Happy Birthday to Us: ArchDaily Turns 5!

"ArchDaily has fed the addiction of architecture to me. The first thing I do in the morning and before I go to sleep, is check from the most interesting and inspiring designs from around the world utilizing the most advanced and socially responsible techniques. Architecture and design choose the user, the user does not choose architecture and design. In this way ArchDaily has allowed the creativity to flow more rapidly throughout my veins and caus[ed] more creativity to flourish. Thank you ArchDaily for aiding in times of frustration and times of designer block. Thank you for the effort you put forth for the architecture and design community, and you are a vital resource." - Chris Siminski, ArchDaily reader and Facebook Fan

Five years ago, ArchDaily was a tiny 5-man operation, spearheaded by two Architecture grads with a very simple dream: to shake-up and democratize traditional architectural media. Fast-forward five years later, and we're the most visited architecture web site in the world, with over 280,000 daily readers and 70 million pageviews every month.

We're celebrating today with a doodle (see above) and lots of fantastic content - keep your eyes peeled for the 20 Most Visited Projects of All Time, the 5 Most Read Posts of All Time, and an ArchDaily original Infographic telling our story.

And of course, we'd like to use this occasion to thank you, ArchDaily readers. You've meant everything to us these past 5 years, and we'd love it if you could tell us what we've meant for you. So please share your thoughts in the comments below! And have a very happy ArchDaily birthday!

What Architects Say About ArchDaily:

"By creating a growing, global archive of architecture and information over the past 5 years, ArchDaily continues to be a fantastic resource for COOKFOX. ArchDaily’s in-depth exploration of projects, and the people behind them, has allowed us to discover more within this diverse and wide-ranging community." RICK COOK (COOKFOX Architects)

“I am a total addict of ArchDaily by now, and look several times a day when I can, and forward the link to everyone I know.” -- STANLEY SAITOWITZ (Natoma Architects INC)

“ArchDaily is a very sophisticated and thorough site. You guys deserve a lot of applause for what you’re doing. It’s nice to see something out there that’s telling the varied story of architecture [...] I’m very impressed by it!" -- HANI RASHID (Asymptote Architecture)

”I think ArchDaily is an incredibly important engine for communication and for elevating the conversation about architecture. The fact that ArchDaily has been able to be part of a global conversation, and in fact help shape it, is extraordinary. It is an invention that’s very very young and its impact is so powerful.” -- MARION WEISS (Weiss/Manfredi)

”What you guys have been able to do is become part of a conversation and an exchange of ideas. ArchDaily has the gift to make the global conversation more intelligent, and that’s exciting. It’s nice to see that emerge.” -- MICHAEL MANFREDI (Weiss/Manfredi)

”I find ArchDaily incredibly inspiring, immediate, and accessible [...] It does a tremendous service in promoting architecture from all around the world." -- MARK SEXTON (Krueck & Sexton)

“ArchDaily is spurring a discussion and advancing the discipline. It is architecture pushing architecture forward. I think that’s fantastic. I hope more and more people outside the field will become knowledgeable of this website [...] What i think is wonderful is that it’s substantial and grounded in the actual buildings, and not a glossy representation. I’m really tired of that. I’m not going to name the magazines, but they really aren’t giving the same diversity of cross-sections through architecture that ArchDaily has been able to do. You’ve made that work for architecture in a really effective way.” -- PRESTON SCOTT COHEN (Chair of the Department of Architecture and the Gerald M. McCue Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design)

“I think that the most exciting thing about ArchDaily is how you go into depth with plans and sections and one can really go deeply into a project. That’s what makes it special.” -- STEVEN HOLL (Steven Holl Architects)

”ArchDaily always has interesting things on it. There’s not a time when when I’ve gone to it where I haven’t slowed down to read something or clicked on a particular project. I don’t know what it is about the way you select the work that gets put there, but somehow it always has something that I’m curious about [...] It has something new every single day, it’s refreshed. It’s like a newspaper – I read the NYTimes every day, and it’s that kind of daily ritual, whether it’s at lunch or first thing in the morning, or the last thing i do before i go to bed. These images roll around my head and I find myself to be more curious after looking at your site.” -- THOMAS PHIFER (Thomas Phifer and Partners)

“These guys have changed the way architecture is viewed online, and have opened an incredible venue for small offices to reach a wide audience.” -- FREDERICO NEGRO (CASE Design)

About this author
Cite: Vanessa Quirk. "Happy Birthday to Us: ArchDaily Turns 5!" 11 Mar 2013. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/341393/happy-birthday-to-us-archdaily-turns-5> ISSN 0719-8884

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