Modern Architecture at Its Worst


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In case you haven't noticed, "modern" architecture since the days of Frank Lloyd Wright and his fictional counterpart Howard Roark, has entered a long decline of sterile, fabricated sameness. There was far more innovation and diffentiation in the traditionalism that Roark was rebelling against than there is in the average city skyline today.

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Even when it comes to energy efficiency, the giants of the early 20th century do better than postwar towers. In energy ratings, the "Chrysler Building scored 84 out of 100 points; the Empire State Building, 80; but the modernist 7 World Trade Center scored 74 (below the cutoff of 75 for “high efficiency”); the Pan Am Building, 39; Lever House, 20; the Seagram Building, 3."

While corporate buildings are widely afflicted with the blight of rectilinearism, the disease is most noticeable in the public sector. If it's a government building, you can count on its being both modern and ugly.

That is why I welcome Benny Johnson's recent tour of the citadels, fortresses and strongholds of statism in the nation's capital. Johnson biked around D.C., photographing some of the worst examples. If the image of the White House or the Jefferson Memorial is what first comes to mind when you think of Washington, take a look at where the average federal tax-feeder works.

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The most heartening fact revealed by the photo-essay is that most of these eyesores, like Ozymandias's statue, are crumbling.

Full article here.

(Apparently, cops in the heart of the the "greatest, noblest, freest country on earth" don't like mere citizens taking pictures of of the monuments they paid for. Twice on his tour, Johnson was harassed by police.)

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Interesting how the sterility of the designer's mind manifests itself in the collectivized cell design that models itself to beehives and anthills.

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I've never been to Washington DC, but was aware it held numerous examples of Brutalist architecture. Most university campuses in the West (and the East) have at least one example of the form. I expect that the US federal government chose Brutalism over another ugly genre during the same time that many other governments chose the form (according to the Wikipedia article noted, "Brutalism became popular with governmental and institutional clients, with numerous examples in Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Philippines, and Australia").

New Brutalism: this example is of an hotel in Krakow, Poland.

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This from Canada, Habitat, by Moshe Safdie. It is one of very few standing Brutalist architecture that pleases the (my) eye.

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-- an interesting aside from the Brutalist page at Wikipedia:

Theodore Dalrymple, a British author, physician, and political commentator, has written for City Journal that Brutalist structures represent an artefact of European philosophical totalitarianism, a "spiritual, intellectual, and moral deformity." He called the buildings "cold-hearted", "inhuman", "hideous", and "monstrous". He stated that the reinforced concrete "does not age gracefully but instead crumbles, stains, and decays", which makes alternative building styles superior.

Edited by william.scherk
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Geez, a pre-school child could do a better job with freakin leggos!

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Geez, a pre-school child could do a better job with freakin leggos!

It is still standing, and still full of yuppies, 38 years later (in Montreal). I still kind of like it. Moshe Safdie also designed the ugly/cool Vancouver Public Library (which is a wildly popular place to be -- go figger).

VPL ...

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Here's another Brutalist complex I do really like, the Simon Fraser University campus built on Burnaby mountain to the east of Vancouver. The pictures may not do it justice -- I find it just an amazing space to be in and move through. Architect was Arthur Erickson, who went on to do the city's main courts downtown.

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Sfu-academic-quadrangle-pond.jpg

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Just way to sterile and unadaptive for me

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Bank of China tower, Hong Kong

Bank-of-China-BOC-Tower1.jpg

World of difference between Panama City (above, cityscape in Post #1) and Singapore (below)

Wolf:

Out of curiosity, is that really eye catching spire affixed to the dead sterile architecture that is front and center in the photo?

A...

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Bank of China tower, Hong Kong

Bank-of-China-BOC-Tower1.jpg

World of difference between Panama City (above, cityscape in Post #1) and Singapore (below)

Wolf:

Out of curiosity, is that really eye catching spire affixed to the dead sterile architecture that is front and center in the photo?

A...

That's the Old Supreme Court Building, foreground, built in 1912. More info on 72-story BOC Tower at Wikipedia

The structural expressionism adopted in the design of this building resembles growing bamboo shoots, symbolising livelihood and prosperity. The whole structure is supported by the five steel columns at the corners of the building, with the triangular frameworks transferring the weight of the structure onto these five columns. It is covered with glass curtain walls.

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Bank of China tower, Hong Kong

Bank-of-China-BOC-Tower1.jpg

World of difference between Panama City (above, cityscape in Post #1) and Singapore (below)

Wolf:

Out of curiosity, is that really eye catching spire affixed to the dead sterile architecture that is front and center in the photo?

A...

That's the Old Supreme Court Building, foreground, built in 1912. More info on 72-story BOC Tower at Wikipedia

Wolf:

Thanks.

The style of the building beyond that is beautiful to my eyes.

Attached to that banal building in the foreground is beneath man's uplifting vision.

A...

