Celebrating 125 Years: The Past
RECORD’s Top 125 Buildings
A selection of the most significant works that defined architecture in our era.


Wainwright Building | 1891 | St. Louis | Adler & Sullivan
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Glasgow School of Art | 1899 | Glasgow | Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Photo © Alan McAteer, courtesy Glasgow School of Art

Larkin Building | 1906 | Buffalo | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo © Architectural Record

Morgan Library & Museum | 1906 | New York | McKim, Mead & White
Photo © Graham Haber, courtesy the Morgan Library and Museum

Austrian Postal Savings Bank | 1906 | Vienna | Otto Wagner
Photo © Doris Herlinger, Postparkasse Archive

Gamble House | 1908 | Pasadena, California | Greene & Greene
Photo © Alexander Vertikoff, The Gamble House, USC

Unity Temple | 1908 | Oak Park, Illinois | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Kärntner Bar | 1909 | Vienna | Adolf Loos
Photo © Robin Roger Peller, Design Atelier

AEG Turbine Factory | 1910 | Berlin | Peter Behrens
courtesy Siemens

First Church of Christ, Scientist | 1910 | Berkeley, California | Bernard Ralph Maybeck
Photo © Wayne Andrews/ ESTO

Pennsylvania Station | 1910 | New York | McKim, Mead & White
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Robie House | 1910 | Chicago | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

New York Public Library Main Branch | 1911 | New York | Carrère and Hastings
Photo courtesy New York Public Library

Casa Milà | 1912 | Barcelona | Antoni Gaudí
Of the many masterpieces sprung from the eccentric and utterly individualistic mind of Antoni Gaudí, this is perhaps the most serene. Called La Pedrera (the Quarry) for its undulating sculpted and self-supporting stone facade, the apartment block is an orchestrated symphony of natural forms that cover or color nearly every surface of the interior courts and passages, and erupt in the fanciful landscape of its famous roof. —Carol Willis

Grand Central Terminal | 1913 | New York | Reed & Stem and Warren & Wetmore
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Woolworth Building | 1913 | New York | Cass Gilbert
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

American Radiator Building | 1924 | New York | Hood & Foullhoux
Photo courtesy Bryant Park Hotel

Schröder House | 1924 | Utrecht, Netherlands | Gerrit Rietveld
Photo © Ernst Moritz/Centraal Museum

Lovell Beach House | 1926 | Newport Beach, California | Rudolph M. Schindler
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Bauhaus Building | 1926 | Dessau, Germany | Walter Gropius
Photo © Christin Irrgang/Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

Stockholm Public Library | 1927 | Stockholm Public Library | Gunner Asplund
Photo courtesy City of Stockholm

Ford River Rouge Complex | 1928 | Dearborn, Michigan | Albert Kahn Associates
Photo © Charles Sheeler/Lane Collection/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY

Lovell Health House | 1929 | Los Angeles | Richard Neutra
Photo courtesy Architectural Record

Barcelona Pavilion | 1929 | Barcelona | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Photo © Pete Sieger

Viceroy’s House | 1929 | New Delhi | Edwin Lutyens
Photo courtesy Christian Haugen/Creative Commons


























To commemorate Architectural Record’s 125th anniversary, our editors have chosen to honor 125 of the most important works of architecture built since the magazine’s founding in 1891. This was not an easy task. We started by polling a group of distinguished critics and scholars for nominations, but the final list is ours. While many inclusions are obvious, others may be surprising, or a little controversial—as are some omissions. And, we know, all 125 might not make the list at RECORD's next big birthday: time inevitably changes not only our tastes, but how we understand history.
Click through the slideshow above, and visit the pages below, to see all the buildings on our list.