10 Buildings

http://www.wired.com/
Building: Edifice Complex
Location: New York
Architect: Frank Gehry
"Billowing glass. Rippling titanium. Swooping steel. The engineers and designers at Permasteelisa turn the world's most daring buildings into reality."
This quote pretty much sums up this remarkable building. After reading the article on this building, the designers as well as builders didn't think this design could become a reality, and here's proof that anything is possible! The architect is Frank Gehry and the building is designed for the InterActiveCorp. What's also crazy about this building is that 2, 541 pieces of glass were used in the building and had to be heated up to 1, 200 degrees F to be formed! The building is a 9 story building with the glass facade. I would love to see this in real life.

http://www.blogger.com/www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/bank_of_china.html
Building: Bank of China Tower
Location: Hong Kong
Architect: I.M.Pei
It was interesting when I saw this building...the first thing it reminded me of was Josie's pencil box. They are both made up of a triangle design. This tower is made of steel and glass and took about 8 years to build. I think it caught my attention because it is very different than any building I have ever seen. I think it is graceful and adds a lot to the space.
http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Building: Church of St. Francis
Location: Brazil
Architect: Oscar Niemeyer
Wow, if we had a church like this around here I might be more excited to go! I like how the arches make up the church and how it reflects off of the water at night. I also think it is creative how they incorporated a tile mural on one side of the building. It seems like this would be a very open space for worship and praise.

http://www.greatbuilding.com/buildings/fallingwater.html
Building: FallingWater
Location: Pennsylvania
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
I first saw this building in Ben Adams' zine. How cool would it be to look out over your porch balcony everyday to see a waterfall cascading down the rocks? This is a house made of concrete and stone in Pennsylvania. I love the concept and the way that the house seems like it's almost floating over the water due to the floating platforms. I personally think it could use a little more color to make it stand out from the wooded area rather than be camouflaged. I do like how he used rocks in the design to make it feel like part of the natural environment too.

www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/London_City_Hall.html
Building: London City Hall
Location: London, England
Architect: Norman Foster
I think this building is unique because every view is different. From one side it looks like it's leaning, and from the view above it doesn't look like it's leaning at all. I think the glass adds a nice touch and is pretty on the water. I'm not sure the size but this building definitely looks monumental to me.

www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/bibliotheca_alexandrina
Building: Bibliotheca Alexandria
Location: Egypt
Architect: Snohetta
I chose this building because I visited it when I went to Egypt before. It is absolutely an amazing place not only to visit as far as architecture but it is also one of the largest libraries. The front side pictured above has a pool of water in front of it, and the glass panels allow all the natural light to shine in on the library itself. "The design concept is a simple circle inclined towards the sea, partly submerged in a pool of water, the image of the Egyptian sun, that in contemporary terms will illuminate the world and human civilization." (according to www.sis.gov.eg) On the outside of the building it is very modern with steel and glass and the inside features natural wood and granite and is absolutely breath taking with a media center, planetarium, 7 stories and a science museum. You can literally take a whole day to visit this place!


Building: Burj Dubai
Location: Dubai
Architect: Adrian Smith
Simply amazing. I knew that architecture in Dubai was booming but not like this! This tower, to be finished in 2009 will be the tallest building in the world. It's design mimics the desert flower seen a lot in Islamic architecture. In Islamic architecture the building is said to be ascending towards the heavens. This remarkable building will house one of the first Armani hotels, as well as residents and will cost approximately $900 million to create. It is made of concrete and steel. There will be about 190 floors and will also sit on about 500 acres that will also have offices, hotels, shopping malls etc. After reading this it makes me want to study abroad in Dubai even more..I can't wait!!

Building: Cathedral of St. Basil

Location: Moscow, Russia

Architect: Barma & Posnick
This cathedral is so gorgeous with all the vibrant colors and onion domes. At first I literally though this was a building at Disney World because of all the colors. This church probably holds quite a few people and stands about 64 meters high. If you look closely you can really see all the hard work and detail they put into creating this beautiful monument.

Building: St.Mary's Cathedral

Location: Tokyo

Architect:Kenzo Tange

This immediatley caught my attention because of the vertical straight lines accompanied by the soft, flowing swooping roofs on the side of the cathedral. This is located in Tokyo and is made of concrete. I also think this is interesting becuase to me it didn't seem like a building you would see in Tokyo.

Building: Stonehenge

Location: England

Architect: Unknown

I studied about Stonehenge in Art History and have always been baffled by it. It baffles me to think about how people back in 1500 could create this monument using their hands. I mean each stone alone weighs about 45 tons each. The stones each are 22 feet high and is a circular design. I think that maybe they formed a circle to mimic the sun, or maybe even used this to track time.