wow... tigerman's quote from an interview with chicago architect...
What drew you to architecture as a young person?
When I was 12 years old, I read The Fountainhead. I put it down and decided to become an architect on the spot.
...not sure if that's surprising... anyway, the interview is an interesting read...
My question is, do any of you think the Fountainhead really lays out a proper ideal/roll etc. for an Architect? It has been awhile since I read it, but as I recall, he blows up the building at the end, rather than let it exist as an aesthetically disjointed monster... that seems like the behavior of a sociopathic megalomaniac...doesn't it? You can debate Ayn Rand objectivist philosophies plenty, but can anyone really defend using a character who would blow up buildings, as a reason for joining the architectural profession?
Absolutely not, Syn. Who do you think we are?! ;-)
No, in all seriousness, I have never met an architect who wasn't thoroughly disgusted by the Fountainhead and personally affronted by the fact that for many people, the Fountainhead is the chief identifier for all architects.
I've been following this thread for a while, and was hoping to get some advice. I'm from Chicago, and applied to M. Arch I programs for this coming fall. I would like to spend the time before the program (*crossing my fingers that I get in...yeeps!*) either interning at an architecture office, or even shadowing a firm (or several firms) for a day or two. I'm not expecting a paid position, but rather, just an opportunity to understand how different architecture offices work.
My prior background was in real estate investment/development, where I participated in a lot of the real estate deal making, construction management, asset management and overall financial strategy. While real estate deal making was fun, I guess I've always felt that the spaces around us are so much more human than mere dollar signs. I thus decided to go into architecture because I wanted to approach land use with a greater sensitivity towards design.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and insights on this. Does anyone know of any Chicago firms that are open to this? I'm not sure if architecture offices let people come in to shadow, or if I should try something else. Any suggestions you guys can offer would be awesome. I'd be happy to share my knowledge on the real estate finance side as well. Thanks, guys!
im not sure about this shadowing concept... ive never heard of an office doing anything like that. Id imagine is possible, especially if you were perhaps aquanauted with a principal at a local office. Otherwise, im not even sure how youd go about getting something like that. best bet is to just call the offices your untested in.
As for a short unpaid internship... if your serious about not being paid, i would imagine a lot of firms would be willing to do that.
In the end, pick the firms you are interested and start calling around... unpaid internships are probably the only "available" positions these days...
you know i saw somewhere that chicago's residential market is projected to grow immensely in the next several years. is this for any other reason than that it's just so bad right now? is there any evidence of this happening? i got an email from a guy in pittsburgh the other day who said things are picking up there, but i see no evidence of this in chicago, except for our dog shampoo sales.
So I have a crazy idea, I am thinking of coordinating a book on Chicago actually a collection of essays, and or short stories about the neighborhoods along the EL. With a Chapter or two for each stop describing the place, people and or history. Think of it as guide to the EL stops that goes beyond just the descriptions of the restaurants and major tourist attractions. The goal is to encourage people, city residents, and visitors alike, to use the EL and explore places they may never thought about as interesting, worth visiting, or even existing.
Anyone interested in this urban literature adventure?
It is a good idea. You'll need a good title that both catches your eye and conveys the idea right off the bat. So it is more of a history book or a travel book? I haven't read travel books on Chicago, are there ones specifically geared towards riding the el trains, or do they all just go neighborhood by neighborhood? It would be neat to have one that went by train stop, for example "get off at the sedgwick stop on the brown line and visit the Second City, Lincoln Park Zoo etc.. etc.."
as a template you may want to look at... grrr... i can't find it, but there were these walking tour flash cards that i think the CAF put out. They were a bit brief. But had the same kinda of idea. What I like about the idea is getting people to experience the depth of the city, instead of just tooling around millenium park...
Most of the books I've flipped through seem to cover the city, the issue is just that they break things down as a regular map, and the CTA is only mentioned in a "ways to get here" sort of way, not as a real system that a trip can be built around. It would be cool if each chapter was a different train line, and then had sub sections for each stop or perhaps a few stop. I'm using the brown line because it is the line I know best; you can get off at Fullerton, Armitage, Belmont, Sedgwick, and walk between the stations seeing and doing cool things alone the way. It would be really easy to do a day trip that starts at the Belmont stop and makes it way southward and ends at one of the other stops. Of course this gets a little trickier as you reach the ends of the lines and the stops start getting so far apart, but you get the idea.
