Pluck the pyramids out of the sand, and for most of us, Egypt wouldn't be Egypt. The same is true for France without its cathedrals, or San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge. In a time of knowledge workers and software engineers, it's easy to take feats of engineering--creations of low-tech stone, steel, and concrete--for granted. It's also easy to see them as a menace. These days, the words "great project" may call to mind China's Three Gorges Dam, which threatens social and environmental havoc as its 350-mile lake starts to fill. Or our own interstate highways--the largest public-works project ever. Yes, they have given us mobility, but they have also blighted our landscape with suburban sprawl.

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The dark side is inevitable: Master builders undertake nothing less than remaking the world, and in that there is risk. Driven by faith or greed, high ideals or private demons, these architects of the future have the confidence--and audacity--to create structures that will touch the lives of millions for generations to come. When they get it right, they enrich not just our physical surroundings but our imagination. And they leave us with stories of struggle and triumph like those U.S. News tells in the following pages, testimony to humanity's restless quest to leave its indelible mark on the world. -Tim Appenzeller