Monument: A New Friend for Yaroslavl
Location: Yaroslavl, Russia
Architect: C. Hubbs & M. Ojrzanowski
Year: 2013
http://competition.su/r/blog/2013/05/37-a-new-friend-for-yaroslavl/
While we await the jury’s decision, we’re gathering votes for the public voting portion of the Yaroslavl Architecture Biennale. Discover the story of Yaroslavl’s “New Friend” and cast your vote by “liking”, “tweeting” and of course “google+ing” the link above!
Monument: Cleveland Museum of Art East Gallery
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Architect: Rafael Vignoly Architects
Year: 2001-2009
Despite the spatial clarity of the existing 1916 Beaux-Arts building by local architects Hubbell & Benes, the Cleveland Art Museum’s organization has become muddled by numerous expansion efforts throughout the years. A brutalist education wing constructed in 1971 by Marcel Breuer further attributed to a stylistic disaccord within the institution. Rafael Vignoly’s masterplan called for the clearing or all additions, except Breuer’s, and rebuilding them symmetrically around a central courtyard in order to reinstate the orginal building as the focal point of the complex.
The East Gallery addition, which houses the museum’s Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary collections, is the first phase in Vignoly’s comprehensive plan to expand, and more importantly reorganize, the museum. The exterior facade treatment of alternating bands of granite and white marble harmonizes with the repetitious facade of the newly renovated Breuer addition in order to more fully integrate it into the complex.
A nearly completed canopied courtyard with additional gallery space, musuem shop, and offices will serve as a common foyer and reception space for the musuem. Scheduled for completion in 2013, this will be the largest cultural project completed in Ohio to date.
Monument: abandoned church on H Street SW
Location: District of Columbia, USA
Artist: Hense
Year: 2012
Atlanta based artist Hense, know for his abstract murals that combine the refinement of highbrow gallery art with street art sensibilities, transformed an abandoned 10,000ft2 church in the nation’s capitol into a neighborhood art piece. Rooted in an exploration of shape and line, the art work balances bold, defined forms and loose, smeared paint strokes that mimic the softness of watercolors- as exemplified by the westwork (pictured).
Monument: The University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts
Location: Toldeo, Ohio
Architect: Gehry Partners
Year: 1989-1992
The Center for Visual Arts, a distinct contrast to the Toldeo Art Museum’s 1912 neoclassical building and home to the University of Toledo’s art department, is the first of two buildings designed by Pritzker laureates commissioned by the institution (the Glass Pavilion being the second). Gehry’s sculptural design, clad in lead-coated copper, was chosen just months after the architect received architecture’s greatest honor with the intention of reinforcing the museum’s world-class reputation.
As with many of the projects in Gehry’s oeuvre, the CVA has attracted some controversy despite coming in under budget and adequately providing for the department’s studios, classrooms, and offices (unlike the ill-fated American Center). Expecting the investment to be too costly, the committee responsible for selecting the architect downsized the facility’s program from 80,000 ft2 to the current 51,000 ft2 which the department has outgrown some five years ago. Although Gehry’s design did account for a future expansion, critics say a less iconic architect could have been chosen to fulfill the department’s needs initially- once again stirring the ever present debate concerning the architect’s role in society.
Monument: Marina City
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Architect: Bertrand Goldberg
Year: 1959-1964
Marina City, Bertrand Goldberg’s model for affordable housing, is a striking example of the ambitious social agenda that served as the foundation of modernist thought. Having studied at the Bauhaus and under Mies van der Rohe, Goldberg believed that society can be uplifted through a nurturing built environment. Co-financed by the Building Service Employees International Union, the development strove to become a symbol of postwar blue-collar prosperity that would provide over 100 new janitorial jobs and counteract the problem of the rapidly shrinking urban middle-class prevalent at the time. Amenities such as shops, a theater, offices, the namesake marina, and an ice-skating rink created vivacity around the two 60-story concrete towers, each containing 450 apartments and parking spaces, that has helped maintained demand to this day.
Goldberg further sought to humanize the formal language of modernism by refuting the insistence on the rigid cartesian grid stating, “We have become aware of the almost alive quality which our structures achieve, and we seek the forms which give the most life to our structures.” Instead he sought to enliven his architecture by exploiting geometric properties of shapes that were more reactive to structural forces within the building- especially the circle. Marina City’s petal-shaped floor plans respond to the human dimension by providing each unit with a balcony, direct access to the buildings core, as well as a more open-ended unparallel unit layout. Pragmatic advantages of these concentric floor plans include uniform structural distances that result in modular interior spaces, no expensive difficult to detail corner conditions, and reduced wind loads.
Monument: Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/ SANAA
Year: 2001-2006
SANAA’s first built work in the United States is as much a unique solution for a home to an immense collection of over 5,000 pieces of glass art as it is a manifest to the 2010 Pritzker Prize Laureates’ vision which strives to create an ethereal, and somewhat paradoxically, natural architecture. Situated in a small picturesque park across the street from, and on axis to, the museum’s original Neoclassical building, the Glass Pavilion is a complimentary counterpoint to its surroundings.
