5 Starchitects Changing The World's Skylines

Photo: Wikimedia

Most skylines are composed of typical office buildings, but some cities have a handful of awe-inspiring masterpieces. From Bjarke Ingles to Frank Gehry, here are five of the top starchitects behind those masterpieces.

Photo: Wikimedia/Epizentrum

Company: Bjarke Ingels Group

Famous Project: 2 World Trade Center

Hailing from Copenhagen, Bjarke's designs defy traditional architectural conventions (and seemingly physics). He's known for incorporating natural elements like snowflakes and mountains into his designs and his buildings are almost always created with sustainability in mind. His latest idea for 2 World Trade Center features a staircase-like design climbing to over 1.3k feet.

Photo: Flickr/japanese_craft_construction

Company: Sou Fujimoto Architects

Famous Project: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013

Sou is a Japanese architect known for his delicate, light designs and permeable enclosures. He blends interior with exterior in his buildings, and is currently constructing what some are calling the "second architectural folly of the 21st century" in Montpellier, France. L'Arbre Blanc will be a 17-story mixed-use tower that blends Japanese and Mediterranean style design, containing everything from office space to an art gallery, condos and a panoramic bar.

Photo: YouTube/euronews

Company: Santiago Calatrava

Famous Project: World Trade Center Transportation Hub

From Valencia, Spain, Santiago has a rather eccentric reputation that you either love or hate. His neo-futurist designs have the habit of running several times over budget (not to mention opening way behind schedule) and are often accused of sacrificing practicality in the name of aesthetic beauty. His most recent structure, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, ended up costing $4B despite the original budget being only $2B. Still, it's something to behold.

Photo: Wikimedia/bigbug21

Company: Foster + Partners

Famous Project: Hearst Tower

Norman's style is famous for being unyieldingly high-tech, and his sleek, elegant designs earned him the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1999. On top of being a world-renowned architect, Norman can also check being a lord off his bucket list. Yes, the starchitect is a Lord—he was knighted in 1990 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1997. Norman is currently working on the National Bank of Kuwait building, which will be nearly 1k feet tall and designed to shield the interior from Kuwait's  100-plus degree summer temperatures.

Photo: Flickr/Forgemind ArchiMedia

Company: Gehry Partners

Famous Project: Walt Disney Concert Hall

Born in Toronto, Frank's post-modern buildings are often cited as among the most important works in contemporary architecture and in 2010 Vanity Fair dubbed Frank "the most important architect of our age." Frank is currently designing the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a 320k SF art museum in the United Arab Emirates, which when completed will be the largest of the Guggenheim museums.