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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,706,106 times
Reputation: 10256
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cpomp
That is the exact attitude that keeps Philadelphia in its provincial state of mind. Lets grown outside of the box.
For example, 205 Race St, IMO is one of the best looking modern projects to hit the city, it does not match the surrounding 18th Century architecture, but it compliments it very well, just as 1911 Walnut will.
Try to wrap your head around this. The father of post-modernist architecture is from what city? That's right, Philadelphia. Shouldn't Philadelphia be aiming to be a showcase for the most & the best of that style? Coincidentally, that style blends perfectly with the existing stock.
Try to wrap your head around this. The father of post-modernist architecture is from what city? That's right, Philadelphia. Shouldn't Philadelphia be aiming to be a showcase for the most & the best of that style? Coincidentally, that style blends perfectly with the existing stock.
IMO building postmodern pastiche facades in center city in 2015 would make Philly look like it's stuck in 1992. I don't think it blends.
How do you feel about the Guild House on 7th & spring garden. It's one of the most notable works in the city by the so-called father of postmodernist architecture you mention. Think it looks good?
Try to wrap your head around this. The father of post-modernist architecture is from what city? That's right, Philadelphia. Shouldn't Philadelphia be aiming to be a showcase for the most & the best of that style? Coincidentally, that style blends perfectly with the existing stock.
I simply don't agree with you about this project on Walnut and Rittenhouse. It happens. It likely will again.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,706,106 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by rotodome
IMO building postmodern pastiche facades in center city in 2015 would make Philly look like it's stuck in 1992. I don't think it blends.
How do you feel about the Guild House on 7th & spring garden. It's one of the most notable works in the city by the so-called father of postmodernist architecture you mention. Think it looks good?
I never cared much for Guild House, but don't hate it. It was completed in 1963. I like the pastiche facades & they are being built elsewhere, taking bits of colonial or Victorian architecture & bits of the pastiche. I like it. I even like it when it's a plainer, taller building. You don't have to like it. I think that glass buildings look like stacked ice cubes. That's my opinion & if you don't share it, that's fine with me.
Therein lies the difference. There are people in this thread who think that they are entitled to insult others or attempt to insult others for having different opinions. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion &, by the TOS on this website, everyone is allowed to express their opinion. There's another website for people who are like-minded concerning urban architecture.
For instance, one poster told another that he should have demanded other reasons why his neighbor wasn't impressed with the building in question. He told the other poster to tell his neighbor to move to West Chester if she couldn't come up with a better reason. You think that's polite & an acceptable way to treat your neighbor? When I commented that that would be rude & (conversely) commented that if people want mostly new (based on several posters commenting that they'd like to tear down the old & replace it with new) there are cities that provide mostly new. I got taken to task for that (although it was directed at no one specific), but the person who took me to task didn't say a thing to the poster who suggested being aggressively rude.
I think that brick & glass blends better with brick & glass. If you don't, that's fine with me.
It's your opinion that people with different points of view on this are provincial.
I started going to Rittenhouse Square in the 60s. Not every building on the square is a gem. They do, however, blend. I am capable of visualization. No way does that building blend. If something very similar was done with a post modern facade it would blend.
Conversely, East Market has a giant hole where Gimbels once stood. Given the godforsaken ugliness of the federal building, glass on the former Gimbels site wouldn't be out of place. On city data the TOS says that everyone is allowed to express their point of view. My point of view is that the glass buildings have all of the warmth of stacked ice cubes.
There's another website that has people who almost universally prefer very tall, very modern buildings. Yet, when someone posted a thread of pictures of pre WWII Philadelphia several people posted their admiration of those long-gone buildings.
As for doing what they're doing in Boston & NYC, because they're doing it. . .it's like my mother used to say, just because someone else is doing something doesn't mean that you have to do it.
As for your allegation that I'm unaware of the empty lots, that's pretty funny. I went to college in the Havilland building on South Broad.
We have had similar experiences in Phila. because of our ages but we won't agree about a lot of things. And,
I'm certainly not the only one who has noted how provincial this city is. I don't it see it as a positive thing at all.
I never cared much for Guild House, but don't hate it. It was completed in 1963. I like the pastiche facades & they are being built elsewhere, taking bits of colonial or Victorian architecture & bits of the pastiche. I like it. I even like it when it's a plainer, taller building. You don't have to like it. I think that glass buildings look like stacked ice cubes. That's my opinion & if you don't share it, that's fine with me.
