After spotting these vintage photographs of the construction of the Empire State Building, we got to thinking about one of the reasons why great architecture is so much more than a work of art you can walk through: it’s awfully complicated to create. Explaining the poetic importance of the field, Frank Lloyd Wright, the greatest American architect of all time, made a lofty statement, claiming that “the mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.”
If there’s one thing that these photos of grand buildings and bridges under construction confirms, it’s that being defined as the soul of humanity is well deserved. From the seemingly magical emergence of the Eiffel Tower to the eerie drama of an incomplete Brooklyn Bridge, click through to see the fascinating documentation of some of the world’s most famous designs as they’re being built.
The Empire State Building – New York, New York
Image credit: RETRONAUT
The Eiffel Tower — Paris, France
Image credit: Cabinet of Curiosities; Crooked Brains
Flatiron Building — New York, New York
Image credit: Alexander Alland via The New York Times
The Manhattan Bridge — Brooklyn, New York
Image credit: Special Edition; New York Municipal Archive via Dossier Journal
The Guggenheim — New York, New York
Image credit: William H. Short for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation via Interior Design; Wright on the Web
The Statue of Liberty — New York, New York
Image credit: Quiet Lunch Magazine; funnyenuf; Meine Wunderkammer
The Capitol Building — Washington D.C.
Image credit: DC MetroCentric; Library of Congress via The New York Times
The Golden Gate Bridge — San Francisco, CA
Image credit: Federico de California; Hulton Archive via The New York Times
Pyramide du Louvre — Paris, France
Image credit: Martin Powell
Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome — Montreal, Canada
Image credit: Charles Eames via domus
Taj Mahal — Agra, India
Image credit: Search Parineeti
Sydney Opera House — Sydney, Australia
Image credit: Charles Eames via domus
Fallingwater — Mill Run, Pennsylvania
Image credit: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy via Herald Standard; Fallingwater
The Disney Concert Hall — Los Angeles, California
Image credit: Allan Glass; Russell Smith
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao — Bilbao, Spain
Image credit: Guggenheim; moreAEdesign
