Daily · 16 June 2026
Top 100 Architectural Wonders of the Last Century
Ranked from 100 down to 1. Generated by /lad, illustrated by /iad.
#1
Sydney Opera House
Jørn Utzon's 1973 expressionist landmark on Bennelong Point — interlocking shells over Sydney Harbour. UNESCO 2007.
#2
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Frank Gehry's 1997 titanium-clad sculpture that singlehandedly invented the 'Bilbao effect' urban-regeneration trope.
#3
Burj Khalifa
Adrian Smith's 2010 supertall in Dubai — 828 m, still the tallest structure ever built. Y-shaped tripod stabilises against desert wind.
#4
Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1939 cantilevered house over a Pennsylvania waterfall — domestic architecture's defining 20th-century moment.
#5
Villa Savoye
Le Corbusier's 1931 manifesto-on-stilts in Poissy embodying his Five Points of New Architecture. UNESCO 2016.
#6
Empire State Building
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's 1931 NYC art-deco skyscraper — 102 stories built in 410 days at the depth of the Great Depression.
#7
Chrysler Building
William Van Alen's 1930 Manhattan jewel — stainless-steel art-deco crown, still the world's tallest brick-clad building.
#8
Seagram Building
Mies van der Rohe's 1958 NYC bronze-and-glass tower — the platonic ideal of the International-Style office block.
#9
Notre-Dame du Haut
Le Corbusier's 1955 Ronchamp pilgrimage chapel — sculptural mass departing radically from his earlier modernism.
#10
Sagrada Família
Antoni Gaudí's still-unfinished Barcelona basilica, begun 1882 and projected to complete in 2026 — the 144-year cathedral.
#11
Casa Batlló
Gaudí's 1906 Barcelona facade — bone-shaped balconies, dragon-back roof, mosaic skin. UNESCO 2005.
#12
Casa Milà / La Pedrera
Gaudí's 1912 undulating Passeig de Gràcia apartment block — Wave-like stone facade. UNESCO 1984.
#13
Park Güell
Gaudí's 1914 mosaic-trencadís garden city above Barcelona — community housing turned public park. UNESCO 1984.
#14
Eiffel Tower
Gustave Eiffel's 1889 wrought-iron lattice for the Paris World's Fair — derided then, universally iconic now.
#15
Centre Pompidou
Renzo Piano + Richard Rogers's 1977 inside-out Paris arts centre — services exposed, gallery space liberated.
#16
Louvre Pyramid
I. M. Pei's 1989 glass pyramid in the Cour Napoléon — initially controversial, now indistinguishable from Paris's image.
#17
Arc de Triomphe (1836, but 20th-century reference)
Restored and integrated into the 20th-century Axe historique. The reference point for grand urban axes.
#18
Glass House
Philip Johnson's 1949 New Canaan transparency — single-room glass pavilion in the Connecticut woods.
#19
Farnsworth House
Mies van der Rohe's 1951 Illinois country house in steel and glass — the duel-with-nature International-Style icon.
#20
Barcelona Pavilion
Mies van der Rohe's 1929 German Pavilion for the Barcelona World's Fair — exposed travertine, marble, chrome, water. Reconstructed 1986.
#21
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NYC)
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1959 spiral on Fifth Avenue — his last and most-recognised work.
#22
TWA Flight Center / Trans World Flight Center
Eero Saarinen's 1962 winged terminal at JFK — neo-futurist sculptural concrete now reborn as a hotel.
#23
Gateway Arch
Eero Saarinen's 1965 St Louis catenary — 192 m stainless-steel monument to westward expansion.
#24
Lincoln Memorial
Henry Bacon's 1922 Doric temple on the Washington National Mall housing Daniel Chester French's seated Lincoln.
#25
Salk Institute
Louis Kahn's 1965 La Jolla research campus — twin laboratory blocks framing a stark central plaza opening to the Pacific.
#26
Kimbell Art Museum
Louis Kahn's 1972 Fort Worth gallery — cycloid vault skylight diffusing natural light onto art. The architects' favourite art museum.
#27
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Norman Foster's 1978 University of East Anglia gallery — flexible shed-as-museum. Foster's breakthrough.
#28
HSBC Building Hong Kong
Norman Foster's 1985 high-tech tower over a public plaza — structure expressed, plumbing exposed.
#29
30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin)
Foster + Partners' 2003 London office tower — energy-efficient diagonal-mesh structure giving it the curved profile.
#30
Reichstag Dome
Foster's 1999 glass dome above the restored Berlin Reichstag — transparency as political symbol.
#31
Apple Park
Foster + Partners' 2017 ring-shaped Cupertino HQ — 80% green space inside the doughnut.
#32
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry's 2003 Los Angeles concert hall — stainless-steel curls; Pierre Boulez called it his favourite acoustic.
