Architecture

I can’t decide which one I like best, I’ll have to return and savour each slide later tonight.

As an aside, a tongue-in-cheek research piece “The Skyscraper Index: Faulty Towers” from an investment house in 1999 had observed that a new record for world’s tallest building tends to occur just before the next major economic downturn. Records include the :

The Singer Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, NY, launched New York just before the 1907 Bankers Panic

40 Wall Street, Empire State, Chrysler , 1929 Great Depression

World Trade Center Towers, Sears Tower, 1973, during the 1973–1974 stock market crash and the 1973 oil crisis.

The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Completed in 1998, just in time for the Asian financial crisis.

The Burj Khalifa (currently world’s tallest) built just before Dubai almost went bust.

The Shard London Bridge, declared the tallest building in the European Union, in Dec. 2011…no elaboration needed……

Personally, I think 2013 is going to be even worse economically, the Skyscraper index appears to be another indicator suggesting this. Now under construction, One World Trade Centre will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, China is currently the biggest builder of skyscrapers, despite many being empty and India itself has 14 under construction

http://azizonomics.com/2012/06/20/skyscraper-index-indicates-next-global-crash-in-2013/

MISS SPRING:  That is a marvelous collection of Data !!!  Amazing, and truly interesting ... Not one who believes in Luck or Coincidence, I have to wonder why the Government has Fourteen Thousand disused Buildings in this country, that is costing Taxpayers 1.5 Billion Dollars a Year to maintain ....... Why are they not made into Homeless Shelters, Low-Cost Housting, Public Health Facilities, Storage Facilities, Parking Garages, or Condos for Veterans, Trade Schools or some other facility that would generate Income/Rentals ???  How many jobs could be created to handle Maintenance and Mowing ???  Good Sense is simply not that hard to follow .......
 
As to Architecture ... I have always enjoyed Architecture as Giant pieces of Art, that generally speaks of the Culture that produced it, and that which occupies it ...  I love it all, but prefer Mediterranean with just a touch of the Moors ... It is simple, strong, durable, Thermally Efficient, and lends itself well to the eclecticism of the piratical Collector/Decorator ....... I do prefer Adobe to be replaced with Color-enriched DRI-VIT, because it is easy to build with, over a Steel Frame, and it is near Bullet Proof in that when Set, it can withstand a 105 Cannon Shot at twenty feet, without allowing the projectile to penetrate ... R27 Insulation Factor with only 5/8 inch Blown On ... Sheet Metal Roof laced together with Pittsburghs, and Fire Insurance Costs are miniscule ... The filips possible are virtually endless;  Portico Cher out front, Verandah, Covered-Full Open Patio out back or on the side , and the Cover a marvelous Dancefloor, with proper Railing or a Giant Birdcage built over that Roof/Floor in Wrought Iron ... to preclude anyone's falling overboard .......
Its all a matter of Cubic Dollars, but if one is going to spend enough money to build a House from scratch, in the first place ... one ought to have what he wants .......

Good morning Ivan! So glad to see someone before heading off to bed. Hope you had a great weekend!

You lost me there on Adobe and DRI-VIT but a quick read filled me on at least the superficial. There's a facility near my farm which makes compressed straw bricks for homes, they can't churn out enough bricks. My business partner's home, very palatial, is made from polystyrene boxes, the very same type of boxes that we pack live abalone in for live export to China. I think it is not uncommon in parts of the US but here, he had to owner-build. They're really quick to put up and have excellent insulating and fire retardant qualities.

Actually, what I find really interesting about real estate today is that the sector related to "survivalists" is booming, and the hotspot in the US is the NW corner, specifically in the vicinity of Idaho. I'm not sure I want to be alive if Armageddon really arrives.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=157753389

Huffing-post article today reveals some pretty spectacular newbie Architectural sound additions on mother Earth,  hopefully built by the "green rules,"; would love to tour anyone of these buildings grandly pictured; it was always an occasion, a special "eye pleasing" tour, to go downtown New York City and visit the Empire State, World Trade Center, Chrysler buildings; the multi-million convention "green," center of Pittsburgh caused quite a stir when it had a sectional million-dollar fault collapse,( the cause was blamed that it was built in a hurry, so the construction workers complained.); Spring Fragrance good informational web-sites; Skyscrapers built gargantuous come @ a ginormous price! You have to find tenants to filler-up! Underground living and/or living on the moon, I have no interest in participating at my age, now "continental hopping"...is more my game...exits for a fall foliage walk in multi-colored plaid jeans with Taro, the Akita, in tow wearing a red bandana kerchief. wrote a poem for fall @ the end of yesterdays post. :)

Frank Lloyd Wright. And some of the best masters of the art deco movement. My house, however, is Itialianette Reniassance period, erected in 1928 from a design the builder saw in Florida. Around here it is unique. I really like the Chicago Tribune's architecture critic, his selections keep me full of fresh ideas.....

