The 100 Most Important Buildings of the 20th Century

Distinguished Professor Thom Mayne's new book "100 Buildings" (Rizzoli) is out now.

October 10, 2017

Department of Architecture and Urban Design Distinguished Professor Thom Mayne recently published 100 Works. He and his team at Morphosis asked more than fifty practicing architects and major voices in the industry to list the top 100 buildings that every architecture student should know. The result is a master list of the top 100 “must-know” built works of architecture designed and completed between 1900 and 2000.

"Can you name the most important buildings of the 20th century? Thom Mayne has been asking a lot of people that question. Mayne, the Los Angeles–based, Pritzker Prize–winning architect, says he has noticed a declining awareness of historical precedent among architecture students.

So Mayne and his colleagues at the Now Institute, an urban planning research center at UCLA, began asking prominent architects to list the 20th-century buildings students ought to know. Questionnaires went out to Richard Meier, Jeanne Gang, Zaha Hadid, and dozens of others—about 70 architects altogether. “Being sensitive to everyone’s time, we prepared a starter list of 200 buildings,” says Now Institute director Eui-Sung Yi. “But a majority made their own or severely edited our list.” Fifty-eight architects, about one quarter of them women, responded. (Hadid, who named 128 buildings, died before she could whittle down her list.)

In November, Rizzoli is publishing a book about the most frequently named buildings. Called simply 100 Buildings: 1900–2000 ($25), it describes each of the “winners” in photos, words (mostly by Val Warke), and remarkably clear drawings (by Now Institute staff)."— Fred A. Bernstein, October 10, 2017

This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Architectural Digest website.