Modernist architecture has failed us

[jake_fink]

To be fair, the article does not indicate that the book has anything disparaging at all to say about FLW, and in fact the article (if not the book) defends some engaging examples of modern architecture. Also, Libeskind and Gehry are outsdie the purview of the book and article as they are something past/beyond modern... post-post-modern I guess.

I think the buildings under scrutiny are the typical example of madernism in the intenational style, the kind of building that looks like a big concrete and/or glass filing cabinet. Like this simply hideous pile of dun-coloured concrete here in my own severely unlovely homebase:

 

[jamespowers]

To be fair, the article does not indicate that the book has anything disparaging at all to say about FLW, and in fact the article (if not the book) defends some engaging examples of modern architecture. Also, Libeskind and Gehry are outsdie the purview of the book and article as they are something past/beyond modern... post-post-modern I guess.

I think the buildings under scrutiny are the typical example of madernism in the intenational style, the kind of building that looks like a big concrete and/or glass filing cabinet. Like this simply hideous pile of dun-coloured concrete here in my own severely unlovely homebase:

Hmm...Sounds like this validates one part of your signature line anyway.

Regards,

J

 

[Atomic Glee]

I'm an architecture geek, so this is right up my alley.

Liebskind's a hack, IMHO. He's got his "organic" gimmick and he just pummels you over the head with it. It gets really old, really quickly.

Around here, we've been fortunate that a lot of our "modern" buildings were designed to blend with our historic ones. Every one of these buildings are new ones:

The Carnegie - 16-story office/retail building under construction:

The Sanguinet Building - 12-story office/retail building:

Sundance Theater:

Palace Theater, Barnes & Noble:

National Cowgirl Museum:

Downtown Library:

Maddox-Muse Center:

Tarrant County Family Law Center:

The stunning Bass Performance Hall:

 

[Paisley]

Beautiful! It doesn't always take a lot to beautify a building: some moulding, variety in the masonry, etc. can take away the blandness.

Regarding Falling Waters, I've never been there, but I've seen a TV program on it. I just didn't care for the interior. I didn't like the orange cushions and hard, angular decor. As much as I dislike clutter, living there would make me long for fussy Victorian decor.

 

[carebear]

Not always.

It's still falling, just much more slowly.

 

[jake_fink]

I'm an architecture geek, so this is right up my alley.

Liebskind's a hack, IMHO. He's got his "organic" gimmick and he just pummels you over the head with it. It gets really old, really quickly.

Around here, we've been fortunate that a lot of our "modern" buildings were designed to blend with our historic ones. Every one of these buildings are new ones:

The Carnegie - 16-story office/retail building under construction:

The Sanguinet Building - 12-story office/retail building:

Sundance Theater:

Palace Theater, Barnes & Noble:

National Cowgirl Museum:

Downtown Library:

Maddox-Muse Center:

Tarrant County Family Law Center:

The stunning Bass Performance Hall:

Wow, Atomic Glee, great post.

I passed through Fort Worth in 1993 on a road trip and was impressed with the permanent collections at the Modern Art Museum and the Kimbell, but it looks like FW has some pretty well-to-do patrons of architecture as well.

The last one kind of crosses a line for me. I can stand a certain amount of kitsch, but the 20' angels with 3D trumpets is just a little more than I can digest. Unless it's the permanent home of the Ice Capades.

Thanks.

 

[Atomic Glee]

The last one kind of crosses a line for me. I can stand a certain amount of kitsch, but the 20' angels with 3D trumpets is just a little more than I can digest. Unless it's the permanent home of the Ice Capades.

Thanks.

Those angels are actually 48-feet tall, carved out of limestone. I love 'em.

From Wikipedia:

The Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas is located in downtown Fort Worth near Sundance Square, occupies a whole city block, and was opened in 1998. It was built entirely with private funds and seats 2,056. It is regarded as an important symbol of one of the most successful downtown revitalization efforts in the country. The European opera house-inspired limestone structure features two 48-foot high sculpted angels on the Grand Facade and has been called the "crown jewel of downtown Fort Worth".

