Toronto City Hall

In 1958, Finnish modernist Viljo Revell won an international competition and brought what was considered to be a daringly futuristic design to Toronto. The Toronto City Hall’s two story podium houses public areas and offices; its comparatively modest colonnaded walkway fronts a large public square. But the podium serves as a base upon which to position the building’s more sculptural elements: two curved towers of uneven height embracing a small saucer that houses the council chambers.

Convex tower walls of ribbed concrete present a seemingly impenetrable public face, but concave walls are generously glazed. In the plaza, arches that echo the sweeping arcs of the office towers span a reflecting pool and fountain.

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The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

The modern obsession with open floor plans should not cause us to forget the power of the hypostyle hall. Since ancient times, the rhythms and patterns intrinsic to these column-filled spaces have been equated with the divine. Adding to the effect, columns in the Mosque-Cathredral of Cordoba’s prayer hall are topped with tiers of arches that have alternating red and white voussoirs. A domed prayer niche, decorated with gold and glass, is the culmination of the prayer hall.

Other elements common to mosque architecture include a courtyard with fountain, covered walkway and minaret (which is now enclosed in a bell tower). The bell tower is one of many Christian architectural elements; in the 1200s, conquering Christian forces converted the mosque into a cathedral. In the 1500’s an architecturally contrasting Renaissance cathedral nave was constructed in the center of the expansive structure.

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Hospital of the Innocents is first true Renaissance building.

Renaissance scholars and artists were eager to break free from medieval values and reestablish a connection with the high culture of classical times. Their study of ancient architecture and the application of its principles were, therefore, quite rigorous. The Hospital of the Innocents is often credited as being the first true Renaissance building.

In it, Brunelleschi not only reproduced the architectural elements of Roman architecture (such as pilasters, pediments and Corinthian column capitals) but he set out to capture ideal proportions and geometric order. This proportionality is clear in the nine bays of the loggia, each of which is cubic in shape, with the distance between columns being equal to the column height and the depth of the arcade.

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Palazzo Rucellai

The Palazzo Rucellai is similar to early merchant palaces in that it consists of private apartments above a commercial ground floor (see also Palazzo Strozzi, Florence). But it was the first palazzo to employ the humanistic qualities that could already be seen in some of the city’s religious architecture. Humanism was an important aspect of Renaissance thought because it shifted focus from collectivism and community to the individual.

The famous Roman Vitruvian Man, a study of the ideal proportions of the human form, tied in with architect Leon Battista Alberti’s development of a set of ideal (and human-centric) proportions for architecture. In the Palazzo Rucellai, Alberti exemplifies these proportions by breaking down the buliding’s scale, even at the upper stories, in several ways. Pilasters divide each story into smaller visual units; extensive ornamentation is applied across the entire façade; and rustication is more polished and delicate than it had been in earlier palazzi.

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La Grande Arche de la Defense

The monumental structure of la Grande Arche de la Defense in Paris, originally intended to terminate the city’s historic royal axis, in fact creates a frame that extends the axis. Two 35 story towers with 45% chamfering are spanned by a chamfered top; completing the square is a base with stairways that incline at the same angle. The exterior of the arch is clad in white Carrara marble, making for a smooth and reflective surface.

Interior walls of the cube have square windows set in deep coffers, creating a grid of light and dark. Fabric ‘cloud’ structures and suspended glass panels, along with glass tube elevators, reduce the building’s scale in the pedestrian thoroughfare.

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The Inland Steel Building is true modern architecture.

Although an example of true modern architecture, today the Inland Steel Building may seem eclipsed by its state-of-the-art neighbors. In post-war Chicago, however, the building represented a new era in design. A separate mechanical tower, in conjunction with the use of pronounced structural ribs along the building’s exterior, allows the high-rise to be open in plan. The projecting steel ribs – which become columns at ground level -- emphasize the building’s structure and add depth to the facades, which feature green glazing and a grid of brushed stainless steel.

