August 2011

8/30/11

Myer National Office, Docklands Melbourne

James Gross of Bligh Voller Nield of BVN architects designed the Myer's national office in Melbourne, Australia. It was completed in 2010 at 800 Collins Street, Docklands, next to the ANZ Centre.

This and other Myer buildings in Melbourne have interesting curtain wall systems that refract and reflect light to interact with its surroundings. The cubical building brutally protrudes with few interruptions in the opaque walls. The internal structure is half-evident through this skin. The black 5-star rated environmentally healthy building shimmers in stone-white in direct sunlight.

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8/27/11

Early American Art 2, Smithsonian Washington D.C.

George Bellows (1882-1925) New York (1911) American, oil

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) Repose (1911) American, oil

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924) Salem Cove (1916) American, oil

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1876) American, oil

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Right and Left (1919) American, oil

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) Baby at Play (1876) American, oil


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) Allies Day, May 1917 (1917) American, oil	Frank Weston Benson Margaret (Gretchen) Strong (1909) American, oil

James McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) Mother of Pearl and Silver The Andalusian (1894) American, oil

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York

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The Lincoln Center was established by John D. Rockefeller under an urban renewal program by Robert Moses. The 16 acre complex replaced the homes of 7,000 families, at a cost of $184.5 million. It opened in 1962 with the Fordham Law School. Wallace Harrison laid out the master plan for the complex and designed the Metropolitan Opera House. Architects and their designs include:

Modernist Eero Saarinen- Vivian Beaumont Theater (1985, 1,080 seats)
Philip Johnson- David H. Koch Theater (1964)
Lee S Jablin- 3 Lincoln Center
Gordon Bunshaft- New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Pietro Belluschi- The Juilliard School (1969) and Alice Tully Hall (1969)
Max Abramovitz- Avery Fisher Hall (1962)

The buildings are laid out in a classical arrangement around a large fountain. The modernist design evoke classical structural elements. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien recently completed the David Rubenstein Atrium, and Diller, Scofidio + Renfro recently renovated the central plaza.
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8/26/11

Museum of Art, Seoul National University Korea

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OMA designed the MOA at SNU in Seoul, Korea. OMA's typical rigorous design strategy began with a pedestrian path linking the university and the local community. A minimalist block of building is sliced by these public pathways, and by the steep topography. The result is a hovering cantilevered steel structure on a concrete core. The pure glass facade on this steel structure makes the building unassuming in this strategy.

The circulation through the site determines the unique vertical circulation through the building. Servant operational spaces occupy the concrete core, while educational, library, and exhibition spaces fill the floating block. These functions are stacked by importance and by future opportunities for growth. Materials further define the individual character of spaces. The same design strategy can be seen in the Seattle library, with a very similar form.

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8/25/11

State Assembly, Chandigarh Punjab/Haryana India

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Les Corbusier designed the State Legislative Building for Chandigarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana states. Completed in 1961, this Brutalist concrete structure embodied classic modernist principles of form and function.

The city's master plan functioned like a human body, with organs and complex systems. Corbusier separated function types into zones, political, industrial, commercial, and educational. A large grid aligned buildings, and each indivitual building had its grid to to form a rational arrangement of space. Traditional Indian architecture led Corbusier to invent a shading device that is now common to be seen: Brise soleil.

The assembly chamber erupts from the top of the rectangular building like a volcano. The front facade rolls back like a tidal wave from this eruption. Repetitive structural elements fit in around these symbolic elements, and an outer skin of shading devices crown the exterior.

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8/24/11

Trutec Building, Seoul Korea

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Barkow Leibinger of Berlin designed the TRUTEC building in Seoul's new Digital Media City. The 55ft high exterior glazing refracts in geometric patterns that project outward. The interior view is a unique perspective of the urban environment, and the street view is a fractured reflection of the sky. It could be a digital interpretation of its surroundings. Emphasis on sunlight is apparent, even leading to the design decision to move the elevator shaft in the farthest north corner. The vertical ascent to a roof garden affirms an aspiration to the sky and sunlight.

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8/23/11

Early American Art, Smithsonian Washington D.C.

Thomas Moran (1837-1926) Green River Cliffs, Wyoming (1881) American, oil

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) El Rio de Laz (1877) American, oil

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) The Voyage of Life Manhood (1840) American, oil

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) The Voyage of Life Old Age (1840) American, oil

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) The Voyage of Life Childhood (1842) American, oil

Thomas Cole 1842 The Voyage of Life Youth American, oil

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) The Spirit of War (1851) American, oil

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) John Johnstone, Betty Johnstone, and Miss Wedderburn (1795)

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) Autumn on the Hudson River (1860) American, oil

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) Lake Lucerne (1858) American, oil


Gilburt Stuart (1755-1828) Thomas Jefferson (1821) American, oil	Gilburt Stuart (1755-1828) John Adam (1821) American, oil

Gilburt Stuart (1755-1828) George Washington (1821) American, oil	Jacob Eichholtz (1776-1842) The Ragan Sisters (1820) American, oil