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Architecture - the good, the bad and the ugly

Discussion in 'Tilted Art, Photography, Music & Literature' started by Charlatan, Nov 26, 2013.

  1. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    @mixedmedia and I were in the middle of thread jacking another post and it became obvious (to us anyway) that we needed to take our discussion elsewhere...

    Welcome to Architecture - the good, the bad and the ugly.

    Here is where we can discuss buildings, city planning, etc. and even post pictures of buildings we like/hate/love.

    It would be nice if rather than just posting an image, you could also chime in with why you like it... feel free to get as in depth or as shallow as you like.

    Up first: Brutalism.

    One of my favourite brutalist structures is the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. As a kid I would drive by it on an almost daily basis. I would see it perched on a hill, nestled in greenery. I won't lie that it was one of the things that made me want to go to Univeristy...

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  2. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    I almost became an Architect...almost went the Yale School of Architecture. (couldn't afford it...loans weren't as easy back then)
    And I interned at Cesar Pelli...

    I found I didn't want to become one...didn't like the tedious part of it...and the years of drawing others' work. What can I say, I wasn't disciplined.

    But I still love the buildings to this day...love the texture, love the art.
    Growing up near Yale...those building by the Italian stonemasons...you can feel the warmth in the stone.

    I remember the mansions at Newport RI...having Xmas there, seeing the grand strength of those ornate "summer" homes.

    Even now, one of the reasons I like being near DC is the government buildings...outside and inside...the worn marble.

    And those amazing scale models they did...to demonstrate what it would look like. Such work and effort.
    Heh...I remember having to build life-sized Doric columns to show what a entryway would look like.

    You've got to love Cesar Pelli...he does everything BIG
    He's likely best known for the Malaysian Twin Towers. (The Petronas Towers)
    [​IMG]

    The World Financial Center, Canary Wharf, MOMA
    and don't get me started on the floating airport...geez.
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2013
  3. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    Can you believe that I am still up studying? Therefore I can't devote the amount of time needed to respond to this thread as I'd like to right now. But I love architecture and have become somewhat obsessed with brutalist architecture over the last six months or so after finding a couple of blogs devoted to it on tumblr. It's really beautiful in it's heavy, sullen, brooding way. Ecstatic heaviness and oppression! I love the paradox.

    Here are the blogs:
    we have, of course, fuck yeah, brutalism
    Fuck Yeah Brutalism

    and my favorite, architecture of doom
    Architecture of Doom
     
  4. I like earth architecture like adobe...
    [​IMG]
    When environmental conditions allow, it is genius in its simplicity.
     
    • Like Like x 4
  5. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    In my study stupor and resulting state of hypomania, I forgot about this thread. I have some things to share.
     
  6. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    I'm so ornery and opinionated about architecture and buildings that I should just keep quiet and admire the pictures.
     
  7. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    Architecture and photography. Julius Shulman's photos of 1950's & 1960's Modernism.
    The first architecture that I ever came to love. There are only a handful of truly modernist family homes in Orlando and I think I've seen all of them. I've always appreciated the space age progressiveness; that openness to modernism that we had in the '50s and '60s. So naive, but really simple and attractive.

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    and other modernist buildings:
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    --- merged: Nov 26, 2013 at 7:56 PM ---
    I sort of wish we had stayed on the modernist path.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
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  8. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Jump in! I am sure many of us have opinions on this. I am am curious to see what people like and/or dislike.

    Just be polite about it and all is good. Promise.
    --- merged: Nov 26, 2013 at 8:07 PM ---
    While there have been *some* good buildings made in recent years, my feeling is that developers are pushing cheaper and faceless upon us. Perhaps it has always been like this...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 3, 2013
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  9. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    We've just lost our imagination. Like a lot of things we have lost.
     
  10. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Most people think of the White House or Congress for DC.
    But one of the most interesting...is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (or "The West Wing")

    Kind of looks like a huge Addams Family like building on the outside
    [​IMG]

    But it's just simply gorgeous on the inside...
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG]

    Most get to only see the podium room on TV, where they make presentations and such.
    I was very lucky to have been allowed to see within it.
    They did an incredible job refurbishing it.
     
  11. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Love me some well poured concrete.

    London's Trelick Tower
    [​IMG]

    London's Barbican Estate
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    Robarts Library - University of Toronto
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    A house in Buenos Aires
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    • Like Like x 2
  12. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    That house is one example of what I thought, when I was a kid, that I would live in when I was older.

    To some extent, it's come true. All buildings are made of cement and brick in Singapore (i.e. no wooden framed structures). While my place has its charms, it's nowhere near as cool as that place...
     
  13. Leto

    Leto Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Toronto
    so going back to your OP, and the comment on brutalism - yeah, I often drove past that U of T campus in Scarborough and wondered what it was like. It was so isolated, so spectacular... so concretish.

    I went to Stephen Leacock Collegiate (also in Scarborough) while I was in grade 9 - the entire complex (the grade kindergarten to grade 13 collection of buildings) was experimental back in late '60's when it was built, with poured concrete, consolidated facilities and carpeted open areas abounding.

    here's a pic, would you call it brutal? I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time. Now it looks like a fortress.

    [​IMG]
     
    • Like Like x 1
  14. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    that is brutal. yes.
     
  15. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Yeah, I have a thing for modernist and brutalist architecture.

    I attended York University, which has a good mixture of things. (It was established in 1959 but has had a bunch of buildings added to its campus.)

    I also like art deco furniture.
     
  16. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    Some photos I took of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, FL. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. My photos don't do the interiors justice.

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    The place is getting a little run down but it was sort of exciting to explore the place.
     
  17. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Those open plan schools... ugh. Mostly considered a failure.

    They were, if I remember correctly, a design developed in California. The narrow windows were meant to reduce the heat from the sun... sun that Toronto doesn't see much of over the school year.

    The open plan was meant to encourage collaborative teaching where the central pod served as a flex space for group learning, etc. What they became was, open plan where any class making too much noise disrupted the other class rooms. They only worked when you had teachers willing and able to work together on a curriculum...

    The carpets have all since been pulled up. They were meant to help muffle to noise of such open spaces but in a place where snowy boots are not uncommon, you ended up with mould and dust. Massive allergy and health problems. The spaces are all echo-y now. Very noisy.

    I am sure that the board of ed was sold the idea and it was all about cost savings... the worst ideas usually stem from that.
     
  18. mixedmedia

    mixedmedia ...

    Location:
    Florida
    built in the late '30s - early '40s
    Florida Southern College :)
     
  19. Fangirl

    Fangirl Very Tilted

    Location:
    Arizona
    I do love the look of Washington DC architecture ( the marble!) very much but I have easier access to what Chicago offers and there's plenty. I'm very excited that my son made it official this week that he is to continue work on his engineering degree at this school starting in January:
    Capture.JPG

    He took a tour of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus on Monday and when he returned I asked him if he saw the Mies van der Rohe building to which he replied--huh?

    I'm not a huge fan of the modernist style but I've always like clean lines and open spaces.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  20. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Here are some of what I would say (as well as others) are the worst buildings in Toronto (a city of some very ugly buildings):

    Located at Bloor and Dundas. I can't even express how tense this thing makes me.
    [​IMG]

    A nightmare on Elm Street. Designed by Uno Prii, who has otherwise made some very lovely towers. Just gets it wrong. As someone said, it puts the Brutal in Brutalism.

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    --- merged: Nov 28, 2013 at 3:13 AM ---
    For the record, some examples of Uno Prii's better work.

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    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 5, 2013
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