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Musee D'Orsay

To retrofit this historic railway station turned museum, architect Gae Aulenti created two rows of freestanding stone facades within the train station's barrel-vaulted nave.  The facades serve as walls for the new museum and openings between panels draw visitors into the gallery space.

A broken frieze, unifies the 'streeetfront' but has been linked to Egyptian architecture, making for an uneasy mix of architectural vocabularies. Display space is also situated along the station's old arcade level where the architect chose stone over glazed ironwork for infill of the arches, the effect can appear heavy.

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St. Pancras a Collision of Styles

William Henry Barlow established his reputation as an engineer by designing long, single-span glazed train sheds supported on arches of ironwork. Constructed of his St, Pancras train shed was followed by the addition of an elaborate brick hotel a few years later.

Today, the station is a London landmark, though it has been renovated to accommodate a high-speed rail. Retail      space – with unobtrusive glass enclosures – has also been designed into the undercroft.

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88 Wood Street: Modern Modernism

Three building blocks of varying height  maintain a visual dialogue with the historic properties surrounding the site. These blocks are connnected by a narrow, glazed – and dizzyingly tall – circulation towers. Stainless steel cross bracing and exposed support columns express the buildings structure, in keeping with the basic credo of modernism, but brightly painted ductwork and stairways are reminders that 21st century modernism is neither as stripped down nor as serious as high modernism.

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EMP Museum

To express the vitality of music through the medium of architecture, architect Frank Gehry took an iconic image from the world of music – the electric guitar – and 'deconstructed' it. Early building models were literally constructed of guitar pieces; the finished structure is an undulating form covered in 21,000 stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles.

The various colors and textures of these individually positioned shingles, along with their reflectivity, creates a changing surface which evokes the dynamism of music.

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Willis Tower

Now known as the Willis Tower and no longer the world’s tallest building, this structure will nevertheless always enjoy the distinction of having been the Sears Tower, and of having been the world’s tallest building, in a time when both name recognition and world record fame were not so fleetingly won and lost. The Willis Tower was also the last of the extremely tall skyscrapers built in Chicago during the International period. 

The building’s nine interlocking tubes provide a structural bracing system, but they are also responsible for the building’s stepped-back appearance. At the base the tubes form a nine-square grid in plan, but as the building height increases, only select squares are continued upward.

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Irregularity shapes the Berlin Stock Exchange

An irregular site, in addition to considerations such as green building requirements, right-to-light requirements and the owner’s desire for low operating costs, led the architect, Nicholas Grimshaw, to maximize the Berlin Stock Exchange building’s volume.

This was accomplished by creating a series of elliptical arches which conform to the site’s footprint as opposed to being axial in arrangement, then suspending upper floors of the 39,000 sq m office building from the frame. Public areas line an interior ‘street’ and office space is organized around two roughly triangular atria.

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Challenging notions with the Gate of Europe.

Historically, architectural principles included the need to make a building look stable, safe and secure. While modern materials have progressively challenged this notion, nowhere has it been more flouted than in the Gate of Europe towers in Madrid, Spain. To overcome practical difficulties (the footprint of these buildings needed to clear the subway interchange at street level), the designers created twin towers that lean in at an angle of nearly 15 degrees.

In order to provide pedestrians and occupants with the required sense of safety, structural steel members are clearly expressed on the building exterior: most notably, each tower has an uninterrupted vertical beam on its north and south elevations. Concrete cores and underground counterweights further stabilize the structures.

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Pisa's Tower does more than lean.

The “Leaning Tower of Pisa” is one of the world’s most recognizable buildings. Due to settling of its foundation, it leans approximately 5 degrees from vertical. But beyond the iconic leaning of the bell tower, the church complex is most notable for its copious use of arcades as a decorative feature.

Blind arcades on the lower levels of the buildings give way to delicately scaled galleries and tracery above. Seen from a distance, the buildings have a perforated, openwork quality.

