Everyone likes lists, even PBS. A new TV special on the Public Broadcasting Service posits the top 10 buildings that changed America. We’ll give them credit for giving architecture its proper due — not everyone would say that buildings have necessarily changed this country, at least not in the way technological, infrastructural, or telecommunication innovations have. But the list is fairly typical, with (too) few surprises.

The show’s format is designed to be accessible to all, with host Geoffrey Baer traveling the continental US in search of the “revolutionary” structures whose influence can still be felt in cities and suburbs across America. That’s the rationale behind a rather hodgepodge collection that lumps in Jefferson’s Virginia State Capital (the polymath’s “declaration of architectural independence,” an awkward turn of phrase that leaves a bad taste in our mouths) with Mies’ Seagram Building. The same conceit also overstates the importance of the Vanna Venturi House and the Walt Disney Concert Hall on quotidian life; the former is the token Pomo project, one that contributed little to the country’s post-Fordist landscape, while the inclusion of the latter seems to have been conciliatory and perhaps (we hope) a pointed dig at Gehry — if you can’t have Bilbao, then a look-a-like will do.

So we challenge PBS’ selections with our own list of America’s top 10 structures. Sure, the criteria governing our choices are more architecturally inclined — you won’t find the White House or even the Empire State Building here — and our tastes, unabashedly modern, but it’s undeniable how each of the buildings listed here have significantly contributed and even altered our built environment. Click through to see them all. 

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Photo: Dmitry Beliakov via the New York Times

Watching a remarkable historic building gradually weaken is slow torture for preservationists and architecture aficionados. In Moscow, Konstantin Melnikov’s famed cylindrical home is in danger of collapsing, say preservationists. The house, completed in 1929, served as both a home and studio for the Russian avant-garde architect. As a monument of design—and a piece of private property built in Soviet Russia—the house survived the tumult of the 20th century. But now it could fall because of disturbances brought on by 21st-century development. Read more.

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Today marks the grand re-opening of the famed Rijks Museum after a transformative 10-year restoration project. Spanish architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz, of the firm Cruz y Ortiz, have labored intensively to rethink the 19th-century museum for a 21st-century audience. The collaboration between the designers and the curatorial staff has left only a single painting, Rembrandt’s masterpiece ”The Night Watch,” in its former place, while every other piece in the collection has been re-deployed in 80 galleries that interpret the Dutch love affair with high art.

Bringing the historic Rijksmuseum into the new millenium was a challenge, as the architects had to contend with the existing building, designed in an exuberant blend of Gothic and Renaissance ornament by Pierre Cuypers in 1876. The historic icon was fully restored with the expertise of Dutch architect Van Hoogevest, while Cruz y Ortiz focused on transforming the former interior courtyard into a spectacular glass atrium.

Click through for images of the restored museum and some of its choice treasures!

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Photo: Old Creeper

Earlier today, we brought you delightful places to conduct an Easter Egg hunt. Isn’t that cute? In the spirit of being a fair and balanced news operation, we now bring you something a little less chipper: derelict amusement parks! These spooky sites were recently featured on The Weather Channel‘s website. Yes, they’re bleak, but they’re also fascinating, particularly for fans of ruin porn. Click through to see photos.

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Photo courtesy of the Eames Foundation

In the year 2263, when everyone will live in shipping containers on floating cities or in algae-encrusted hydro-towers, the Eames House will seem like a remote jewel of mid-20th-century mechanized production. Or perhaps it will look like the beta version of everything smart that came after it. Either way, the Eames Foundation would like the house to still be standing in 250 years, luring architectural tourists in from San Francisco, which by that point will have been swallowed whole by the Los Angeles megaregion.

To preserve the house for the next ten generations of midcentury modern buffs, the foundation has launched a campaign to create a conservation fund of $150,000. (That’s only $1.65 per day for the next 250 years!) To sweeten the bargain, the foundation commissioned the Atlanta-based agency Nebo to design limited-edition prints inspired by the simple geometry of the Eames House. At $75 a pop, the prints will help conservators seal the building envelope, preserve the original building materials, and develop a 250-year maintenance plan. Check them out after the jump.

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Orange Country Government Center by Paul Rudolph; Photo: Ty Cole

It’s been a rough year for Brutalism. Chicago’s Prentice Women’s Hospital will likely be razed, and last spring, it appeared that Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York, would face the wrecking ball too. But, at last, a victory story!

In a 15-6 vote, members of the Orange County Legislature decided it would be more cost effective to renovate the 43-year-old Rudolph building, rather than demolish it and construct a new, $68 million government center. For the better part of 2012, preservation groups had lobbied hard to save the building, arguing that it’s an important landmark that benefits the community. Read more about the recent decision at The Herald-Record.

And click here to see other embattled Brutalist icons!

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Project:  Bunker 599

Architect:  Atelier de Lyon + Rietveld Landscape

Location:  Amsterdam, Netherlands

Repurposing an abandoned bunker used in both World Wars, Atelier de Lyon and Rietveld Landscape re-introduce a piece of Dutch military history to contemporary design. The bunker itself is cleanly cut in two, allowing visitors to access the incredibly tight quarters within, maximizing public engagement with the remnants of the ‘New Dutch Waterline’ coastal defense network. The dominant axial arrangement of the bunker’s reinstallation visually links the interior of the pillbox and the waterfront it protected. The cleanly sliced internal facade of the bunker stands in stark contrast to the more familiar weatherbeaten exterior.

Read more about this project in the Architizer database!

Images courtesy Atelier de Lyon

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Grand Central Terminal; Photo: New York Central System

Happy 100th Birthday, Grand Central Terminal. Tomorrow, February 2, marks the centennial anniversary of America’s most storied train station and one of its most important buildings. We were there this morning for the historic structure’s extravagant birthday party, where thousands filled the main concourse to hear from the likes of Carolina Kennedy and Mayor Bloomberg. “It’s not easy to last 100 years in a city of constant change,” Bloomberg said, and he wasn’t exaggerating. Few things last, but Grand Central is one of them. Here’s to 100 more!

Click through for the slideshow!

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It’s not often that a city throws a giant birthday bash for a building. But this morning, thousands of people poured into the main hall of Grand Central Terminal to celebrate the centennial of this treasured NYC landmark. Designed by Warren & Wetmore and Reed & Stern, the Beaux Arts building opened on February 2, 1913.

“It’s not easy to last 100 years in a city of constant change,” stated Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the 14 speakers at the two-hour rededication ceremony. Others included Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon; baseball legend Keith Hernandez; and Caroline Kennedy, whose mother, Jackie Onassis, famously helped scuttle plans to raze the transit hub in the 1970s (phew!).

Today, one million people pass through the station on a daily basis. During rush hour, a train arrives every 58 seconds. Grand Central isn’t just another pretty face—she’s one of the hardest working buildings in this industrious city. Click through to see photos!

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Sleek modern buildings look best when they’re clear of clutter (preferably free of people too), their gleaming surfaces and perfect state of cleanliness seeming to exist without mundane maintenance. Well, Architect Andrés Jaque and the Office for Political Innovation have decided to challenge that myth.  Commissioned to produce an installation at Mies Van der Rohe’s iconic Barcelona Pavilion, the group dug through the basement and revealed the inevitable junk and tools that any building — even an uninhabited one — accumulates over time. Read more!

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