Postal,
don't worry, soon we'll have a children's museum right next to Millenium park to visit as well. Despite my objections to that whole mess, I'm sure I'll take my son there sometime.
I'm not a huge shopper, and the issue pre dates my time in Chicago, but it is sad to read about how Michigan Avenue (Mag mile) used to have so many unique boutique designer shops, and now more and more it has generic shops that you can find in any nicer mall across the country.
I am a big fan of Church Curve. It runs round the Church where I was baptized a few months after the neighborhood burnt.
The disappearance of the blue blood retail on Michigan Avenue reflects larger trends. It has been replaced by Prada and other retailers that are bigger and and speak to a larger market.
Retail is brutal and I don't think independents have the resources to survive. Also, most people in Chicago dress like slobs so there isn't a big enough market to sustain them. They are sustained in NY because people shop there from all across the world. LA has a bigger audience as well. We here in Chicago need to step it up!
I am a believer in the observations and theories cited in Jane Jacobs’s book life and Death of Great American Cities. Michigan Ave is evolving due to its success but its success will bring it down a bit. This history and the direction a place can go in terms of gentrification and or decay to me is interesting. The Book about the EL and surrounding neighborhoods would be modeled on the book Happy Cities and Public Happiness in Post-War Europe edited by Cor Wagenaar.
The book Happy is basically a collection of essays that delve into various topics and issues ranging from propaganda to paving. The same can be done in this book. Not sure about the title.
As for my situation I am in Urbana, researching, taking care of parents, learning Revit tutoring and sub teaching but I am looking to go to U of I Chicago to study Urban Planning and transit planning. I think this will help get people’s names out and if you are interested in a PHD or Masters having something published might be helpful. Also it helps to keep busy, with all the folks who care about and use the CTA EL each day we certainly have a market.
Anny Ideas on how to go about coordinating and or promoting this project?
Should we set up a list-serve and possibly plan meetings?
This could be a fun distraction for us writing an essay or passage about a place or thing we know or are curious about. So much can be covered on this topic.
My contribution will be about the beef at Freddie's and the pitchers of margarita's at Pancho's....
...i'm not sure how to type drool... maybe, grrrrrllrrllrrllrlrlrrlll...
ever check out sidewalks... and i guess they came out with a sequel, sidewalks II... anyway, similar idea about a collection of stories to a certain degree
announced the winners of their street furniture competition last night. Since my entry wasn't chosen as the winner, I think you'll all agree their choices are absolute garbage. Ha! actually they some are pretty good and I can take some comfort in knowing that my entry came to some of the same conclusions about appropriate materials and forms.
Also, here is a new blog I've started on the Architecture, History, and Culture of Old Town . I'm just getting started, so check it out, bookmark it, link it etc. critique it (but please don't be too harsh, it is just for fun and interest, nothing too serious)
Well I can't say for the market as a whole, but my impression is that there are a lot more proposals going out that ones being accepted. There is interest in starting projects, inquiries and all, just not many are actually getting past that stage.
So, all is quiet in Chicago... as is true in the rest of the country and most of the world, construction has ground to a halt on virtually everything. Especially projects with any dream of being architecturally interesting. We should all savor P/W's latest condo tower... its the best we'll get for a while in this city. There are possibly promising things on the books, but were gonna need some drastic expansion of available money for construction till any of those things come to fruition.
Personally i am a fan of PWs Chicago stuff...
Contemporaine is one of my favorite buildings in the city and i thought the Sky Bridge was nice as well. In general, they do a really good job of separating mass and volume and expressing it interestingly in the facade. They execute this style really well.
The balcony arrangement is obviously gimmicky because besides them, the building is really bare bones with none of the interesting volume manipulation like you see in SkyBridge or Contemporaine. However, its still a really nice addition to the south loop which has so many desperately bad buildings already...
