Tyler Green wants to compare bloggers' favorite architectural spaces to the list that AIA compiled by polling everyday Americans (always a senseless thing to do). The AIA top 150 includes such cornerstone examples of architecture as . . . the University of Texas's Battle Hall. I took a class there and remember as little about the subject as I do about the building. I assume Battle Hall eeked by (it's number 150 on the list, beating out this place, for example) after some rabid Longhorn forum confused the lever for Battle Hall:Best Buildings with Vince Young:Rookie of the Year.
On to five great American buildings! Number one: The University of Texas's Blanton Fine Arts Museum by Herzog and de Meuron. Right, right—that building never happened.
Five: World Trade Center (Minoru Yamasaki). It's hard to make sense of the Twin Towers now that they're gone: what they meant and how they worked as architecture. It seems strange to discuss them in terms of repetition and redundancy now. The Towers were a unique monument to empire, affluence, and bragadocious industry. There's nothing else in this weight class.
Four: Chapel on Thanks-Giving Square (Philip Johnson). Texas has better architecture than the state is given credit for, and the state's good architecture does more work than buildings do anywhere else in the nation. In Dallas, I. M. Pei's Fountain Place struggles under the shadow of Reunion Tower, a giant microphone that broadcasts schlockiness, which the city has in abundance.
When you're in Dallas, you don't look to the skyline, you look under it: Tucked away under the hodgepodge of Pomo and Gothic Revival buildings is Johnson's Chapel. There's no better contrast to the hairspray and swagger that make up a sort of ozone that permeates Dallas. And yet it's uniquely Texan. (See also: Rothko Chapel by Johnson in Houston.)
Three: Chrysler Building (William Van Alen). No amount of bad Deco or Deco Echo or future retro revivals could make me think any less of the Chrysler Building, the greatest building in New York and a quintessentially American structure.
Two: St. Louis Arch (Eero Saarinen). The only time I ever spent in St. Louis was driving through. But I told the person with me at the time that I loved this city, if only for the Arch. Any people that put up a monument to space and boundless optimism can't be all bad. (See also: Dulles Airport by Saarinen.)
One: 330 North Wabash (Mies Van der Rohe). 330 North Wabash (nee IBM Plaza) is the building that comes to mind when I think of the great American contribution to architecture: the skyscraper. Monadnock was Chicago's protoskyscraper, a gilled thing that crawled out of the primordial groundfloor, clawing its way toward air. 330 North Wabash is product of that evolution, the endpoint of all that progress—an uberbuilding. (See also: Seagram Building by Johnson and Mies.)
Posted by Kriston at February 16, 2007 11:05 AM150 buildings and it left off the U.S. Customs House in New York? (Yes, I know NYC was a little over-represented but that building has a special place in my heart. And is awesome!)
Posted by: Becks at February 16, 2007 1:28 PMHow about the Milwaukee Art Museum addition by Calatrava? Love it. But more from the inside than from the outside. The Arch is actually probably my number 1. It makes me cry in a historical sense. Ed works in that Mies building. I don't think he appreciates it enough. You don't even want to know about the shit that's getting erected right in front of it now, though. The Trump building's footprint is pretty much going to ruin the riverfront. Hello, I didn't realize I had so many opinions!
Posted by: sarahb at February 16, 2007 4:56 PMLet's Ask a Chicagoan: What do you think of the Chicago Spire? It looks a little Vivid Video. I know it will be as tall as all get out, but Swedes are still going to brag that their twisty building is cooler.
Posted by: Kriston at February 16, 2007 5:11 PMNot a fan, really. The Swedish one has a nice human quality to it. The Chicago one is completely inorganic in, you're right, a fake tits sort of way. But the real problem is having it jammed down on the ground right where the city meets the lake. It's terrible feng shui, and it makes me uneasy thinking of it muscling its way in front of everyone else. I like how the city sort of opens its arms to the water now...this spire thing is like the 6-foot tall dude right up front at a Bikini Kill show. Kathleen Hanna needs tell it to move its ass back.
Posted by: sarahb at February 16, 2007 5:27 PMHey, I totally worked in 330 N Wabash last summer! I even had a view of the river. I love me some Mies.
Posted by: m. leblanc at February 21, 2007 10:33 AM"I assume Battle Hall eeked by"
I love that typo.
And surely the Salem Custom House is the most well known and least seen of all Custom Houses.
Posted by: PG at March 2, 2007 9:55 PM
