Visionary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí spent more than 40 years of his life on this glorious, chaotically complex, and still unfinished Gothic-Art Nouveau cathedral. After his untimely death in 1926 (he was hit by a streetcar), his associates continued his sculptural masterwork, and despite the fact that the original drawings were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, construction continues today. Completion is scheduled for sometime between 2017 and 2026.
Authenticity Alert: The east-facing Nativity façade was the only one completed by Gaudí himself.
Burj Al Arab, Dubai, UAE
This 60-story sail-shaped hotel, which sits on its own private island, was designed to be a national icon. But the interior is where the beauty lies: a nearly 600-foot-tall atrium—the world’s tallest. The undersides of tier after tier of semicircular balconies reveal a spectrum of colors. And the tower’s powerful diagonal braces, like the flying buttresses of the past, inspire awe.
Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, The Netherlands
The work of Jaap Drupsteen, the graphic artist responsible for the building-size media collage, used to be everywhere in the Netherlands. This building is his comeback. Along with architecture firm Neutelings Riedijk, he covered the façade of the massive media archive and museum with images from Dutch television, abstracted into a giant four-sided mural and baked directly onto cast glass. The effect is stunning inside and out.
The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India
This most sacred Sikh shrine sits in the middle of what was once a wooded lake. The Buddha came here to meditate, and so did Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, some 2,000 years later. The Harimandir, or “Temple of God,” was built and destroyed many times before the current version was erected in the late 1700s. The radiance of this gilded building, a mixture of Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, is amplified by reflections in the surrounding water and the devotional music that emanates from the temple day and night.
National Congress Hall, Brasilia, Brazil
Brasilia probably works better as a Modernist sculpture garden than as a city, but if there is one piece of it that best represents the whole, it’s Congress Hall. Architect Oscar Niemeyer’s colonnaded marvel, with its grand sci-fi entrance ramp, skinny twin towers, and two bowl-shaped meeting halls (one for the Chamber of Deputies and one for the Federal Senate), treats the business of government as a monumental work of art.
The Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
The Frank Gehry–designed, titanium-clad phenomenon that upstaged the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright transformed the way the world understands architecture, art museums, and the strategies for reviving depressed industrial cities. Today, the shiny undulating museum doesn’t look as shocking as it once did, but it does embody a certain kind of late 20th-century thinking—the thrill of formal complexity and high art.
The Chrysler Building, New York City
Designed by architect William van Alen, the Chrysler’s shiny, filigreed Art Deco spire is the most indispensable piece of the New York City skyline, perfectly balancing the primal thrust of the classic American skyscraper with the desire for a little bling. (It was the world’s tallest for less than a year in 1931 before that zeppelin-masted tower eight blocks south took the spotlight.) Day or night, its stainless-steel crown still dazzles like nothing else.
Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France
Though not as lavish as some landlocked cathedrals, this abbey is certainly the most dramatically situated, enjoying prime real estate just off the coast of Normandy. The first abbey was built in 709, with construction continuing for hundreds of years. Spurning the safety of the causeway (built in 1879 and currently being reconstructed), pilgrims still scamper across the sands at low tide to reach the Mont, and risk being overtaken by fast-moving waters.
ICMC at Brandenburg Technical University, Cottbus, Germany
While many architects prefer the smoothest, clearest glass, Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron specializes in texture. This technologically sophisticated university library, in an obscure corner of Eastern Germany, is clad in frosted glass—and embossed with letters from the world’s alphabets. Shaped like an amoeba, with its central spiral staircase in bright magenta and green, the seven-story building looks like a carnival ride.
Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Bloch Building, Kansas City, MO
Unlike many modern additions to historic museums, Steven Holl’s 21st-century companion doesn’t overwhelm the 1933 Beaux Arts original. His string of iridescent frosted-glass boxes pop out of the grassy lawn—they are absolutely magical at dusk when they begin to glow—and filter sunlight into a series of dramatic underground galleries.
Gresham Palace, Budapest, Hungary
A $125 million restoration brought this 1906 gem by Art Nouveau architect Zsigmond Quittner back to life. Originally built as a status symbol for the Gresham Life Assurance Company of London, it was battered by WWII and abused by the Communists. Now it’s a Four Seasons Hotel, and a reconstruction of the dazzling, glass-covered shopping arcade—once a destination for Budapest’s elite—serves as the hotel lobby.
Christian Dior Store, Omotesando, Tokyo
Omotesando is a shopping strip more famous for its architecture than for the designer merchandise sold there. Herzog & de Meuron did Prada, Toyo Ito did Tod’s, and Tadao Ando designed the local mall. But our favorite is SANAA’s diaphanous showcase for Dior. In a district where every building is a spectacle, the Pritzker Prize–winning firm built a deceptively simple box of light. The effect is magical, especially at night.
Hearst Tower, New York City
Most contemporary skyscrapers—Burj Khalifa or the Petronas Towers—work best from a distance, but the amazing thing about the Hearst Tower on West 57th Street is that it’s most beautiful up close. The distinctive triangular panels from which architect Norman Foster formed the façade are highly efficient, using 20 percent less steel than more conventional buildings, but that’s almost irrelevant. The important thing is that the triangular motif makes the modest 42-story tower more spectacular than skyscrapers two or three times its height.
*source from forum.
