillance rotunda. Haviland’s ambitious mechanical innovations placed each prisoner had his or her own private cell, centrally heated, with running water, a flush toilet, and a skylight. Adjacent to the cell was a private outdoor exercise yard contained by a ten-foot wall. This was in an age when the White House, with its new occupant Andrew Jackson, had no running water and was heated with coal-burning stoves.

The Alden B. Dow House and Studio was the seminal work of architect Alden B. Dow, son of the founder of Dow Chemicals. Dow was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and took his ideas of form following function to the next level. The house was not only the best example of Dow's style, but held his studio where he applied his design concepts to the workspaces of his apprentices, and designed his countless projects which included residential homes as well civic buildings and churches. He was a genius not just of architecture and design, but also the use of materials. He created the Unit Block, which was a concrete hexagonal block that gave his buildings a unique look. He also had his father's chemists create a paint that was water proof and protected the unit blocks form wear. All of these things can be seen in the house and the many buildings he designed throughout Michigan and the Midwest.

It was Washington's plantation home and eventually set a standard for American suburban dwellings. Broad 2-story patios and attenuated columns directly influenced by Mt. Vernon's eastern riverfront facade can be found all over the country. Moreover it was copied countless times to represent Virginia and the US at World's Fairs and international expos (including 1893 Chicago, 1931 Paris, etc.), having become an icon of American history and domesticity. We even have a faithful copy right here in far-flung Seattle (the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter house).

Northgate Shopping Center (1946-50) by John Graham and Company was the FIRST successful shopping mall in the USA (and the world), pre-dating the Minnesota building by Victor Gruen (that is on your list) by at least four years.

King County approved the first geodesic dome through their building department in 1973, known as the Bondelid House, after it's owners, Steve & Janet Bondelid. It was covered in 7200 cedar shakes and cost an estimated $12k dollars to build. Its inexpensive cost, being the first family home permitted using the design and using 2/3 less material than conventional housing qualify it as noteworthy in buildings that changed American architecture.

Cowboys Stadium is an architectural wonder that has set the standard for public spaces in the 21st century. It is a thing of beauty. It is the largest domed structure in the world. It features the world's largest column-free interior. And it is so much more than a mere football palace. It is an art museum, a classroom, a concert venue, home to motocross events, basketball games and boxing matches. Future stadium architects will look to Cowboys Stadium as a template.

Built in 1926, this innovative open plan house is composed of 5 reinforced concrete frames which are exposed and articulate throughout the interior. The 2nd floor bedrooms included sleeping porches. The design was inspired by the client's lifestyle of healthy living. The home maximizes the use of fresh air cross vent circulation. This timeless house is still very modern and contemporary to the present.

A memorial to the architect of building #1 on the list of ten buildings that changed America, and to the others that opened the gateway to the west.

You missed it, the Catalano house was by a student of Bucky (Fuller) and set the precdent that changed world architecture and allowed such as the TWA Flight Center by Saarinen plus many others. Based upon a mathematical concept of hyperbolic parabaloids..and conterbalanced buttresses. Where the rim touches the ground is a burried monolithc block of concrete, each rim is held in check by a chain matrix that allows the T and C to keep the building stable.. Some 60 years later the building is still remarkable - not pretty but amazing... In and of itself it is mind blowing becasue it allowed for wide free-span expanses; this was the first time in the world this was available. The true design was for Dorton Arena but the local and federal AIA did not understand the concept nor the physics. They eventually told the architect that he could get a permit if he built a small scale version and then measure it 10 years later - if no movement they would allow the big building to be built. Down Catalano drive the house was built, lived in and eventually fell derelect and razed. It was on the National Register... This application is the cornerstone of many a modern freespan building to this day. Guess because it was in NC it was not worthy of recognition?

A square mile of automotive research and engineering laboratories and design studios, dedicated in 1956. Designed by Eero Saarinen and Associates, the architect-engineering firm was Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, Inc. Saarinen's goal was to provide a symbol of tomorrow's industrial environment, where the surroundings would be beautiful as well as functional. Saarinen wanted to avoid an institutional look and symbolize with low, long and horizontal buildings. Saarinen took certain things from the auto industry. Windows in the buildings used the same mechanical sealing gaskets used on car windshields. Most buildings on the Technical Center site have large, open, lobbies. Saarinen wanted the capability to show off automotive products. Saarinen designed 26 original structures for the site and as need arose, additional buildings were added. Ceramic glazed brick construction was undertaken especially at Saarinen's request after some experimentation. GM financed a large kiln to produce the bricks on site. Saarinen said he wanted the Tech Center to resemble autumn leaves reflecting the late afternoon sun, so he selected brick colors of crimson, orange, yellow, blue, and neutrals of olive, slate and black. The fountain just outside the R&D Center Administration building is a water-ballet designed by Alexander Calder. He named the various elements of the water ballet: Fantails, Seven Sisters, Scissors and Plops. In front of the Design Center stands a 20-foot sculpture in polished and oxidized bronze, created by the French sculptor, Antoine Pevsner. In 1986, the American Institute of Architects honored the Technical Center as the most outstanding architectural project of its era.

