Your favourite local building - photos please!

[felix]

please be posting photos of your favourite buildings, near where you are. hell, post as many as you want. it's not a photo competition so feel free to post whatever you like.

i'll get things started with this one - Aberdeen Town House. bult in 1873. whenever i go past it i can't keep my eyes off it, it's absolutely stunning! :D

there are many beautiful buildings in aberdeen, mostly built out of the local silver granite.

here's another one just up the street - the Salvation Army Citadel:

ok, number 3!

Marischal College - the largest granite building in the UK and the 3rd largest in the world:

 

[AmorRoark]

Interior-wise, the James R. Thompson Center

(a picture doesn't really do it justice, you really feel like you're in a sci-fi movie or something)


Exterior:

Wrigley Building

or

One Museum Park

I also like the Aeon Center and 77 West Wacker Drive and The Chicago Loop Library and and... :D Chicago has great architecture.

 

[Pander Bear]

What a cool thread!

I'll post some later

 

[ikkyu]

Building 32

 

[felix]

^ very cool :D

MIT Boston? it would be great if you guys could tell us where these places are, please. links would be great as well!

i can't believe that first one you posted is an office building, Amy. it does look like a space shuttle hangar or something.

 

[AmorRoark]

^ Tell me about it felix. The Secretary of State office is in there and it's actually a treat to go get my license plates renewed.

On a hunch I looked up Building 32 and I was right, it's Frank Gehry's work. I like that building better than his installment here, The Pritzker Pavilion:

 

[felix]

yep. frank gehry, architect of the 'maggie's centre' here in dundee.

oh snap, i won that photo contest, didn't i?

i buildings.

 

[AmorRoark]

Unfortunately Building 32 apparently sucks construction-wise.

From wiki:

On October 31, 2007,[9] MIT sued[10] architect Frank Gehry and the construction company, Skanska USA Building Inc., for "providing deficient design services and drawings" which caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, drainage to back up, and falling ice and debris to block emergency exits.[8] A Skanska spokesperson said that prior to construction Gehry ignored warnings from Skanska and a consulting company regarding flaws in his design of the amphitheater, and rejected a formal request from Skanska to modify the design.[8]

In an interview, Mr. Gehry, whose firm was paid $15 million for the project, said construction problems were inevitable in the design of complex buildings. “These things are complicated,” he said, “and they involved a lot of people, and you never quite know where they went wrong. A building goes together with seven billion pieces of connective tissue. The chances of it getting done ever without something colliding or some misstep are small.” “I think the issues are fairly minor,” he added. “M.I.T. is after our insurance.” Mr. Gehry said “value engineering” — the process by which elements of a project are eliminated to cut costs — was largely responsible for the problems. “There are things that were left out of the design,” he said. “The client chose not to put certain devices on the roofs, to save money.”[11]

 

[Slay]

here are some skyscrapers, i love them:D

 

[fizzacyst]

The Thorncrown Chapel. I love this. Its a really serene mix of the manmade and the natural. Its a really calming place.

Arlington Hotel. This used to be a sort of mobster neutral ground/hideout spot back in the early mafia type days. It has a pretty neat feel to it, the whole area has a very old, faded elegance to it.

Old bathhouses built over natural hot springs, on bathhouse row in Hot Springs, AR. There are a lot more that are neater looking, but can't find pics. They are all next to each other in a row between two hills/mountains, with a bunch of hot springs coming out of the ground. pretty chill place to hike, or wander around on the promenade and look down on it all. a couple are still in operation.

 

[Bowser22]

Ulster Bank on city quay in dublin... stunning builiding. Possibly full of money

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[sunshinefix]

I don't go here but this has got to be one of the most interesting buildings in Tampa.

 

[cletus]

What Scotland does quite well is castles.

Castle Fraser is near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. Originally known as Muchall-in-Mar, construction of the elaborate, five-storey Z-plan castle was begun in 1575 by the 6th Laird of Fraser, Michael Fraser and was completed in 1636.

 

[~*geNeRaTiOn E*~]

Westin Bonaventure Hotel

there is actually a restaurant on the very top floor that slowly spins as you dine/drink to give you a 360 degree view of the city.

Disney Concert Hall

Crystal Cathedral

Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple

http://www.hsilai.org/VirtualTour/temple2.html

http://www.hsilai.org/VirtualTour/temple1.html

http://www.hsilai.org/VirtualTour/temple3.html

it sits on 15 acres of land on top of a hill so you can see everything. the best part is the $5 all-you-can-eat vegetarian lunch

Bradbury Building

this is a picture of just the atrium, the rest of the building is equally as gorgeous.

 

[ikkyu]

Unfortunately Building 32 apparently sucks construction-wise.

They ain't call it deconstructivist architecture for nothin'!

 

[fizzle]

Crystal Cathedral

Thats beautiful, its probably just as cool looking from the outside. Where are all these buildings?

 

[Damien]

Southern California. :D

 

[tribal girl]

I can really appreciate the city and architecture at night. It's like it takes on a whole new life, there's a certain kind of magic about it which always warms my heart. It's comforting, and I feel safe. Then when morning comes and the veil of artificial coloured lights are lifted, the magic is over.

Lloyds building:

This building is so beautiful, it's like something out of Blade Runner. Designed by Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986. The colours that come off it at night are truly amazing.








Tower 42:

Tower 42 is the tallest skyscraper in the City of London and the fifth tallest in London as a whole. It was originally built for the National Westminster Bank (NatWest), hence its former name, the NatWest Tower. Seen from above, the tower closely resembles the NatWest logo (three chevrons in a hexagonal arrangement). The tower, designed by Richard Seifert, is located at 25 Old Broad Street. It was built by John Mowlem & Co between 1971 and 1979, and opened in 1980, costing a total of £72 million.





Canary Wharf tube:

The tube station was intended from the start to be the showpiece of the Jubilee Line Extension, and its design was awarded in 1990 to the renowned architect Sir Norman Foster. It was constructed, by a Tarmac Construction / Bachy UK Joint Venture, in a drained arm of the former dock, using a simple "cut and cover" method to excavate an enormous pit 24 metres (78 feet) deep and 265 metres (869 feet) long. The resulting large volume of the interior has led to it being compared to a cathedral, and it has even been used to celebrate a wedding. However, the main reason for the station's enormous proportions was the great number of passengers predicted — as many as 50,000 daily. These predictions have been outgrown, with as many as 69,759 on weekdays recorded in 2006.

Exterior:



Interior:



There's also another one I would like to add, but I can't remember the name of it atm.

 

[Mazey]

this little gems about a block from my home ....my wife and i walk there on Sundays for a treat..

 

[felix]

@ TG: would that be the gherkin?

properly known as the Swiss Re building. another norman foster one. it's awesome! :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Re_Building

30 St Mary Axe is a building in London's main financial district, the City of London. It is widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin", and occasionally as a variant on The Swiss Re Tower, after its previous owner and principal occupier. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London, after Tower 42, and the sixth-tallest in London as a whole. The building's name is its address — St Mary Axe being the street it is on.

The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Lord Norman Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden between 2001 and 2004.