Celebrating 125 Years: The Past
RECORD’s Top 125 Buildings: 26-50
Chrysler Building | 1930 | New York | William van Alen
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Kiefhoek Housing | 1930 | Rotterdam | J.J.P. Oud
Photo courtesy State Service for Cultural Heritage (Netherlands)
Empire State Building | 1931 | New York | Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
It is the most indispensably iconic symbol of the skyscraper type and of New York for a world audience beyond the professional culture of architecture. It was the world’s tallest building for longer than any other structure (1931–74). I have always admired its overall form, silhouette, and profile as a masterly solution by its Beaux Arts–trained architect, Thomas Lamb, as the main designer. He modeled it partly on French medieval churches with dominant towers, such as the 12th-century Cathedral of St. Lazare at Autun, which he admired from his travels as a student. In this way, the Empire State connects to a long tradition of monumental architecture. —Joseph Siry
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Villa Savoye | 1931 | Poissy, France | Le Corbusier
Photo courtesy Paul Kozlowski / © Fondation Le Corbusier/Artists Rights Society
Aluminaire House | 1931 | Palm Springs, California | Albert Frey
Photo courtesy Michael Schwarting
Maison de Verre | 1932 | Paris | Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet
Photo © Mark Lyons
PSFS Building | 1932 | Philadelphia | Howe & Lescaze
Photo courtesy Hagley Museum and Library
Paimio Sanatorium | 1933 | Paimio, Finland | Alvar Aalto
Photo © Flickr user Leon/Creative Commons
Johnson Wax Building | 1939 | Racine, Wisconsin | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Fallingwater | 1939 | Bear Run, Pennsylvania | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Rockefeller Center | 1939 | New York | The Associated Architects: Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray; Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux
Photo © David Shankbone/Creative Commons
Crow Island School | 1940 | Winnetka, Illinois | Perkins, Wheeler & Will and Eliel & Eero Saarinen
Photo © Ken Hedrich, Hedrich Blessing Photographers
Casa Luis Barragán | 1948 | Mexico City | Luis Barragán
Photo © Casa Luis Barragán 1947, property of Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco and Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán A.C.
Eames House | 1949 | Los Angeles | Charles and Ray Eames
I’m not so sure if it was the architecture, the wonderful displays of the Eameses’ folk objects, or a combination of the two that I loved so much when I saw their house years ago. But I also suspect that it might have been Ray Eames herself. She served me and two other guests breakfast with candles and three perfectly arranged strawberries. At the time, I just felt that the house was an extension of her.
—Mary McLeod
Photo © Julius Shulman, courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Glass House | 1949 | New Canaan, Connecticut | Phillip Johnson
Photo © Peter Aaron, courtesy Glass House
Farnsworth House | 1951 | Plano, Illinois | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
his is one of the great villas of the 20th century—the ultimate “machine in the garden”—where you place a man-made, fabricated, industrial object of great beauty within the garden greenery. It was actually kind of a culmination of things Mies had been doing at IIT, perfecting how to put steel together. He put the house right by a huge tree, very purposely. This idea of marrying nature and the building, you see, he had done before with the Tugendhat House in Brno. The Seagram Building continues this idea, but within a cityscape. —Phyllis Lambert
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Unité d’Habitation | 1952 | Marseilles, France | Le Corbusier
Photo courtesy Paul Kozlowski / © Fondation Le Corbusier/Artists Rights Society
Lever House | 1952 | New York | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Photo © Florian Holzherr/SOM
Säynätsalo Town Hall | 1952 | Säynätsalo, Finland | Alvar Aalto
Photo © Jonathan Rieke
United Nations Headquarters | 1952 | New York | International Committee of Architects (including Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier), Wallace K. Harrison, chariman
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut | 1955 | Ronchamp, France | Le Corbusier
Photo courtesy Paul Kozlowski / © Fondation Le Corbusier/Artists Rights Society
Seagram Building | 1958 | New York | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Phillip Johnson
Photo © Ezra Stoller/ESTO
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum | 1959 | New York | Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo © David Heald/ Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
National Congress Building | 1960 | Brasília | Oscar Niemeyer
Photo © Andreas Kornfeld/ESTO
Trans World Airlines (TWA) Terminal | 1962 | New York | Eero Saarinen
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
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.