The one glaring problem for me is the parking ramp. Obviously its a code mandate and there is only so much you can do when the first 10 stories of your tower HAVE to be parking. But its been handled better in other buildings, and this tower really hits the ground with a weirdly disproportionate amount of mass. Its disappointing to say the least, but its hard to blame an architect when a city is hell bent on destroying street life with massive parking garage requirements. Anyway... i still like it... but not as much as aqua...
granted, the article says that 4 in every 10 houses purchased are distressed properties, a 40% increase in home sales over this time last year is a significant number.
Property values are obviously way, way down, but if you have the money, i couldnt think of a better time to buy... im personally hoping that values can stay depressed another year or two so i can actually afford a house in the city...
I'm a fan of this one. Your comments on the parking are spot on. It is such a graceless presence to have such a massive garage right where the building should be interacting with the street. Why build dense tall structures like this if you are only going to encourage everyone to drive? It is like getting the worst of both worlds, you get a smaller living space and still no significant public spaces or interest to justify the loss. These buildings should have all sorts of restaurants and parks around them, not to mention direct access to public transit, then you'd see some real street life.
Silly Fools, big buildings are job creators for the trades not street activity generators. When architects start paying the tradesmen, as they once did, then you will see a TRUE return to interesting architecture and street life.
That parking garage will be the canvas for some truly awesome graffiti. I hope they thought of that and have a plan to use the space for what it is a blank canvas where the designers ran out of design and now it will be up to the street artist/renegades to finish the project. If it were up to me I would commission a huge piece and have it changed out every year so that you can have some control over the images that will be pasted all over this thing that looks like an empty roadside billboard.
You know, I really like a lot of this Graffiti art, but I can't help but feel that it usually has something of a parasitic relationship with the building. Even when it doesn't specifically offend, it often gives me the feeling of cheapening the building. It can destroy the clean lines and repetition of a buildings grid for the sake of one gem of art.
You are right though, the parking garage isn't working as it is. I think your idea of adding a commissioned artwork is a great idea. I can see something colorful and geometric working well, though maybe something more free form would contrast the building better, I can't really decide.
Id love to see something more dynamic than just murals. Do something simple like set up a system of led's rigged to motion detectors so that motion in the parking garage is transfered to light strings at the street. Or maybe better yet, project images onto the walls!
Perhaps a tandem of the two would be ideal. For appreciation at both day and night.
Id love to see a building like that take a chance on some sort of dynamic facade lighting. Maybe even some kind of interactive installation. These things are not difficult to implement... you could buy the parts necessary to build my first suggestion at any radio shack. Im envisioning blocks upon blocks in the south loop covered in interesting light displays and projections rather than crude and thoughtless concrete walls. It could become its own destination rather than a place people commute FROM (which is what we have now...)
Economic reality and narrow mindedness in both economic and planning fields mean that none of the wonderful things we COULD do will ever be done, but maybe some day ill make millions of dollars and ill tell the building owners that ill PAY for the installations if they let me use those blank walls... that could work...
Hong Kong has almost exactly what you are describing. For those unfamiliar, the city is divided by a large bay, with very tall buildings on either side. The city runs a massive light show every night. You sit on one bay and look across at the other, while all the prominent buildings have lights, lasers or other decorative features that light up. It is really pretty impressive.
noticed that perkins and will building for the first time this morning on my ride to work. had an amazing flat yet textured appearance from the 18th street bridge with the 8am sun.
on a perhaps more amazing note from my ride today, there are some great ice coated trees/shrubs/grasses along the lake all down the south side. with the strong winds from the east, many of these icicles are sort of western pointing. and with the sun today, everything's glistening and really beautiful. if you have a chance to go see them before they melt, i highly recommend it! be careful if you ride your bike, though! black ice everywhere!
I walked out of my house in a windbreaker today thinking it was going to be in the 60s - what the hell is with this cold? Its like 30 degrees! I hope this is a minor blip in the weather. At least its sunny.
i hate that parking garage, but i like the building itself much better than the aqua. you really like the aqua? i only like it from a few angles, looking up at the corner. at its broad side it has a wierd proportion.
yeah i actually really like aqua even from distance. obviously its incredibly dynamic from street level, and even from distance i like how simply it reads, and i like the fact that you can cleanly read floor lines. I think it corresponds well to a residential use where floor plates need to be more "individual" even when they might not be.
