The types of buildings were listed in five categories: religious, residential, commercial, historic, and civic. To decide the winners, the AIA had a secret meeting in a dark tomb somewhere and drew lots out of a hat, only to release a puff of white cloud when they had a consensus.

Not many would be considered surprises, like the Trans America building, the Palace of Fine Arts, City Hall, etc. and a whole bunch of them we either don't know or have walked by a million times and didn't notice anything. That's not unusual. The Chron's John King, of course, wades in and dishes what he thinks about all this, saying some were obvious and some weren't. You can also read what denizens of the SFGate Culture blog think about all this.

Here's the complete list:

Religious
Grace Cathedral, 1051 Taylor St.
St. Mary's Cathedral, 1111 Gough St.
Temple Emanu-el, 2 Lake St.
Swedenborgian Church, 2107 Lyon St.
First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin St.

Residential
Plaza Apartments, Sixth and Howard streets
Curran House, 145 Taylor St.
3200 block of Pacific Avenue
Russell House, 3778 Washington St.
Haas-Lilienthal House, 2007 Franklin St.

Commercial
San Francisco Federal Building, 90 Seventh St.
1 Bush St. (former Crown-Zellerbach Building), 1959
Hallidie Building, 130 Sutter St.
Transamerica Pyramid
JPMorgan Chase Building

Historic
Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery St.
Circle Gallery, 140 Maiden Lane
Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon St.
War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, Civic Center
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park

Civic
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park.
City Hall
Yerba Buena Gardens
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St
Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park