These Buildings Really Do Have Redeeming Values

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/05/t-magazine/architects-libesking-zaha-hadid-selldorf-norman-foster.html?_r=0

Tour Montparnasse, completed in 1973
Paris, France
parisbyfoot.com

Hello Everyone:

If you go to any city around the world, you will find buildings that are so hated by everyone, that if it blew up, no one would miss it. Recently, Alexandra Lange of T Magazine in the New York Tiimes, spoke to seven leading architects to find out if there was anything lovable about some of the most hated buildings around the world.

First building in need of some love is the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, France.  Daniel Libeskind came to the defense of this high-rise, It's legandary for being the most hated building in Paris.  I want to defend it not because it's particularly because of the idea it represents.  Take a look at the picture on the left, the Tour Montparnasse next to the Eiffel Tower.  It dwarfs the famed landmark.  When the high-rise went was completed in 1973, ...Parisians panicked when they saw it, and when they abandoned the tower they also abandoned the idea of a high-density sustainable city.  Future high-rise were exiled to some distant neighborhood.  Mr. Libeskind continues, Parisians reacted aesthetically,...,but they failed to consider the consequences of what it means to be vital, living city versus a museum city.  Good point, are cities living, breathing, organic beings or objects encased in amber?  Yours truly will go with the former.  Another good point that Mr. Libeskind makes is, Parisians sentimentalize their notions of city, but with the carbon footprint, the waste of resources, our shrinking capacity, we have no choice but to build good high-rise buildings that are affordable. The Tour Montparnasse may not be the loveliest building in Paris but it is a harbinger of what a future city will look like.

Orange County Government Center
Paul Rudolph, 1963
Goshen, New York
nytimes.com

Zaha Hadid leaps to the defense of Paul Rudolph's Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York.  The Government Center has been the subject of intense preservation efforts.  Jenny Xie of Curbed recently reported that Judge Christopher Cahill, of the New York State Supreme Court, ruled that no demolition should occur before July. (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2015/...orange-county-government-center-goshen.ph...)  The clock is ticking rapidly.  Zaha Hadid told Alexandra Lange, The 1960s were a remarkable moment of social reform.  The ideas of change, liberation, and freedom were critical.  Now people think public buildings should be more flowery, but these were times people did tough projects.  The Orange County Government Center is anything but flowery. Yet, this Brutalist landmark has a place within the trajectory of modern architecture.  Ms. Hadid defends the building, There is an integrity within the design displays a commitment to engagement and connectivity.  As a center for civic governance, it enacted democracy through spatial integration, not through the separation of elected representative from their constituents...Similar buildings around the world are also suffering from similar neglect, however Ms. Hadid explains, ...sensitive renovation and new programming reveal a profound lightness and generosity, creating exciting and popular spaces where people can connect.  By Ms. Hadid's estimation, There are no additions to make it polite or cute.  It is what it is.

This just in: The World Monument Fund has announced that a state judge has dismissed a lawsuit that would have prevented a $71 million plan to overhaul and expand the Orange County Government Center, clearing the way for demolition  (http://www.recordonline.com)

Empire State Plaza, completed in 1976
Albany, New York
bluffton.edu

Annebelle Selldorf grudgingly defends the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, Against my better judgment, I like this complex.  It's sculptural, architecture abstraction to the extreme.  Ms. Selldorf waxes prosaic over ...the scale of the skyline exudes a sense of identity and strength for Albany, while at the pedestrian level the Plaza plays an important role in the community.  Blogger can definitely understand how the plaza serves as a gathering point for Albany residents. Admittedly, the Plaza is not the most flowery or polite building but it does have a sense of monumentality to it.  Ms. Selldorf acknowledges, Monumentality always suggests supreme power, and that's scary.  I somehow think that if you could populate the Plaza with more gardens, and make it feel more part of everyday life-which they' tried to with farmer's markets and using the basin for ice skating-then it wouldn't feel so hostile.  Warmth and a sense of welcome are what Ms. Selldorf  feels are necessary to give the space a sense of life because, Then it becomes an outlet for the expression of our democratic values of assembly and freedom of speech.

