1891 in architecture

The year 1891 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

• October 7 — Uris Library at Cornell University, designed by William Henry Miller, opens^[1]
• Ludington Building – Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, earliest surviving steel-framed building in the city, and the earliest entirely terracotta-clad skyscraper (8 storeys).^[2]
• Manhattan Building – Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, completed; world's earliest surviving steel-framed building to use a purely skeletal supporting structure.^[3]
• Second Leiter Building – Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney.
• Monadnock Building – Chicago, tallest masonry load-bearing wall building when built.
• Sacred Heart Cathedral – Davenport, Iowa, designed by James J. Egan.
• St. Ambrose Cathedral – Des Moines, Iowa, designed by James J. Egan.
• San Sebastian Church (Manila).
• Wainwright Building – St. Louis, Missouri, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.
• University of Pennsylvania Library – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed by Frank Furness.
• Several buildings constructed for the General Land Centennial Exhibition world fair – Prague, including the Art Nouveau Průmyslový Palace.
• Victoria Hall (Geneva), Switzerland, a concert hall designed by Marc Camoletti.
• Stadttheater Zürich, designed by Fellner & Helmer, opened.
• House of the Estates in Helsinki, Finland, built.
• General Post Office, Birmingham, England, designed by Henry Tanner.
• Palace Theatre, Manchester, England, designed by Alfred Darbyshire.
• Château de l'Île (Schloss Inselburg), Ostwald, Bas-Rhin, France (then Germany).

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Arthur Blomfield.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Henri Eustache.

• January 2 – Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect, urban planner and engraver (died 1990)
• August 2 – Joseph Charles Fowell, Australian architect (died 1970)
• date unknown – Kanippayyur Shankaran Namboodiripad, Nambudiri Brahmin and Royal Architect (died 1981)
• date unknown – Giuseppe Psaila, Maltese Art Nouveau architect (died 1960)

• January 11 – Baron Haussmann, French civic planner notable for the rebuilding of Paris in the 1860s (born 1809)^[4]
• January 15 – John Wellborn Root, Chicago architect (born 1850; pneumonia)^[5]
• January 22 – Miklós Ybl, Hungarian architect (born 1814)
• January 23 – Friedrich von Schmidt, Austrian architect working in Vienna (born 1825)
• March 19 – Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis, Latvian architect (born 1834)
• April 7 – J. D. Sedding, English ecclesiastical architect (born 1838)
• May 7 – John Hayward, English Gothic Revival architect (born 1807)