51-Wonders of the Architecture World-2

From the tall tower in Dubai to a contemporary art museum on New York's Lower East Side, noteworthy architecture is springing up around the globe. Conde Nast Traveler's April 2008 issue picks seven designs as the "new seven wonders of the architecture world." They are:

Cumulus, Nordborg, Denmark
an exhibit hall at Danfoss Universe, a science and technology museum in Nordborg, Denmark. The building has an irregular roof, all curves and angles, like a bite taken out of a cloud.

Burj Dubai, Dubai
the world's tallest building, which is under construction in the Middle East and is already more than 1,700 feet tall. The final height is a secret but its developer, Emaar Properties, has previously said it will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet and will exceed 160 floors.

London's new Wembley Stadium, London, England
which seats 90,000 with no obstructed sight lines. A massive 436-foot-tall, 1,000-foot-long single arch braces the retractable roof. The stadium will be a centerpiece of the 2012 Olympics.

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
designed to resemble an off-kilter stack of silvery rectangles, located on the Bowery on Manhattan's once-seedy, now-trendy Lower East Side.

Kogod Courtyard, Washington, DC, USA
at Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, a curved roof made from a patterned grid of glass and steel above shallow pools in the courtyard of the Old Patent Office Building, also known as the Reynolds Center and home to the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Red Ribbon, Qinhuangdao, China
Tanghe River Park, in Qinhuangdao, China, about 180 miles East of Beijing, a steel bench that runs a third of a mile through a riverbank garden and ecological oasis.

The Crystal, Toronto, Canada
A controversial new entryway and exhibit space at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, whose sharp, even jagged angles have not been universally loved by the locals. It was designed by Daniel Libeskind.

[From Yahoo News, March 24, 2008, Monday - Printed in Conde Nast Traveler, April issue]

Wonders of the Natural World