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(hidden) projects

i tried posting this on 'news' but i think i messed it up.

i noticed on architectenweb.nl the dutch architectural news site that UN studio is building a supermarket in holland. what is interesting is that doesn't appear on their website.
perhaps not surprising when you see an image of it.

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=25341

what i find interesting is that some high profile offices (and i do know some) have such hidden projects to bring in some money and of course leave them off their websites.

these bread and butter jobs help fund the resource draining A-list projects.

fair enough IMO, just a downer if you get stuck working on those ones.

 
Feb 2, 11 8:06 am
treekiller

gehry has several decades of work that he doesn't talk about...

Feb 3, 11 8:38 pm  · 
 · 
Cherith Cutestory

Obviously this is not on-par with the remainder of UN Studios work, but this doesn't look like much to complain about.

This isn't limited to high profile offices. I can think of plenty mid-sized local corporate offices that have done a number of projects that they keep safely hidden away from the website and marketing materials. It pays the bills and keeps from laying off staff. I mean, who wants to advertise they put up the 75th Walgreens in town? Yeah, it does suck working on a boring project but there are worse things.

Feb 3, 11 8:46 pm  · 
 · 
jmanganelli

its been a number of years since i saw the ken burns documentary on flw

but i want to say that in it, they said he designed something like 1200 buildings over his roughly 70 year career and about 500 were built

so one of the most prolific architects of the last hundred or so years got about 42% of his designs realized

and of those 42% that were built, he is known for about 25-50 of them, or about 5%-10% of the built work

i remember thinking at the time that that revelation really puts things in perspective

Feb 3, 11 8:57 pm  · 
 · 
Cherith Cutestory

If you ever visit Oak Park, they have a great walking tour of the area where they point out many of the first projects he worked on (moonlighting projects at that). If someone hadn't pointed them out, I would have never guessed.

Feb 3, 11 9:22 pm  · 
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Medusa

Mies has three "unclaimed" residential towers in Newark, NJ. Travertine-clad lobbies don't lie.

Feb 5, 11 9:52 pm  · 
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Why wouldn't you limit your portfolio to your best work? I've forgotten about more projects than I'd include in my portfolio.

Feb 5, 11 10:07 pm  · 
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steven, true. in our university portfolios we select the best projects, no reason office portfolios should be any different.

Feb 6, 11 2:53 am  · 
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marlowe

In business school, we'd call this 'cross subsidization'.

Feb 6, 11 7:18 pm  · 
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