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Architecture

Thomas Edison circa 1914

Thomas Edison’s Brief Stint As A Homemaker

The famous inventor envisioned a future of inexpensive, prefabricated concrete homes

Building Expectations

How do people decide what does or doesn’t look futuristic?

Life in a bubble: Westinghouse advertisement

Today at War, Tomorrow in Stores

Advertisers in the 1940s promised American consumers that they would be rewarded for their wartime sacrifices on the homefront

"Airships may give us a birds eye view of the city."

The Boston Globe of 1900 Imagines the Year 2000

A utopian vision of Boston promises no slums, no traffic jams, no late mail deliveries and, best of all, night baseball games

The Taj backs up against the once-vibrant Yamuna River, now often dried to the point where locals can walk in the riverbed.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How to Save the Taj Mahal?

A debate rages over preserving the awe-inspiring, 350-year-old monument that now shows signs of distress from pollution and shoddy repairs

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner rallied the community to stuff plastic bottles with trash. In all, the Guatemalan students turned 8,000 bottles into building materials.

How to Turn 8,000 Plastic Bottles Into a Building

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner demonstrates how she turned trash into the building blocks for one community’s revival

The Ahwahnee Hotel was built in 1927 to draw affluent and influential tourists into the park and give them a Ritz-Carlton experience amid Yosemite's wilderness.

Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel, Finally Restored

Interior designers spared no detail in bringing this historic lodge back to its luxurious origins

The missions—built between 1769 and 1823 and extending in a chain of 600 miles from Sonoma to San Diego—stand as symbols of California's Spanish colonial past. Pictured is San Miguel's bell tower.

A Tour of California’s Spanish Missions

A poignant reminder of the region’s fraught history, missions such as San Miguel are treasured for their stark beauty

Non-Muslims use a wood ramp to enter the complex, home to the gilded Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, and the Western Wall, holy to Jews.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Is Beneath the Temple Mount?

As Israeli archaeologists recover artifacts from the religious site, ancient history inflames modern-day political tensions

"Right out the window is a kind of nature preserve all in itself," says T.C. Boyle in his Santa Barbara home.

The Wildlife of T.C. Boyle’s Santa Barbara

The author finds inspiration at the doorstep of his Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house near the central California town

During gladiatorial games in the arena, a vast network of man-powered machinery made animals and scenery appear from beneath a wooden floor as if by magic.

Secrets of the Colosseum

A German archaeologist has finally deciphered the Roman amphitheater’s amazing underground labyrinth

The bridge, which is awaiting decking and with temporary pylons in September 2009, was built to bypass the part of U.S. Route 93 that crosses the Hoover Dam.

A Breathtaking New Bridge

The construction of the bridge that bypasses the Hoover Dam was an Erector Set dream come true for this photographer

The Mapungubwe National Park Interpretive Center in South Africa is John Ochsendorf's most famous work.

With Ancient Arches, the Old is New Again

An MIT professor shows how ancient architecture can be the basis for a more sustainable future

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The World’s Great Structures Built With Legos

For 15 years, Adam Reed Tucker was an architect. Now, he constructs models of famous buildings with thousands of Legos

Shanghai’s European Suburbs

Chinese urban planners are building new towns with a foreign flair, each mimicking architecture from Europe’s storied cities

Lights Out at the Castle

Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Hollywood’s Historic Buildings

Theaters and other architectural gems lined Hollywood’s famous boulevards during its Golden Age and now hold restored star appeal

Life spills into the El Alto outdoor market of Puebla, where "present and past coexist and harmonize," says Francine Prose.

Savoring Puebla

Mexico’s “City of Angels” is home to gilded churches, artistic treasures and a delectable culinary culture

The United States expanded from the original 13 colonies in a series of deals that began in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris.

Top 10 Nation-Building Real Estate Deals

Luck and hard bargaining contributed to the growth of the United States. But with expansion came consequences

India's Golden Temple at Amritsar—destroyed and rebuilt over centuries of strife—is to Sikhs what Mecca is to Muslims.

Saving Punjab

A Sikh architect is helping to preserve cultural sites in the north Indian state still haunted by 1947’s heart-wrenching Partition

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