In just about every part of the world not the United States -- the only country that dares to use the word "soccer" -- the sport of football makes for extremely important events. It is no surprise that many football stadiums feature impressive architectural design, such as the Bird's Nest National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by Herzog & de Meuron and the World Cup 2010 stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, by Populus (formerly HOK Sport) with local firm Boogertman & Partners. Soon to join that list is the FC Bate Borisov Stadium in Belarus by Ofis arhitekti, a Ljubljana, Slovenia-based firm founded by Rok Oman and Spela Videcnik in 1998.

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a firm based in Denmark, Copenhagen, was founded by namesake Bjarke Ingels in 2006 and has been on the architectural community's radar ever since. BIG's work is known for being simultaneously playful and socially conscientious. Though many of their projects are situated on dense urban sites, BIG often carves outdoor spaces within the vertical confines of buildings. Their Technology, Entertainment and Knowledge (TEK) Center in Taipei, Taiwan continues this trend. Other notable BIG projects include the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo 2010 and innovative housing projects such as 8Tallet and The Mountain Dwellings, which feature topographically inspired sections that incorporate terraced roof gardens with sweeping views.

It seems paradoxical to integrate a structure intended to immortalize the horrific Holocaust within a public park, a setting for recreation and relaxation. The deliberate juxtaposition of these conflicting elements sets the stage for Santa Monica-based Belzberg Architects to curate a meaningful experience for visitors to the recently opened Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH).

Morphosis Architects' new academic building for The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City consolidates the college’s three schools -- art, architecture, and engineering. Known as 41 Cooper Square, the building was completed just over a year ago. And it's still turning heads. However jarring, Morphosis's design creates a vertical campus, providing opportunities for chance encounters and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

New York City's lively Union Square is known for its green market, but it is briefly playing host to another set of organic structures -- an ephemeral village of sukkahs. Sukkot, the seven-day-long Jewish holiday, is celebrated by building these temporary forms, reminiscent of those that the Israelites inhabited in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt.

The New Museum is not exactly new anymore. Upon its completion in 2007, the blocky, mesh-clad structure generated some controversy: a rainbow-hued "Hell Yes!" affixed to its facade rebelliously declared its arrival on the Bowery, the main street of the eponymous neighborhood in lower Manhattan. SANAA's eye-catching design for the the 33-year old New Museum oscillates between the Bowery's infamous past and its inevitably gentrified future.

In the 1950s, the construction of elevated and sunken highways marred many cities in the name of progress and the almighty automobile. Even brownstone Brooklyn wasn't spared. Under the heavy hand of Robert Moses, the infamous chair of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) severed several neighborhoods in order to connect the two boroughs. Some neighborhoods fared better than others; affluent Brooklyn Heights bargained for a scenic promenade to disguise the BQE. However, their neighbors to the south along the Columbia Street waterfront, an area primarily inhabited by Italian immigrants at the time, were cut off from the picturesque portions of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill by a sunken, six-lane stretch of highway.

Although it is surrounded by water, New York City offers few opportunities to physically interact with the shoreline. The new Brooklyn Bridge Park proves an exception; its 85 acres of green space and recreational facilities, designed by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will span 1.3 miles of post-industrial waterfront between the Manhattan Bridge and Atlantic Avenue, bracketed by the East River and Robert Moses' tiered Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Frank Gehry's second architectural venture into New York City is also his tallest building yet. Spiraling 76 stories and enveloping 1.1 million square feet, Beekman Tower dominates the nearby Woolworth building in downtown Manhattan. Under construction since 2006, the newest addition to the city's distinct skyline is expected to open early next year, and it proves that Gehry's signature, sculptural vocabulary translates successfully into skyscraper form.

Love it or hate it, Marcel Breuer's granite-clad Whitney Museum of American Art has loomed over 75th Street and Madison Avenue in New York's Upper East Side for over 40 years. After repeated attempts to expand and add much needed gallery space, the Whitney has officially announced it is headed downtown. Renzo Piano designed a new building for the Whitney in the hip Meatpacking District adjacent to the High Line, an abandoned, elevated railway that has been converted into a highly publicized park.