When it comes to good architecture, the public and the professionals don’t always see eye to eye, but just how rarely they agree is disquieting. Almost three-quarters of the “most important buildings” selected by architects in a recent survey didn’t show up at all on a new list of the American public’s favorite buildings.

The three best-loved structures on the people’s list are the Empire State Building, the White House, and the Washington National Cathedral, designed by men most Americans have never heard of. Architects chose the work of stars: Fallingwater and the Robie House, by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Kimbell Art Museum, by Louis I. Kahn.