It was designed by David M. Schwarz with acoustics by Jaffe, Holden, Acoustics, Inc., and is characteristic of the classic European opera house form. An 80-foot diameter Great Dome, artfully painted by Scott and Stuart Gentling, tops the Founders Concert Theater. Two 48-foot tall angels sculpted by Marton Varo from Texas limestone grace the Grand Fa?ßade.

The Hall itself is renowned for its superb acoustics, exceptional sightlines and ambience on level with the great halls of the world. In fact, in an article by Daniel March in the March 1999 issue of Travel and Leisure magazine, it is described as ‚Äúthe newest star in the opera-house firmament‚Ķ. Two giant, hand-carved trumpet-playing angels on the fa?ßade announce its welcome presence in the middle of downtown (and), although not actually called an opera house, it most assuredly is one, designed in the grand old manner: a horseshoe auditorium surmounted by a dome that appears to float over trompe l'oeil clouds (built in) a mixture of Beaux-Arts and Vienna Secessionist styles‚Äù.

Built as a multi-purpose facility, the Hall is able to house symphony, ballet, opera, stage, musicals, and rock concerts and it is now the permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts. It is also host to other events such as the Hall Series of eclectic entertainment, Casa Ma?±ana musicals, and an annual bridal show.

 

[cookie]

FW Opera House

Until the unions and politicians ruined it this was what we were supposed to get in the Sydney Opera House - great acoustics.

 

[Phil]

Take a look at Atomic Glee's pictures, I'm a little to tired to repost al of them. This is what our teachers are trying to pound into our heads. If you want to do your own style, great. But if you're going to design a structure in an area where there are buildings from a particular era, you have to build to the other buildings. My best example is the giant glass egg in London. Where all the buildings are stone and steel, there's a huge blue egg. It kills the skyline.

Oh, look kids Big Ben, Clock Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliment, the Milleni- GIANT EGG!!!!!!!

This is happening over here in Chicago too. An architect submitted this big, ugly...thing. I can't even classify it it's like the unwanted child of skyscraperism and postmodernism. It looks like a big glass icicle. It's ugly, it doesn't look useful. It stick out like a mutilated thumb.

 

[Tomasso]

Is this the work of Frank Gehry?

.

This is where he lays his head.:eusa_doh:

 

[Atomic Glee]

Another example of Fort Worth modern - the Intermodal Transportation Center, downtown's other train station (apart from the achingly gorgeous Art Deco Texas & Pacific station from 1931). The ITC was built in 2002 and features a 90-foot clock tower, bas relief sculptures of sleeping panthers (tie in to Fort Worth's "Panther City" nickname from the turn of the century), and light fixtures from an old Art Deco library that was sadly demolished in the '70s:

 

[jake_fink]

Those angels are actually 48-feet tall, carved out of limestone. I love 'em.

From Wikipedia:

The Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas is located in downtown Fort Worth near Sundance Square, occupies a whole city block, and was opened in 1998. It was built entirely with private funds and seats 2,056. It is regarded as an important symbol of one of the most successful downtown revitalization efforts in the country. The European opera house-inspired limestone structure features two 48-foot high sculpted angels on the Grand Facade and has been called the "crown jewel of downtown Fort Worth".

It was designed by David M. Schwarz with acoustics by Jaffe, Holden, Acoustics, Inc., and is characteristic of the classic European opera house form. An 80-foot diameter Great Dome, artfully painted by Scott and Stuart Gentling, tops the Founders Concert Theater. Two 48-foot tall angels sculpted by Marton Varo from Texas limestone grace the Grand Fa?ßade.

The Hall itself is renowned for its superb acoustics, exceptional sightlines and ambience on level with the great halls of the world. In fact, in an article by Daniel March in the March 1999 issue of Travel and Leisure magazine, it is described as ‚Äúthe newest star in the opera-house firmament‚Ķ. Two giant, hand-carved trumpet-playing angels on the fa?ßade announce its welcome presence in the middle of downtown (and), although not actually called an opera house, it most assuredly is one, designed in the grand old manner: a horseshoe auditorium surmounted by a dome that appears to float over trompe l'oeil clouds (built in) a mixture of Beaux-Arts and Vienna Secessionist styles‚Äù.

