Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of many areas of the country, but he especially loved the state of Arizona. So it's not surprising that his last commissioned work was completed in Tempe on the campus of Arizona State University. The Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium was completed in 1964, and it's still going strong today as a center for the performing arts. The building was named in honor of Dr. Grady Gammage, president of the university between 1933 and 1959.
Interestingly, the auditorium offers what it calls "continental" seating; there is no center section. Odd number seats are referred to as "house left" and even seats as "house right." If you and a friend buy seats 1 and 2, you'll be next to each other in the center of the main section; if you have seats 65 and 67, you'll still be side-by-side, just way over to the left.
Although the auditorium doesn't have any official tours, there are still plenty of chances to catch a performance. Touring Broadway productions are frequent, and this fall brings A Chorus Line and Spring Awakening. The Lion King comes to town in early 2009. That said, since it's right on campus, we bet you could rustle up a personal tour if you find a friendly janitor with some keys.
There's a new green-gunslinger in San Francisco, and it's traveled from its former Howard Street location to lush Golden Gate Park. The new California Academy of Sciences center--which opens in late September 2008--is aiming not only to stand out as an architectural icon in the city but also to operate as a Platinum LEED certified green space.
What's keeping this building greener than Kermit wrapped in a banana leaf? The main component is the "living roof" which consists of an undulating hill-like design that's lined with seven inches of soil and planted with grasses and local flora to prevent millions of gallons of rainwater from becoming storm drain water.
We wouldn't normally assign the title of skyscraper to a building that's only 19 stories tall. But when it's a tower designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that's exactly what we'll call it. Harold Price, chairman of an industrial firm in Oklahoma, commissioned it for his corporate headquarters, and the skyscraper first opened to the public in 1956.
These days, mega-skyscrapers have balls. Huge balls, up in their attic spaces, designed to swing back and forth in the opposite direction of the building's sway. These tuned mass dampers, as they're known, prevent the feeling of seasickness by occupants of the upper floors, but their real benefit comes during times of natural disasters, like tornadoes, typhoons and earthquakes.
Such was the case recently with the world's tallest completed building, Taipei 101, which felt aftershocks from the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit China's Sichuan region on May 12 of this year. As it happens, a traveler with a video camera was enjoying a tour of the building and was wandering past the 728-ton stabilizing ball when the aftershocks hit, capturing this amazing video of the damper doing exactly what it was designed to do.
The iconic tower emerged unscathed, and nobody was injured, which both speaks to the amazing advances in architectural technology and the unspeakable devastation that results when builders lack the means--and scruples--to ensure that every building holds up against the forces of nature as well as possible.
Though Cambodia's capital is known more for its wats and colonial architecture, work has started on three new mega-projects that will--their South Korean developers no doubt hope--transform the city. The latest is the International Finance Complex, a 52-story, multi-tower development that should be completed by 2012.
Also underway is Gold Tower 42, an accurately named skyscraper on Norodom Boulevard. It's also slated to be finished by 2012.
Meanwhile, a new suburb is being built from scratch three kilometers from downtown. Camko City, above, promises tree-lined canals, swimming pools, residential towers and leafy plazas. How long till "Desperate Housewives: Cambodia" comes out?
The Western World may be losing it's dominance in the neverending skyline wars, but that might not be such a bad thing for American and European city-dwellers. German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reports that as the credit crisis is halting ambitious real estate projects in the States, emerging powers such as China, Dubai and Russia are building bigger and crazier skyscrapers than ever.
This skyline boom may be providing these nouveau riche nations with status symbols, but much of the construction is being criticized by architecture experts as environmentally and aesthetically harmful.
Located in what used to be an abandoned brick building off Mission street, the Daniel Libeskind-designed Contemporary Jewish Museum opened to the public this past Sunday. The architectural landmark adds to the already significant museum row running down Mission.
Libeskind transformed the former Jessie Street Power Substation, maintaining the past integrity of the brick exterior while adding his own bold contemporary wing inspired by the Hebrew phrase L'Chaim (To life).
Architectural tours are offered daily through this week for free, and the museum website has more details.
Architect Jean Nouvel just won a contest to build a new skyscraper in La Défense, a district of Paris. Nouvel's design beat out plans from British Gherkin mastermind Norman Foster and Daniel Libeskind--who came up with the atrocious original design for New York's "Freedom Tower."
At 71 stories, Nouvel's building will be seventy-five feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower, but in a city where skyscrapers are few and far between, Nouvel's "Signal Tower" is sure to have a dramatic effect on the skyline. Echoing this sentiment, one of the jurors who selected the design said it would be the
Most important architectural act since the Eiffel Tower.
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by kjb
