I admire Mr Jefferson more than just about any other figure in history. Thus, if this happens, please take me along.
Of buildings I’ve actually been to…
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Gotta go along with crowd on the Taj Mahal. It is just an amazing building. The entrance is alomost as interesting. You walk down a normal, crowded Indian street (my hotel was right near the Taj), then you walk through a large Moghul gate and there in the middle of a geometrically laid-out park is the Taj, framed between two other buildings (one’s a mosque and the other is just a bookend). You have to take off your shoes to go inside (there’s a little old man there who will watch your shoes for 2 rupees. when you walk up the slippery marble steps, you can see how genrations of visiotrs have worn down the stone. Inside, the Taj is an octagonal room with the faux sarcophagi of Shah Jehan and his concubine, Mumtaz Mahal ( a nickname meaning "Beloved of the Palace.) The real tombs are below the main chamber and inaccessible to visitors.
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The Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji in Japanese, in Kyoto. Built in 1397, it’s smaller than it looks.
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Bulguk-sa (“Temple of the Buddha Land” in Korean), near Kyongju, South Korea. Originally built during the Unified Shilla period, this beautiful temple was reconstructed during Park Chung-Hee’s regime. You have to see the almost-psychedelic eave and gable tanch’ong painting to really appreciate it.
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The Duomo, Florence, Italy. The architect, Brunelleschi, had to design new machinery just to build the dome itself. The first time I saw this, it looked to me like it was decorated with red and green mint candy.
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In DC, there is an apartment building just off Dupont Circle that is a wonderful example of 1920s Art Deco aprtment architecture. It has a Chinese-style semi-circular door and is just lovely to look at.
My favorite is the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. I’ve always loved the big gothic cathedrals in europe and the National Cathedral has that same feeling. Its in a beautiful setting on a hill and the gardens are great as well.
There are a few:
The Space Needle- Seattle, WA. Considering how many knock-offs there have been over the years, nobody’s come close to matching it for style. And unlike many things from the 60s, it wears its age well. They shouldn’t have added the 100-foot level, and I haven’t seen the new pavilion at the base.
The Arctic Building - Seattle, WA: The picture on that link is too far away to see the best detail. The decorations around the third floor facade are terra cotta walrus faces.
Fallingwater - Mill Run, PA: I couldn’t live there, but as a work of art to walk around in, it’s magnificent.
Train Station - Harrisburg, PA: Brick walls, brass door handles and wood benches worn smooth by a million impatient asses. Down on the platform, there should be conductors yelling and steam billowing, and draftees leaving home for the first time with their hands pressed against the windows.
30th Street Station - Philadelphia, PA: The train ride into Philly isn’t the most inspiring. Then you’re in darkness under the station, and then you get off and come up into the concourse and it’s one of the most glorious rooms I’ve ever been in. Marble walls stretch ninety feet up to the ceiling. There is such an aura of substance and permanence that it feels like the foundation must be carved all the way down to the core of the Earth.
The Chrysler Building - New York, NY: This one’s already been covered. I have a picture of someone sitting on one of the gargoyles.
Boston Public Library - Boston, MA: A courtyard and fountain, murals by John Singer Sargent, this would be a great building even without a single book in it.
I’ll probably think of some more.
I agree with you about 30th Street, Robot Arm—one of the all-time great train stations! And don’t forget the huge statue of “Lady Carrying Unconscious Traveler.”
Ooooooo, yeah, I LOVE that thing!
The only World War Two memorial that’s as goopy as a World War One memorial!
I’m a Frank Gehry fan, always have been. Probably because I’ve always been entranced by the
Weisman Art Museum on the U of Minnesota campus. That building was his prototype for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. And his Rasin Building (better known as Fred and Ginger) is just too cool for words.
Can I include a collection of buildings, too? If so, I’m going to nominate the Allhambra and Generalife in Grenada, Spain. I’d nominate La Mezquita de Cordoba, too, if they hadn’t stuck that stupid cathedral into the middle of it. :mad:
I love to visit the Wells Fargo Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota. It’s so much fun to see this Louis Sullivan Masterpiece in such a small town. Anyone who lives near southern Minnesota should make the effort to see this!
Uke, I’m with on on Beaux Arts. Your cathedral reminds me of the Bourbon County Courthouse in Paris, Kentucky. The dome seem so much more imposing in person than it appears in this photo.
(Trivia tidbit: Bourbon County is thought to be the orgin of Kentucky Bourbon. Contrary to popular jokers, Kentucky’s Bourbon County is NOT dry, while Ky.'s Christian County is wet!)
Anyway, I love courthouses for some reason. There are a number of fascinating 1930s WPA poured-concrete courthouses here in Western Kentucky that fascinate me to no end. I can’t find any pictures on the internet or I would show you all. They are these huge, slab-like, Hoover Dam looking things.
My other favorite building is any old gothic high school. A good example is DuPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky.
Oh, then you’ll love the old Police Building on Centre Street in New York City! A real Beaux-Arts pile, THAT one is.
