During the Autumn of the past year a voting contest was proposed to the readers of THE BROCHURE SERIES with the object of determining by the consensus of votes, which, in their opinion, were the Ten Most Beautiful Buildings now existing in the United States. The only condition imposed was that no reader should enter more than one list. A lively interest was taken in the contest, and over two hundred votes were received,--the voters being almost entirely either architects or professed students of architecture. The following ten buildings, named in the order of preference, are those which received the greatest number of votes in this contest; and the appended percentages show approximately what proportion of the total number of votes each received:-- I. NATIONAL CAPITOL, WASHINGTON. Hallet, Thornton, Hadfield, Hoban, Latrobe, Bulfinch, Walter and Clark, Architects. About 99%. II. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOSTON. McKim, Mead & White, Architects. About 97%. III. TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON. Gambrel & Richardson, Architects. About 96%. IV. CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON. Smithmeyer, Peltz and Edward P. Casey, Architects. About 75%. V. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, NEW YORK CITY. McKim, Mead & White, Architects. About 70%. VI. TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY. Richard Upjohn, Architect. About 55%. VII. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY. McKim, Mead & White, Architects. About 45%. VIII. ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, NEW YORK CITY. James Renwick, Architect. About 35%. IX. "BILTMORE HOUSE," BILTMORE, N.C. R. M. Hunt, Architect. About 29%. X. CITY HALL, NEW YORK CITY. Mangin and Macomb, Architects. About 29%. [Illustration: NATIONAL CAPITOL WASHINGTON] In the article which follows, Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin comments upon the above list, and draws some interesting conclusions from the comparison of it with a similar list, compiled fifteen years ago in the same way by the readers of _The American Architect_. The announcement of the award of the prizes in this Competition will be found on the publishers' page of this issue. [Illustration: PLATE II BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOSTON] "THE TEN MOST BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS." A DISCUSSION OF THE VOTE BY A. D. F. HAMLIN, PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "HAMLIN'S HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE."