“San Francisco is really focused on getting things right on the ground, creating a rich fabric,” said Gang... “You have your own ecosystem.” [...]
She’s at work here on a 40-story tower proposed at Folsom and Spear streets, one block in from the Embarcadero. The form would be simple, a lean rectangle, but the silhouette would be a ripple of angled bay windows, jagged and subtle at once.
“Some designers focus on the profile. We’re looking more at the elements, starting from the inside out,”
— sfchronicle.com
14 Comments
Looks like a Frank Gehry knockoff...Less refined.
I'm surprised everyone is so yay Gang and boo Gehry. It's the same thing! Doesn't anybody else see this? I don't mind it but you can't bash one and love another...oh right I see why.
I looks like Gehry at discount prices....
She is way over rated.
looks like a 5th year studio project at best
I see strong similarities between Gang and Ingels. Not as much with Gehry.
There is also a something sort of miesian to the proportions of those window unit, which makes sense with her history at OMA.
"the genius grant" should be returned with interest after this crap.
She is way over rated, just like parametrics, come lets move past parametric design already. Looking at this building makes me want to puke.
I like it. Although this was done over thirty-years ago in Glen Small's SCI-Arc studio class. Twisting shapes and single or double helix' appear to be the form or choice these days. Something about DNA I conjuer. But I see this twist of form as not as innovative as the surface. Just a tall residential bock with more views. The real estate agents salivate on that one.
Me I think I prefer more inonvations on the inside than outside. But who is up to that challage?
Consider the reasons why Aqua Tower was so well received. That was also a relatively basic building. The effect was achieved primarily with balconies. I heard many people compliment the efficiency of achieving maximum effect with minimal engineering complexity. It also created a building that was both idiosyncratic enough for the world of architecture while being generic enough for the real estate market.
It appears as though the firm is trying his achieve a similar kind of balance with this building.
woof
ROB4,
People who talk about "Parametric Design" are not saying anything, and they obviously know very little about computational design tools. The flip side of that is criticizing "Parametric Design" is foolish, and as a phrase, really meaningless. Parametric design is designing with parameters. All software is moving towards parametricism. Revit is parametric. Blender is parametric. Rhino + Grasshopper is parametric.
I know it rolls off the tongue well, but if you truly have a valid criticism of this kind of design, it would be more effective to frame it in terms that actually describe what is going on. I could use computational tools to best program and orient a dumb rectilinear box, or I could use them to create some stupid twisting bullshit - it isn't the software, it's the user and application of the software.
I think this building is fairly ugly. I am quite disturbed by this growing trend in young architect's offices to ignore constraints, efficiency, and best building practices and propose crazy shit like this that doesn't even look that good.
Compared to Gehry, she looks like a second-year architecture school student. Her buildings have no street-level presence or engagement either. Look at that ground floor. Abysmal.
very "wowie zowie" Grasshopper or Dynamo exercise - to turn San Francisco into a typical city - increasingly every time I step "south u Doh slot"(Market Street) it's like I stepped into Chicago, New York or some other typical city. That being said. her design looks like the BofA tower on 555 California has it would appear if someone drank a certain Kool Aid - Actually(according to John King- SF Chronicle) she took her cues from 450 Sutter St. from 1929 - a building designed by Timothy Pflueger.
Does anyone give a _ _ _ _ about window washers anymore?
I couldn't help but think of this:
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