I love this place, but it’s not as charmingly incongruous as the St. Paul cathedral.
On the other end of the scale from most of the buildings mentioned here, there’s a tiny little leftover farmhouse in Greenwich Village. (It was moved down from the Upper East Side on a truck.) It’s a square wooden box with a sloping roof, so small it’s hard to imagine how anyone could ever live there. Someone told me it’s the original of the Little Fur House in the children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown. I’d give anything to see the inside.
I knew I’d think of another one.
Vancouver Public Library - Vancouver, BC: I was walking around Vancouver on a Sunday morning a few years ago, and I stumbled across this place. I didn’t know what it was at the time, just that it was one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. The only style I can think of to describe it is post-modern roman. There’s an elliptical section with a colonnade running around the top, and a tower bordering one quadrant of the ellipse. I can’t find any pictures on the net that do it justice, but this one isn’t bad. And it’s only a few years old, proof that we can still make great buildings.
EC, if you like domed courthouses, see what you can find on Union Station in Tacoma, WA. It was abandoned as a train station in the 80s, and then refurbished and turned into a courthouse in the 90s. They replaced the copper on the dome and before it started to develop a patina it would catch the sunlight like a new penny. I haven’t been inside since it was redone, but I did catch a train there once. It was well past its prime, I’m sure, but I’m glad I got to use the building as it was originally designed.
I don’t think I would characterize it as charmingly anything. It is certainly impressive.
When I moved here, I had seen it on the skyline, but never up close. One day, I decided to follow Summit Avenue (where the robber barons’ mansions are) to its end. One rounds a little curve and the Cathedral rears up quite suddenly and hugely, on one’s left. My reaction was GOOD LORD, WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT!
Another time, I decided to follow Smith Street across the high bridge into St. Paul from West St. Paul. One crests a small hill, and can see straight across the river to the state capitol building, which looks pretty huge sitting up on its hill over across the city. Then, one rounds a curve and the Cathedral swing into view FOUR TIMES BIGGER THAN THE FREAKIN’ CAPITOL! (Well, OK, it sits on a higher hill and it’s closer).
There aren’t many older buildings in downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis. My favorite building in St. Paul has to be the Landmark Center. Its street sits at an angle to the rest of the downtown street grid, which creates an effect that I can only think of to describe as European.
Minneapolis has City Hall. I also like Wells Fargo Tower in Minneapolis.
But my favorite building in Minneapolis is the cute little Foshay Tower (also here and here). It’s always amazing to catch a glimpse of this teeny old building in amongst all the monstrosities from the 70’s and 80’s. The best view is coming up 35W.
kg m²/s²
chique, you stole my building! I adore the Alhambra and had already gone searching for pictures before I saw your post. I’ve been there twice and had to be physically dragged away both times. If I ever manage to wangle another visit, this time I ain’t leaving! I really need to live in the Alhambra. Seriously.
I also love Victorian houses, particularly Second Empire style, and I especially like the Kennebunk house on that Second Empire page.
Basically, if it’s elaborate, encrusted, ornate, and totally over the top, I’m there.
The Second Empire page is here.
Love your Victorian houses link, Miss Bianca! Uke, did you see the example of the Exotic form? It’s a Octagonal house that looks completely like a Beaux Arts dome, crouching on the lawn. Cool~io.
And speaking of tiny, incongruous houses—there’s a wee carriage house on 42nd near B’way in New York, right next to the new Condé Nast building. I’m guessing it was attached to one of the grand mansions one block over on 43rd at some point. It’s two stories, and has a garret window that—till recently—had a small tree growing out if it! I would kill to get inside it; I’m sure it will be gone within a year or two.
Oooooooooooh…I didn’t know the name of that building. It’s beautiful at night.
Another place I love (but forgot about until people started mentioning houses) is Vizcaya in Miami. While the house itself is wonderful, the gardens are stunning (pre-Hurricane Andrew, at least - I’m sure they’ve been restored by now but the initial pictures I saw after the hurricane were devastating).
I love this thread. I was going to force myself to pick one building in each country I’m reasonably familiar with, but I’ll probably fail in self-discripline. (So what else is new?)
Starting with the U.S. and Manhattan, my home, I’d pick the Chrysler Building as many others of you have done. (Ever since September 11th I’ve realized that the Statute of Liberty means more to me than any other building in this country, but that’s not for its architecture, so it doesn’t count.)
In France, I can pick one without too much trouble too - the Sainte-Chappelle in Paris. Incredibly beautiful stained glass on the second floor. But you have to go when the sun is shining.
In Italy, I guess I’d pick the Duomo, as someone else did. But I also love that green and white and black one near the railroad station in Florence - I think it’s Santa Maria Novella (am I right?)
I run into trouble in England, where I’ve made like a tourist much more than in other countries. Durham Cathedral. Wells Cathedral. Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster together with King’s College chapel in Cambridge, because I’m a sucker for fan vaulting.
Oh, I want to go!
Oh, Susan, I love Wells Cathedral! So eerie, and jam-packed with medieval sculpture!