Vele di Scampia 1962-75
Franz di Salvo
Naples, Italy
land-fabricators.tumblr.com

This self-contained "megastructure" looks like one of the most unlovable buildings of all time but not Ada Tolla.  Ms. Tolla told Alexandra Lange, If somebody put this complex in front of me right without adding context, any history, I would consider it a really strong piece of architecture.  Before your eyes roll completely pop out of your heads, consider this, At the time it was conceived, the complex was positive, optimistic and progressive.  It embodies the idea of the megastructure as the mechanism that can solve the pressing problem of overpopulation and saturation of the city center.  A sort of riff on Le Corbusier's "machine for living."  This sense of optimism was expressed in the planning for the complex: roads named for Italian Socialist or Marxists figures.  The interior courtyard references the most modest and vivid moments of Naples life.  However, the "megastructure" was cursed.  Ms. Tolla explains, It wasn't built as specified; value-engineering change the structure and reduced the interior courtyards, therefore limiting the amount of light. None of the planned public spaces,...were ever constructed.  Ms. Tolla concludes, For me it is important to recognize that the Vele is not a failure of architecture, but a failure in execution and management.

Tempelhof Airport
Ernst Sagebiel
Berlin, Germany
en.wikipedia.org

Tempelhof Airport is unloved because it was adjacent to a concentration that interned journalists, politicians, Jewish people, and other "undesirables."  Ironically, it was designed by Ernst Sagebiel, who studied under one most prolific German-Jewish masters Erich Mendelsohn.  However, eminent English architect Norman Foster told Ms. Lange, Tempelhof is one o the really great buildings of the modern age, an yet it is inevitable that is not necessarily celebrated by everyone.  Despite its associations with the National Socialist regime, the airport began its path to redemption in 1948-9 with the Berlin Airlifts, delivering food to West Berlin.  Mr. Foster continues, The airport is full of contradictions and paradoxes.  It has an austere facade, which is not so fascist and almost appear in Sweden...The architecture is heroic, not pompous, empty, vacuous sense , but as engineering that really lifts the spirits.  Monuments, if you trace their ancestry, can reveal disturbing things about the past.  Nevertheless, they have enduring qualities which, viewed on their own merits, are perhaps an example to us.

BT Tower, completed in 1965
Eric Bedford and G.R. Yeats
London, England
file-magazine.com

 Go ahead, crack wise if you must.  Amanda Levette told Ms. Lange, What fascinates me is that in its time the BT Tower was a building that was entirely about its function as a telecommunications tower.  Its purpose was its height...The picture on left shows the BT Tower with its satellites, which have been removed making the tower's purpose redundant.  When it was completed in 1965, it was the tallest building in London.  Ms. Levette continues, It was a marker of arrival if you were coming from the north.  That, in the context of London's skyline now, is extraordinary....High rises today are about exploiting the skyline for private gain.  Amanda Levette wonders ...if the satellites and antennae shouldn't be reinstated to communicate its purpose as enduring symbol of the the moment in the 1960s when technology propelled Britain onto the international stage...

Centre Georges Pompidou, 1977
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers
Paris, France
pictify.com

Finally, what is so unlovable about the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France that would cause a Parisienne to club Richard Rogers (one of the architects) over the head with her umbrella?  When it opened in 1977, horrified Parisians protested the way its brazen industrial aesthetic clashed with the historic fabric of the Marais district and the city itself.  However, it is this clash that excited Vincent Van Duysen, I admire its boldness and openness as a building that participates with-and its woven into-its city, its time.  It was without any respect for the environment...Centre Pompidou does seem to thumb its nose at the eponymous French stone, light grey roofs, and natural colors.  Mr. Van Duysen continues, On the other hand, the building has this democratic purpose because it attracts how many millions every year...It reversed the typical model of a museum into something was engaging and inviting to the public.  Architecture at that time needed to do things differently, like a shock.  The shock liberates a lot of emotions and perceptions.