Acronym

In conjunction with its 150th anniversary, the American Institute of Architects asked Harris Interactive to develop a survey of 2,000 ordinary Americans to find out our favorite buildings and structures. They were shown photographs and asked to rate 247 buildings nominated by 2,500 architects in various categories. The architects were surprised at the results.

The Empire State Building topped the list. Other than the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, no building of the past decade made it in the top 30 in the poll. Only two in the top 20 were built in the last 35 years: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (10) and the World Trade Center (19). Some architect favorites are notably missing, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram's Building in New York and Louis Kahn's Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. (See the complete list here. The association plans to post the results in blog form to get even more feedback at www.Aia150.org.)

"The Bellagio -- I can't believe it," Edward Feiner, a director of the Washington, D.C., office of top corporate architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has five buildings on the list, tells Alex Frangos in a Wall Street Journal article. "The Bellagio is tasteless."

In the last AIA survey of architects in 1991, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water house in Bear Run, Pa., topped the list. It's No. 29 on the general-public survey. Architects ranked Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia as No. 2. It's not on the new list at all.

After I stopped laughing, I realized the example makes an important point for all trade associations - even if you know your members and know what your members like and admire and feel about your industry and what it stands for, are you sure that John Q. Public feels the same way?