A cluster of buildings cited by critics and historians for the “Top 125 Buildings” since 1891 didn’t make it onto our final list. But these distinctive works of architecture are singular in their use of a formal language or their inventive exploration of materials—and some are just over the top. Most of them are outside the United States and, because they are harder to visit, may have received less attention. Yet they have left an indelible mark on the minds of those who know them, whether by personally visiting the sites or by savoring their presentations in history books, architectural journals, or online. Not all those qualifying for this category have been included: we stopped at 25. But if you have more suggestions, keep them: our 150th anniversary is coming up.
Celebrating 125 Years: The Past
25 Cult Classics
Lesser-known architectural landmarks acclaimed by various scholars and critics.
Palais Stoclet | 1911 | Josef Hoffmann | Brussels
Photo © Jean-Pol Grandmont/Creative Commons
Einstein Tower | 1921 | Erich Mendelsohn | Potsdam, Germany
Photo © R. Arlt, courtesy Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam
Schindler House | 1922 | Rudolph M. Schindler | West Hollywood, California
Photo © Joshua White/MAK Center
Notre-Dame du Raincy | 1923 | Auguste Perret and Gustave Perret | Le Raincy, France
Akin to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, a defining work of the French Gothic movement is updated in the abstract language of reinforced concrete, with its walls filled by brilliant, modern stained glass. — Marvin Trachtenberg
Photo © Architectural Record
Rusakov Workers’ Club | 1927 | Konstantin Melnikov | Moscow
Photo © Sovfoto/Getty
Kingswood School Cranbrook | 1928 | Eliel Saarinen | Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Photo © Wayne Andrews/ESTO
E1027 1929 | Eileen Gray | Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Photo courtesy Cap Moderne
Open-Air School |1930 | Johannes Duiker | Amsterdam
Here you find ultimate transparency in one of the most extensively glazed Modernist buildings of the period. The architecture also creates an intense communal experience for the children at the school. It is a subtle and yet startling insertion in an Amsterdam neighborhood. — Barry Bergdoll
Photo © Rory Hyde/Creative Commons
De Bijenkorf Store | 1930 | Rotterdam | Willem Marinus Dudok
Dudok reinterprets a department store as a civic monument, with its trademark campa- nile and rooftop café terrace crowning the Russian-influenced neo-Constructivist composition, faced in precision brickwork. Ultimately more compelling than Dudok’s more familiar Hilversum Town Hall (1931), it was also similarly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright: the top-lit atrium running through the entire height of the store is evidently derived from Wright’s Larkin Building of 1904. — Kenneth Frampton
Photo courtesy KLM Aerocarto
Van Nelle Factory | 1931 | Brinkman & Van der Vlugt | Rotterdam
Photo © Architectural Record
The Triple Bridge | 1932 | Jože Plecnik | Ljubljana, Slovenia
Photo © Tim Draper/Getty
Casa del Fascio | 1936 | Giuseppe Terragni | Como, Italy
Photo © Wikimedia user Pinotto992/Creative Commons
Kröller-Müller Museum | 1938 | Henry van de Velde | Otterlo, Netherlands
In the astounding landscape of birch trees outside Otterlo, the Kröller-Müller Museum’s series of pavilions appears as a work of sculpture at the same time that it provides serene connections between the art on display and its surroundings. The poetry of arriving on white bicycles—provided to visitors to make their way along paths through the park—is unforgettable. — Barry Bergdoll
Photo courtesy Archive Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi | 1943 | Oscar Niemeyer | Pampulha, Brazil
On the shores of Lake Pampulha, Niemeyer built his most poetic structure, thanks to his intimate relationship with the engineer Joaquim Cardoso—who helped him design the thin concrete shells. Also important was the contribution of the painter Cândido Portinari, whose azulejos-tile compositions give the interior the magic of Brazilian Baroque churches. In its refined simplicity, the chapel is probably the best embodiment of the 20th-century ideal of synthesis of the arts. — Jean-Louis Cohen
Photo © Andrea Pistolesi/Getty
Il Girasole | 1950 | Luigi Moretti | Rome
Photo © Michael Waters
The Chemosphere | 1960 | John Lautner | Los Angeles
Photo © Denis Freppel/ESTO
Frey House II | 1964 | Albert Frey | Palm Springs, California
Photo © Andrea Rugg
Shrine of the Book | 1965 | Armand Phillip Bartos and Frederick John Kiesler | Jerusalem
Photo © Ezra Stoller/ESTO
St. Catherine’s College | 1966 | Arne Jacobsen | Oxford, England
I consider this to be Jacobsen’s masterpiece. Here he keeps the traditional Oxford quadrangle, and yet there’s a sense of something new happening—a kind of syncopated layering from the buildings to the lawn and where hedges act as walls, creating outdoor rooms. The architecture is beautifully scaled and each detail meticulously worked out. The dining room is noteworthy because it is grand, with a certain sense of ritual, but remains completely unpretentious. And of course each element was designed by Jacobsen—including the chairs, cutlery, and lamps. —Mary McLeod
Photo © Daniel Hopkinson/Hodder + Partners
Church of St. Peter | 1966 | Sigurd Lewerentz | Klippan, Sweden
The building lies hugger-mugger on the ground, black brick and black mortar. When you get inside, it is all the same aside from the baptismal font, which is a large, pearly mussel shell. And when you get there, the floor starts to slide down, creating the effect of the ceiling rising, with the heavens opening above you. I don’t aspire to be religious, but it is the most sacred space I know in 20th-century architecture—the only one, I might say. — Robin Middleton
Photo © Anders Clausson/sanktpetrikyrka.se
Gallaratese Housing | 1972 | Aldo Rossi | Milan
Photo © Marloes Faber
Bagsværd Church | 1976 | Jørn Utzon | Copenhagen
Photo © Seier + Seier/Creative Commons
Santa Maria Church | 1996 | Alvaro Siza | Marco de Canaveses, Portugal
The church is just two great square towers with a simple rectangular building behind. Inside, the ceiling curves into the north wall, and on the other side it is a horizontal slit, so you see the city at a distance. It’s sculptural, but such a simple sculptural form—not baroque at all. It’s an oasis: as you enter, you are taken away from the city. The thing that I find so extraordinary in Siza’s work is that he’s so conscious of the vernacular but uses it in abstract ways. — Phyllis Lambert
Photo © View Pictures/Getty
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center| 1998 | Renzo Piano Building Workshop |Nouméa, New Caledonia
Photo © ADCK/Centre Culturel Tjibaou/Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Yokohama International Passenger Terminal | 2002 | Foreign Office Architects | Yokohama, Japan
Photo © Satoru Mishima/Farshid Moussavi Architecture
Post a comment to this article
Report Abusive Comment