Speleothing posted:

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Applewhite posted:

Thread needs more Bruce McCall

Honj Steak posted:

Applewhite posted:

Thread needs more Bruce McCall

Honj Steak posted:

quote:

The other day I was driving through Setagaya Ward when I came across your M2 building. Even today it retains its air of audacity. Am I right in thinking that was your first major job?

Yes. I got that job in a competition. In about 1986 I came back from America and in 1988 I did that.

A lot of people say that M2 is very different from your current work because it is so bold, but I have read that with that design you were attempting to incorporate the chaos that is Tokyo into a building. So, in a sense, that would be consistent with your current approach — in that you were allowing the building to be “defeated” by the surrounding chaos. How do you view the M2 building now?

I think I had a lot of guts! Yes, I did want to incorporate the chaos into the building, but I also wanted to break architecture into small parts — into particles. That hasn’t changed. So, in that way, there are all sorts of elements brought together — such as the column and the walls that imitate the expressways and so on.

That idea of breaking a large mass down into particles remains important for me.

At the time of the M2 job, concrete was pretty much the only material available to me, but since then I have started to use wood and other things that allow me to break the building down even further.

That is now the most important factor I consider — breaking the materials down to a scale that is not overpowering to the visitor.

Your M2 building caused quite a controversy and, some say, led to a blank of about 10 years in your career when you did very little work in Tokyo. How did you get over that — and also manage to maintain your own office at the same time?

There was indeed a period of about 10 years when I did nothing in Tokyo. But at the time I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to work in the countryside, in natural settings.

So, after M2, I didn’t get so many job offers in Tokyo, but I did start to do work outside of the capital and that was a lot of fun. I liked traveling and meeting people in other places.

I was born in Yokohama (at the southern end of the vast greater Tokyo conurbation) and raised in this area, so I always had a kind of romantic longing for country life. I also started becoming more interested in traditional architecture and in using more organic materials.

quote:

In 1993, the Desert Inn was purchased by ITT/Sheraton. The Desert Inn had a large surface parking lot to the south of the resort (which now holds Wynn Las Vegas). Their first plans were a Balinese Resort called Desert Kingdom.

quote:

ITT/Sheraton's second plan for the Desert Inn land (now under the Wynn complex) struck a deal with the dudes from Planet Hollywood and came up with some crazy plans for a Planet Hollywood resort on the property.

quote:

There have been two locations for the London Resort and Casino, and both of them have had a giant observation wheel (from the Giant Wheel Co.) The resort was to include a Harrod's department store, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, a Piccadilly Square shopping area and many other London themed attractions.

quote:

The Titanic resort, 400 feet long and containing 1,200 rooms, would have been one of the most heavily themed fantasy resorts in Las Vegas. The concept was rejected by the Las Vegas City Council. This was proposed for the big lot across the strip from the Sahara.

quote:

The original rendering for the MGM Grand was a real OZtravaganza. Rainbows, OZ-esque architecture, dancing fountains, monorails, and an MGM bat-signal

quote:

...We learned everything we could about the Starship – its actually size and dimensions, how it would exist in “dry dock” on the planet if indeed such a situation had been possible. We imagined what it could be, and how we might achieve it. We got Ken Ball (former head of engineering at Disney’s MAPO) involved to figure out how to engineer and support it. (Ultimately we realized we would need to add some supports on the outer edge of the “disc” section due to the extremely high wind conditions in Vegas. For this we created a high tech “scaffolding structure” that gave the ship more of the appearance of being in an open-air dry dock. I have not yet located that sketch, but I’ll try to find it.)

The “big idea” was building the ship itself at full-scale. That was the main attraction. That being said, we also knew we would have to have some kind of “show” on board. So, conceptually, it was to be a “tour” of the ship, with all of the key rooms, chambers, decks, and corridors that we knew from the movie. There was to be the dining area for the ship’s crew (where you could dine in Star Fleet comfort), and other special features. There were also one or two interesting ride elements that we were considering including a high-speed travelator that would whisk you from deck to deck. But we were really just getting into the show aspects when everything came to a head....

Nckdictator posted:

Nckdictator posted:

http://www.thegoddardgroup.com/blog/index.php/now-it-can-be-told-the-star-trek-attraction-that-almost-came-to-life-in-1992/

Tochiazuma posted:

I don't know what the gently caress the OP is on about and most of this thread is full of architechtural goodness as far as my untutored eye goes, but I think many will agree that this is an eyesore:



Mississauga (Ontario, Canada) city hall. Horrific.