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And DID you know that Carter Manny, who designed the FBI building in Washington, was once an apprentice of Wright? In addition to his buildings (including also the one behind the famous Picasso in Chicago) he gave us some historically important footage of Taliesin West, Wright's home and office in Scottsdale. Note the resemblance of the TWest drafting room to the old Denny's corporate style.

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William,

I like those low broad steps shown in one of your Simon Fraser photos. Reminds me of the Spanish Steps in Rome, which please me very much. In your photo, behind a tree on the lower level, there seems to be a sculpture. Do you know what that is?

Stephen

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Bob, the Chrysler Building was Art Deco.

chrysler-building.jpg

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Just as garrish as the bauhause monstrosities previously pictured.

Ugly, ugly, ugly

However art decco has more curves.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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And DID you know that Carter Manny, who designed the FBI building in Washington, was once an apprentice of Wright? In addition to his buildings (including also the one behind the famous Picasso in Chicago) he gave us some historically important footage of Taliesin West, Wright's home and office in Scottsdale. Note the resemblance of the TWest drafting room to the old Denny's corporate style.

No architect should want this monstrosity on his resume. It is literally falling to pieces. A chunk of the facade crashed to the sidewalk a few years ago and might have killed somebody. The government paid a contractor $6 million to clean up the mess and put netting around the upper floors to prevent more damage.

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The GAO says it will actually take more time and money to renovate this white elephant than to demolish it and build a new structure on the same site.

It is less than 40 years old.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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In building as in all, "Only the actions of the just/ smell sweet and blossom in their dust."

I like the Habitat too. it reminds me of the Pueblo (?) cave apartments and the various cosy homes of Beatrix Potter critters.

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William,

I like those low broad steps shown in one of your Simon Fraser photos. Reminds me of the Spanish Steps in Rome, which please me very much. In your photo, behind a tree on the lower level, there seems to be a sculpture. Do you know what that is?

Stephen

Those steps are one of the coolest features of the complex at the university, to my eyes**. What you saw as a sculpture, I guessed might be a bronze of Canadian hero Terry Fox (Fox was a one-legged cancer survivor who ran from coast to almost coast until cancer returned to kill him. He rather lives on through annual Terry Fox Runs, major festive fundraising events) ...

As it turns out, the Terry Fox sculpture at the university is within the quadrangle, not at the steps leading up from the convocation mall. So what we each saw as sculpture was likely just a hurrying student ...

Here's a couple more views of the steps/mall/quadrangle, where the unique space of SFU is almost captured by photography.

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_________________________

** -- a link to a Google 3D view of the steps in the overall setting. See also Google Streetview for a virtual walk through the precincts.

Edited by william.scherk
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There is no bad weather in BC.

Vancouver is Canada's third most rainy city, with over 161 rainy days per year. Snow tends to be quite wet, which, combined with typical winter temperatures rising above and falling below 0 °C (32 °F) throughout the course of the day, can make for icy road conditions. Years or months with snowfall surpassing 100 cm (39.3 in) are not completely exceptional. Vancouver experienced a White Christmas in 2008 after weeks of record breaking cold temperatures and four consecutive snow storms. The Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006 swept through Greater Vancouver on December 15, 2006 with winds reaching from 70 km/h to 125 km/h. [Wikipedia]

All dastardly lies, huh?

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I was raised in snow and ice, long dark winters, wind-whipped thunderstorms, hail and tornado.

Sunshine was pickled in Mason jars and poured out once a year on the 4th of July to grow mosquitos.

After a while Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon looked pretty groovy in sunglasses, and then...

77 Sunset Strip was an epiphany. They had convertibles! :blink:

tbird196177sunsetstrip.jpg

God bless episodic television. Life without galoshes was possible.

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There is no bad weather in BC.

Vancouver is Canada's third most rainy city, with over 161 rainy days per year. Snow tends to be quite wet, which, combined with typical winter temperatures rising above and falling below 0 °C (32 °F) throughout the course of the day, can make for icy road conditions. Years or months with snowfall surpassing 100 cm (39.3 in) are not completely exceptional. Vancouver experienced a White Christmas in 2008 after weeks of record breaking cold temperatures and four consecutive snow storms. The Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006 swept through Greater Vancouver on December 15, 2006 with winds reaching from 70 km/h to 125 km/h. [Wikipedia]

All dastardly lies, huh?

Kind of pointless to hand a 'bad weather' challenge to a couple of Canadians ... especially while making a larger incorrect point about Erickson's SFU as a particularly wind-scoured hellhole (as if the design resulted in greater winds, as with downtown effects).

Is there anything you don't have a swiftly googled-up opinion of, Wolf? Some of what you post lately is sour, reactive, graceless. You would do well to follow Brant, who maintains a grace no matter how pithy or contrary his comments.

I'd say you would benefit from cashing in your chips and taking a visit to Vancouver. I would be happy to show you the hideous windswept encrustation atop Burnaby Mountain, and even buy you a cup of bile to top up your tank.

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[edited for gracelessness]

Edited by william.scherk
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