Nckdictator posted:

Lets get some more terrible government buildings

QUEEN CAUCUS posted:

that's cool as poo poo and supremely evil
I wish the nazis had been able to build their doom fortress

quote:

The Beacon was a towering monument intended for the site in Chicago, Illinois of the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Despradelle designed the Beacon to represent the founding of America, and so it consisted of thirteen obelisks which he said represented the original thirteen colonies. The group of obelisks merged to form a single spire soaring 1,500 feet (approximately 457 metres) above Chicago. This is similar to the height of the Sears Tower, built in the city in 1973.

The Beacon would also represent the future with its benefits to be drawn from "technological leaps forward" in the approaching century. At the apex was to be a brilliant beacon of light with a figurative sculpture called Spirit of Progress to embody what Despradelle called the upward-looking Christian in America. The figure would face Lake Michigan as a monument to the genius of the people and to the dominant feature of their life.

quote:

The National American Indian Memorial was a proposed monument to American Indians to be erected on a bluff overlooking the Narrows, the main entrance to New York Harbor. The major part of the memorial was to be a 165-foot-tall (50 m) statue of a representative American Indian warrior atop a substantial foundation building housing a museum of native cultures, similar in scale to the Statue of Liberty several miles to the north. Ground was broken to begin construction in 1913 but the project was never completed and no physical trace remains today...


On George Washington’s Birthday (Feb. 22, 1913), President Taft attended the dedication ceremony, which was to be his last trip as President. Taft used a silver tipped spade to break ground which was followed by Wooden Leg, a Cheyenne Chief, who “hacked at the soil” with a stone ax which had been discovered on Stated Island some 30 years previously. According to the New York Times, the ax-head was thought to have “been in use before Caesar crossed the Rubicon.” Amongst the dignitaries and press there on that rainy day were over thirty Indian chiefs representing fifteen tribes, including Chief Two Moons, a Northern Cheyenne who fought at Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Dr. George Federick Kunz, the president of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society, had a special treat for those present at the ceremony. He had convinced Director Robert of the Mint to make the ground breaking the occasion for distributing the new nickel, which bore an Indian head on one side and a buffalo on the other. The first of these coins was given to President Taft and then to the remainder of the guests. It was said that the American Indian depicted on the coin could have been any of the 32 chiefs present at the ceremony.

Sadly, this grand monument was to be never more than a pipe dream. Wanamaker went from being the funder to the fundraiser, Daniel Chester French left to work on other projects, and the First World War turned people’s attentions away from such follies. Even the bronze tablet which had been erected during the ground breaking ceremony vanished decades ago.

quote:

In 1963, the Defense Department proposed a solution: the Deep Underground Command Center, or DUCC.

Studies of a DUCC had been percolating since at least 1962. But it was in 1963 that the proposal reached the president's desk, with the approval of both Secretary of Defense McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The DUCC would be a capsule buried 3,500 feet under the Pentagon. Two versions were proposed, a “Moderate” version offering space for 300 people, and an “Austere” version with space for 50, and which could be expanded to the Moderate version if necessary. Elevators would descend from the White House, Pentagon, and State Department to the facility depth, where horizontal tunnels would lead to the capsule.

Officials could descend to the DUCC without leaving their buildings, so there would be no external signs of evacuation – the president could take shelter without the political consequences of visibly leaving Washington, D. C. It was even suggested that officials on the presidential succession list might spend one day a week in the DUCC. That way, no matter what, at least one successor would survive, and be in a position to quickly reestablish control of the military.

It was claimed that the system could withstand multiple direct hits by 200 to 300 megaton nuclear weapons, or by 100 megaton weapons that penetrated to a 70 to 100 foot depth. For comparison's sake, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated had a yield of about 50 megaton, and the largest ever produced in numbers was about 25 megatons. But, in the early 60s, nuclear weapon yields had been steadily growing since their introduction, and 300 megatons seemed like a pessimistic but reasonable extrapolation of Soviet capabilities in the early 70s.

Few details are available on the capsule itself, but some extrapolation is possible based on Army engineering manuals and similar but less extreme facilities. We know the austere version would offer only 5,000 square feet of space, equivalent to a 10' x 10' square for each occupant. The moderate version would be slightly better at 50,000 square feet, or a 13' x 13' square per occupant. The occupied area would be contained within a larger chamber of double the area, and would probably be mounted on gigantic springs to ride out ground shock, which would be the main threat to the system.

It would be theoretically possible to blast out enough dirt to physically breach the DUCC. But a 300 megaton weapon digs only a 967 foot deep crater in granite, requiring four such bombs landing precisely on top of each other to dig out a breach. This sort of accuracy would be difficult even for modern ballistic missiles, although not impossible.

The main damaging mechanism would be the shock wave that is generated in the rock, which would act similarly to an earthquake. Ground shock could directly injure or kill the DUCC's occupants – hence the springs – or it could cause spalling, in which fragments of the chamber roof fall off. To prevent this, the tunnels would probably be lined with cast iron or even stronger materials.

Supplies would be stashed in the capsule for 30 days of “buttoned-up” occupancy, which would hopefully be enough time for surface radiation to cool to survivable levels. Although the main elevator access shafts would probably be collapsed by bombing, multiple tunnels would provide hardened exits outside the likely attack area. In addition, unspecified “hardened communications” would be provided.

In the event of a missile warning, the president and other key officials would reach the protected depths via elevator in only ten minutes, and the capsule in another five. This would be ten minutes less than the time to reach safe distance aboard NEACP. Nonetheless, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were, at best, unenthusiastic about the plan.

