"America's Favorite Architecture" is a list of buildings and other structures identified as the most popular works of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. In 2006 and 2007, the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...

(AIA) sponsored research to identify the most popular works of architecture in the United States. Harris Interactive conducted the study by first polling a sample of the AIA membership and later polling a sample of the public.American Institute of Architects, "About this Exhibit"
FavoriteArchitecture.org website
In the first phase of the study, 2,448 AIA members were interviewed and asked to identify their "favorite" structures. Each was asked to name up to 20 structures in each of 15 defined categories. The 248 structures that were named by at least six of the AIA members were then included in a list of structures to be included in the next phase, a survey of the general public. The survey of the public involved a total of 2,214 people, each of whom rated many photographs of

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

s and other structures drawn from the list of 248 structures that had been created by polling the architects. The public's preferences were ranked using a "likeability" scale developed for the study.American Institute of Architects Releases Poll Showing "America's Favorite Architecture"
, Building Online, March 15, 2007 As part of the commemoration of the organization's 150th

anniversary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saint ...

in 2007, the AIA announced the list of the 150 highest-ranked structures as "America's Favorite Architecture".

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

is the location of 32 structures on the list, more than any other place. Of the 10 top-ranked structures, 6 are in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, which is the location of 17 of the 150 structures on the complete list.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

has 16 structures on the list. The 150 top-ranked structures are listed below.

List of "America's Favorites"

Criticisms

When it was released, critics observed that the list of "favorites" did not reflect the judgments of architectural “experts”. Upon the list's release, AIA president R.K. Stewart acknowledged that the rankings did not represent architects' professional judgments, but instead reflected people's "emotional connections" to buildings.John King
When it comes to the tops in architecture, it's all about how it makes people feel
''San Francisco Chronicle'', February 13, 2007 Buildings named by critics as being some that architects consider to be highly significant, but that did not achieve top 150 ranking in the public survey, included the

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, designed by

Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...

; the

Inland Steel The Inland Steel Company was an American steel company active in 1893–1998. Its history as an independent firm thus spanned much of the 20th century. It was headquartered in Chicago at the landmark Inland Steel Building. Inland Steel was an i ...

and John Hancock buildings in Chicago;

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and ...

Chantilly, Virginia Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the name of an 18th-century ...

, designed by

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motor ...

; and the

Seagram Building The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Ka ...

in New York City, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.Alex Frangos
Americans' Favorite Buildings
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', February 7, 2007 John King of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...

'' pointed out that in 1991 the AIA had named Eero Saarinen's design for Dulles Airport as one of ten "all-time works of American architects." King noted that the public's ratings were based on seeing just one photo of each building, and pointed out that "There's more to architecture than a picture can convey."

Structures ranked below the top 150

The 98 buildings that were listed by architects as significant, but did not rank in the top 150 in the public vote, were: *

860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments 860–880 Lake Shore Drive is a twin pair of glass-and-steel apartment towers on N. Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Construction began in 1949 and the project was completed in 1951. ...

– Chicago, Illinois *

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions o ...

– New York City * Art & Architecture Building –

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, New Haven, Connecticut * Baker House – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts * Beinecke Rare Book Library – Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut * Beth Sholom Synagogue – Elkins Park, Pennsylvania *

Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall. It is a contr ...

– Boston, Massachusetts *

Bradbury Building The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Built in 1893, the five-story office building is best known for its extraordinary skylit atrium of access walkways, stairs and elevators, and t ...

– Los Angeles, California *

Burton Barr Library The Burton Barr Central Library is the central library of Phoenix, Arizona. It is the flagship location and administrative headquarters for the Phoenix Public Library. It was named in honor of Burton Barr, the Republican Majority Leader in the ...

– Phoenix Public Library, Phoenix, Arizona *

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building designed primarily by Le Corbusier in the United States—he contributed to the design of the United Nations Secretariat Building—a ...

– Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts *

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels ( es, Catedral de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles), informally known as COLA or the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, United States. It opened in 2 ...

– Los Angeles * Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption – San Francisco * CBS Headquarters/ Black Rock – New York City *

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

/Museum of British Art – Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut * Chapel/W15 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts *Chapel of St. Ignatius –

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate p ...

, Seattle * Crown Hall –

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has pro ...

(IIT), Chicago *

Dallas City Hall Dallas City Hall is the seat of municipal government of the city of Dallas, Texas, United States. It is located at 1500 Marilla in the Government District of downtown Dallas. The current building, the city's fifth city hall, was completed in 19 ...

– Dallas, Texas *

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport , also known as DFW Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest hub for American Ai ...

– Dallas, Texas * M. H. de Young Memorial Museum – San Francisco *

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

– Denver, Colorado *

Denver Public Library The Denver Public Library is the public library system of the City and County of Denver, Colorado. The system includes the Denver Central Library, located in the Golden Triangle district of Downtown Denver, as well as 25 branch locations and tw ...