#33
Marqués de Riscal Hotel
Frank Gehry's 2006 winery hotel in Elciego, Spain — pink/silver titanium ribbons over Rioja vineyards.
#34
Heydar Aliyev Center
Zaha Hadid's 2012 Baku cultural centre — fluid white forms with no straight edges.
#35
Beijing Galaxy SOHO
Zaha Hadid's 2012 mixed-use complex of five flowing volumes connected by bridges.
#36
MAXXI Museum
Zaha Hadid's 2009 Rome contemporary-arts museum — concrete corridors snaking around themselves.
#37
Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest)
Herzog & de Meuron's 2008 Olympic stadium with Ai Weiwei consulting — interwoven steel lattice over an oval bowl.
#38
Tate Modern
Herzog & de Meuron's 2000 Bankside Power Station conversion + 2016 Switch House extension — defining London cultural landmark.
#39
Allianz Arena
Herzog & de Meuron's 2005 Munich football stadium — colour-changing ETFE-cushion exterior.
#40
Elbphilharmonie
Herzog & de Meuron's 2017 Hamburg concert hall stacked atop a brick warehouse — wavy glass crown on industrial base.
#41
Beijing CCTV Headquarters
OMA / Rem Koolhaas's 2012 looped skyscraper — overhanging trapezoidal continuous loop.
#42
Seattle Central Library
OMA / Koolhaas's 2004 stacked glass-and-steel public library — radical reorganisation of library typology.
#43
Kunsthal Rotterdam
OMA's 1992 Rotterdam exhibition pavilion — flexible loop of galleries packed onto one site.
#44
The Shard
Renzo Piano's 2012 London tower — 310 m faceted glass shard tapering to a point. Tallest in the UK.
#45
Kansai International Airport
Renzo Piano's 1994 Osaka Bay airport — 1.7 km terminal on a reclaimed-sea island. Withstood the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
#46
Menil Collection
Renzo Piano's 1987 Houston museum — light-filtering 'ferro-cement leaves' roof admitting filtered daylight.
#47
Lloyd's Building
Richard Rogers's 1986 City of London insurance HQ — services on the outside, atrium core. The Pompidou principle scaled up.
#48
Pompidou-Metz
Shigeru Ban's 2010 art-museum branch — hexagonal-wooden hat structure echoing a Chinese sun-hat.
#49
Cardboard Cathedral
Shigeru Ban's 2013 temporary Christchurch cathedral after the earthquake — paper tubes structurally.
#50
Nakagin Capsule Tower
Kisho Kurokawa's 1972 Tokyo metabolist landmark — 140 plug-in living capsules. Demolished 2022; lives on in salvaged units.
#51
Tokyo International Forum
Rafael Viñoly's 1996 glass-hull atrium in Marunouchi — boat-shaped main atrium, 60 m clear-span.
#52
Yokohama International Port Terminal
Foreign Office Architects' 2002 ferry terminal — folding-plate roof landscape blurring building and ground.
#53
Petronas Towers
César Pelli's 1998 Kuala Lumpur twins — 452 m, tallest buildings in the world at completion.
#54
Marina Bay Sands
Moshe Safdie's 2010 Singapore triple-tower complex topped by a 340 m SkyPark connecting all three.
#55
Habitat 67
Moshe Safdie's 1967 Montreal Expo housing — 354 stacked-prefab concrete boxes producing 158 unique apartments.
#56
Marina City
Bertrand Goldberg's 1964 Chicago corncobs — cylindrical residential towers with parking on the lower floors.
#57
John Hancock Center / 875 N Michigan
SOM / Bruce Graham + Fazlur Khan's 1969 Chicago tower — tapered, X-braced exterior expressed structure.
#58
Willis (Sears) Tower
SOM / Khan's 1973 Chicago supertall — bundled-tube structural concept, world's tallest 1973-1998.
#59
One World Trade Center
SOM / David Childs's 2014 NYC replacement tower — 541 m, deliberate height referencing 1776.
#60
Petronas Towers (#53)
(see #53)
#61
Taipei 101
C. Y. Lee's 2004 Taipei tower — 508 m with a 660-ton tuned mass damper visibly suspended near the top.
#62
Shanghai Tower
Gensler's 2015 supertall — 632 m twisting form reducing wind loads by 24%.
#63
Lotus Temple
Fariborz Sahba's 1986 Delhi Bahá'í House of Worship — 27 white marble petals enclosing a meditation hall.
#64
Berlin Jewish Museum
Daniel Libeskind's 2001 zinc-clad axis-broken building — the Holocaust as physical disorientation.
#65
Imperial War Museum North
Libeskind's 2002 Salford museum — three interlocking shards representing earth, air, water.
#66
Royal Ontario Museum Crystal
Libeskind's 2007 Toronto extension — fragmented crystalline projection from the original ROM facade.
#67
Denver Art Museum Hamilton Building
Libeskind's 2006 angular titanium-clad extension on the Denver mountain skyline.