Therein lies the difference. There are people in this thread who think that they are entitled to insult others or attempt to insult others for having different opinions. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion &, by the TOS on this website, everyone is allowed to express their opinion. There's another website for people who are like-minded concerning urban architecture.
For instance, one poster told another that he should have demanded other reasons why his neighbor wasn't impressed with the building in question. He told the other poster to tell his neighbor to move to West Chester if she couldn't come up with a better reason. You think that's polite & an acceptable way to treat your neighbor? When I commented that that would be rude & (conversely) commented that if people want mostly new (based on several posters commenting that they'd like to tear down the old & replace it with new) there are cities that provide mostly new. I got taken to task for that (although it was directed at no one specific), but the person who took me to task didn't say a thing to the poster who suggested being aggressively rude.
I think that brick & glass blends better with brick & glass. If you don't, that's fine with me.
But the newly proposed building's exterior is glass, brick, metal, and masonry.
I'm not in the business of insulting anyone, but I will critique architecture.
I guess the only other thing worth noting is that the majority of the existing highrises on Rittenhouse Square are post-war modern buildings, and a lot of them aren't even brick. The building that burned down to create the longstanding hole that's now being filled in was also a post-war modern building.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,706,106 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyb01
We have had similar experiences in Phila. because of our ages but we won't agree about a lot of things. And,
I'm certainly not the only one who has noted how provincial this city is. I don't it see it as a positive thing at all.
And here's the thing. I haven't insulted your views on things at all, nor have I made assumptions or tried to slap you down for a different point of view.
Provincial is in the eye of the beholder, but I certainly know when it's being shot me as an insult. I have a BFA & I know what I like & don't like. it's personal preference. I've taken a break from this thread before. I think it's time to do it again.
I never cared much for Guild House, but don't hate it. It was completed in 1963. I like the pastiche facades & they are being built elsewhere, taking bits of colonial or Victorian architecture & bits of the pastiche. I like it. I even like it when it's a plainer, taller building. You don't have to like it. I think that glass buildings look like stacked ice cubes. That's my opinion & if you don't share it, that's fine with me.
Therein lies the difference. There are people in this thread who think that they are entitled to insult others or attempt to insult others for having different opinions. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion &, by the TOS on this website, everyone is allowed to express their opinion. There's another website for people who are like-minded concerning urban architecture.
For instance, one poster told another that he should have demanded other reasons why his neighbor wasn't impressed with the building in question. He told the other poster to tell his neighbor to move to West Chester if she couldn't come up with a better reason. You think that's polite & an acceptable way to treat your neighbor? When I commented that that would be rude & (conversely) commented that if people want mostly new (based on several posters commenting that they'd like to tear down the old & replace it with new) there are cities that provide mostly new. I got taken to task for that (although it was directed at no one specific), but the person who took me to task didn't say a thing to the poster who suggested being aggressively rude.
I think that brick & glass blends better with brick & glass. If you don't, that's fine with me.
O come on, aggressively rude? I don't agree with your viewpoints on this at all, but at least you provide legitimate reasons why you do not like the project, even if we don't agree, but some snooty neighbor who simply says she hates the project without backing it up to me is unacceptable. Don't mistake being blunt as being "aggressively rude", its not like I pushed her into oncoming traffic...
I've seen Guild House dated to 1964 as well as 1963, but the building has a cornerstone bearing the date 1965, plain as day. VSBA's page describing the firm's 2009 rehabilitation also says the building was designed "nearly 45 years ago." As of 2009, that would put the building's construction date no earlier than 1964, but I think we should go with the date on the cornerstone, especially with that "nearly" in the text.
As for the structures on Rittenhouse Square that were torn down, they were all low-rise buildings no taller than the 19th-century homes to their immediate west. Two of them - the two that were used as movie theaters - had modern facades, but I think all three had 19th-century bones.
^^Check those facts a bit less briefly and you'd find that the Eric Rittenhouse theater was a connected triple-lot at the time of the fire. No one ever said it was a high rise.
The last thing I remember seeing there was The Princess Bride. "Anybody want a peanut?"
Edit: Also, in case it was unclear why I threw out the date "(stuck in)1992" upthread in the same post where I brought up Guild House, it was not to say it was built then, but to say that the period from the mid 80's to the early 90's was the height of postmodernist architecture in the US, and it characterizes much architecture of that time. Guild House was much earlier, which is what made it, along with Venturi's other early work, notable as a reaction to the mid-century modernism which dominated its time. Hence the aforementioned "father of postmodernist architecture".
Last edited by rotodome; 11-29-2015 at 07:03 AM..
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