Joseph Paxton`s Crystal Palace, the Palais des Machines by Ferdinand Dutert and Pennsylvania Station by McKim, Mead and White are three of the grandest and most innovative buildings of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These structures -- with their innovative approaches to design and the use of new technology -- paved the way for the modern architectural movement, but sadly no longer survive. Their destruction was irreparable and in stark contrast to the self-confidence of the original climate in which they were designed.