Jeff is disappointed that the THINK proposal did not win the WTC competition.

Although innovative, there are two reasons why I believe the decision may be sound:

1. the project was very ambitious structurally and could have suffered dramatically from the effects of watering down the initial idea on grounds of cost and practicality.

2. THINK is a collaboration and could have suffered the perils of committee design. A great monument needs a great artist, a single minded signature designer with the resoluteness of a Frank Lloyd Wright.

Libeskind has won and although his scheme looks more conventional at first glance, his past record will stand testament that this will be a fittingly triumphant project unlike anything else in Manhattan today. This will include the first deconstructionist skyscraper.

Jon Udell writes about the architecture of data rich spaces

Modernism removed decoration from architecture. Or so the perceived wisdom goes.

But few could argue that Times square, triumphantly modern, is not decorative. Robert Venturi, the father of post modernist architectural criticism used Vegas as his model but the decoration here was a throwback, Egyptian or Classical pastiche.

What is going on at times square is something new, its influences are from Archigram to Bladerunner. More importantly it is a continuation of what has happened throughout the capitalist world, where neon and billboard advertising have kept decoration alive and well. The difference is that the advertising is part of the architecture and now, part of the network. Media architecture is just beginning.

One liner: “##”

Summary: Simplistic, rectilinear shapes created from two groups of three towers at right angles to each other and linked by bridges. In addition to the new towers, there is a proposal for landscaped piers representing shadows form the original towers. Multiple memorials are constructed at ground level and in the new buildings.

Plus: The pier proposal is very simple and elegant. Being the same size as the original towers they would allow their scale to be grasped.

Minus:
The towers are simple without the elegant simplicity of the originals that made them so iconic. The ‘multiple memorials’ idea is pointless. The cantilevered gardens/balconies would be prohibitively expensive, would disappear from the working drawings and would therefore change the design altogether.

The designs for the WTC site are out, its taken a day to digest all the proposals.

The bad news: they are all either mediocre or unbuildable.

The good news: the architects themselves are not all mediocre and the eventual buildings will be nothing like the original competition entries. The favorite appears to be Foster. I have some knowledge of the way the Foster office operates, since I used to work there when I was an architect. If he wins he will change the design entirely, just as he did for the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank’s headquarters in Hong Kong, the skyscraper which made his name. I would guess that the competition entry was largely conceived by others in the office (possibly Ken Shuttleworth), but if it wins Foster will want to get more involved, as it is such a high profile scheme.

Great works of architecture a relatively rare, even rarer are those buildings that define an entire movement. One of these buildings has just been built, Foreign Office Architect’s Yokohama Port Terminal. It is the first building to use the type of organic, contoured surface that defined the style of many University projects a few years ago, as 3D computer models evolved from illustrative use for presentations to being the primary design tool.

foreign office architects

Best Quicktime VR panorama ever: Times square