A pioneer in many ways, the Crystal Palace was erected in 1851 to host the Great Exhibition in London.
Some 2,000 workers assembled its 300,000 plates of polished flat glass in just three months and without scaffolding.
Former gardener Joseph Paxton was inspired by greenhouses to erect the first modern material construction in history.
Unfortunately, a fire ended in 1936 with the Parthenon of the Industrial Revolution, as some architectural writer has called it. All steel and glass buildings are his descendants.
