In its August, 2010 issue, Vanity Fair magazine has an article by Matt Tyrnauer on its survey of 52 architectural "experts" on the most important buildings erected in the world since 1980.
90 experts were asked to participate in the survey and 52 responded, naming a total of 120 different projects.
Frank O. Gehry's 1997 Simon R. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao unsurprisingly received the most votes, 28, way ahead of the 10 received for the 1987 Menil Collection building in Houston by Renzo Piano, the 9 received by the 1996 Thermal Baths in Vals, Switzerland by Peter Zumthor, and the 7 received by the HSBC Building in Hong Kong by Sir Norman Foster. With the exception of Mr. Zumthor, who won the Pritzker Prize for Architecture last year, all the cited architects were world famous such as Rem Koolhaas,
Other Gehry projects that received votes were the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Millennium Park in Chicago and his house in Santa Monica.
Mr. Foster's very spectacular 2004 Millau Viaduct in France received 4 votes, although it is interesting that the article does not mention Santiago Calatrava, the world's most famous bridge designer.
Mr. Tyrnauer described the shimmering, convoluted Bilbao museum as resembling "a gargantuan bouquet of writhing silver fish," adding that "as first Gehry was himself unsure whether he approved of it": "You know, I went there just before the opening," he tells me, "and looked at it and said, "Oh, my God, what have I done to these people?' It took a couple of years for me to start to like it, actually."
The same museum commissioned a similar spectacular museum from Gehry for a riverfront site south of the South Street Seaport but could not get financing for it. Gehry, however, did complete a nice small office building for Barry Diller along the West Side Highway that resembles a ship with many sails, and he is completely a very tall twisting stainless-steel rental apartment skyscraper near City Hall for Forest City Ratner.
Richard Rogers received 6 votes and his most famous project was the Lloyd's Building in London in 1984 and the 1977 Pompidou Center (Beaubourg) in Paris with Renzo Piano, a building whose historic importance rivals Bilbao's for its flamboyant industrialism.
Rem Koolhaus is perhaps the most exciting architect on the scene today because of his widely canted Seattle Library of 2004 and the CCTV building in Peking now nearing completion.
The Swiss firm of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron received 7 votes for their Bird's Nest stadium, built in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics when the voters were asked to pick the most significant building erected so far this century
Perhaps the most fascinating project named in the survey was the Mediatheque building in Sendai, Japan by Toyo Ito and perhaps the most poetic was Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin.
90 experts were asked to participate in the survey and 52 responded, naming a total of 120 different projects.
Frank O. Gehry's 1997 Simon R. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao unsurprisingly received the most votes, 28, way ahead of the 10 received for the 1987 Menil Collection building in Houston by Renzo Piano, the 9 received by the 1996 Thermal Baths in Vals, Switzerland by Peter Zumthor, and the 7 received by the HSBC Building in Hong Kong by Sir Norman Foster. With the exception of Mr. Zumthor, who won the Pritzker Prize for Architecture last year, all the cited architects were world famous such as Rem Koolhaas,
Other Gehry projects that received votes were the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Millennium Park in Chicago and his house in Santa Monica.
Mr. Foster's very spectacular 2004 Millau Viaduct in France received 4 votes, although it is interesting that the article does not mention Santiago Calatrava, the world's most famous bridge designer.
Mr. Tyrnauer described the shimmering, convoluted Bilbao museum as resembling "a gargantuan bouquet of writhing silver fish," adding that "as first Gehry was himself unsure whether he approved of it": "You know, I went there just before the opening," he tells me, "and looked at it and said, "Oh, my God, what have I done to these people?' It took a couple of years for me to start to like it, actually."
The same museum commissioned a similar spectacular museum from Gehry for a riverfront site south of the South Street Seaport but could not get financing for it. Gehry, however, did complete a nice small office building for Barry Diller along the West Side Highway that resembles a ship with many sails, and he is completely a very tall twisting stainless-steel rental apartment skyscraper near City Hall for Forest City Ratner.
Richard Rogers received 6 votes and his most famous project was the Lloyd's Building in London in 1984 and the 1977 Pompidou Center (Beaubourg) in Paris with Renzo Piano, a building whose historic importance rivals Bilbao's for its flamboyant industrialism.
Rem Koolhaus is perhaps the most exciting architect on the scene today because of his widely canted Seattle Library of 2004 and the CCTV building in Peking now nearing completion.
The Swiss firm of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron received 7 votes for their Bird's Nest stadium, built in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics when the voters were asked to pick the most significant building erected so far this century
Perhaps the most fascinating project named in the survey was the Mediatheque building in Sendai, Japan by Toyo Ito and perhaps the most poetic was Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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