The simple glass and steel box marks definite physical edges for the building and contains the display spaces as well as workshops within. Because of the rigidly compartmentalized floor plan, in which each programmatic function is contained by a glass “bubble,” layered transparencies and unexpected opacities of reflections and glare cast by the curved planes result- distorting these boundaries. Views of the park and adjacent galleries are omnipresent in all parts of the building allowing for closeness to nature in a highly organized, synthetic environment.
Mechanical systems and structure are carefully composed into the design. The cavity between the exterior glass and interior glass galleries is a buffer zone where cool and warm air is redistributed between the galleries and hotshops depending on the season. Subtle, white columns unobtrusively hold up the roof while the opaque galleries and auxiliary spaces, made of sheet steel, provide lateral bracing for the entire structure. The 32,000 ft2 of glass used in the project was made in Austria, curved and laminated in China, then delivered to the site.
Monument: Darwin Martin House Complex
Location: Buffalo, New York
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
Year: 1903-1907
Frank Lloyd Wright’s first commission in the Eastern United States is actually a series of five programmatically different structures strung together along a residential site in the affluent Parkside neighborhood. Darwin D. Martin, one of Buffalo’s richest businessman and a prominent figure at Larkin Soap Company, sought out Wright’s services after the architect built the William E. Martin House for his brother in Oak Park, Illinois. Martin was also instrumental in selecting Wright as the architect for the now demolished Larkin Administration Building.
The complex’s floor plan is based on drawings Wright created to show a new model for American residential architecture titled “A Home in a Prairie Town,” published in the Ladies Home Journal in 1901. The Martin House was the family’s main living space. It consists of 8 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and an open plan library, living room, and dining room. The carriage house (that initially stored carriages and later automobiles), conservatory (a green house that supplied the estate’s plants), as well as the Barton House (a house for Martin’s sister and her family) are united by a low linear pergola. The pergola frames a view onto a statue of Nike of Samothrace in the conservatory from the main entrance of the Martin House.
The entirety is executed in the Prairie Style. Through its use of horizontality, overhanging eaves, organic material expression, craftsmanship, and integration with landscape, the movement strove to establish a uniquely American architecture that stood out against the Neoclassicism prevalent at the time. Wright himself considered the Martin House Complex, a precursor to the more famous Robie House, as one of the most significant in his career, keeping it pinned on his drafting table for nearly 50 years.
Monument: Sorbonne Chapel
Location: Paris, France
Architect:Jacques Lemercier
Year: 1635-1642
The origins of the University of Paris, to which the Sorbonne Chapel is a major defining landmark, date back to the early 12th Century. Located on the Seine’s left bank, the the founding of the University provided an alternative to monastery schools. Free, yet rigorous, courses in law, medicine, arts, and theology drew in a worldly mixture of students to the area. The widespread use of Latin within the university community lead to this area being commonly known as the Latin Quarter.
When Cardinal Richelieu, a prime minister and patron of the arts, became the University’s president in 1622, he hired Jacques Lemercier to redesign the school’s campus buildings in a unified style. The Chapel is the only remaining building from this era and features a baroque facade and centralized floor plan heavily influenced by Rome’s Il Gesu church. It creates a connection with existing Sorbonne buildings through an entrance onto an interior courtyard as well as serves as the focal point of a public square (pictured).
The Chapel was completed in 1642, the same year as Richelieu’s death, and became his final resting place.
Monument: Quadracci Pavilion
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Architect: Santiago Calatrava
Year: 1994-2001
In order to generate a more visible identity for their institution, the Milwaukee Art Museum hired Santiago Calatrava to design a building in his signature style next to the existing Eero Saarinen designed War Memorial Center. What initially began as a modest plan for an addition rapidly grew in scale as funding increased due to excitement surrounding the project. The resulting museum, Calatrava’s first State-side commission, employs the architect’s signature architectural language of white poured-in-place concrete, graceful curves, and cutting edge engineering to full effect. Two 217ft operable wings, made of 72 steel fins, act as a sunscreen and create a dramatic show for visitors during opening and closing hours.
Big shoutout goes out to The Pittsburgh History Journal, our 100th follower. Thanks for the support everyone.
-more posts in the near future
Monument: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Location: New York, New York
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
Year: 1959
Monument: Torre Pendente di Pisa (Leaning Tower of Pisa)
Location: Pisa, Italy
Architect: unknown
Year: 1173-1264
Thanks AintNoBonesInIceCream!
Monument: Maison du Brésil
Location: Paris, France
Architect: Lucio Costa and Le Corbusier
Year: 1953
This blog, first and foremost, is about capturing the beauty and drama of architecture.
It presents the environment in a way that's detached from the serious perspective that is placed on architecture in academia.
Enjoy the juxtaposition of these two elements, but don't linger on the subtle tastelessness of our approach.
(let's rage)
