# What's the coolest building in your state? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320 "2026-11-01T17:43:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/1 "2026-11-01T17:43:45Z")
> **[From historic estates to futuristic towers, these are the coolest buildings...](https://www.businessinsider.com/coolest-building-in-every-state)** > > History, art, and local aesthetics are all reflected in some of America's most unique buildings. Some are prehistoric, and others are futuristic. Some interesting choices here, I’ve been to several of them. After seeing some of the images I think I’d like to visit a few more. I would have picked the Stata Center for Massachusetts, another MIT building but IMO much funkier. The NH choice is dead on. The lighthouse for Maine is a great choice, but I might have chosen the West Quoddy Head Light. How is your state represented? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/2 "2026-11-01T18:17:56Z")
I’m surprised the Old Faithful Inn wasn’t their pick for Wyoming. The Smith Mansion is pretty cool but you can’t get up close to it…I stayed at the Green Creek Inn which is right below it and the area is fenced off with no trespassing signs. [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczOb0ZaHeB1awfwqk1alBuJDVbynd3Q1vA8KIkhMyKGI94X5oS12I4s2Mhjdpu9eID_U0vl2TzXJMX4KDAelOUb-5i2VSDMAhdE9XdXY5Vj9MAPc5p0MI1On-GDBAYSeUxhf76N3v6Hr7xqzuKxCZBAbZQ=w1086-h815-s-no?authuser=0) ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczOb0ZaHeB1awfwqk1alBuJDVbynd3Q1vA8KIkhMyKGI94X5oS12I4s2Mhjdpu9eID_U0vl2TzXJMX4KDAelOUb-5i2VSDMAhdE9XdXY5Vj9MAPc5p0MI1On-GDBAYSeUxhf76N3v6Hr7xqzuKxCZBAbZQ=w1086-h815-s-no?authuser=0) California has no shortage of cool buildings. [Preston Castle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_School_of_Industry) is pretty high on the list for me. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/3 "2026-11-01T18:18:06Z")
For Ohio, the Terminal Tower is way cooler than some picnic basket. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Terminal_Tower_from_Cuyahoga_River_Cropped.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Terminal_Tower_from_Cuyahoga_River_Cropped.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original) ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/4 "2026-11-01T19:04:06Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > California has no shortage of cool buildings. Like the Sea Ranch Chapel: [![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/673762d5da0cbc65b281ea37/85a0b4f8-3201-4ae6-947f-6f2dd9bacaa1/Home-5.Chapel_CT__D835935189.jpg) ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/673762d5da0cbc65b281ea37/85a0b4f8-3201-4ae6-947f-6f2dd9bacaa1/Home-5.Chapel_CT__D835935189.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/5 "2026-11-01T19:14:06Z")
Huh.. That’s a weird list of coolest buildings. Kentucky’s is Churchill Downs, the horse racing place. I’m underwhelmed but can’t think of a better option on short notice. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/6 "2026-11-01T19:19:49Z")
How about the Watts Towers > **[Watts Towers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Towers)** > > The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or Nuestro Pueblo ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics on a property in Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States. The entire site of towers, structures, sculptures, pavement, and walls were designed and built solely by Sabato ("Simon" or "Sam") Rodia (1879 or 1886 to 1965), an Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason, The... ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/7 "2026-11-01T19:23:48Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I would have picked the Stata Center for Massachusetts, another MIT building but IMO much funkier. Agreed. Although I actually like the Computing and Data Sciences at BU quite a bit too: > **[Duan Family Center for Computing & Data Sciences | Faculty of Computing &...](https://www.bu.edu/cds-faculty/explore/bu-center-for-computing-data-sciences/)** > > Learn more about the BU Center for Computing & Data Sciences, the iconic award-winning, LEED Platinum certified building at the center of Boston University's campus. Missouri’s entry is a parking garage in KC… wtf? I guess the Arch doesn’t count, but even the Old Courthouse in STL is cooler than a parking garage. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/8 "2026-11-01T19:28:45Z")
I always liked the State Capitol building in Helena, Montana. > **[Montana State Capitol — Postimages](https://postimg.cc/tYhWBBr7)** ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/9 "2026-11-01T19:33:25Z")
I’m really not sure, but two candidates from my county. Bell Works in Holmdel, the old Bell Labs building. Designed Eero Saarinen. Has the transistor water tower out in front. Here is an interior view. [![](https://bell.works/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bell-works-interior.jpg) ](https://bell.works/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bell-works-interior.jpg) By the way, used in Severance. * * * * * * My other candidate is the Twin Lights in the Atlantic Highlands. An old lighthouse for NY Harbor and Sandy Hook Bay. > **[Navesink Twin Lights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navesink_Twin_Lights#/media/File:Twin_Lights_of_the_Navesink_(492062853).jpg)** > > The Navesink Twin Lights is a non-operational lighthouse and museum located in Highlands, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, overlooking Sandy Hook Bay, the entrance to New York Harbor, and the Atlantic Ocean. The Twin Lights, as the name implies, are a pair of beacons located 246 feet (75 m) above sea level on the headlands of the Navesink Highlands. In 1962, the State of New Jersey acquired Twin Lights. The museum offers tours of the lighthouse, and a climb of the North Tower. Twin L... [![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb18b7_e54f972fa27c4908bf14c797088c0755~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1023,h_301,al_c/fb18b7_e54f972fa27c4908bf14c797088c0755~mv2.jpg) ](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb18b7_e54f972fa27c4908bf14c797088c0755~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1023,h_301,al_c/fb18b7_e54f972fa27c4908bf14c797088c0755~mv2.jpg) Also the site of Marconi’s tower for Transatlantic comms. * * * * * * We also have the oldest still in Operation Lighthouse in America, the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, but that looks like almost every other lighthouse. