Watch Announcement Crashes Website

We held a press conference Tuesday, October 6, to announce the sites on the new 2010 Watch. It was a great success—about 45 journalists from a wide range of major news outlets came, from Agence France Press and EFE to the Today Show, from the NY Daily News and the Los Angeles Times to Architectural Record, Conde Nast Traveler, Metropolis, Science, Town & Country, Travel & Leisure, and many more. Ninety-three sites from 47 countries are on the list, including 9 from the U.S.

There are some surprises, such as the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and the Gingerbread Houses in Haiti. It's been exciting to learn about all these places and “meet” their nominators via email and telephone. I just edited a story for a newspaper in Bahrain! The big wire services ran stories that were picked up by hundreds (thousands?) of news websites, bloggers, and more, driving so much traffic to our gorgeous new website that it crashed for much of the day. We apologize for being so successful at getting the word out! So go check out our 2010 Watch page to see what made the list. We are also putting highlights coverage up on our news page.