The Architecture Thread

[robin]

Didn't mean to hate on you if it came across that way. I just really despise that building.

 

[poppies]

It's cool, but have you worked there or something?

 

[PinkPantser]

I really like this room in that library:

 

[PinkPantser]

My favorite 'residential' architecture:

In Igualada, Spain by architect Enric Miralles

 

[robin]

Originally Posted by poppies

It's cool, but have you worked there or something?
Just a patron for awhile, and I unfortunately live close to it.

Besides that I hate Koolhaas's style, here are my main complaints with this building in particular:
* It's difficult to get around in and find materials. They forgot to add in escalators going down on the upper floors and it feels like they could have used a layout from a dungeon in a Legend of Zelda video game. Good luck finding the stairs for the meeting floor (which is entirely all red).
* It's mostly empty space and is very cavernous. You can hear noise from many of the different floors at once. For a very big building there are a surprisingly low number of books inside.
* The stacks where most of the books are kept are just dumb. They threw out like a hundred years of good library practices for sake of their design.

On a lesser note, there is an art installation of videos of eyeballs and mouths projected on some spheres that you have to pass by when you go up the floors which creeps me out.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by robin

Bullshit, go actually try and work in there. It's a complete failure of a library. You'll need those architecture drawings to use as a map to find your way inside, btw.

I've never actually tried to use the library, but I took a tour of it and it seems laid out very well. My wife, who is a librarian, thought it was very well done. As the earlier poster said, signage was good, collections are organized in a thoughtful way, etc.

And I like the crazy design.

b

 

[JetBlast]

Originally Posted by robin

Bullshit, go actually try and work in there. It's a complete failure of a library. You'll need those architecture drawings to use as a map to find your way inside, btw.

As someone who works part-time circulation in a library, I would hate having to move carts of books around in that place. Hopefully they have an abundance of elevators for staff use.

 

[nathan]

I think this is one of the coolest libraries around:

 

[JetBlast]

To add to the above.

Unfortunately I will have to go to my subpar library tomorrow for work and it will make me sad we can't have a cool library like Vancouver.

 

[hypersonic]

Oscar Niemeyer: staircase

Minoru Yamasaki: World Trade Center

David Chipperfield: Americas Cup Building

 

[freshcutgrass]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

Brutalist house:

I know that house well (Taivo Kapsi 1968 )...always loved it...great midtown location too (South Hill, near Casa Loma)

Inner city Toronto is a strange combo of tons of detached houses & highrises, that was booming during the late 50's through the 70's, when this style was popular. There's even a book out recently called "Concrete Toronto" that celebrates the beauty of raw concrete.

There's quite a bit of this style in the city. Houses using strict brutalist style is a little rare, because of the lack of windows. But raw concrete seems to be making a comeback.

 

[StylenotFashion]

I've always felt "Falling Water" has been the benchmark for the modern house.

 

[George]

Interesting, discuss....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7899157.stm

 

[Mildly Consumptive]

One of my local favourites is Old City Hall in Toronto. It doesn't photograph very well, but it's a bit of a Richarsonian Romanesque masterpiece.

When they built New City Hall in the sixties, the original plan was to demolish Old City Hall. People complained and they found another use for it as a court building.

 

[Reborn]

Originally Posted by StylenotFashion

I've always felt "Falling Water" has been the benchmark for the modern house.

And to think that these were the costs:

Originally Posted by Fallingwater Wiki

At the time of its construction, the house cost a total of $155,000.[15] broken down as follows:[7] house $75,000, finishing and furnishing $22,000, guest house, garage and servants quarters $50,000, architect's fee $8,000. Accounting for inflation, this translates to about $2.3 million in 2007 dollars.[16]

Think about all the crap people would build for $2.3 million today. None of it is going to look that good 70 years from now.

I'm planning a trip to go see that as well as Kentuck Knob in the spring.