Facade Friday

Facade Friday! - Historical Edition

This is one of my all-time favorite facades. Just look at those volutes!

I will buy the first person to identify this building in the comments a beer. Happy Memorial Day!

Facade Friday!

In honor of spring, let's look at facades that are exuberently colorful.

Expansion of the Palais des Congrès de Montréal designed by a collaboration of Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc et Associés with Saïa et Barbarese Architectes, Ædifica, and Hal Ingberg Architect. Image from ArchitectureWeek.com

I love this texture-

This one is actually a brise soleil or "sunscreen". Sounds much fancier to say "brise soleil". Look at what is looks like from the back:

Images from 2modern.com

I love the way the colors reflect against the granite wall. It's a school in Barcelona by Mestura Arquitectos.

This one looks like a watercolor - very lovely:

Image from cubeme.com

It's the Ruban Youth Center by KOZ architects.

And how could I have a blog post about colorful facades without throwing a little Hundertwasser Haus in?

Image from the muslimahsuitcase blog

Happy spring!

Brenda Arrives

Image from Capitol Hill Seattle


Alas, Brenda has made her last sweep from the Capitol Hill Station to the Pine Street Stub. We'll miss you rumbling away beneath us, old girl.

Full article here.

This

More "flap?" on the 2012 Pritzker Prize

Facade Friday!

Wow, look at this one:

It's the Dream Hotel in NYC by Handel Architects. What everyone is saying (and what is true!) is that it
looks like a giant Connect 4 game.

I do like the way the openings wrap down to the horizontal plane over the entry:

Basically, it seems that the entire parti of this building is: "Perforated!"

It's a bit of a one liner, and I think it's ok as a unique element. But we have to be careful - there really can be only one building like this on a block, or even in a district. A building that is so out of context and scale with it's neighbors starts to exist in a vacuum - so long as the buildings around it "play by the rules" this one can get away with breaking them - I guess? One big plus for this project in my book is that it's an adaptive re-use. So kudos for that!

Building mages from Dezeen.

Wang Shu - Update

Photo from archpaper.com

Wang Shu has stated that his wife and design collaborator Lu Wenyu should have been named along with him and shared in his recent Pritzker Prize.
Read about it here.
This is very interesting. And it is entirely a result of the system of "starchitecture" and the celebration of individualism in our profession. I blame Hoard Roarke. I should blame Ayn Rand! No matter who you blame, behind every single-named firm - if they are doing work of any scale other than single family -lies a team of collaborators who are also responsible for the work. But we'd rather give the big award to the individual. Especially if that individual is a man. Le sigh.