GREEN HOUSE IN GEORGIA In the American South, a region that tends to laud its heritage, modern can be a hard sell. A residential client often hears neighborhood fears that a new modern dwelling will look "chilly" and won't fit in. RainShine House by architect Robert M. Cain answers those concerns. Built near downtown Decatur, Georgia, part of metro Atlanta, the LEED Platinum-certified home is bright, welcoming, treads lightly on its site, and respects its neighbors. — Published 2009.0909
	STAL TRE HUS An American caricature of a ski chalet has an A-frame roof, enough timber to build a dozen houses, and a trophy elk head over a stone fireplace. Defying this stereotype is the "Stal Tre Hus" by architect Joel Sherman, principal of JLS Design. With a name meaning "steel tree house" in Norwegian, this house features a flat roof, a steel structure, and neither elk head nor traditional fireplace. — Published 2007.0124
	MERCEDES-BENZ BUILDING With the bulging prow of its aluminum and glass skeleton looming beside the fast lanes of Highway B14 in Stuttgart, Germany, the new Mercedes-Benz Museum lives up to the German automaker's refined engineering image. On entering the structure designed by the Dutch firm UN Studio, visitors ascend eight stories to the top, then wind down twin ramps through a collection of 160 vehicles displayed over 178,000 square feet (16,500 square meters) of exhibition space. — Published 2006.0830
	HOUSE FOR MIDNIGHT SUN In the river delta of Oulu, Finland, the natural environment is likely the toughest factor an architect has to consider. In the upper reaches of cold country, the price one pays for summer's midnight sun is long, cold winters — which usually make large glass surfaces impractical and fortress-thick walls a sound investment. — Published 2006.0419
	SAN FRANCISCO'S NEW DE YOUNG With its all-encompassing copper skin and nine-story twisting ascent to an Olympian view of San Francisco's skyline, the new de Young Museum presides imperially over Golden Gate Park. — Published 2006.0301
	PIANO TONE The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia now bears the signatures of two living masters. Richard Meier designed the original in 1983; the expansion by Renzo Piano opened in November, 2005. The new addition reinforces Piano's reputation as a designer of cultural palaces that are distinctive without being ostentatious — and spare without an overly minimalist chill. — Published 2005.1130
	SKIDAWAY MODERN On a marsh off Georgia's Skidaway River, overlooking a grassy estuary, is a remarkable house. The lower level resembles a loft, where light filters through high-ceilinged rooms, and an aluminum-framed storefront makes up most of the back. At night the house glows like a stage within the frame of its cantilevered terraces. — Published 2005.1019
	ATLANTA MID-CITY In the 1950s, Atlanta, Georgia named itself the city "too busy to hate." Unfortunately, it also became the city too busy to walk and, in recent history, was a deadly metro for pedestrians, ranking as high as third in the nation for pedestrian/ traffic fatalities. — Published 2005.0601

Lisa D. Ashmore