Favorite Architecture / Architects

[Htown Harry]

This is a poll of sorts, but there are no defined choices.

As a kid, I was always fascinated with big, iconic buildings and structures. Who could imagine such things, I wondered.

I was amazed at age 6 when I toured the Guggenheim Museum and the Statue of Liberty on a trip to New York. When I was 12, it was the Eiffel Tower. As an adult...the Hoover Dam, the Vietnam Memorial and the Golden Gate Bridge. They all took my breath away when I saw them in person for the first time.

Historical buildings are cool, but it is contemporary structures that really inspire me. No Mayan pyramids for me, thanks.

I find I'm not particularly interested in the creators' biography. I have never had a "favorite" architect, although I can usually recognize the work of the famous names. To me, it's the sculpture itself that is worth seeing, never mind the the signature.

What buildings have you seen that left a lasting impression on you?

What buildings would like to see in person?

Two on my "someday" list are the Birdsnest in Beijing and the Millau bridge in France

BTW, here's a fascinating article on Chinese aesthetics and the collaboration between the Birdsnest architect and structural engineer: ASCE: Carrying the Torch

 

[Urchina]

I've got a fondness for religious structures, usually from the Middle Ages but sometimes from other periods. For example:

Sacre Coeur in Paris
Salisbury Cathedral in England
Taj Mahal
The byzantine cathedrals of Russia and Istanbul (Mosques, too)

I'm also nuts about the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[Westernskies]

Kirtland Cutter.
Greene and Greene.

 

[FinanceDude]

This is our Art Museum. Quite a site to behold. The artist was Santiago Callatrava. I also am a HUGE Frank Lloyd Wright fan......

 

[DayDreaming]

Wharton Esherick - an artist, sculptor, craftsman who built his own house & studio. Seems he designed and built almost every detail of the building himself over the course of his life. He refers to the structure "as a kind of autobiography executed in wood". I've never visited the place but it's now a museum open to the public and someday I'll have to make my pilgrimage.

Only some rather poor photos here: Wharton Esherick Museum: Room by Room Photo Tour
One pretty good image here: The Wharton Esherick Studio / Museum :: gophila.com - The Official Visitor Site for Greater Philadelphia

 

[Nords]

I'm enamored of [-]buildings in motion[/-] warships.

I've been fascinated by civil engineering ever since I saw the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse... and the old Pioneer audio-tape commercial parody.

http://yeahthatcommercial.com/video.php?id=251

 

[Urchina]

Loved the ad, Nords. Thanks.

I'm going to add Conde McCullough as one of my favorite architects. He designed many of the bridges on the Oregon coast, including this one:

 

[Htown Harry]

I've been fascinated by civil engineering ever since I saw the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse...

Ah yes, Galloping Gertie. Back in college, my old-school civil engineering professor in Structures 1 showed us that film on the first day of class. (The original, not Pioneer's version.)

I don't remember much of a speech - the film made its own point to impressionable sophomores on the seriousness of applying knowledge of loads and material behavior to the design of a structure.

Overlook or underestimate one load, and somebody's gonna get hurt (and a promising career in civil engineering will be toast).

Here's the real ending to the film in the commercial:

50+ years later, an article on the 2007 completion of a second span at Tacoma Narrows ASCE: Crossing the Narrows said this about the lessons learned:

"The event spawned investigations, studies, debate, and rancor among engineers but eventually led to a much better understanding of how the flexibility of such structures—both vertically and torsionally—in combination with a relatively narrow bridge width can give rise to extreme aerodynamic torsional forces. Subsequent generations of suspension bridges have benefited from far more robust designs that have mitigated the possibility of problematic oscillations induced by even slight winds and from a deeper understanding of the relationship between span widths and lengths in these graceful and efficient crossings.

Perhaps no bridge owner has been more cognizant of these changes and more vigilant in its efforts to prevent similar disasters than the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which opened a suspension bridge replacement for that first bridge in 1950. It was constructed on the original bridge’s deepwater caissons and above its submerged debris field. Last year the department celebrated the completion of a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which will alleviate traffic congestion on the 1950 crossing."