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The Marina City Towers are efficient and economic.

Known popularly as the ‘corn cob’ buildings, the semi-circular balconies that define these towers’ exteriors are the outgrowth of space-efficient, wedge-shaped apartments within. The theme of semi-circles is carried out in the lower story parking decks as negative space, defined by curved support structures. During design and planning, architect Bertrand Goldberg was striving for unprecedented levels of efficiency and economy, which led to the use of reinforced concrete. The resulting expanse of unadorned concrete was not only groundbreaking at the time, but still differentiates the building today.

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Filtering Light at the Arab World Institute

This building is a physical embodiment of the Institute’s mission: to promote cross-cultural understanding and information exchange. Stylistically, it unites themes of western and Arab design. The building’s entry is accessed through a long, narrow corridor, creating a focus on interiors that characteristically Arab.

Overlaying grids of aluminum panels...

...geometric patterns.

On façade walls, the use of overlaying grids and their function of filtering light also allude to Arab design. Along the southern wall, and visible across a large courtyard, is the building’s most dramatic feature: an array of 113 aluminum panels, pierced with geometric patterns that have photo-electrically operated diaphragms which continually constrict and expand to regulate the admittance of daylight.

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Darwin Center's glass and cocoons

London’s Museum of Natural History has been housed in Alfred Waterhouse’s ornate Romanesque structure since 1881, and has become inextricably associated with the historic building. A two-phase extension, known as the Darwin Center, was completed in 2009. A transparent metal and glass ‘box’ designed by HOK provides a geometric regularity which complements the original structure. This addition sits alongside the Waterhouse building in sedate companionability despite its large scale.

Companionability...

...glass boxes...

But inside is an eight story, biomorphic concrete “cocoon” designed by C. F. Møller. No windows admit views into the interior of the cocoon; rather, its enormous and complex sculptural form is the object of focus within HOK’s glass showcase.

...and a biomorphic concrete “cocoon."

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Notable Designers of the Milwaukee Art Museum

This site contains the work of some of the last half-century’s most notable designers. Since 1957, architect Eero Saarinen’s elevated, outward looking modernist boxes – which serve as a war memorial -- have commanded a prominent hillside location. David Kahler contributed a podium-like addition to the memorial in 1975.

Saarinen and Kahler's modernist boxes with Calatrava's expressionist spine.

In 2001, Santiago Calatrava attached a long, spinal gallery to the Kahler building. This spine terminates in a sweeping, ribbed pavilion that overlooks Lake Michigan. A pedestrian bridge balances the overall composition.

Calatrava's sweeping ribbed pavilion.

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Bibliotheque Nationale is about the Books.

The scheme of this building is simple, yet elegant: four glass corner towers bracket an esplanade which in turn frames an immense interior courtyard. Public spaces and reading rooms are organized below the esplanade, affording views into the natural, meditative space of the courtyard garden.

Windows to the library's book collection...

...didn't work well with sunlight.

Visitors are typically not admitted into the towers, which are mostly dedicated to storing books. The architect’s original vision was that this would provide a striking portrayal of the library’s growing collection; however, sunlight protection requires the books to be hidden from view.

Corner towers framing the interior courtyard

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Frank Gehry's Vontz Center signature.

Serving as a gateway to the University of Cincinnati’s medical campus, this building has the curved massing that is the signature of its architect, Frank Gehry.

The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies at the University of Cincinnati

Gehry’s typical reflective metal cladding was exchanged for a more budget-conscious brick, yet the traditional scale of brick creates an interesting counterpoint to the building’s exaggerated volumes. Windows stand apart from the rest of the building envelope, occupying their own planes and articulated with aluminum grids. The gridded glass even extends beyond the edges of exposed window frames, adding a delicate emphasis to the windows as standalone objects.

Curving brick masses.

Extending gridded glass edges.

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