In the view of the JCS, the main failing of the DUCC was that it was simply too small. Even the moderate version did not have enough space for an adequate staff. While the president might survive, he would not have the personnel with him to properly analyze the situation and disseminate orders. The JCS estimated that, of the 300 people that could be crammed into the moderate DUCC, at least 175 slots would be filled with personnel for maintenance, communications, housekeeping, and otherwise just keeping the shelter running. The JCS themselves would require a staff of 50 to execute orders received from the president. That left only 75 slots for the president, his advisors, and civilian personnel from the Defense Department, State Department, and other key organizations.

Nostalgia4Dicks posted:

Is that a Babylonian temple is suburbia?

Malf posted:

the talent deficit posted:

here, have some motherfucking arthur erickson





eppich house and graham house, featured in innumerable bad television series shot in vancouver



the grossest building in downtown vancouver and also in whatever the city in caprica was called



ubc's museum of anthropology and also the ugliest building in any show it's appeared on



the law courts in vancouver and probably in xmen or fantastic four or something. this is the INSIDE



this is the outside



this was the fbi headquarters in early seasons of the x-files



starbuck lived here!

thathonkey posted:

These are... not terrible? Especially the first one Maybe there is something architecture nerds will pick up on that I'm not seeing but these are both pretty nice imo.

quote:

Construction on the grandiose project began in the early 1980s, when food rationing and power cuts were common. Some 9,000 homes were demolished, residents were given just days to vacate their homes, churches and synagogues were razed or moved, and two mountains of marble were hacked down for the 84-meter (275-foot) high palace to be built.

quote:

Skopje 2014 (Macedonian: Скопје 2014) is a project financed by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, with the main ideology being based on that of the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, with the purpose of giving the capital Skopje a more classical appeal by the year 2014. The project, officially announced in 2010, consists mainly of the construction of museums and government buildings, as well as the erection of monuments depicting historical figures from the region of Macedonia.

The project has been criticized for constructing nationalistic historicist kitsch. Skopje 2014 has also generated controversy for its cost, for which estimates range from 80 to 500 million euros

I Greyhound posted:

Los Angeles PBS host Hewell Howser lived in this 70's throwback before he passed away.


....

But it's on the top of an extinct volcano!

Nckdictator posted:

...It was claimed that the system could withstand multiple direct hits by 200 to 300 megaton nuclear weapons...

Bluemillion posted:

This dude gets points for building an actual volcano lair.


That is a quarter of a billion tons of TNT.

Bluemillion posted:

That is a quarter of a billion tons of TNT.

Noggin Monkey posted:

Houston. Their building boom is going crazy right now.

Nckdictator posted:

Procopius posted:

XVIII. HOW JUSTINIAN KILLED A TRILLION PEOPLE

THAT Justinian was not a man, but a demon, as I have said, in human form, one might prove by considering the enormity of the evils he brought upon mankind. For in the monstrousness of his actions the power of a fiend is manifest. Certainly an accurate reckoning of all those whom he destroyed would be impossible, I think, for anyone but God to make. Sooner could one number, I fancy, the sands of the sea than the men this Emperor murdered. Examining the countries that he made desolate of inhabitants, I would say he slew a trillion people.

Nckdictator posted:

Lets get some more terrible government buildings

boom boom boom posted:

There's this



It's a house.

There was originally grass growing on those slanted roof panels but they're too steep so it all fell off the first time it rained.

I Greyhound posted:

Los Angeles PBS host Hewell Howser lived in this 70's throwback before he passed away.


....

But it's on the top of an extinct volcano!

ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:

Wasn't this where part of Diamonds Are Forever was shot?

Slaughterhouse-Ive posted:

Koyaanisqatsi owns. What's with Canada and brutalism? Too many architects buying Rush albums in the 70s?

Nckdictator posted:

Also, here have some unbuilt American buildings.

Volcott posted:

This is Central Connecticut State University's student center.





All the architecturebux went to UConn.

Nckdictator posted:

Say Nothing posted:

This is cool, in an MC Escher way.

never trust an elf posted:

it must be hard to label/find rooms in this thing

Nckdictator posted:

Also, unbuilt Nazi buildings that would have collapsed if they tried to build.

Applewhite posted:

Frosted Flake posted:

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

teenytinymouse posted:

Billmac posted:

rocket_350 posted:

ZeusCannon posted:

I realize this makes me a bad person with bad opinions but I think I like most of those. I enjoy the repeated shapes vibe going on.

Ambrose Burnside posted:

Chile's Salvador Allende tbuilt a socialist proto-internet in the early 70s for organizing and optimizing industrial production and the national economy, through a system of distributed telex terminals linked to a control room with a mainframe running economic simulators. and the control room owned

a pipe smoking dog posted:

designed to look like the foredeck of the titanic

Demonachizer posted:

National Library of Belarus

a pipe smoking dog posted:

agreed, also the UBC anthropology building he was so pissed off about is a super cool building a really good museum.

e: also let me introduce you to manchester's (england) two shopping centres the arndale which was so ugly that it actually improved after the IRA blew up half of it (improved half now shown)



And the Trafford centre which the is nightmarish apotheosis of people who don't understand neo-classicism or the phrase "less is more"




(just in case that isn't clear the second picture is the food hall which is designed to look like the foredeck of the titanic)

Manchester is a really cool city for architecture though because it was nearly all built from about 1850 on and contains just about every style of architecture possible.

FreakerByTheSpeaker posted:

Have any of you ever lived in a place like this? I always wondered how the hell you give people directions to your house, or find it when you're walking home from the bar after one too many.

Places like that honestly fill me with dread. There's a place near Nashville that has row, after row, after row, after row of absolutely identical poo poo looking houses that I'm sure it would take months for me to figure out which one was mine without staring at the house numbers that were in a really lovely location that I would hate to rely on for an ambulance to find were there an emergency. I'm going to try and find it and get back to you.