I also think conceptually aqua is much more interesting than PW's. I really enjoy PW's buildings, but theres nothing in them that changes in anyway what i think might or might not be possible in a high rise.
Aqua on the other hand presents a lot of really interesting ideas, and in that way, i think it definitely contributes more. Aqua is one of the most dynamic building ive seen. It almost never looks the same from 2 different angles, its character is constantly changing depending on your relation to it, and by that metric alone i think its a more interesting building
I've never thought of this area, beyond the bungalow belt arching around the northwest and southwest sides of the city as unique but here it is laid bare in splendid blond brick and field stone glory;
2step, thanks for that link, ive never seen that blog before but its really interesting! ill be going back and looking at older posts in the near future for sure...
speaking of storms, anyone else in the loop last friday afternoon? i pulled so much glass out of the bottoms of my shoes, and one of the shards was so big that it poked through to my foot!
Aggregate Chicago
wow... tigerman's quote from an interview with chicago architect...
What drew you to architecture as a young person?
When I was 12 years old, I read The Fountainhead. I put it down and decided to become an architect on the spot.
...not sure if that's surprising... anyway, the interview is an interesting read...
what a pompous ass... reading fountainhead at age 12....
My question is, do any of you think the Fountainhead really lays out a proper ideal/roll etc. for an Architect? It has been awhile since I read it, but as I recall, he blows up the building at the end, rather than let it exist as an aesthetically disjointed monster... that seems like the behavior of a sociopathic megalomaniac...doesn't it? You can debate Ayn Rand objectivist philosophies plenty, but can anyone really defend using a character who would blow up buildings, as a reason for joining the architectural profession?
Absolutely not, Syn. Who do you think we are?! ;-)
No, in all seriousness, I have never met an architect who wasn't thoroughly disgusted by the Fountainhead and personally affronted by the fact that for many people, the Fountainhead is the chief identifier for all architects.
from http://nopromiseofsafety.com/
Woah, that is some crazy stuff brer, nice find.
Hi Everyone,
I've been following this thread for a while, and was hoping to get some advice. I'm from Chicago, and applied to M. Arch I programs for this coming fall. I would like to spend the time before the program (*crossing my fingers that I get in...yeeps!*) either interning at an architecture office, or even shadowing a firm (or several firms) for a day or two. I'm not expecting a paid position, but rather, just an opportunity to understand how different architecture offices work.
My prior background was in real estate investment/development, where I participated in a lot of the real estate deal making, construction management, asset management and overall financial strategy. While real estate deal making was fun, I guess I've always felt that the spaces around us are so much more human than mere dollar signs. I thus decided to go into architecture because I wanted to approach land use with a greater sensitivity towards design.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and insights on this. Does anyone know of any Chicago firms that are open to this? I'm not sure if architecture offices let people come in to shadow, or if I should try something else. Any suggestions you guys can offer would be awesome. I'd be happy to share my knowledge on the real estate finance side as well. Thanks, guys!
personally, i liked the fountainhead as a story. yeah, it's obnoxious that that is how people see architects.
panda,
im not sure about this shadowing concept... ive never heard of an office doing anything like that. Id imagine is possible, especially if you were perhaps aquanauted with a principal at a local office. Otherwise, im not even sure how youd go about getting something like that. best bet is to just call the offices your untested in.
As for a short unpaid internship... if your serious about not being paid, i would imagine a lot of firms would be willing to do that.
In the end, pick the firms you are interested and start calling around... unpaid internships are probably the only "available" positions these days...
bossman, im wish you... i found the novel itself amazing and super entertaining... i very much enjoyed the story...
its a fantastical story, hes a mythical architect with mythical ideals... i didnt take it seriously
mabye next time i shuld proof read my posts before posting such giberash
Ha! it is like spell check had an aneurism and died while working on your posts.
you know i saw somewhere that chicago's residential market is projected to grow immensely in the next several years. is this for any other reason than that it's just so bad right now? is there any evidence of this happening? i got an email from a guy in pittsburgh the other day who said things are picking up there, but i see no evidence of this in chicago, except for our dog shampoo sales.
Bossman,
Where did you read that?
i can't remember. like forbes or something like that.
