The year 1890 in architecture involved some significant events.

Buildings and structures

Buildings

• February 3 – Ypsilanti Water Tower, Ypsilanti, Michigan, designed by William R. Coats, is completed.^[1]
• March 4 – The Forth Bridge across the Firth of Forth from South Queensferry to North Queensferry in Scotland, designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, is opened.^[2]
• May 13 - Parish church of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, London, designed by J. D. Sedding, is consecrated.^[3]
• May 30 – The James A. Garfield Memorial at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, designed by George W. Keller, is dedicated.^[4]
• September 29 – St James's Roman Catholic Church, Spanish Place, Westminster, designed by Edward Goldie, is opened.^[5]
• The Arcade in Cleveland, Ohio, designed by John Eisenmann.^[6]
• The Demarest Building, a commercial building on Fifth Avenue in New York City, designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell, is completed.^[7]
• Edwin Lutyens' first commission, Crooksbury, a country house near Farnham, England, is completed.^[8]
• The Second Madison Square Garden, designed by Stanford White, is completed on the site of the first Madison Square Garden.^[9]

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – John Gibson.^[10]
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Emmanuel Pontremoli.^[11]

Births

• February 9 – J. J. P. Oud, Dutch architect (died 1963)^[12]
• April 17 – Carl Krayl, German architect (died 1947)^[13]
• March 20 – Owen Williams, English structural engineer (died 1969)^[14]
• May 4 – Ingrid Wallberg, Swedish architect (died 1965)^[15]
• July 31 – Louis de Soissons, Canadian-born English architect (died 1962)^[16]
• November 23 – El Lissitzky, Russian architect and designer (died 1941)^[17]
• Philip Hepworth, English architect (died 1963)^[18]

Deaths

• October 20 – Alfred B. Mullett, American architect (born 1834)^[19]