Built as a multi-purpose facility, the Hall is able to house symphony, ballet, opera, stage, musicals, and rock concerts and it is now the permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts. It is also host to other events such as the Hall Series of eclectic entertainment, Casa Ma?±ana musicals, and an annual bridal show.

Atomic Glee,

Wow, and wow again. The interior looks fantastic. Okay, I take it back. 48' is well beyond kitsch and well into somethign else.

So, if I move to Forth Worth, any cahnce you can hook me up with employment.

PS:

Here's some more of Toronto's most beautifullest architecture. This was designed by the architects four year old child using a shoe box and a bundle of coloured pencils.

 

[Phil]

Ouch. That's just painful to look at.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

In the links below, you can see a beautiful contemporary building in Santiago, Chile. In the spring and summer, the front of it is covered in greenery, which helps to keep the interior cool. Yet the view from the windows is not at all obscured.


-------------------------http://www.flickr.com/photos/istvan/66355957/in/set-1430489/

------------------------ http://www.flickr.com/photos/istvan/66298372/in/set-1430489/


Consorcio Life Insurance building. Built in 2002 in Santiago, Chile. Architects: Alex Brahm, David Bonomi, Adelina Gatica, Marcelo Leturia, and Felipe de la Jara .

.

 

[jake_fink]

In the links below, you can see a beautiful contemporary building in Santiago, Chile. In the spring and summer, the front of it is covered in greenery, which helps to keep the interior cool. Yet the view from the windows is not at all obscured.


-------------------------http://www.flickr.com/photos/istvan/66355957/in/set-1430489/

------------------------ http://www.flickr.com/photos/istvan/66298372/in/set-1430489/


Consorcio Life Insurance building. Built in 2002 in Santiago, Chile. Architects: Alex Brahm, David Bonomi, Adelina Gatica, Marcelo Leturia, and Felipe de la Jara .

.

To me that's an innovative design. If it works in the location then I think it is beautiful. Some contemporary buildings work.

Here's the Institut du monde Arabe in Paris.

It's as slick and boxy as modernism can be, but the wiindows are a series of oculi of varying sizes and patterns, all like the lens of a camera, that open or close to modulate the light inside. It creates a very cool effect on the outer wall and is really, impressively dramatic inside.

Here's another tasty treat from Toronto, Robarts Library, the main U of T library. Looks like a big concrete turkey doesn't it. Don't even ask what it's like on the inside. You know that hatch in LOST...

 

[The D.A.]

Dear Atomic Glee,

Please stop posting pictures of Ft. Worth--you're making me jealous!

Seriously, those are some fantastic examples of new buildings designed to blend with the old. I love the music hall, angels and all.

 

[Atomic Glee]

Dear Atomic Glee,

Please stop posting pictures of Ft. Worth--you're making me jealous!

Seriously, those are some fantastic examples of new buildings designed to blend with the old. I love the music hall, angels and all.

Thanks!

We do have our fair share of horrid '70s junk, and we have some glassy modern stuff that I like quite a bit. One of my favorites of our actual modern-style modern architecture around here is Pier 1 Place, the world headquarters of Pier 1 Imports. It was designed with the goal of not being another mirror-y, glassy tower, but rather to blend in with and become a part of the sky. During a nice sunny day with the bright blue sky and nice white clouds, it sometimes looks transparent. Makes me think of Art Deco from the year 3000:

At night, it looks even cooler - it has some incredibly dramatic night lighting:

(It's the building shooting the shaft of light into the sky on the left.)

We're building a new Omni Hotel & condo tower that's pretty swoopy, and I like it. I like the fact that the lower portions will be the same buff brick as the Convention Center across the street and the historic buildings around it, and then the condo part becomes all glassy and curvy:

 

[TheKitschGoth]

My best example is the giant glass egg in London. Where all the buildings are stone and steel, there's a huge blue egg. It kills the skyline.

Oh, look kids Big Ben, Clock Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliment, the Milleni- GIANT EGG!!!!!!!

Egg? Do you mean the gherkin?