Steal one building from another city and put it in yours. What do you take?
 

Game time! If you could take exactly one building from one other city, and put it in your city, what would you take and why?

Please adhere to the simple rules. Take ONE BUILDING. You may not take, for example, an entire transit system, a park, or someone's awesome warehouse district. You get ONE SPECIFIC BUILDING, and that's it. And you have to tell us why you're taking it. Bonus points if you tell us exactly where, in your city, you would locate your stolen goods.

Clarifications: Your ONE BUILDING may be a building-like structure such as a statue or observation tower if you want, but it may not be something completely un-building-like such as Mount Rushmore. Natural features such as hills or lakes are not allowed, but bridges are acceptable. Parks are not allowed, but you may take individual physical structures within parks, such as statues or fountains.

i would love to snag pittsburgh's powerful US steel tower and place this triangular-shaped building right at the very tip of the triangular-shaped wolf point in chicago.

its robust, muscular structural expressionism would be right at home in the city of big shoulders. and chicago could always use more cor-ten because cor-ten totally rules!

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3128/...b5b366d0_b.jpg
U.S. Steel Tower, Pittsburgh by walter, on Flickr

oh just for fun i think the chrysler bldg would look purrrrdy good in the god forsaken jacobs lot on public square in cleveland. i think the twin attack of the chrysler and terminal tower deco era bldgs on one corner of the square would be pretty cool facing off against the more modern bldgs across from them.

http://www.illuminart.net/images/awa..._QNCC_Dusk.jpg
http://www.illuminart.net/qatarawards.html

I'll take the Qatar National Convention Center and plop it down along Broad Street in the sprawling stadium lots in South Philly.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9082...7i13312!8i6656


Thus freeing up several downtown blocks for development, freeing us from this lifeless wall:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9561...7i13312!8i6656

I would steal this beauty from NYC: One57, and transplant it to Center City, Philadelphia where I think it would look truly amazing.

https://anticap.files.wordpress.com/...ignboom-02.jpg

https://www.google.com/search?q=one+...2kWQqg#imgrc=_

The Transamerica Tower for Indy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transamerica_Pyramid

I'd like Tulsa's Cityplex in Pittsburgh.

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/i...ex_Towers4.jpg

I'd love to have the Ping An tower, put it where WTC2 will rise, and call it a day.

What the city gains is a tower which restores the rising peaks for downtown. Sort of a 21st Century version of the 1930's peaks which graced the Lower Manhattan Skyline.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/newsph...1553_copy1.jpg
Credit: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-s...00063&cid=1206

It would also look aesthetically pleasing, as its in a location which would make it a signature tower for the area. Being surrounded by supertalls, its extra 600-800 ft gain over the roofs of WTC1 and WTC3 wouldn't look overpowering as it has a buffer thanks to the other tall towers.

Its glassy nature would do well to complement the trade complex. I also picked a Chinese Tower because quite frankly, the designs coming out of East Asia are pretty superior (some of them designed by Americans too) to most American super talls. Jin Mao could be another candidate, but this is the one tower that if I could steal, it would be it. Its a hard city to make a tower work in, AND STAND OUT, but something like this would do the job greatly, and only add to the aesthetics.

Going with the rules, some extra info:

1) City taken: Shenzhen
2) City its going in: NYC
3) Site: 200 Greenwich Street

https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=...BHwQvSQlG9kpPw

For DC, I'm eschewing skyscrapers and North America and taking Paris' Gare de Lyon, and plopping it at 8th and Independence SW, at L'Enfant Plaza.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1083/...bccea026_b.jpg
flickr user etnobofin

Minneapolis' Wells Fargo Center has always caught my eye. It's just so epic.

I'd probably place it along the west side of Congress on one of the last empty lots or somewhere farther west in downtown.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rom_Foshay.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_...r_(Minneapolis)

Portland needs Nashville's batman bldg!

