New "old" highrises. Or "30s highrises" built in the XXI Century!

[Coldrsx]

^agreed and they can be done right....but so often not. Materials and designs are so expensive that typically developers use a 10, no 10000 foot pole.

[McBane]

The ones in Brazil look very authentic. Looks like the builders were able to use high quality materials. I wonder if the money spent on those materials has anything to do with the money NOT spent on labor. Are there unions in Brazil? How much are the construction workers being paid for these projects?

In Philadelphia the Symphony House looks like crap. I would hope that whenever 10 Ritt goes up, it looks somewhat more authentic, based on the architect and the overall cost of the project.

The project in Vegas, actually might work. In Philly and other older cities that have many early 20th century buildings, the new faux style ones look like shit because the buildings they try to emulate are so obviously visible. In Vegas, on the other hand.....

[Trantor]

yes, of course there are unions. The brazilian president Lula is an ex union leader...

in fact, there are maybe too many unions in Brazil. Brazil protects its workers much more than US, its almost like europe.

[vid]

Oh yeah? Well our unions forced a bankrupt company to give it's employees thousands of dollars in benefits, and after a month then entire company collapsed and two thousand people in the region were unemployed, when if they settled for half of that they'd still be working!

Suck on THAT, Brazil!!

Now that was entirely off topic. :/

"The project in Vegas, actually might work."

It's too far outside of the city. It will get the look, but it will never get the feel.

[kznyc2k]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

Isn't it amazing though.......what they can do these days with styrafoam and stucco?

Long live the Dryvit !!!!!11!!!one1!!

[Rizzo]

^ Ugh, I think dryvit and EIFS should be banned when it comes to building neo-classical buildings.

Really, it'ss possible to do the them right, but architects need to get out into the world and study existing examples to get the proportions and detailing right.

[Atomic Glee]

I think our Sanguinet Building is pretty neat. It's from 2002. The detailing is done with multi-colored bricks and cast stone, rather than some cheap fake material. I love the vibrant color it adds to the streetscape. Has operable windows in all the offices, too.

[vid]

^ That's one of my favourites. When I first saw it I thought it was actually from the 20s or something.

Back when I didn't know much about architecture and couldn't tell.

[STERNyc]

While I'm not the biggest fan of this genre this is one of the best that I've seen....

Posted by Pianoman at Wired New York.

15 Central Park West.

[wheelscomp]

^ thats a Robert A M Stern building (im sure you knew that). hes one of my favorite architects. I like him because he designs classic styled buildings that function in a modern way. not all of his firms buildings have a classical design. he can also do sleek glass supertalls like with the comcast tower in philly

[Dylan Leblanc]

Atomic Glee that building is fabulous!!!


Heres one I like. Sussex Place in Victoria is a fairly good postmodern interpretation of art deco, though it does have a stubby appearance. Built in 1995.

[Dylan Leblanc]

Photos by LoverFighter - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=123444



The darker brick section of the building was a 1930 hotel which was gutted and used as a retail countyard for the tower, which it took it's art deco inspiration from.

[Dylan Leblanc]

[vid]

The administrator has triple posted!!

[Dylan Leblanc]

he he.

here's the design for a new Hilton for Niagara Falls

[Dylan Leblanc]

The Mid-Continent Tower in Tulsa was built in the 1980s. It's the tallest one ont the right.

[Upward]

^ That one is great! It looks no newer than the pyramid-topped one in front of it (which I presume to be a genuine oldy).

Perhaps the most important detail in this sort of building is the windows. That building in Vancouver, for example, just doesn't look like a real old building because of its obviously modern windows. The tinting plays a large part in that. A new building can never have truly old-fashioned windows, because it just wouldn't make sense to not use modern ones with better insulation.

Another thing that tends to give away these buildings as new is that they are very clean. With a little time, though, they will start to look older as they get a little dirty. These new buildings may, however, look something like how the old ones did when they were new.

[STERNyc]

The dead giveaway for the Vancouver Building and many others is that they are fat, buildings from the 30's were built without airconditioning and as a result were either thin or had interior courtyards so that no office was far from a window. You would never see a building like the one in Vancouver in the 1930's.

[kznyc2k]

Originally Posted by STERNyc

buildings from the 30's were built without airconditioning and as a result were either thin or had interior courtyards so that no office was far from a window.

And besides the need for fresh air, the other big factor was the need for natural light (no flourescents back then), which effectively limited office spaces to being no more than 25-30 ft away from any exterior wall. Add in about 5 feet for an interior passageway, and that means no floor plate could extend out any more than 35 feet from the core.

And that Tulsa building really looks much older, as its size and proportions are dead on with many buildings built back in the early 1900s (although none ever went so high).

[kznyc2k]

Originally Posted by Upward

Perhaps the most important detail in this sort of building is the windows.

This is the big giveaway. And along with the windows, often it's how the windows are set into the facade, e.g. are they flush with the veneer so as to give off the impression that the facade is weightless, or are they recessed a good half a foot like something built from masonry construction?

There's a trio of condo towers out in Boston built in the '20s in a red brick tudor style that are currently undergoing renovations and getting all new windows and sashes, and I made sure to get pics of the existing stock because invariably the new stuff will have (and from what I've seen, does have) thicker framing and definitely won't fit the original character of the buildings.