Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus is the guy with the design -- and a blank check. He says "what was unusual for us as architects is normally the client has a maximum budget."
Not in this case. And the current projected price tag is $380 million.
The work started with a focus on art and building the city's first contemporary museum, but with a million square feet.
But that's not all. Using a scale model to demonstrate, Prince-Ramus described some of the building's functions.
"These two, the tall towers on top -- are the condos. This element that faces to the east is the office block. The chunk beneath the office is the hotel. And then the element that is pushed to the northwest is the loft tower."
The floating island midway up the tower consists of the museum, hotel lobby, a gym and a pool for condo owners. And the new home for the University of Louisville's Master of Fine Arts program.
the bilbao of louisville? i expected much more from OMA - this strangely reminds me of NY NY in vegas, but clad in totally miesian curtain wall ....
i particuliarily love not just the fact that NO cotext is shown in this rendering, but that it is actually FLOATING in the sunset .... who thinks that it is a good idea to release images like this to the press? 380 mil? REM, that is what they are paying for, bilbao it is.
Good Lord, what a hideous building. With cookie-cutter McMansions at one extreme and spatial masturbation like this at the other extreme, it's no wonder the general public has no concept of good design.
i got dizzy after reading the 'piece' about the project with mid western millioners and their friends and politicians and all other redeemed and awed. and, the quotes after quotes. "7" comes together at the island, skyline oh the skyline (model shows 2 or 3 more hi-rise further away), tax breaks and sidewalk improvements and, for sure, museum dropping..
shiiiiit i really should read the news section. okay so it's remcycled and proves corbusier's grim determination that if one city denies your ideas, take it to another. I think rem referred to him as a carpetbagger peddling his ville nouvelle anywhere he could. i guess the bald little apple didn't fall far...
almost makes me wanna take back my pro-OMA response to a post a few days ago questioning Rem's brilliance -- although this is practically attributed to Ramus himself ("his famous Netherland firm") -- which might be better for Rem's rep in the end if it goes baddly as badly as its looking in that rendering...
if it's ramus' project, it may prove that there's a reason most architects don't get the keys to the porsche until they're 60.
almost looks like a joke, a new kind of expensive postmodernist joke, but this time about city skylines rather than columns and arches. still not funny.
The images in the video, showing the skyline from a number of directions, are quite convincing. It kinda blends in when you don't see the whole thing. Should be built. "boring-sculptural" is the new black.
-nice extension of the previous hyperbuilding concept, acknowledging the presence of two very miesian buildings nearby (one by mies, one som(?)). why not recycle if this concept hasn't yet been built? louisville's a fairly conservative city, architecturally, so the first realization of a new type would be a huge leap forward.
-while louisville is not often very forward-thinking, it has a pretty good track record of building things very well. has the potential to be the best-made oma building yet.
-well-integrated use of some adjacent conditions: vacant buildings, abandoned rail-lines, underutilized street, etc.
cons:
-not very much about louisville. probably could be built anywhere with minor adjustments.
-ground plane, especially management of cars vs. pedestrians, is not convincing yet. seems much more friendly to cars.
-while it does have some good moments of integrating with surrounding conditions (noted above), it could go much further. one image i've seen extends its influence west to a big electrical substation, but even that seems half-hearted so far.
i'm looking to see what comes from further development of the scheme.
it's stirred a big buzz in town - a lot of it very favorable - from people who have no idea who rem or oma are. people with no background in architecture still see that it's a rethinking of the skyscraper. that can't be bad, right?
wow, its like a bad SOM project that i could imagine being pitched in the 70's...
as for the 'floating museam', a horrible miscalculation. isolating public space like that, the same mistake corb made in the unite towers or portman made in the ren center in downtown detroit, is just bad for the city.
This design actually has some striking formal similarities to Morphosis' entry in the UPenn Hamilton Village competition several years ago. I can't find an image.
Mostly I want to see the outfit Prince-Ramus was described as wearing in the article Steven linked to (which I enjoyed reading): black suit and silver sandals...I'm intrigued!
Tell you the truth, I actually kind of like it, as I liked the original hyperbuilding idea. Unfortunately I think silverlake might have a point about the "sky museum" being isolated. That might just prove to be the building's achillies heel. I mean, it might look like OMA just ate the Segram Building, Lever House and original WTC then puked the digested remains all over Louisville, but it is kinda cool.
the museumplaza.net/video_wmv.html]video is actually quite convincing, as mentioned above. did anyone else notice the Oscar Meyer Weiner truck driving by the bldg shortly after the shot of the ground level plaza?
Whoa, Louiville?
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4481128&nav=0RZF
Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus is the guy with the design -- and a blank check. He says "what was unusual for us as architects is normally the client has a maximum budget."
Not in this case. And the current projected price tag is $380 million.
The work started with a focus on art and building the city's first contemporary museum, but with a million square feet.
But that's not all. Using a scale model to demonstrate, Prince-Ramus described some of the building's functions.
"These two, the tall towers on top -- are the condos. This element that faces to the east is the office block. The chunk beneath the office is the hotel. And then the element that is pushed to the northwest is the loft tower."
