The American Institute of Architects has thrown down a gauntlet of sorts by offering up this list of the top 150 architecture projects as selected by the American public. Through a partnership with Google Earth, visitors can locate each building on an interactive map, but they might want to start by browsing through the list first. Each building profile includes a photograph, a brief overview of...

This online collection from the American Antiquarian Society boasts design books from some of America's most renowned early architects, as well as a wide array of architectural drawings, lithographs, engravings, periodicals, and photographs of classic American buildings, such as the home of Louisa Mary Alcott. Here readers will find the works of Asher Benjamin, whose late eighteenth- and early...

The Denver Public Library has received widespread acclaim for their Western History & Genealogy digital collections. This particular nook contains hundreds of building plans and drawings from the greater Denver area and beyond. The wonderful items here are divided into nine thematic areas, including Landscape Architecture, Fisher and Fisher, Edwin A. Francis, and Civic Center. This last area...

Just about every town in the United States has one post office, and a number of them have other federal government buildings. The United States experienced quite a boom in federal building construction during the Great Depression, and many of these structures remain iconic pieces of the built environment. This lesson plan from the Teaching with Historic Places program at the National Park Service...

Step into George Jetson's living room at this site created by Chris Jepsen as an homage to the 1950s space-age, commercial architecture sometimes called "Googie," after a Los Angeles coffee shop built in 1949. Although you may not be familiar with the term, you will recognize the style as you browse the site's Googie Gallery, which includes views of Disneyland, the 1964 World's Fair in New York,...

While it is still common to send postcards from one's travels, today more and more people might just opt to send images via their smartphones. But a century ago, major postcard companies produced hundreds of postcards for cities small and large. Milwaukee was no exception: years ago, visitors could send images of the Milwaukee County Zoo, the homes of Astor Street, or the 3rd Ward. This digital...

In 1904, Julia Morgan became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in California. She was a trendsetter and a very prolific architect, and she is most well-known for designing the truly sprawling grounds of San Simeon, which was the estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. During her long career, she designed over 700 buildings and was heralded for her generosity of spirit....

It is fitting that Thomas Jefferson, a true Renaissance man, should have a site about his own life that features such a wide range of information about his interests and passions. At the center of the site is information about the house he designed and about which he once said, "I am as happy no where else." From the site, visitors can tour almost every room in the house, complete with narrative...

Using a wide variety of materials culled from archival collections, primarily the Getty Research Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum presents Overdrive, an exhibition of Los Angeles's urban landscape, presented in a way that would be almost impossible to recreate from ground level in L.A. Drawings, photographs, models, films, animations, oral histories, and ephemera provide a view of L.A.'s...

Created and maintained by photographer Phillip Buehler, this site showcases photos he has taken at various "modern ruins," decaying buildings or sites that still perhaps echo human presence. While there are twenty collections of photos on the site, only the first six are presented as thumbnail indexes with brief introductions and captions. The remaining sections are available as small images with...