Still Standing: The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, 1963
AT Editor2025-08-05T12:05:26+01:00A workplace for scientists and a machine for solar spectacle, Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute is functional, poetic – and impossible to photograph.
Still Standing: Torre Velasca, Milan, 1958
Nelly Greig2025-05-30T16:42:02+01:00
An emblem of Milan’s rough lovability, BBPR’s Torre Velasca was inspired by traditional Lombard architecture and contempt for the reductive, repetitive Modernism that was on the march worldwide.
Still standing: Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, 1921
Isolde Brampton-Greene2025-04-14T14:48:15+01:00
Hollyhock House lived up to Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of a building “comfortable to live in well, with true pride in itself” but was beset by disagreements with his mercurial client.
Still standing: Hundertwasserhaus Vienna, 1985
Isolde Brampton-Greene2024-12-18T13:17:12+00:00
Designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Vienna’s most fanciful social housing project combines contempt for strait-jacketed Modernism with nostalgia for an imaginary past.
Still standing: John Hancock Center, Chicago, 1965
AT Editor2024-12-18T13:17:55+00:00
‘Gutsy, masculine and industrial’, SOM’s John Hancock Center showcased its engineer’s ingenuity and confirmed Chicago’s continuing status as an incubator for new design.
Still standing: Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo, 1964
Isolde Brampton-Greene2024-06-14T10:20:48+01:00
One of the greatest Modernist buildings to emerge from the Olympics, Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium’s blend of Zen tranquillity and techno-monumentality connects Japan’s ancient past to its forward-thinking future.
Still standing: Boston Government Service Center, 1971
Isolde Brampton-Greene2024-04-19T13:24:41+01:00
While many of Paul Rudolph’s high-maintenance public buildings have faced demolition, one of his most confounding architectural statements stands as an enduring testament to his confrontational style.
Still standing: The Schomburg Center, Harlem, New York, 1980
Isolde Brampton-Greene2024-12-18T13:18:44+00:00The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture by J Max Bond Jr is a crucial component of Harlem's thriving cultural scene and the embodiment of its architect's aptitude for projects that combined civic idealism with understated aesthetics.
Still standing: Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 1813
Isolde Brampton-Greene2024-12-18T13:19:26+00:00Technical virtuosity, madcap curatorship, and a remarkable eye for detail combine to secure the Soane Museum’s status as architecture’s intellectual funhouse
Still standing: Arab World Institute, Paris, 1987
Isolde Brampton-Greene2023-12-21T16:13:19+00:00The first of Mitterrand’s grands projets, the Arab World Institute was born of an unlikely marriage between a politically charged brief and an architect with a penchant for nightclubs and radical ideas.
Still standing: The Theme Building, Los Angeles International Airport, 1961
Isolde Brampton-Greene2023-12-21T16:02:02+00:00The enigmatic concrete spaceship that stands at the centre of Los Angeles International Airport stands as a monument to misplaced optimism, missed opportunities and swinging sixties glamour.
Still standing: The Museu de Art São Paulo (MASP) 1968
Isolde Brampton-Greene2023-06-22T14:57:12+01:00Designed by a lifelong communist for a wealthy media magnate, Lina Bo Bardi’s uncompromising art museum is full of contradictions – just like the Italian architect’s life.