I really enjoyed looking at the 10 pictures in the article and of course, in homage to my NY Architect father, chose the NY Times Building. I do not know if he would have.

I did not enjoy leaving the architectural eye candy tour and walking into Armegeddon. Please don't take it personally SF but sometimes there is a big difference to the end of the day and gradual beginning. Our geographic differences are one of the wonderful things about this Village but occasionally the time zones interfere.

Today would be an incredible day to walk around N.Y.C. As my father used to say, there are not only the iconic buildings, there is something wonderful to see on literally every block.

Ah, dark roast...maybe NOW will be when I remember how to spell.

Ma Typical used to say "it sticks out like a sore thumb" A slow learner I am but later my inner Howard Roark came out and I got it....architecture must FIT the location and the culture. One of my biggest beefs is you don't know where you are anymore. That pre-planned sameness is so Orwellian to me. The local flavor enhanced by showpiece designs not gaudy distractions is how the past and the future produce a 'pleasing present presence'. Eclectic does not have to be icky.

Having the second cup of java, reading Peterman, watching the leaves fall outside my window....Lovely Sunday morning to all!

As I observed the architecture photos chosen as the most intriguing in the Huff Post article, I missed some that I would have thought were also artistic. Maybe it was the constraint of which decade, or which ground rules, but I'd have added the art museum in Milwaukee by Calatrava.....reminds me of a whale's tail, but so white and lovely there on the blue of the lake:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=milwaukee+art+museum+architecture&qpvt=milwaukee+art+museum+architecture&FORM=IGRE

As for living, I am so traditional that I like my boxy, woodsy house with 2 levels, screened porches, decks, hot tub, and hills all around me. Hundreds of trees give shade, leafy bowers, and scads of squirrels and birds to enjoy. My street is quiet, a semicircle loop with little traffic, except for the deer crossing. I like cozy homes with fireplaces, big open kitchens, plus rocking chairs and swings on porches. That's just me. Let someone else have House 8 or glass and steel.

Spring - Thanks for the facts and dire warning about survival building! Guess I have to get my shovel out and start my underground shelter with air filters. Things are pretty bad in the US economy, but I am optimistic, as always.

It took 90 years if not 190 years to
build the Notre Dame de Paris. Must have been an exceptional punch list for the
builders. Today skyscrapers go up in six months.  They just don't seem to
be the same labors of love. Although I suppose each building has a mother
architect who loves her little creature..

I don’t know what it is about the
human inclination for building. I’m with you ChefDeb, a slow walk in Manhattan
or even Chicago, Venice, Paris on a fine autumn day, to stop, look up and take
it all in, exploring the  vision, the
passion and the craftsmanship that we sometimes feel has vanished.  It was all modern, once.

Like Ivan, I love the gargantuan
sculpture that architecture, like a misconstructed sentence, can grow into
becoming.

Mooseloop, your "As for living. . . " sounds like my kind of living.

 Dri-vet is a most useful product, yes indeed Ivan. When we built this house ten years ago, we used lots of it - and bricks and mortar.  I think nothing can beat a brick house, not that brick in the front only charade, I don't get its purpose other than trying to fool people into thinking it's all brick - Anyhow we used brick and mortar so if anyone's going to huff and puff and try to blow this house down, they'll pass out trying.

springF - I think I agree with your last paragraph in your 8:18 post....If global terror and bombing, fallout, and total contamination occurs, I am not sure it would be worthwhile to remain alive....I studied some disaster shelters and it just does not look like quality of life existence.....Maybe I need to get my mind into the NW attitude of the USA that you mentioned.....Are there movies to see to start?

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=building+an+underground+shelter&qpvt=building+an+underground+shelter&FORM=IGRE

See what I mean....Is that going to be quality life after a few weeks, months, yrs??

When Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built his Taliesan West home/studio/school using materials indigenous to the desert and mountains housing it, his goal was to have the eye scan over it before it was unconsciously compelled to go back and see what marvel was hidden in plain sight. Once constructed and attached, it became part of and belonged to the whole.

Peace out.

Many "Advances" really are beneficiaL, and not just Science and Technology making a bigger footprint, on the road to sterility ...  DRI-VIT is Polymerized Concrete, and is absolutely great stuff, while looking very Old World Oceanic ... Or even like a 16th. Century Hacianda ... depending I guess on whether or not the place abounds in Blue Italian Cypress and Royal Crown Palms ... or Mesquite and Black Oak, with a dozen or so Nopal Cactus scattered around .......
 
Either way, it is marvelous stuff, resistant to mold and mildew, discoloration from the Sun, and absolutely no need to repaint every three years .......  Ivy climbs on it like crazy .......

I like layer cakes,that seem as tall as skyscrapers

I like layer cakes,that seem as tall as skyscrapers

Seems we humans are often in competition with nature to build something grand. Surely, this impossible goal is worth pursuing. I often wonder if Gehry's museum in Bilbao Spain and its reflection of the Nervion River was planned or a happy accident. If it was planned, Einstein has company.