Ill take that new Zaha Hadid building going up in Miami and plop it right on Olympic and Figueroa in Downtown LA, across from Staples Center and take the top unit.

1000 Museum

http://www.designboom.com/wp-content...ignboom-01.jpg

I'll take Shanghai's Wheelock Square and plop it right into the heart of downtown Calgary. I feel the design would't clash too much with Calgary's other architecture, and it'd make a perfect peak for downtown Calgary.
http://www.cladding.com/wp-content/u...ck-Square1.jpg

I'd take Burj Al Arab and put it at the entry to Copenhagen habour near the new cruiseship port..

So many but I chose this one more due to its height 1,614' , sq footage [(4,107,500 sq ft] and its effect on the skyline if well placed. Mixed use is nice feature too, esp the hotel component.




http://megaconstrucciones.net/images...ial-center.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangh...nancial_Center

Plus I am a fan of a nice tuned mass dampers.

• To protect the building from fierce winds, the Shanghai World Financial Center holds two tuned mass dampers below its observation floors to reduce the building’s sway during windstorms and earthquakes.

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7609

Building Uses
- mixed use
- conference
- hotel
- museum
- observation
- office
- parking garage
- retail

I'm taking Dallas' 720-ft. Fountain Place for San Francisco, and I'm putting it on the block where the current lowrise Federal Reserve Bank is located, at the foot of Market Street at Spear. The lower floors will align with Market Street, while the upper floors in this view will be perfectly aligned with the north-of-Market grid:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...tain_place.jpg
source=wikipedia

Fflint beat me to it.

I've wanted Fountain Place in Back Bay, somewhere on Boylston near the Arlington T stop, since I discovered Fountain Place on this very site, 15 years ago.

For New Orleans, I'd want something that proves tall buildings can be graceful and subtle. I'd take the Custom House Tower from Boston - it's based on the Campanile in Venice, another waterlogged merchant port city.

I'd put the Custom House Tower in place of the New Orleans World Trade Center, so that it would loom at the end of both Canal St and Poydras St right on the riverfront.

Take that, low-lying delta floodplain!

Getting this:
https://c3.staticflickr.com/7/6056/6...d89246cdc5.jpg

Instead of this:
http://media.nola.com/business_impac...a1d_medium.jpg

As mrnyc mentioned, there are some sore spots in downtown Cleveland but the parking lot adjacent to the northwest quadrant of Public Square is the worst. The site was home to a pair of twelve-story buildings - not terribly remarkable but they at least 'hemmed in' the square. They were demolished to make way for the Ameritrust Center, a 1198' tower which would have been impressive but given the economic fluctuations of Cleveland's economy we could have had a 1198' albatross. Anyway, the tower was never built because Ameritrust was acquired by Society Bank which had already built its new headquarters (now known as Key Tower) so the site has been a parking lot ever since.

It's not just that the site is a parking lot, it's that whatever is built is going to be immediately north of the Terminal Tower, one of the most beloved buildings in Cleveland, and the 'flow' of the skyline would be forever changed, so what would be appropriate? I've always thought the best features of the Ameritrust proposal was its curved facade which would essentially act as a mirror for the Terminal Tower, and the mass of that was on the portion of the site *away* from the Terminal Tower. But then, 1198' would be too much and the styling of the Ameritrust would probably be considered a little dated now, although its accents of structural expressionism would certainly be appropriate for Cleveland. With that, I'm going to pick the Bow from Calgary - but only if it can be built so the curve reflects the angles of 200 Public Square (BP Building) and it retains that 'mirror' quality for the Terminal Tower. Here are rough renderins - hope I'm making sense:

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/cleskybow1.jpg

http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/cleskybow2.jpg

Unfortunately in NYC most buildings under 1,000 FT tall tend to get lost. I just had dinner at Rockefeller Center (Del Frisco's Grill), on my way home, and then walked over to Park Ave and passed by 432 Park Ave. That building does stick out but most others don't! If we inserted most buildings in the City it would get lost....JMHO :shrug: