I do think the reactionary style amongst planning and zoning boards is in large part due to the depredations of modernism. After all, if you've seen large swaths or your city transformed into glass wind tunnels, you might develop a soft spot for "nice" architecture, no matter how bland or derivative.
Of course, you have to acknowledge that the real "failure" of modernist architecture was its amenability to cheap and fast construction, serving as legitimatizing cover for countless soulless knockoffs of some actually pretty sterling buildings. Not unlike the dreary mass market "minimal" stuff that took only the simple surfaces of Bauhaus and ignored the careful refinement of detail and execution.
OTOH I see this as an exciting time for architecture, with what to my eye looks like the first persuasive move beyond modernism that's coherent enough to think of as a "movement." I've seen it called "techno baroque", "pile of shapes", and "free-form", but in the right hands Gehry style effusions can be energizing and uplifting, or serene and contemplative. For the latter, look no further than the new DeYoung Museum in SF's Golden Gate Park, a long undulating copper clad building, punctuated by a partially twisted tower. For my money, it's got it all over the Mario Botto designed SF Museum of Modern Art, a po-mo temple of culture that is very clear about it's rigidly enforced hierarchies where the DeYoung is beguilingly casual. There's something about busting up that cube that really seems to invite a different relationship to inhabiting the interior, which is why I like it so much. It goes beyond the latest thing in facades to rethink the whole idea of how we use and interact with made spaces.
We can also hope that the intricacy of fabrication involved will be proof against sail form Targets or shuffled deck banks.
Don't give too much credit to planning and zoning boards for the way things turn out. They have even less to do with designing buildings than architects. Every period of architecture has its masterful buildings and the pitiful knockoffs of same. It was only natural that modern architecture with its deliberate references to industrial forms should be the inspiration for a great deal of the cheap and cheerless. The more Socialist form in Europe, to which Americans were not much subjected, was even grimmer in many respects, carrying with it all manner of crackpot theories about architecture changing the world. I always wondered why architects were thought to be sociologists as well. That was one of the main conceits of modernism.
Don't give too much credit to planning and zoning boards for the way things turn out. They have even less to do with designing buildings than architects. Every period of architecture has its masterful buildings and the pitiful knockoffs of same. It was only natural that modern architecture with its deliberate references to industrial forms should be the inspiration for a great deal of the cheap and cheerless. The more Socialist form in Europe, to which Americans were not much subjected, was even grimmer in many respects, carrying with it all manner of crackpot theories about architecture changing the world. I always wondered why architects were thought to be sociologists as well. That was one of the main conceits of modernism.
Here in SF they passed an ordinance some years ago where they actually dictated ornamentation for new construction. Intended as the antidote to featureless slabs, I guess. So you had to have so much set back per vertical rise, no flat roof lines, etc. Naturally, this led to some cobbled together looking buildings, although I take your point that you're going to get plenty of that ordinance or no.
Who would you select then? Is he from the past merely because he is 75?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dualie
So are you suggesting Apple should have used only an unproven architecture student?
An office like rex architecture would have been more exciting. A 'young' office with really smart ideas, which is American (not that I care too much about that, but hey) and is much more an architect of the future. Makes extremely smart designs like f.i. the one in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHHlPnfOtRo
Here in SF they passed an ordinance some years ago where they actually dictated ornamentation for new construction. Intended as the antidote to featureless slabs, I guess. So you had to have so much set back per vertical rise, no flat roof lines, etc. Naturally, this led to some cobbled together looking buildings, although I take your point that you're going to get plenty of that ordinance or no.
San Francisco has one of the most regulated building environments in the country, but I believe arguably also has one of the best urban experiences in the country, so I think some credit is due to the city for articulating what it was trying to accomplish, and actually doing it. The first building setback ordinance was in New York City, in (from memory) 1906. Suffice to say, this idea is not original to San Francisco.
More to the subject, Apple's project isn't going to be about urban context anyway, since the site is suburban and very large besides. They have a blank canvas on which to work, and I would guess a city very compliant to Apple's wishes, beyond the need to conform to state environmental law. The EIR on this project will be a thing to behold.
Comments
An above ground monorail would make more sense, and Steve can certainly find some resources for that.
And we know exactly where they'll get one....
I do think the reactionary style amongst planning and zoning boards is in large part due to the depredations of modernism. After all, if you've seen large swaths or your city transformed into glass wind tunnels, you might develop a soft spot for "nice" architecture, no matter how bland or derivative.
Of course, you have to acknowledge that the real "failure" of modernist architecture was its amenability to cheap and fast construction, serving as legitimatizing cover for countless soulless knockoffs of some actually pretty sterling buildings. Not unlike the dreary mass market "minimal" stuff that took only the simple surfaces of Bauhaus and ignored the careful refinement of detail and execution.
OTOH I see this as an exciting time for architecture, with what to my eye looks like the first persuasive move beyond modernism that's coherent enough to think of as a "movement." I've seen it called "techno baroque", "pile of shapes", and "free-form", but in the right hands Gehry style effusions can be energizing and uplifting, or serene and contemplative. For the latter, look no further than the new DeYoung Museum in SF's Golden Gate Park, a long undulating copper clad building, punctuated by a partially twisted tower. For my money, it's got it all over the Mario Botto designed SF Museum of Modern Art, a po-mo temple of culture that is very clear about it's rigidly enforced hierarchies where the DeYoung is beguilingly casual. There's something about busting up that cube that really seems to invite a different relationship to inhabiting the interior, which is why I like it so much. It goes beyond the latest thing in facades to rethink the whole idea of how we use and interact with made spaces.
We can also hope that the intricacy of fabrication involved will be proof against sail form Targets or shuffled deck banks.
Don't give too much credit to planning and zoning boards for the way things turn out. They have even less to do with designing buildings than architects. Every period of architecture has its masterful buildings and the pitiful knockoffs of same. It was only natural that modern architecture with its deliberate references to industrial forms should be the inspiration for a great deal of the cheap and cheerless. The more Socialist form in Europe, to which Americans were not much subjected, was even grimmer in many respects, carrying with it all manner of crackpot theories about architecture changing the world. I always wondered why architects were thought to be sociologists as well. That was one of the main conceits of modernism.
Don't give too much credit to planning and zoning boards for the way things turn out. They have even less to do with designing buildings than architects. Every period of architecture has its masterful buildings and the pitiful knockoffs of same. It was only natural that modern architecture with its deliberate references to industrial forms should be the inspiration for a great deal of the cheap and cheerless. The more Socialist form in Europe, to which Americans were not much subjected, was even grimmer in many respects, carrying with it all manner of crackpot theories about architecture changing the world. I always wondered why architects were thought to be sociologists as well. That was one of the main conceits of modernism.
Here in SF they passed an ordinance some years ago where they actually dictated ornamentation for new construction. Intended as the antidote to featureless slabs, I guess. So you had to have so much set back per vertical rise, no flat roof lines, etc. Naturally, this led to some cobbled together looking buildings, although I take your point that you're going to get plenty of that ordinance or no.
Who would you select then? Is he from the past merely because he is 75?
So are you suggesting Apple should have used only an unproven architecture student?
An office like rex architecture would have been more exciting. A 'young' office with really smart ideas, which is American (not that I care too much about that, but hey) and is much more an architect of the future. Makes extremely smart designs like f.i. the one in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHHlPnfOtRo
Here in SF they passed an ordinance some years ago where they actually dictated ornamentation for new construction. Intended as the antidote to featureless slabs, I guess. So you had to have so much set back per vertical rise, no flat roof lines, etc. Naturally, this led to some cobbled together looking buildings, although I take your point that you're going to get plenty of that ordinance or no.
San Francisco has one of the most regulated building environments in the country, but I believe arguably also has one of the best urban experiences in the country, so I think some credit is due to the city for articulating what it was trying to accomplish, and actually doing it. The first building setback ordinance was in New York City, in (from memory) 1906. Suffice to say, this idea is not original to San Francisco.
More to the subject, Apple's project isn't going to be about urban context anyway, since the site is suburban and very large besides. They have a blank canvas on which to work, and I would guess a city very compliant to Apple's wishes, beyond the need to conform to state environmental law. The EIR on this project will be a thing to behold.
Steve's original plan was to have the data center in North Carolina look like a giant TimeCapsule.
That's not a time capsule. I's a big lipstick!