October 2008

10/31/08

Ingalls Hockey Rink, Yale University

^worobod - flickr/cc license
Here's a classic Eero Saarinen design, the Ingalls Hockey Rink for Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Completed in 1958, this building changed roof structural systems for arena types. The cost ended up being twice the original budget, and there have been costly renovations since.

The timber roof is supported by tensile cables and reinforced concrete arches. Saarinen developed a fluid typology for these arches give the building a pleasant round hump.

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^kathia shieh - flickr/cc license

Hyatt Regency, San Francisco

^dannyfowler - flickr/cc license
The Hyatt in San Francisco's financial district was designed in 1972 by John Portman, that's right something good came out of the seventies. An extensive brutal concrete structure is layered around a central atrium with gardens hanging down. The layers protrude farther into the atrium as they step. The triangular tower affords spectacular views of the bay, particularly the Ferry Building. The rooftop restaurant revolves completely around.

A Charles Perry sculpture sits in the middle of the atrium.

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^popculturegeek.com - flickr/cc license

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^D'Arcy Norman - flickr/cc license

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^sergeymk - flickr/cc license

^dannyfowler - flickr/cc license

Levine Hall, University Of Pennsylvania

^The West End - flickr/cc license
The Melvin J and Claire Levine Hall on the University Of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia by KieranTimberlake Associates. A glazed curtainwall system offers connections between the inside and outside while permitting large amounts of daylight. Mathematical ratios involving the golden section leaves the building as a whole object, yet the scale and festration respond to the context and surrounding buildings.

It opened in 2002 and received a 2004 American Architecture award.

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^The West End - flickr/cc license

^jcreed - flickr/cc license

10/30/08

Boldt Castle, Thousand Islands New York

^Quasimime - flickr/cc license
If there's one building perfect for Halloween this is it. It's located on Heart Island on the St. Lawrence River in New York. G.W.&W.D. Hewitt designed this six story "castle" and four accompanying romantic masonry structures. The owner, George Boldt, ordered construction to stop, however, when his wife died. Theirs was a young marriage, she was just fifteen, but their young passion drove him to construct the monument to their love. Boldt and his children refused to step foot on the island for 73 years.

The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority bought the property for one dollar in agreement to restore it. Restorations have exceeded $15 million. The complex of 11 buildings remains a haunting reminder America's Gilded Age. It's a tragedy that reminds one of the Winchester House or Neuschwanstein.

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^theschulers09 - flickr/cc license

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^daysofthundr46 - flickr/cc license

^Allen McGregor - flickr/cc license

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^Quasimime - flickr/cc license

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^Gary Soup - flickr/cc license

Nobel Peace Centre, Oslo Norway

^alh1 - flickr/cc license
The Nobel Peace Center in Norway is a restoration project for a space that presents all the Nobel Peace Prize laureates with art and history exhibits. Adjaye Associates redesigned Oslo's oldest railway station, built in 1872. Platforms became galleries and the exterior became a glowing white Italian aesthetic facing a medieval brick castle. Between the two, they placed a large art sculpture that represents peace.

The starlit sculpture mirrors the building interior, with more interesting lighting. The lobby is deep red, exciting the visitor before they enter the ethereal exhibit space. It opened in 2005.

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^we-make-money-not-art - flickr/cc license

10/29/08

Vitra Fire Station, Weil Am Rhein Germany

Unquestionably the most successful design by Zaha Hadid so far, winning her a Pritzker Prize, the Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein is a dynamic deconstruction of mankind's most fascinating phenomenon: fire.

Weil Am Rhein is one of those unknown, special little town on the Germany, France, Swiss border. It had already boasted works from great architects like Frank Gehry.
Vitra, a Swiss furniture design company, is also known for hiring popular architects, such as Tadao Ando.

The design conveys an urgency that is associated with fire stations, with fleeting shapes that break away and interior facades that permit light as horizontal beams of speed. The arrow pointed concrete peace is held up precariously from what seems like the skeletal structure of a burnt out building. The concrete form seems impervious to the dynamic change of fire, yet something has obviously moved it and deconstructed it.

Built in 1993, this took the fire station as it was, a home away from home and efficient utilitarian station, and uncovered the true human meaning.

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