So I have a crazy idea, I am thinking of coordinating a book on Chicago actually a collection of essays, and or short stories about the neighborhoods along the EL. With a Chapter or two for each stop describing the place, people and or history. Think of it as guide to the EL stops that goes beyond just the descriptions of the restaurants and major tourist attractions. The goal is to encourage people, city residents, and visitors alike, to use the EL and explore places they may never thought about as interesting, worth visiting, or even existing.
Anyone interested in this urban literature adventure?
that sounds like a great idea pjnwe0293480. do it.
i thought you lived downstate? if you need a good photographer i know a super cheap one with an eye for building photography.
It is a good idea. You'll need a good title that both catches your eye and conveys the idea right off the bat. So it is more of a history book or a travel book? I haven't read travel books on Chicago, are there ones specifically geared towards riding the el trains, or do they all just go neighborhood by neighborhood? It would be neat to have one that went by train stop, for example "get off at the sedgwick stop on the brown line and visit the Second City, Lincoln Park Zoo etc.. etc.."
as a template you may want to look at... grrr... i can't find it, but there were these walking tour flash cards that i think the CAF put out. They were a bit brief. But had the same kinda of idea. What I like about the idea is getting people to experience the depth of the city, instead of just tooling around millenium park...
Most of the books I've flipped through seem to cover the city, the issue is just that they break things down as a regular map, and the CTA is only mentioned in a "ways to get here" sort of way, not as a real system that a trip can be built around. It would be cool if each chapter was a different train line, and then had sub sections for each stop or perhaps a few stop. I'm using the brown line because it is the line I know best; you can get off at Fullerton, Armitage, Belmont, Sedgwick, and walk between the stations seeing and doing cool things alone the way. It would be really easy to do a day trip that starts at the Belmont stop and makes it way southward and ends at one of the other stops. Of course this gets a little trickier as you reach the ends of the lines and the stops start getting so far apart, but you get the idea.
Postal,
don't worry, soon we'll have a children's museum right next to Millenium park to visit as well. Despite my objections to that whole mess, I'm sure I'll take my son there sometime.
I'm not a huge shopper, and the issue pre dates my time in Chicago, but it is sad to read about how Michigan Avenue (Mag mile) used to have so many unique boutique designer shops, and now more and more it has generic shops that you can find in any nicer mall across the country.
I am a big fan of Church Curve. It runs round the Church where I was baptized a few months after the neighborhood burnt.
The disappearance of the blue blood retail on Michigan Avenue reflects larger trends. It has been replaced by Prada and other retailers that are bigger and and speak to a larger market.
Retail is brutal and I don't think independents have the resources to survive. Also, most people in Chicago dress like slobs so there isn't a big enough market to sustain them. They are sustained in NY because people shop there from all across the world. LA has a bigger audience as well. We here in Chicago need to step it up!
I am a believer in the observations and theories cited in Jane Jacobs’s book life and Death of Great American Cities. Michigan Ave is evolving due to its success but its success will bring it down a bit. This history and the direction a place can go in terms of gentrification and or decay to me is interesting. The Book about the EL and surrounding neighborhoods would be modeled on the book Happy Cities and Public Happiness in Post-War Europe edited by Cor Wagenaar.
The book Happy is basically a collection of essays that delve into various topics and issues ranging from propaganda to paving. The same can be done in this book. Not sure about the title.
As for my situation I am in Urbana, researching, taking care of parents, learning Revit tutoring and sub teaching but I am looking to go to U of I Chicago to study Urban Planning and transit planning. I think this will help get people’s names out and if you are interested in a PHD or Masters having something published might be helpful. Also it helps to keep busy, with all the folks who care about and use the CTA EL each day we certainly have a market.
Anny Ideas on how to go about coordinating and or promoting this project?
Should we set up a list-serve and possibly plan meetings?
This could be a fun distraction for us writing an essay or passage about a place or thing we know or are curious about. So much can be covered on this topic.
My contribution will be about the beef at Freddie's and the pitchers of margarita's at Pancho's....
...i'm not sure how to type drool... maybe, grrrrrllrrllrrllrlrlrrlll...
ever check out sidewalks... and i guess they came out with a sequel, sidewalks II... anyway, similar idea about a collection of stories to a certain degree
wasn't sure whether to post here or on that gung-ho thread...