The second span and Gertie's 1950 replacement, shown here during construction and on opening day:

 

[Htown Harry]

This is our Art Museum. Quite a site to behold.

Calatrava is definitely one of the "name" architects I know. Here's a beautiful pedestrian bridge he designed in Bilbao:

 

[Htown Harry]

Wharton Esherick - an artist, sculptor, craftsman who built his own house & studio. Seems he designed and built almost every detail of the building himself over the course of his life. He refers to the structure "as a kind of autobiography executed in wood".

We had a guy kinda like that in Houston. Esherick appears to be much more serious, however.

The Beer Can House, a Houston Landmark

“Some people say this is sculpture but I didn't go to no expensive school to get these crazy notions.”
–John Milkovisch


John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, started his project now known as the Beer Can House in 1968.

 

[chinaco]

We had a guy kinda like that in Houston. Esherick appears to be much more serious, however.

Kinda looks like he supplied most of the beer cans himself.

 

[jambo101]

Habitat 67 has been a landmark feature on Montreals waterfront for 40yrs a very presdigeous and sought after place to live Moshe Safdie was the architect.
http://www.space1999.net/~sorellarium13/habitat67in1967-08.jpg
Another view
http://designistdream.com/wp-content/uploads/Habitat_67_M_Safdie.jpg

 

[mathjak107]

We own investment apartments in a building ovcerlooking central park which is considered an archetecural landmark in nyc...

The Midtown Book: Central Park South: 200 Central Park South

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

my previous post was not just deleted but deleted without notification why?

 

[REWahoo]

my previous post was not just deleted but deleted without notification why?

Paranoia is a beautiful thing..

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f32/missing-posts-from-oct-21-a-39954.html

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

that's not paranoia; it's remnant distrust. but thanx for the explanation

 

[CuppaJoe]

Thank you for this thread. I'm just back from L.A. where I enjoyed the architecture of the Getty museums; I'm not yet ready to return to finance threads. Today I'm off to take the scenic route to view the architecture at the new Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Here's a recent shot of the Blue Angels near a bridge.

 

[freebird5825]

What buildings have you seen that left a lasting impression on you?
I was lucky enough to see the Parthenon and the Theatre of Dionysus on the Acropolis up close and personal in 1996. it was my first trip to an antiquity ever and a part of my ethnic ancestry. LH and I walked the entire way up the hill to it. we saw all sorts of ancient structures and even a stone water activated clock. Seeing and walking right next to the remnants of ancient Greece was just breathtaking.



What buildings would like to see in person?
the Taj Mahal
Pyramids
Colliseum (i will see this in July 09)
Vatican

 

[toofrugalformycat]

What buildings have you seen that left a lasting impression on you?

What buildings would like to see in person?

There are many, but those that I've seen in person that really gripped me that come to mind first:
Emil Schacht's house (a relationship there so it wasn't just the house, and not in the same company as these others. it's just a nice example of arts and crafts)
Taj Mahal
Parthenon
Pantheon
Pyramids
Sydney Opera House
Karnac
--
Macchu Picchu
Canterbury Cathedral
Eiffel Tower
Those last three made me feel a little something beyond what I can explain - almost a dollop of the supernatural, a distillation of human emotions that was palpable, and I'm not a believer in the supernatural.

Those that I'd like to see in person that I haven't yet
Angkor Wat
Easter Island
Probably lots more but I'm ignorant. I'm a skeptic of modern architecture, partly because of lack of education I'm sure, but partly because most the new buildings built in Anchorage have really basic design flaws. Designing a roof that doesn't leak immediately, for example, seems to elude architects up here. Maybe it's just me but I can't like a building that doesn't actually work, and won't last for more than a few decades. They've already torn down my high school, for example, and it was built in the last quarter of the previous century.

 

[harley]

I'm sort of a fan of God/Nature.

 

[Htown Harry]

I came across a picture of another Calatrava pedestrian bridge...breathtaking.

It's the Sundial Bridge in Redding California.