US versus European Cities

[Colon™]

I said:

I was under impression that bricks, mortar and concrete are standard fare in the cities of both parts of the world.

BTW, North-European cities similary have suburbs dominated by wooden housing.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colon™
BTW, one thing that struck me about American cities, is how little creative modern architecture there is. Sure you'd maybe have a couple of major public buildings such as museums that are architecturally interesting, but no houses, low-rise flat buildings or offices and the like. I've always been used to a certain degree of experimentation and didn't find any of it in American cities. Maybe always been checking the wrong neighbourhoods? No idea.

I wonder where youve gone in the US. Many of the landmark buildings of modern architecture are American. The leader of Bauhaus architecture, Walter Gropius, IIUC went to Harvard, where he designed the law school dorms, as well as running the architecture school. Harvard Univ campus also has a building by Le Corbusier, as well as many interested works by major modern architects. New York City of course has the Seagrams building, the Lever Brothers building, etc.

I mean not every likes high international style modernism, but post war US office buildings have no shortage of that kind of building, often very innovative.

Houses which are often built by contractors interested in mass production of conservative consumer tastes, tend to be boring here. But look at Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park, etc. Much of boring US domestic arch is reallly cheap knock offs of Wright.

Theres also plenty of post modern architecture - some really bizarre stuff in Miami, for ex, the former ATT building (Now SONY building) in NY, even some interesting stuff in Tysons Corner outside DC.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Colon™
I said:

BTW, North-European cities similary have suburbs dominated by wooden housing.

You misunderstand - even in the city limits of many US cities there are wooden housing and vast residential areas that resemble a suburb. Atlanta, for one is filled with wooden 1-2 story housing inside city limits.

[DanS]

He's been to Atlanta, so I think he understands. However, maybe he doesn't fully account for the fact that Atlanta is much more typical than other cities that he has seen.

[Colon™]

LOTM, as I already said to MikeH, I was thinking of architecture of the past 10-20 years. I didn't mean to say "modernist" when I said "modern architecture", simply architecture that's recent.

But I agree it's possible I simply didn't wasn't looking in the right corners.

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
You misunderstand - even in the city limits of many US cities there are wooden housing and vast residential areas that resemble a suburb. Atlanta, for one is filled with wooden 1-2 story housing inside city limits.

Atlanta is effectively a giant suburb with a very small core.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colon™
LOTM, as I already said to MikeH, I was thinking of architecture of the past 10-20 years. I didn't mean to say "modernist" when I said "modern architecture", simply architecture that's recent.

But I agree it's possible I simply didn't wasn't looking in the right corners.



Atlanta is effectively a giant suburb with a very small core.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/types/styles/post_modern.html

heres a list of noted post modern buildings. Interesting that most in the US are either museums or houses.

[Colon™]

Hmmm, most are over 20 years old, though SFMOMA and Team Disney are excellent examples.

Found pictures of several examples on the riverside in Antwerp (all build during the 90's):

[lord of the mark]

your first example looks like almost Bauhausy modernism, and your second looks like early '90s (or even late '80s) miami or LA post modern, except for the Zebra stripes.

[Colon™]

So?

[LordShiva]

That third one is ugly as hell

[Colon™]

SO?

[LordShiva]

So Colon is stupid, through bricks & mortar at him.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Colon™
SO?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Colon™
Atlanta is effectively a giant suburb with a very small core.

As are most cities in the US, as Dan said:

However, maybe he doesn't fully account for the fact that Atlanta is much more typical than other cities that he has seen.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colon™
So?

So Id think youd see lots of buildings equally as "innovative" in major US cities. Certainly in NY, LA,Chicago, Miami, or Boston. Heck, even in Baltimore. DC tends to be rather on the conservative side I'll admit (though we have some cool museums - the American Indian Museum, for ex) Its been over 20 years since I was in Atlanta.