I'm looking for examples of great architecture/design.

[Ultimablah]

I want a grand sense of enormity, or adventure, in my mods. Something like Deus Vult or Supersonic Doom(as bad as the mechanics were), which is huge and overarching and, even if they weren't that long, instilled a sense of adventure and wonder.

What maps or megawads have you played that instilled that exploratory sense of wonder for you?

[AD_79]

Back to Saturn X.

[scifista42]

Back to Saturn X E1 & E2
Thy Flesh Turned into a Draft-Excluder
Doom 2 Reloaded

[esselfortium]

From this past year, Didy's Bauhaus and Monster Hunter Ltd. 1 & 2 are great exploratory adventure wads with really striking and unique aesthetics.

You've probably already played Espi's Suspended in Dusk (and if you haven't, you should!), but have you played The Shrine, his map27 from the Eternal Doom IV demo? It spans a gigantic monochrome castle with gorgeous, inventive architecture and tons of custom-made resources. It's super atmospheric, and manages to feel like exploring a believable place, without falling into corny Doomrealism.

[Marcaek]

Sunder, Stardate 20x6 and Swim with the Whales all have examples of this. Unfortunately, in many cases the bumpy floors in Sunder impede gameplay but that's just a good example of why you shouldn't make bumpy floors. The architecture is fantastic tho. Many Mechadon maps have a similar sense of grandeur, even some of his multiplayer stuff.

[Urthar]

Back To Basics really impressed me with it's design, and pretty much inspired me to sit down and open Doom Builder.

[franckFRAG]

Vela Pax.

[Doomkid]

Aftermath OS Duel

Map03, Map06 and Map07

While these maps are by no means grand, that are certainly examples of great texturing/architecture/design. I would love to see something similar on a grand scale, I think players would really love it.

[dg93]

Well, if you are looking for a WAD that has big maps, I would look into Alien Vendetta (av.wad). MAP08
"Beast Island" is one of my favorite maps from the WAD. It's well detailed, lots of exploration, and epic battles. MAP20 is another map from Alien Vendetta that is notorious for being huge, well detailed and confusing.

If you are into more Urban environments, Doomkid made Revenge Of The 90's (rot90fix.wad). MAP16 is a very large map with some superb detailing and architecture.

[Olroda]

These levels, all by Ed Cripps. Really atmospheric, with impressive architecture.
Sin City III
Valhalla
Putrefier

It has already been recommended, but I'll do it again, as it's one of my favourites.
Suspended in Dusk

Also, I think this deserves a mention despite not being done yet.
Way Too Many Dead Guys Alpha

[DeathevokatioN]

Off the top of my head; Kim Malde's and Anders' architecture in Alien Vendetta, and the maps were really fun as well and had good progression.... Anthony Soto's architecture in Map06 of Endgame is stunning without being too pretentious, overbloated and soulless, Adelusion's architecture in Requiem and in the Gothic DM series (although from a gameplay perspective Gothic DM is mediocre at best and it's obvious as hell that the levels are just a demonstration of architecture so it's best to just walk through the levels as if it's a sight seeing tour :P), also there's Crucified Dreams which has some beautiful maps but again it feels more like a demonstration of beautiful architecture aside from the map that Lee Szymanski is part of which plays quite nicely.

[MajorRawne]

Was wondering when the AV brigade was going to turn up! :P

Really, if you want a sense of grandeur, of location, a challenge while still retaining Doom's core gameplay, without every map just being a two-hour slog through a thousand monsters, you really can't beat Alien Vendetta. The best AV maps still easily match up to anything that's been released in the last decade and they aren't frustratingly hard (except for a couple).

EDIT: Sunder is also super-gorgeous and overscaled in a very pleasing way. But as with most wads that do this, it is little more than a slaughterfest that happens to have a pretty background.