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/10 "2026-11-01T19:46:50Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Some interesting choices here, I’ve been to several of them. After seeing some of the images I think I’d like to visit a few more. I’ve been to… more of those than i would have guessed. And i agree with some. Like, the Chrysler building rocks. > [@Jas09](#): > > > [@Telemark](#): > > > > I would have picked the Stata Center for Massachusetts, another MIT building but IMO much funkier. > > Agreed. Although I actually like the Computing and Data Sciences at BU quite a bit too: I would have picked the Jenga building over the Stata center, and the Stata center over Simmons Hall. I might have picked the corn cob building over the Baha’i temple in Illinois. But I’m told it’s not very practical, and maybe that matters. (Although the i doubt the Colorado “Cliff Palace” or the picnic basket are super practical by today’s standards.) For a lot of states, i don’t have a good sense of the competition. But that’s a fun list. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/11 "2026-11-01T20:22:23Z")
Oh, and I call foul on Nevada’s entry. A charcoal oven is not a “building”. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/12 "2026-11-01T21:43:09Z")
The refurbished Michigan Central Station in Detroit is the most cool building in town. > **[Google Image Result for...](https://www.google.com/share.google?q=images%2FNbTimpJO3lnJvCFkF)** ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/13 "2026-11-01T21:53:48Z")
In California, two that come to my mind immediately are Geisel (nee Central) Library on the UC San Diego campus and Forestiere Underground Gardens. The latter is not really a building, but rather a dugout home in Fresno. I have no idea how many rooms, but they’re all underground to escape the unbearable valley heat. IMO, the Watts Towers aren’t buildings, because I think of a “building” as a structure you can occupy. The Watts Towers are art. Pretty damn cool art, but not buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/14 "2026-11-01T22:07:18Z")
I wouldn’t say that “building” and “art” are mutually exclusive, but yeah, a building can be occupied. That’s also why I said that charcoal ovens should be excluded, and I would have raised the same objection to the Watts Towers, except that I wasn’t sure. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/15 "2026-11-01T22:12:22Z")
Well, do non-US states count? Because the coolest building in my state of North Rhine-Westphalia still is the Cologne Cathedral. I often was there and saw and studied the outside and the inside, and it’a monster of a building. Like a big ass mountain of hewn stone, smack dab in the middle of the city. Amazing. > **[Cologne Cathedral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral)** > > Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[ˌkœlnɐ ˈdoːm\] ⓘ) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic arch... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/16 "2026-11-01T22:14:36Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Like a big ass mountain of hewn stone. Amazing. I like the trick that Cobh, Ireland pulled: They put St. Colman’s Cathedral on the top of a cliff, so it towers over the whole town. [![](https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/puginew/1b.jpg) ](https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/puginew/1b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/17 "2026-11-01T22:43:18Z")
Nah, that’s cheating 😉. Cologne is quite flat, and the Cathedral’s spires are the highest points in the city except for a broadcasting tower (which is quite ugly). ETA: also, with all due respect, you could fit that puny church of Cobh into a side chapel of the Cologne Cathedral. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/18 "2026-11-01T23:00:19Z")
The Dom is possibly the most imposing and inspiring building I have ever visited. From a distance it reminded me of a sand castle…an enormous sand castle. And it only got better as I drew closer. ---
**Author:** ![Jegpeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jegpeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jegpeg)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/19 "2026-11-01T23:06:17Z")
This is probably the coolest building near me 😜 [![](https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/themes/brucefarms/t.php?src=https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DarkMatter_RangePhotography_Finals_Print_-23@2x.png&w=1140&h=360&s=1&zc=1) ](https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/themes/brucefarms/t.php?src=https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DarkMatter_RangePhotography_Finals_Print_-23@2x.png&w=1140&h=360&s=1&zc=1) In case you can’t read the sign [![](https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/themes/brucefarms/t.php?src=https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DarkMatter_RangePhotography_Finals_Print_-3@2x.png&w=555&h=360&s=1&zc=1) ](https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/themes/brucefarms/t.php?src=https://dundeecoldstores.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DarkMatter_RangePhotography_Finals_Print_-3@2x.png&w=555&h=360&s=1&zc=1) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2026, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320/20 "2026-11-02T01:05:37Z")
They got Nebraska right (that building is half a mile west of my house) and it is gorgeous back lit by the setting prairie sun. They blew it in Iowa. Their Capitol is gorgeous, especially the domed interior. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coolest-building-in-your-state/1034320.md?page=2)