Wow, now more than ever a reason to never wear socks with sandals
by Studio Gang is done. Kamin wrote that article, and he seems to love it.
Yes, he has found his new hero.
It's got the ramp thing and it's architecture...
I'd like to go see it.
get out your pen and paper.... it's go time!
Theres a new Architecture blog in the city from Lee Bay http://blogs.vocalo.org/blog/bey
I like that idea for a competition Postal, maybe its time to sharpen the pencils ( or Rhino as the kids say )
announced the winners of their street furniture competition last night. Since my entry wasn't chosen as the winner, I think you'll all agree their choices are absolute garbage. Ha! actually they some are pretty good and I can take some comfort in knowing that my entry came to some of the same conclusions about appropriate materials and forms.
Also, here is a new blog I've started on the Architecture, History, and Culture of Old Town . I'm just getting started, so check it out, bookmark it, link it etc. critique it (but please don't be too harsh, it is just for fun and interest, nothing too serious)
hey synergy, what the hell's going on in chicago? have things picked up at all?
hey synergy, what the hell's going on in chicago? have things picked up at all? yeah, i used to work at the fleet feet in old town.
Well I can't say for the market as a whole, but my impression is that there are a lot more proposals going out that ones being accepted. There is interest in starting projects, inquiries and all, just not many are actually getting past that stage.
So, all is quiet in Chicago... as is true in the rest of the country and most of the world, construction has ground to a halt on virtually everything. Especially projects with any dream of being architecturally interesting. We should all savor P/W's latest condo tower... its the best we'll get for a while in this city. There are possibly promising things on the books, but were gonna need some drastic expansion of available money for construction till any of those things come to fruition.
Here is Lynn Becker's article about 235 West Van Buren
[img]http://www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/morsecodebuilding/235full.jpg width=415{/img}
Lee Bay also has it in his blog
Personally i am a fan of PWs Chicago stuff...
Contemporaine is one of my favorite buildings in the city and i thought the Sky Bridge was nice as well. In general, they do a really good job of separating mass and volume and expressing it interestingly in the facade. They execute this style really well.
The balcony arrangement is obviously gimmicky because besides them, the building is really bare bones with none of the interesting volume manipulation like you see in SkyBridge or Contemporaine. However, its still a really nice addition to the south loop which has so many desperately bad buildings already...
The one glaring problem for me is the parking ramp. Obviously its a code mandate and there is only so much you can do when the first 10 stories of your tower HAVE to be parking. But its been handled better in other buildings, and this tower really hits the ground with a weirdly disproportionate amount of mass. Its disappointing to say the least, but its hard to blame an architect when a city is hell bent on destroying street life with massive parking garage requirements. Anyway... i still like it... but not as much as aqua...
oops...
also this is an interesting article
Home sales are way up in chicago
granted, the article says that 4 in every 10 houses purchased are distressed properties, a 40% increase in home sales over this time last year is a significant number.
Property values are obviously way, way down, but if you have the money, i couldnt think of a better time to buy... im personally hoping that values can stay depressed another year or two so i can actually afford a house in the city...
I'm a fan of this one. Your comments on the parking are spot on. It is such a graceless presence to have such a massive garage right where the building should be interacting with the street. Why build dense tall structures like this if you are only going to encourage everyone to drive? It is like getting the worst of both worlds, you get a smaller living space and still no significant public spaces or interest to justify the loss. These buildings should have all sorts of restaurants and parks around them, not to mention direct access to public transit, then you'd see some real street life.
Silly Fools, big buildings are job creators for the trades not street activity generators. When architects start paying the tradesmen, as they once did, then you will see a TRUE return to interesting architecture and street life.
That parking garage will be the canvas for some truly awesome graffiti. I hope they thought of that and have a plan to use the space for what it is a blank canvas where the designers ran out of design and now it will be up to the street artist/renegades to finish the project. If it were up to me I would commission a huge piece and have it changed out every year so that you can have some control over the images that will be pasted all over this thing that looks like an empty roadside billboard.
