Harvard's Northwest Science Building

[ablarc]

The National Library is a real triumph. It's brick and rusticated stone facade-treatment reminds me, strangely, of the Shapiro Building at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

Or how about Silvetti and Machado's semi-godawful Allston dorms for Harvard?

 

[Beton Brut]

Right...Harvard. Thanks for getting us back on topic, ablarc.

Maybe on the M+S. I still think it's a bad, overdressed homage to Sert. Size is right, everything else is wrong.

Could the "skin" on this project be inspired by the trend toward super-graphic elements and bright fractal mosaics found in contemporary Iberian and Latin American architecture? (Frantically searching for the three-year-old issue of AR so I can show examples.)

I can't let go of the intellegent PoMo discussion. What do people think of this? Or this? Or this?

 

[el raval]

This is one gigantic building. Some parts are nice, others, not so much.



The front is a nice part. I like how they applied glass over the wood spandrels:

Anyone want to guess how well the wood encased in glass will hold up? My guess is that it get's baked inside pretty quickly. While it looks kind of cool, glass and wood don't play well together (think Logan Terminal E).

However, apart from the penthouse (my how it soars!) this is actually an elegant piece of modernity... although with Harvard footing the bill that shouldn't really be all that hard.

 

[ablarc]

Anyone want to guess how well the wood encased in glass will hold up? My guess is that it get's baked inside pretty quickly. While it looks kind of cool, glass and wood don't play well together...

Good point. It'll probably turn gray.

 

[Joe_Schmoe]

Wow! That Plecnik National Library is very close to the kind of thing I've been arguing for--textured, ornamentation, interesting use of materials. It's a bit more historicist than I'd prefer--the Corinthian and Doric colums for example, I'd rather see something innovative--but I really like it. Death to minimalism!

 

[el raval]

Wow! That Plecnik National Library is very close to the kind of thing I've been arguing for--textured, ornamentation, interesting use of materials. It's a bit more historicist than I'd prefer--the Corinthian and Doric colums for example, I'd rather see something innovative--but I really like it. Death to minimalism!

You do understand that Plecnik's library was designed in 1930 and built in 1936?

His detailing is more mannerist than historicist, but he employed construction techniques that would be impossible to replicate today. (Though if you like his work, in addition to Ljubljana, I would recommend a trip to Prague.)

 

[aws129]

I know this is getting slightly off topic, but I love that Alvaro Siza building in Berlin that Beton Brut posted a link to. It exemplifies the kind of elegant minimalism that we seem unable to pull off in this city. I wonder how Bostonians would react if something like that was proposed here...

 

[Beton Brut]

Glad you dig Siza's Berlin project, asw129 -- it's smart contextualism. Any city could benefit from this type of architecture.

The off-topic parts of this thread are more compelling than the middling projects at Harvard that inspired it.

I may start something in the General Forum on creators (in various mediums) who intelligently recycle the past. Ablarc's definition of "classic" is my sort-of inspiration.

Anyone interested in that sort of discussion?

 

[Pierce]

^^ always interested!! BTW, a friend of mine recently returned from a trip to Ljubljana, and I was stunned (and simultaneously unsurprised) to learn that they are building Plecnik's bridge over the Ljubljanica River, from the center of his market building. Kind of like Wright's Monona Terrace in Madison, they are using his original plans to finally build it. Unlike Wright though, this location was always still a glaring hole in the fabric of the city. I'm interested though nervous about it...

 

[kz1000ps]

It's time to dig up some long-dead threads and revisit projects that were completed in the last 2-4 years. Although this is the only one for the moment, I have a list of stuff I'm going to revisit once the grass is greener and see how well they've grown into their surroundings.

this one has turned out well. It has a certain dignity about it which IMO lets it sit comfortably among all the older brick, and the various parts to the facade all have depth to them, which in this day and age automatically sets it above most others.

Regarding el ravel's comments about the wood behind glass aging poorly, three years on and it still looks brand new (and tres chic might I add)