The floating island midway up the tower consists of the museum, hotel lobby, a gym and a pool for condo owners. And the new home for the University of Louisville's Master of Fine Arts program.
let me be the first one to say that this design is a one-liner piece of crap, and that is my one line to describe it
Someone made a mistake. Hopefully they don't make a 380000000 dollar mistake.
the bilbao of louisville? i expected much more from OMA - this strangely reminds me of NY NY in vegas, but clad in totally miesian curtain wall ....
i particuliarily love not just the fact that NO cotext is shown in this rendering, but that it is actually FLOATING in the sunset .... who thinks that it is a good idea to release images like this to the press? 380 mil? REM, that is what they are paying for, bilbao it is.
knock: you're absolutely right about the rendering.. that struck me too.
Good Lord, what a hideous building. With cookie-cutter McMansions at one extreme and spatial masturbation like this at the other extreme, it's no wonder the general public has no concept of good design.
i got dizzy after reading the 'piece' about the project with mid western millioners and their friends and politicians and all other redeemed and awed. and, the quotes after quotes. "7" comes together at the island, skyline oh the skyline (model shows 2 or 3 more hi-rise further away), tax breaks and sidewalk improvements and, for sure, museum dropping..
this is the retread of a tower project in corea that used an 'A' frame structural system (as i remember reading)
this is the retread of a tower project in corea that used an 'A' frame structural system (as i remember reading)
so damn nice i showed it two times
shiiiiit i really should read the news section. okay so it's remcycled and proves corbusier's grim determination that if one city denies your ideas, take it to another. I think rem referred to him as a carpetbagger peddling his ville nouvelle anywhere he could. i guess the bald little apple didn't fall far...
now that he's been paid three times for that proposal its off to Prada. Can anybody say shopping spree!
that's craptacular, dad
works well as a laxitive
almost makes me wanna take back my pro-OMA response to a post a few days ago questioning Rem's brilliance -- although this is practically attributed to Ramus himself ("his famous Netherland firm") -- which might be better for Rem's rep in the end if it goes baddly as badly as its looking in that rendering...
if it's ramus' project, it may prove that there's a reason most architects don't get the keys to the porsche until they're 60.
almost looks like a joke, a new kind of expensive postmodernist joke, but this time about city skylines rather than columns and arches. still not funny.
It IS fugly.. especially the giant cross-bracings on 'the island' bit.
There's a video up on the official site.. a pretty cleverly made video, i might add.
The images in the video, showing the skyline from a number of directions, are quite convincing. It kinda blends in when you don't see the whole thing. Should be built. "boring-sculptural" is the new black.
pros:
-nice extension of the previous hyperbuilding concept, acknowledging the presence of two very miesian buildings nearby (one by mies, one som(?)). why not recycle if this concept hasn't yet been built? louisville's a fairly conservative city, architecturally, so the first realization of a new type would be a huge leap forward.
-while louisville is not often very forward-thinking, it has a pretty good track record of building things very well. has the potential to be the best-made oma building yet.
-well-integrated use of some adjacent conditions: vacant buildings, abandoned rail-lines, underutilized street, etc.
cons:
-not very much about louisville. probably could be built anywhere with minor adjustments.
-ground plane, especially management of cars vs. pedestrians, is not convincing yet. seems much more friendly to cars.
-while it does have some good moments of integrating with surrounding conditions (noted above), it could go much further. one image i've seen extends its influence west to a big electrical substation, but even that seems half-hearted so far.
i'm looking to see what comes from further development of the scheme.
it's stirred a big buzz in town - a lot of it very favorable - from people who have no idea who rem or oma are. people with no background in architecture still see that it's a rethinking of the skyscraper. that can't be bad, right?
from today's courier-journal
wow, its like a bad SOM project that i could imagine being pitched in the 70's...
as for the 'floating museam', a horrible miscalculation. isolating public space like that, the same mistake corb made in the unite towers or portman made in the ren center in downtown detroit, is just bad for the city.
This design actually has some striking formal similarities to Morphosis' entry in the UPenn Hamilton Village competition several years ago. I can't find an image.
Mostly I want to see the outfit Prince-Ramus was described as wearing in the article Steven linked to (which I enjoyed reading): black suit and silver sandals...I'm intrigued!
superficiality is the new depth. or depth is the new superficiality. i cant REMember. anyway i just ordered some silver sandals from zappos...
Tell you the truth, I actually kind of like it, as I liked the original hyperbuilding idea. Unfortunately I think silverlake might have a point about the "sky museum" being isolated. That might just prove to be the building's achillies heel. I mean, it might look like OMA just ate the Segram Building, Lever House and original WTC then puked the digested remains all over Louisville, but it is kinda cool.
twin towers meets an oil rig.... and I'm in Lexington ;)
the museumplaza.net/video_wmv.html]video is actually quite convincing, as mentioned above. did anyone else notice the Oscar Meyer Weiner truck driving by the bldg shortly after the shot of the ground level plaza?
oops
http://museumplaza.net/video.html
i noticed the model makers' faces were screened out?
naturally. these are the people that brought us Content, etc.
It would make Louisville the car-commercial capital of America for a while, at least.
Hyperbuilding redux?
Cant wait to see the silicone joints in THIS building...
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.