Nicolai reviews the newly reopened Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian..
Renovated by Sir Norman Foster the courtyard resides in perhaps the best example of 19th century Greek revival architecture..
Nicolai writes,
"This is not Mr. Foster’s most ambitious or complex project, but it is near-perfect in accomplishing its goals. Mr. Foster has satisfied two seemingly contradictory impulses: the desire to be coddled and protected, and the need to feel free and open to the world."
Another success for Foster!
Via NYT
3 Comments
I visited yesterday and I would agree that it's a pleasantly subtle addition given the incredible historic importance of the building. I'll have to visit again, though. The fountain was off and the place was packed with people because the Smithsonian turned it into an annoying family festival rife with puppet shows and strange paper hats that looked to be referencing some kind of early Renaissance style. .
A primitive but full blown 3dh --- primitive why ; it's the attitude, only to see 3dh as a substitude for the original polymesh grid structure that was the _original suggestion_ -- architecture history sometimes can be used positive...
Sure the exiting story about the Sydney Opera is well known -- the innovative creative attitude with the very structure, how newthinking solved that and how it took years of experimenting to find the right math.
--- Sure today innovation and newthinking is just "undulating" , guess it is easier to find those things at Google or in architecture fora's , then the boss are glad I guess, but the guy who spended the years develobing what is so easy, that it don't get one single word, a system so much more flexible than that of Sydney Opera's , -- no reson to talk about that ; why so, it's not any old man who suddenly master the computer to deliver such a difficult structure, come on tell about it, tell me !
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