American Iconic Architecture

7 of the Most Iconic Pieces of American Architecture

Skyscrapers, museums, concert halls, desert homes, and more.

 
By Tim Newcomb

Iconic American architecture doesn't fit neatly in a box. Everything from cloud-scraping skyscrapers to flowing museums fit the bill—and those are both in the same city. Of course the are some fantastic historical pieces to look at but here we'll take a look at seven fairly modern projects that stand out as iconic for the United States, key in defining an architect, an age, a style or, simply, a country.

Taliesin West, Arizona — Frank Lloyd Wright



Considered one of America's finest architects of all time, Frank Lloyd Wright place what's possibly his most personal design, his desert home Taliesin West in the

McDowell Mountains of Scottsdale, Arizona. Started in 1937, the homestead was built up over the course of years by Wright and his architectural students—they still come to work at the site—and handcrafted with desert masonry of local volcanic rock, cement mixed with desert sand, and redwood beams that open to the light. Wright's aim was to embrace the nature around him, build with local materials, and then connect the  architecture through terraces, pools, and gardens.

Empire State Building, New York — William F. Lamb



Outdoing the Chrysler Building, which opened a few blocks and a few years ahead of it, the Empire State Building was the work of architects Shreve, Lamb and Harmon who welcomed the world's tallest building when it opened in 1931. (That record lasted until 1972.) Standing at 102 stories and 1,250 feet, the Art-Deco style tower from William F. Lamb still stands as an American icon, as much due to employing up to 3,400 workers a day during its Depression-era construction as well as the look that has been a staple of the New York City skyline for 80-plus years.

Dulles International Airport, Virginia — Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen first brought visitor's eyes to the sky with his 1947 design for the St. Louis Gateway Arch. That love for the sky sky effort then gave Americans the 1962-opened TWA terminal at JFK airport in New York City. But where Saarinen really came to embrace modern, wing-inspired design the most came in the narrow form of Dulles International Airport in Virginia. After extensive research to study passenger movements, Saarinen detailed a long, narrow terminal, with exterior architecture that serves as a gateway itself, a design long copied at airports the world over.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles — Frank Gehry

The adjectives you could use to describe Frank Gehry's 2003 concert hall in Los Angeles flow as freely as the form of the structure. Well-known for using a mix of materials, the Walt Disney Concert Hall features a stainless steel skin for its ability to curve but also because of its relatively low price.  (The skin did require some changes to a matte finish in places to reduce glare and hot spots.) Inside, the hall takes on a completely different appearance with Douglas fir and oak designed to scientifically-derived acoustic standards, a dichotomy of Gehry's embrace of shape throughout the design for both acoustics and aesthetics.

Seagram Building, New York Ludwig — Mies van der Rohe

Opened in 1958 and standing at a modest 38 stories, the 515-foot-tall Seagram Building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe isn't so much about height as it is about influence. Instead of embracing all things concrete, the Seagram Building has a glass and bronze exterior that didn't overwhelm the Park Avenue site, instead creating a plaza below to set the building off from the street. The architecture opened up the inside of the building, and celebrating the steel frame with bronze beams. Plus, the innovative plaza design has been mimicked by countless city structures since.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York — Frank Lloyd Wright

While not finished until 1956, after the death of both the it's namesake and the architect, the Guggenheim Museum is a stark and unusual presence in Manhattan. Its cylindrical stack grows wider as it spirals upward toward a glass ceiling. Wright claimed his design would "make the building and the painting an uninterrupted, beautiful symphony such as never existed in the world of art before." The Wisconsin native, known for incorporating form into residential design, gave architects liberty to move away from the rectangular with his free-flowing Guggenheim.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston — I.M. Pei

Opened in 1979 and overlooking Dorchester Bay, the John f. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was designed by architect I.M. Pei, at the time a relatively unknown selection for the project. He took his experience designing with simple geometric shapes to task in order to create the museum, a 125-foot-tall concrete tower to a circular section housing a theater. The shapes merge with a highly landscaped site that merges building materials, shapes and nature to create an all-encompassing design.