Cool Modern Architecture - Page 16

Tom Servo · #**301** Posted **May 21, 2008, 4:08 AM**

bertrand goldberg

ABC office building
commercial building_nyc_1962

This unrealized project for a new American Broadcasting Company headquarters was a sixty-story office tower at 67th and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. It was to have housed both ABC's corporate body of 1400 employees and their broadcast studios. The proposed building was a complex circular structure of concrete and glass which resembled a set of bundled tubes. Goldberg clustered related "companies" and knitted them together, arranging interior space so that it more closely followed ABC's organizational structure. The various clusters were organized around a communal space in the center for joint enterprises. Goldberg providing a windowed, daylit area for the secretaries, and each level of management had easy access to one another. The focal point of the design was a major transmission antenna, a graceful structure that would have been the tallest in New York City. It was never built due to financial difficulties.

As described by Goldberg in his Oral History, "in our perhaps over studied way, we began to pry into their business organization, and we discovered that the way they actually operated was quite different from the way they thought they operated. They were actually a series of little companies, each with its own special way of making money and functioning in a communications system."

Tom Servo · #**302** Posted **May 21, 2008, 4:16 AM**

bertrand goldberg

astor tower
residential building_chicago_1961

Astor Tower was the predecessor in structural theory to Marina Towers. Like the Marina Towers, Astor Tower is organized around a central core, which housed the elevators, stairs and utilities, thus allowing for the bulk of the floor plate to be used for living space. Poured in place over a three-week period, the core was carried much of the weight of the building and resisted 90% of the wind stress experienced in its location close to Lake Michigan. All twenty-four floors were cantilevered off the core. The floor plates were supported on their exterior edges by projected concrete columns. Goldberg exposed the core at the base of the building and again at top, highlighting its important structural role by making it a central feature of his design. Because the residential stories do not begin until the fifth story, the exposed core gives the impression of an architectural peep-show, the building lifting its exterior wall to expose its structure beneath.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the building was the complex exterior louver system designed by Goldberg to allow light control, weather protection, and easier window washing. In addition to their functional capacities, they also create what Goldberg described as "a happening." As he wrote in 1965, "the changing pattern of light and dark on a haphazard basis regulated by the tenant creates a constantly changing elevation. Astor Towers appears to be a slightly different building each time one looks at it." Sadly, the Louver system was removed in 1996 during a renovation project.

Initially conceived of as a round building, that plan was discarded because, according to Goldberg, the nineteenth century Gold Coast neighborhood surrounding the site of the future tower was a rectilinear environment and "I felt that it would be uncivilized to insert a cylinder in a community of boxes." The three hundred foot tall structure originally functioned as a hotel with a French theme. It featured ninety-six dwelling-units and one restaurant, a replica of the famous French restaurant Maxim's tucked in the basement. A promotional brochure declared, "here an international clientele is offered the intimate atmosphere and individual attention of a great residence. Privacy and perfection of service, hallmarks of the elite club are the signature of this Gold Coast rendezvous for the chic and celebrated."

Jibba · #**303** Posted **May 21, 2008, 4:31 AM**

That's a shame that ABC tower never got built. I would have rather had it in Chicago, however, and it would have been perfect right where that Seventeenth Church of Christ building is. Yeah, it's a Harry Weese and it's sort of cool, but it's such a gap in the glorious streetwall around that part of the river. This tower would have been a perfect fit.

Tom Servo · #**304** Posted **May 21, 2008, 5:03 AM**

yeah, and that giant spire thing is SUPER cool!

Jibba · #**305** Posted **May 21, 2008, 7:08 AM**

Yeah I know. You should see what people had to say about it in the thread I made for it in the "Never Built" section.

staff · #**306** Posted **May 21, 2008, 1:30 PM**

The Guangzhou TV Tower (which is a masterpiece, btw) is obviously an inverted interpretation of that tower.

CGII · #**307** Posted **May 21, 2008, 4:10 PM**

Bertrand Goldberg was brilliant but he never really could get his bases done right, and before Adrian jumps down my throat I'll say that his bases could be abstractly attractive from a photographic point of view but they were totally un-engaging from a street level perpective.

Tom Servo · #**308** Posted **May 21, 2008, 5:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CGII

Bertrand Goldberg was brilliant but he never really could get his bases done right, and before Adrian jumps down my throat I'll say that his bases could be abstractly attractive from a photographic point of view but they were totally un-engaging from a street level perpective.

i'd generally agree with that. but you're bringing up certain arguments a lot of people had against modernism.

i personally don't think a building should be %100 of the time engaging at the street level... along wabash, of course. in the midst of the gold coast, no. and so on.

Tom Servo · #**309** Posted **May 21, 2008, 5:32 PM**

i'll continue the goldberg love-a-thon!

Tom Servo · #**310** Posted **May 21, 2008, 5:39 PM**

bertrand goldberg

river city
residential building_chicago_1975-82

River City should have been the culmination of Goldberg's vision of "a city-within-a city," but politics and power-brokering prevented the plan from being realized. BGA envisioned a high-density site of mixed-use skyscrapers 72-stories tall, linked by skybridges and containing everything from schools to shopping centers. Bending to political pressure about density and unable to get the zoning variance needed to proceed, the design was modified extensively over a ten-year planning period. As Goldberg described it, he unfolded the towers and laid them on their end.

Planning for River City began in 1968 when Goldberg sat down with Harris Ward, CEO of Commonwealth Edison, to "describe a new city center...Harris wanted to help rebuild or build a new concept of a city." Harris was stricken with cancer and the project was reassigned to Tom Ayres, who eventually hired SOM to develop the site Goldberg had chosen for River City. However, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, who actually owned the land, approached Goldberg and planning got underway in earnest.

QUOTE: "And finally, in River City he has the chance to affect the future course of Chicago by integrating his ideas in curving mega structure half-a-mile long, sinuously following the river southward into the decayed industrial tundra of the old city of smoke and steel which is being replaced by the new city of microchips, services and social democracy."
- Allan Temkosho, "Bertand Goldberg" in 15O Years of Chicago Architecture

Lecom · #**311** Posted **May 22, 2008, 5:23 AM**

Quote:

Wow, this is a great building.

Tom Servo · #**312** Posted **May 22, 2008, 4:35 PM**

i think so.

Tom Servo · #**313** Posted **May 22, 2008, 4:39 PM**

steven holl_in collaboration with the swiss rüssli architects
white cross_private residential

Tom Servo · #**314** Posted **May 22, 2008, 5:02 PM**

CALATRAVA
maastricht campus

• Video Link

Tom Servo · #**315** Posted **May 22, 2008, 5:04 PM**

greatest calatrava project yet? might be... we'll see...

lfc4life · #**316** Posted **May 22, 2008, 5:26 PM**

i am not sure if these have been posted yet, both are under construction and certainly unique if nothing else

Veer Towers two 37 story buildings (460ft) that will lean at angles of 5 degrees away from each other

http://www.lasvegasatitsbest.com/res...CityCenter.jpg

i think Frank Gehry is trying for the prize of weirdest looking building on earth with this; Lou Ruvo Alzheimer's in downtown las vegas

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/2977/brainnm7.jpg