#68
City of Arts and Sciences
Santiago Calatrava's 1998-2009 Valencia complex — bone-like white concrete structures along an old riverbed.
#69
Milwaukee Art Museum Quadracci Pavilion
Calatrava's 2001 lakefront museum extension — moving sunscreen 'brise-soleil' wings.
#70
Turning Torso
Calatrava's 2005 Malmö twisting residential tower — 90° rotation over its height, structured around a central core.
#71
Oslo Opera House
Snøhetta's 2008 marble-roofed waterfront building — public roof you can walk straight up onto.
#72
Vessel (Hudson Yards)
Thomas Heatherwick's 2019 NYC stair-sculpture — 154 interconnected staircases. Closed after suicides; partial reopening.
#73
Aqua Tower
Studio Gang / Jeanne Gang's 2009 Chicago tower — undulating balcony slabs creating wave-like facade.
#74
St Regis Chicago
Studio Gang's 2020 trio of stepped towers — visually 3 buildings, structurally one.
#75
Phaeno Science Center
Zaha Hadid's 2005 Wolfsburg interactive-science museum — concrete cones lifting an entire crystalline volume above the ground.
#76
Vitra Fire Station
Zaha Hadid's 1993 Weil am Rhein structure — her built breakthrough, with its sharp shard-like concrete forms.
#77
Schaulager
Herzog & de Meuron's 2003 Basel art-storage facility — semi-private museum-warehouse hybrid.
#78
Therme Vals
Peter Zumthor's 1996 Swiss bath complex — gneiss-quartz stone slabs lit by precise overhead apertures.
#79
Bruder Klaus Field Chapel
Zumthor's 2007 farmer-built concrete chapel near Cologne — interior cast around a teepee of charred logs.
#80
Kolumba Museum
Zumthor's 2007 Cologne archdiocese museum — built directly over the WWII ruins of a Gothic church.
#81
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
Moshe Safdie's 2005 Jerusalem prism-shaped underground museum cut into the hill of remembrance.
#82
National Museum of African American History and Culture
David Adjaye's 2016 Smithsonian museum on the National Mall — three-tiered bronze-coloured corona inspired by a Yoruba caryatid.
#83
30 Rockefeller Plaza
Raymond Hood's 1933 art-deco anchor of Rockefeller Center — RCA Building, GE Building, Comcast Building over the years.
#84
United Nations Headquarters
Wallace Harrison + international team's 1952 NYC complex — Secretariat slab + General Assembly dome on the East River.
#85
Capitol Records Building
Welton Becket's 1956 Hollywood circular tower — the world's first cylindrical office building.
#86
Cathedral of Brasília
Oscar Niemeyer's 1970 hyperboloid concrete-rib cathedral — Brasília's spiritual centre.
#87
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum
Niemeyer's 1996 saucer-on-a-stick gallery floating above Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro.
#88
Brasília — Pilot Plan and Monumental Axis
Lúcio Costa + Oscar Niemeyer's 1960 modernist new-capital plan. UNESCO 1987.
#89
Chandigarh Capitol Complex
Le Corbusier's 1956 administrative seat in Punjab — Secretariat, Assembly, High Court, Open Hand monument. UNESCO 2016.
#90
Bauhaus Dessau
Walter Gropius's 1926 Bauhaus school building — the manifesto of European modernist pedagogy in built form. UNESCO 1996.
#91
Schröder House
Gerrit Rietveld's 1924 Utrecht De Stijl residence — primary colours, sliding partitions. UNESCO 2000.
#92
Unité d'habitation
Le Corbusier's 1952 Marseille mass-housing block — 337 apartments on pilotis with rooftop garden. UNESCO 2016.
#93
Pirelli Tower
Gio Ponti + Pier Luigi Nervi's 1958 Milan skyscraper — tapered profile, hexagonal section.
#94
Torre Velasca
BBPR's 1958 Milan tower — mushroom-shaped silhouette referencing medieval Lombard towers.
#95
Pirelli HangarBicocca
Adaptive reuse of Milan's 1960s tyre factory into contemporary-art space, ongoing renovations through 2010s.
#96
Highline / High Line Park
James Corner Field Operations + Diller Scofidio + Renfro's 2009/2011/2014 elevated linear park — disused freight rail to public space.
#97
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Jørgen Bo + Vilhelm Wohlert's 1958 Humlebæk gallery — pavilion-corridor system letting Danish landscape into the art.
#98
Sydney Harbour Bridge
John Bradfield + Ralph Freeman's 1932 steel arch — single-span 503 m, the world's heaviest steel-arch bridge.
#99
Golden Gate Bridge
Joseph Strauss + Irving Morrow + Charles Ellis's 1937 suspension bridge — 'International Orange' San Francisco icon.
#100
Hoover Dam
Six Companies' 1936 concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River — Depression-era technological landmark.