Lisnaholic

Spectacular stand-alone buildings like the above are great for making your name as an architect, but in European cities, already chockablock with architectural gems, I like the fitting-in style of design which has the fancy name of "Contextualism". If ever a single building defined this approach, it's this one:-



It's modern, but it works as a perfect compliment to what's there already. Together, each building looks better than they would've done on their own. Instead of slap-in-the-face architecture, this is well-mannered architecture that respects, even enhances, the past.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Danzaburou

Well we have much older buildings than American architects can ever dream to work with. For American architects, buildings from 200 years ago are often historic, that's nothing for Europeans. We have buildings the freakin Romans built. Everywhere.
These modern influences often are installed when a building, or part of a building is damaged, but many if not most cities try to restore buildings to their former appearance. Especially here in the south of Germany we would not like something like that. Our cities are more like


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9TFKw99BPo

We really love the ancient vibe and try to keep our cities looking old.

edit: even in much larger cities in the south the city core is usually entirely preserved
take Munich as an example which has many modern buildings in its Speckgürtel,

but the city core looks like this

DianneW

Cannot remember if I done an item on Pigeonneir Houses
Pigeon Houses in France | Aussie in France
Some are quite elaborate.




This one is very close to Sauze Vaussais near to where I live...



Finale one a mobile one during the World War 1

Lisnaholic

Those images didn't occur to me, Dianne - I thought (right-hand side of building) of a woman in a headscarf. Most dramatic modern buildings get a nickname, don't they? In London they have "The Gerkin" and "The Walkie-Talkie". I'd say that it's a credit to Zaha Hadid's design that we can't decide what nickname to give it. Well done, ZH

That's a great building! Very unusual looking, even though the geometry isn't that complicated. I wonder if the guy who designed Mexico City's "Monument to the Revolution" visited your bird-house first:-



Frankly, of the two, I prefer the bird-house.
I also liked your photo of the bus, especially the pigeon on the guy's head! Strange concept, strange vehicle.
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Prompted by a conversation with Batlord about how attractive bare brick can be, I though about houses like this that you can often see in England:-



It's an object lesson in how to ruin a whole terrace of houses by not honouring the original material. The house owner clearly never absorbed the message of Bertrand Russell's comment on educating children: "You can't turn a cabbage into a rose, but you can turn it into a good cabbage."

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

DianneW

Lisnaholic

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey, opened in 1876, demolished in 2015. Even the main entrance block (the Kirkbride Building) with its many columns has gone, thanks to:-
...which makes this footage one of the best ways to see this complex of buildings. (According to wiki, "the base of this building was the alleged largest continuous foundation in the United States from the time it was built until it was surpassed by the Pentagon in 1943", which is admittedly grasping at straws to get yourself into the record books.)


At its peak it housed over 7,000 patients - the most famous being Woody Guthrie who was there for 6 years. The Guthrie family put BDylan on the Permitted Visitors list, and the 19-year old Bob became a regular visitor and friend to Woody during his declining years.

The US has never fought off an invasive war on its own territory, so it's lucky to have governors like Christie who are helping to destroy the USA's heritage without the inconvenience of an invading army.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

rubber soul

Careful, Lisna. You might get someone to go, "Oh, yeah, what about the commies who are destroying American heritage by taking down Confederate statues?"

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Lisnaholic

^ HaHa! There was a debate about Confederate statues here a few years back. At first I took the position that "They're history, they should be left in place," but Janzoon convinced me otherwise, explaining that they celebrate an oppression that many Americans find offensive. I think many have now been transferred to museums where their presence is less "in your face".

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

rubber soul

We had a controversy about it here in Baltimore too and I was initially on the fence about it as well. I think the George Floyd incident really changed a lot of minds in the US though. Yes, most of the statues have either have been sent, or are being sent, to museums, or, in a few cases, destroyed.

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Tristan_Geoff

Isn't it a little early in the morning to be talking about gothic architecture?

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