Longest continuously operating hotel in America, 143 years. Never closed doors even during major renovations. At one time the largest hotel in America and is still the second largest hotel in Chicago, 1600+ rooms. First hotel to utilize Edison's light bulb. First hotel to install Bell's telephone , first hotel to have the precursor to Otis's elevator. First hotel to attempt to fireproof the premises. First hotel to create the 'Executive Towers' concept.

A prime example of Neutra's approach to residential design -- an open flowing floor plan that also combines interior and exterior spaces with great expanses of glass and glass doors (an element he pioneered in his California designs). He also designed the landscaping that is so important in his work. He designed many meritorious buildings, both residential and commercial. This just happens to be a well-known and highly representative example of his residential work. His work deserves recognition in this collection.

This YMCA facility served as an important social center within the Black Metropolis area, and it also provided housing and job training for African Americans migrating into Chicago in the early 20th century. In 1915, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, one of the first groups specializing in African-American studies, was founded at the YMCA which was supported by the Black churches in the community.

West Baden Springs Hotel originally built in1852, burned in 1901, and re-built in 1902, as a one-of-a-kind domed atrium spanning 200 feet, called the "Eighth Wonder of the World." Rooms rise six floors around the dome and balcony rooms provide a panoramic view of the atrium.West Virginia architect Harrison Albright designed the building and Oliver Wescott, a bridge engineer, designed the dome trusses.

The appearance of being a monolithic sphere is an architectural goal that was achieved through a structural trick. Spaceship Earth is in fact two structural domes. Six legs are supported on pile groups that are driven up to 160 feet into Central Florida's soft earth. Those legs support a steel box-shaped ring at the sphere's perimeter, at about 30 degrees south latitude in earth-terms. The upper structural dome sits on this ring. A grid of trusses inside the ring supports two helical structures of the ride and show system. Below the ring, a second dome is hung from the bottom, completing the spherical shape. The ring and trusses form a table-like structure which separates the upper dome from the lower. Supported by and about three feet off of the structural domes is a cladding sphere to which the shiny Alucobond panels and drainage system are mounted. The cladding was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. All water is collected through one-inch gaps in the facets into a gutter system, and finally channeled into the World Showcase Lagoon. - (Wikipedia) -- My thoughts - the most iconic future building ever built that is most close to the original thought of Epcot by Walt Disney of being a future city. Unlike any world fair of times past similar buildings have not remained in use, unchanged from their creation.

One of the first academic skyscrapers in the Beaux Arts style. The tallest academic building in the western hemisphere, the second tallest university building and the fourth tallest educational building in the world. The Cathedral of Learning houses multiple classrooms, administrative offices, academic departments, a food court, a theatre, and other specialized areas. The Cathedral of Learning is especially notable for 29 nationality classrooms on the first floor of the building.

The Tower Building usually described as the first curtain-wall building in the world. It was opened in 1889 and was demolished in 1914. It was built by the architect known as the "Architect Who Turned a Railroad Bridge on its Head". I don't have the computer skills to upload the picture I have, but there are articles from the New York Times and there is a website about Bradford Lee Gilbert with lots of information about his accomplishments. I hope you will investigate this.

The Van Allen Building consists of four floors plusbasement and attic. The exterior has brick spandrals and piers over the structural steel skeletal frame. Terracotta is used for horizontal accent banding and for three vertical applied mullion medallions on the front facade. Marble facing is used around the glass show windows on the first floor. Tge building is an excellent and important work of Architect Louis Sullivan. The building design is dignified, with emphasis on the modern expression of the steel skeletal frame. At the same time, some terra cotta ornamentation is applied in Sullivan's unique style of floral inspiration design.

"The Landmarks Commission reads: "In recognition of the design which here brings new beauty to an age-old form:the tomb. Stone and bronze stand transformed in rich yet delicate ornament, a requiem for the dead, an inspiration to the living. " * *From Chicago's Famous Buildings 1965 page 80.

The tower is a prime example of brutalist architecture. One unusual feature of the library is that the lower levels are numbered 1 and 2, and the upper floors numbered 4 through 8. This has given rise to several fanciful explanations for why the third floor is apparently sealed off and not accessible from elevators or steps. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisel_Library#In_popular_culture