Now in its 70th year, Architectural Record's Record Houses program returns for a late-summer celebration of excellence in residential design. This year’s eight eclectic honorees can all be found in the Americas, including Mexico, British Columbia, Chile, and Peru. Stateside, they span from California to North Carolina, with stops in Chicagoland and the Colorado Rockies between. Several emerge from challenging, and—in at least one instance, otherworldly—sites. This month’s focus on houses continues elsewhere, including a three-part CEU that explores the use of biogenic materials at dwellings in the U.S. and Europe. Another special section profiles artist accommodations in rural Georgia and Rockland, Maine.