architecture, it comprises a range of present-day building styles that often look radically different from one another and sometimes from anything that has come before. This is thanks to myriad innovations in building materials and techniques that have made contemporary architecture possible in all its infinite iterations. 

Some notable contemporary 21st century architects include Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Santiago Calatrava and the late Zaha Hadid, who died at 65 in 2016 but whose oeuvre is still being built by the company she left behind. These contemporary "starchitects" are known for show-stoppingly expressive buildings rendered in unconventional, sometimes gravity-defying shapes that alter the landscape in places around the world.

While they have all built ambitious large-scale buildings like Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA or Nouvel’s Philharmonie de Paris, many have also built private residences such as the Hadid-designed luxury condominiums at 520 West 28th Street overlooking NYC’s High Line.