Honj Steak posted:

Nckdictator posted:

Lets look at Vegas, where good taste goes to die.

http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/dreams2.htm#.VPdRVOE9Vyi


















http://www.thegoddardgroup.com/blog/index.php/now-it-can-be-told-the-star-trek-attraction-that-almost-came-to-life-in-1992/

Omi-Polari posted:

I remember going to the Star Trek thing in Vegas and it was pretty rad. They had actors dressed up as Klingons wandering around the gift-shop mall thing. I think it closed down, though. Giant Enterprise owns.

Applewhite posted:

Tommy Calamari posted:

The clock tower building is insane, it's the fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world. The smaller towers would be massive skyscrapers on their own; the four beside the clock tower are roughly the same height as Germany's tallest building.

Mordja posted:

When will zeppelins make a comeback?

More from Toronto: The Aga Khan museum looks like it's been turned upside down.

Ogive posted:

This is pretty proper for Mississauga. Missisauga is where souls go to die. Well, maybe not die, exactly. More like slowly dissolved.

Applewhite posted:

Some more Bruce McCall for you guys:

Tochiazuma posted:

I like to imagine that it gives people in Mississauga something to do. Like, stand there and examine the layers of ugly. Because I'm sure there's gently caress all else to do there.

quote:

Here is an article from the Baltimore Sun, published on February 12th, 1887.

The Grant Memorial Bridge.– There has been sent to us from Washington an admirably engraved representation of the memorial bridge which it is proposed to construct across the Potomac from Washington to Arlington, in honor of Gen. U.S. Grant. A bill to carry the proposition into effect was introduced in the House of Representatives on Wednesday last by Mr. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, was read twice, and referred to the committee on public buildings and grounds. According to the pans submitted by Captain Symons, of the United States corps of engineers, and Architects Smithmeyer and Pelz, the starting point of the bridge on the Washington side would be Observatory Hill, near the foot of New York and New Hampshire avenues, and thence across the Potomac to some point near Arlington, as may ultimately be determined upon by a commission, to be composed of the Secretary of War, the chief justice [sic] of the United States, the engineer-in-chief of the United States army, and one member of the Senate and another of the House, to be chosen by the respective presiding officers of those bodies. The preamble to the bill declares it to be “the desire of the people of the United States that a monument of imperishable material should be erected in honor of its greatest soldier of a design suitable to commemorate his distinguished services;” and that the most appropriate design is a grand monumental bridge to connect Washington with the sacred grounds of Arlington, where fifteen thousand Union soldiers lie buried.” The object of the bridge appears to be to afford easy access to the thousands who go to Arlington from year to year to scatter flowers on the graves of those who lost their lives in defense of the Union. The bridge it is proposed to build for this purpose, as represented by the engraving of it, is what might be called a medieval structure of granite and steel, with square and round towers and turrets, arches of different spans, and a drawbridge over the main channel to admit the passage of vessels. Its total length, including the approach, is to be 4,650 feet, or 630 feet less than a mile. The carriage-way is to be forty feet wide and the sidewalks each ten feet wide. The main arch spans are to be 240 feet in the clear, the bascule span 160 feet and the smaller spans 120 feet each. no such elaborate and imposing structure of the bridge kind has ever been built or even contemplated before in the United States, and its resemblance to the causeway of a great fortress, approached by a series of fortified outworks, is kept up by the bold arches spanning the roadway and their supporting towers and turrets. Although the cost of such a work of the strength and elaborateness proposed is not given, it must necessarily be very great, for to simply commence the construction of the bridge the bill calls for an appropriation of half a million of dollars.


The spot where this bridge would have been built is now traversed by Arlington Memorial Bridge.

quote:

Rendering of the Proposal for the Washington Monument grounds, by the Senate Park Commission, 1901-02.The wide steps, the circular pool, and the terraced gardens were all intended to provide a more dignified base for the monument, while resolving the awkward geometry resulting from its placement off the axis from the White House.

Nckdictator posted:

That's really awesome art. Is there a book of it?

Mordja posted:

When will zeppelins make a comeback?

More from Toronto: The Aga Khan museum looks like it's been turned upside down.

Say Nothing posted:

Angela Christine posted:

Imagine being the pizza man.


Or what if you live in unit 1308, your your buddy lives in 1325. If you want to visit him, how do you get there?

Honj Steak posted:

Speleothing posted:

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Rianeva posted:

The Museum of Glass in Tacoma


A new apartment building in the Seahawks' stadium's parking lot. It looks like someone jammed three different buildings together and said "welp. good enough."