At exactly two minutes after midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, an alarm sounded at a nuclear power plant in Onagawa, Japan. Government officials and computer scientists around the globe held their breath. Was this the beginning of a massive Y2K computer meltdown? Actually, no. It was an isolated event, one of a handful of glitches to occur (including the failure of 500 slot machines at two racetracks in Delaware) as the sun rose on the new decade. The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened.

Instead, it was the American Dream that was about to dim. Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era. We’re still weeks away from the end of ‘09, but it’s not too early to pass judgment. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.

Who are the greatest minds of the past 10 years? The Daily Beast convened a panel of moguls, academics—and more than 40 credentialed geniuses—to settle the matter once and for all.

It was a decade that most will rank among the worst ever, book-ended by a tragic terrorist attack and an epic financial meltdown, with a lot of bitter politics and debt-fueled spending in between.

But there was also a lot of brilliance: genius thinking that transformed information, politics, business, and medicine. For all the pain and the angst, centuries from now historians may well measure the last 10 years by our biggest brains and the transformative changes they set in motion. The Daily Beast thought we’d help them with a present-day measure of the greatest minds of our times: the 25 smartest people of the decade.

We’re not ready to close the book on the decade just yet—a dizzying era that gave us wonders such as the real estate boom (born: 2001, pronounced dead: Oct. 1, 2008) and, wouldn’t you know it, Curbed itself! So we’re rolling out a retrospective series covering all types of ’00s insanity. Top of the Aughts stories will occasionally pop up through the end of the year, but this first is the biggie.

It’s no secret we’ve been planning a look at the decade’s best new additions to the New York City built environment. We heard from Curbed readers and consulted a large panel of well known local architects, architecture critics, and experts. We tallied the votes, wrestled with the order, then cast this list. Disagree with the selections? The order? Did we leave something out? Make your voice heard in the comments. And now, without further ado…