– Denver, Colorado *

Eames House The Eames House (also known as Case Study House No. 8) is a landmark of mid-20th century modern architecture located at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was constructed in 1949, by husband- ...

– Pacific Palisades, California * Ennis House/Ennis-Brown House – Los Angeles * Esherick House – Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania * Experience Music Project – Seattle * Farnsworth House – Plano, Illinois * First Christian Church – Columbus, Indiana * First Church of Christ Scientist – Berkeley, California * First Unitarian Church of Rochester – Rochester, New York *

Ford Foundation Building The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice (also known as 321 East 42nd Street, 320 East 43rd Street, or the Ford Foundation Building) is a 12-story office building in East Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect Kevin Ro ...

– New York City *Frank Gehry Residence – Santa Monica, California *

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and S ...

– Washington, DC *Genzyme Center – Cambridge, Massachusetts * Gropius House – Lincoln, Massachusetts * Guaranty Building – Buffalo, New York * Horton Plaza – San Diego * IBM Building – Chicago * Inland Steel Building – Chicago * Jacobs Field – Cleveland, Ohio * John Deere World Headquarters – Moline, Illinois *

John Hancock Center The John Hancock Center is a 100- story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018. The skyscraper was designe ...

– Chicago * Johnson Wax Building – Racine, Wisconsin * Kaufmann Desert House – Palm Springs, California *

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, w ...

– Fort Worth, Texas * Kings Road House – West Hollywood, California *

Larkin Administration Building The Larkin Building was an early 20th century building. It was designed in 1903 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1904-1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and u ...

– Buffalo, New York *

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International Style by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) as ...

– New York City * Lovell Beach House – Newport Beach, California * R. H. Macy and Company Store (building) – New York City *

Marin County Civic Center The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright ...

– San Rafael, California * Marshall Field and Company Building – Chicago *

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of approximately 17,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawin ...

– Houston, Texas * Minneapolis Central Library – Minneapolis *

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (widely referred to as The Modern) is an art museum of post-World War II art in Fort Worth, Texas with a collection of international modern and contemporary art. Founded in 1892, The Modern is located in the c ...

– Fort Worth, Texas * Monadnock Building – Chicago *

Morgan Library The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...

& Museum – New York City *Mount Angel Library – Mount Angel, Oregon *

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's or ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Bui ...

Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dallas Ar ...

– Dallas *

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

(East Wing) – Washington, DC * North Christian Church – Columbus, Indiana *

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Ca ...

– Oakland, California *

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busines ...

– Chicago * Peabody Terrace – Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts *

Petco Park Petco Park is a baseball stadium in Downtown San Diego, California. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres, and has also been used as a venue for concerts, soccer, golf, and rugby. The ballpark is located between ...

(

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

) – San Diego *

Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building The PSFS Building, now known as the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A National Historic Landmark, the building was the first International style skyscraper constructed in the United State ...

/PSFS – Philadelphia *

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the p ...

Glass House The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work". The Gla ...

– New Canaan, Connecticut *Prada – Los Angeles *Prada – 575 Broadway, New York City *

Price Tower The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower at 510 South Dewey Avenue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was built in 1956 to a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertica ...

– Bartlesville, Oklahoma *Rachofsky House – Dallas, Texas *REI Flagship Store, Seattle * Reliance Building – Chicago *

Richards Medical Research Laboratories The Richards Medical Research Laboratories, located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, were designed by architect Louis Kahn and are considered to have been a breakthrough in his career. The building is configured as ...

– Philadelphia *

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...

– Arlington, Virginia *

Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculptur ...

– Cincinnati *

– La Jolla, California *

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as '' Library Journals ...

– San Francisco * Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse – Phoenix, Arizona *

Seagram's Building The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, ...

– New York City *

Frederick J. Smith House The Smith House is a work of contemporary architecture designed by Richard Meier, a well-known architect born in 1934 who led the avant-garde modern architecture movement of the 1960s. The Smith House was planned starting in 1965 and completed in 1 ...

– Darien, Connecticut *

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Foot ...

– Chicago *

Sony Plaza , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

(AT&T Corporate Headquarters) – New York City *

Staples Center Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it ...

– Los Angeles * Superdome – New Orleans *

Tiffany and Company Building The Tiffany and Company Building, also known as the Tiffany Building and 401 Fifth Avenue, is an eight-story commercial building at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The structure was designe ...

– New York City * Unity Temple – Oak Park, Illinois *

University of Phoenix Stadium A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

(Arizona Cardinals Stadium) – Glendale, Arizona *

Vanna Venturi House The Vanna Venturi House, one of the first prominent works of the postmodern architecture movement, is located in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was designed by architect Robert Venturi f ...

– Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania * Wainwright Building – St. Louis, Missouri *