The year 1853 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events

• June 30 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann is selected as préfect of the Seine (department) to begin the re-planning of Paris.

Buildings and structures

Buildings

• Fastnet Rock Lighthouse is completed at the most southerly point of Ireland.
• The New York Crystal Palace is constructed for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City.
• The New York Cotton Exchange building is completed in New York City.
• Rhode Island Tool Company building is completed in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Charlbury railway station in Oxfordshire, England, designed by I. K. Brunel, is opened.^[1]

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Robert Smirke.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture – Arthur-Stanislas Diet.

Births

• February 26 – Antonio Rivas Mercado, Mexican architect, engineer and restorer (died 1927)^[2]
• June 21 – Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint, Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist (died 1930)
• August 28 (August 16 O.S.) – Vladimir Shukhov, Russian structural engineer (died 1939)
• September 11 – Stanford White, American architect (died 1906)^[3]

Deaths

• December 12 – William Nichols, English-born American Neoclassical architect (born 1780)^[4]