The year 1979 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

• March – Kuwait Towers opens in Kuwait City with a Viewing Sphere which completes a full turn every 30 minutes.
• September 2 – Prabhupada's Palace of Gold is dedicated in Marshall County, West Virginia, USA, as a memorial shrine built by Hare Krishna devotees.
• September 3 – National Theater of Cuba, Havana;^[1] construction of the building began in 1951.
• October 10 – The Atheneum, designed by Richard Meier, opens as a visitor center in New Harmony, Indiana.

Buildings completed

• Brønnøysund Bridge, Norway.^[2]
• Parque Central Complex, Caracas, Venezuela, the tallest building in South America.
• The Tower of Europe in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
• Vienna International Centre, for the United Nations Office at Vienna.
• Rio de Janeiro Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro), with 64 meter (210 ft) tall stained glass windows.
• Hedmark Museum, Hamar, Norway, designed by Sverre Fehn.
• Bauhaus Archive, West Berlin, Germany, designed by Alexander Cvijanović with Hans Bandel after Walter Gropius.
• "Stars" housing estate, Katowice, Poland.

Events

• December: The Thirties Society (now the Twentieth Century Society) established in the United Kingdom as an architectural conservation pressure group.
• Pritzker Prize instituted by Jay A. Pritzker.
• Construction begins at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center designed by I. M. Pei.
• Xanadu House design started.
• Construction of the 360 foot (110 m) communications mast atop the North Tower (1WTC) of the World Trade Center is completed.

Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal – I. M. Pei.
• AIA Gold Medal – I. M. Pei.
• Architecture Firm Award – Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham.
• Grand prix national de l'architecture – Claude Parent.
• Pritzker Prize – Philip Johnson.
• RAIA Gold Medal – Bryce Mortlock.
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Charles and Ray Eames.
• Twenty-five Year Award – Yale University Art Gallery.

Deaths

• April 6 – Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect (born 1893)^[3]
• July 13 – Juraj Neidhardt, Croatian architect, teacher, urban planner and writer (born 1899)^[4]
• October 11 – Roger Hayward, US artist, architect, optical designer and astronomer (born 1899)^[5]
• December 8 – Sydney Ancher, Australian architect (born 1904)
• December 31 – Charles Draper Faulkner, Chicago-based architect (born 1890)