For example:
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Reader-Art/reader-art-interplay
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Reader-Art/reader-art-christopher-graham
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Reader-Art/reader-art-b-47
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Joshy-D/more-damn-graffiti
http://www.juxtapoz.com/98-Revok/19019-saber-la-free-walls
http://pixdaus.com/pics/w2SWbWyV9Zgs2VSu54.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyquinninlex/galleries/72157622983320410/
You know, I really like a lot of this Graffiti art, but I can't help but feel that it usually has something of a parasitic relationship with the building. Even when it doesn't specifically offend, it often gives me the feeling of cheapening the building. It can destroy the clean lines and repetition of a buildings grid for the sake of one gem of art.
You are right though, the parking garage isn't working as it is. I think your idea of adding a commissioned artwork is a great idea. I can see something colorful and geometric working well, though maybe something more free form would contrast the building better, I can't really decide.
Id love to see something more dynamic than just murals. Do something simple like set up a system of led's rigged to motion detectors so that motion in the parking garage is transfered to light strings at the street. Or maybe better yet, project images onto the walls!
Perhaps a tandem of the two would be ideal. For appreciation at both day and night.
Id love to see a building like that take a chance on some sort of dynamic facade lighting. Maybe even some kind of interactive installation. These things are not difficult to implement... you could buy the parts necessary to build my first suggestion at any radio shack. Im envisioning blocks upon blocks in the south loop covered in interesting light displays and projections rather than crude and thoughtless concrete walls. It could become its own destination rather than a place people commute FROM (which is what we have now...)
Economic reality and narrow mindedness in both economic and planning fields mean that none of the wonderful things we COULD do will ever be done, but maybe some day ill make millions of dollars and ill tell the building owners that ill PAY for the installations if they let me use those blank walls... that could work...
Hong Kong has almost exactly what you are describing. For those unfamiliar, the city is divided by a large bay, with very tall buildings on either side. The city runs a massive light show every night. You sit on one bay and look across at the other, while all the prominent buildings have lights, lasers or other decorative features that light up. It is really pretty impressive.
Here is a youtube video of it:
Hong Kong
Did anyone read the review of the Elysian? http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/03/elegance-proves-elusive-elysians-traditional-wonderland-is-topped-with-a-mad-hat.html#comments
The debate about this building seems to have touched some nerves in this city.
noticed that perkins and will building for the first time this morning on my ride to work. had an amazing flat yet textured appearance from the 18th street bridge with the 8am sun.
on a perhaps more amazing note from my ride today, there are some great ice coated trees/shrubs/grasses along the lake all down the south side. with the strong winds from the east, many of these icicles are sort of western pointing. and with the sun today, everything's glistening and really beautiful. if you have a chance to go see them before they melt, i highly recommend it! be careful if you ride your bike, though! black ice everywhere!
I walked out of my house in a windbreaker today thinking it was going to be in the 60s - what the hell is with this cold? Its like 30 degrees! I hope this is a minor blip in the weather. At least its sunny.
i hate that parking garage, but i like the building itself much better than the aqua. you really like the aqua? i only like it from a few angles, looking up at the corner. at its broad side it has a wierd proportion.
yeah i actually really like aqua even from distance. obviously its incredibly dynamic from street level, and even from distance i like how simply it reads, and i like the fact that you can cleanly read floor lines. I think it corresponds well to a residential use where floor plates need to be more "individual" even when they might not be.
I also think conceptually aqua is much more interesting than PW's. I really enjoy PW's buildings, but theres nothing in them that changes in anyway what i think might or might not be possible in a high rise.
Aqua on the other hand presents a lot of really interesting ideas, and in that way, i think it definitely contributes more. Aqua is one of the most dynamic building ive seen. It almost never looks the same from 2 different angles, its character is constantly changing depending on your relation to it, and by that metric alone i think its a more interesting building
I've never thought of this area, beyond the bungalow belt arching around the northwest and southwest sides of the city as unique but here it is laid bare in splendid blond brick and field stone glory;
http://achicagosojourn.blogspot.com/2010/04/no-master-plan-no-guiding-hand.html
2step, thanks for that link, ive never seen that blog before but its really interesting! ill be going back and looking at older posts in the near future for sure...
speaking of storms, anyone else in the loop last friday afternoon? i pulled so much glass out of the bottoms of my shoes, and one of the shards was so big that it poked through to my foot!
photos in lynn becker's blog!
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