One & Two Liberty Place are copies of the Chrysler Build

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bowesst

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To me both buildings are blatant rip-offs. Am I wrong?

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I was always under the impression that that was intentional.
 
statler said:
I was always under the impression that that was intentional.
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Intentional to what degree? Its not a new design that pays homage to an old classic. They are so literal with the references and not just with the spire. They copy the Chrysler's window placement by using the dark glass to make horizontal lines and the setback on 2 Liberty is almost identical. All they needed to do was add 8 pieces of glass sticking out to copy the eagles. I've just never understood why these buildings get so much praise.
 
Oh I agree, just don't tell that to any of the Philly forumers at SSP though. They will foam at the mouth.
 
Those buildings make me cringe every time I see the Philly skyline. I'm cringing right now.
 
Aside from the fact that they are unoriginal, what else is wrong with them? I kind of like them.

is it just me, or is there some sort of rivalry between Boston and Philly that goes beyond that with other cities? And why is this? I get the feeling Boston and Philly compete....maybe because both were instrumental in the early years of the country, and are therefore flush with History....who knows, but I like these buildings.
 
Patrick said:
Aside from the fact that they are unoriginal, what else is wrong with them? I kind of like them.
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The best I can do to explain why I hate them is that they look like they were made using a lego set or something. They're so blocky and Transformerish. I keep thinking one of them is going to turn into a Decepticon and stomp all over the city.

Also, they're both such crappy parodies of the Chrysler. Maybe it's similar to Ablarc's call about the Commonwealth Hotel. Their exaggerated scale and movement make them like a Disney-fied version.

Patrick said:
is it just me, or is there some sort of rivalry between Boston and Philly that goes beyond that with other cities? And why is this? I get the feeling Boston and Philly compete....maybe because both were instrumental in the early years of the country, and are therefore flush with History....who knows, but I like these buildings.
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I grew up here and I've never felt like there was a rivalry with Philly about anything. I rarely heard anyone talk about Philly at all when I was growing up.
 
If postmodern architecture draws from past styles, why not draw also from art deco, one of the most interesting styles?
 
There's nothing wrong with drawing from Art Deco or referencing another building but like PerfectHandle said, it has to be executed properly. Even though these buildings are what 945 feet, they look stumpy, especially compared to the Chrysler. I think One Liberty would be much better if one or two of its "layers" were taken off. It would look a lot slimmer.

Patrick, I wasn't trying to instigate a Boston vs. Philly fight. My comments are specifically about the architecture. I just really dislike these buildings and I was wondering why is seems so many people love them.
 
bowesst said:
There's nothing wrong with drawing from Art Deco or referencing another building but like PerfectHandle said, it has to be executed properly. Even though these buildings are what 945 feet, they look stumpy, especially compared to the Chrysler. I think One Liberty would be much better if one or two of its "layers" were taken off. It would look a lot slimmer.

Patrick, I wasn't trying to instigate a Boston vs. Philly fight. My comments are specifically about the architecture. I just really dislike these buildings and I was wondering why is seems so many people love them.
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I didn't think you were instigating or trying to instigate anything. From other forums, I have noticed that enthusiasts seem to compare boston and philly a lot, and I was wondering if there was a reason for this. Then I heard the negative comments about the liberty place buildings, and I wasn't sure if it was strictly an architectural thing, which it now appears to be, or if there was some general hostility toward the philly in general, in a friendly competitiveness way.
 
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What I always hated about these buildings was that they didn't come off as a tribute to the Chrysler building so much as just very, very unoriginal. They take the most popular and successful features of modern skyscraper and ripped them off, not in a tributary manor just lazily. They peaked, they where covered in shiny blue glass, they had levels; they where all around weak. There was no imagination, they just covered the bases as far as height material and shape and now lurch their fat heads out of Philly's skyline. They where phoned in "icons" that hurt the skyline IMO.
 
No offense but this isn't fair. You can't just say they are rip offs of the Chrysler. Saying that means any building with a pointy spire like that is a rip off. You might as well say that the JHT is a rip off of the first box tower in the US or that the International Place Towers were cheap rip offs of the first cylinder tower.
 
Nah dude, it's a well-known fact that these towers were consciously and directly inspired by (read: copied after) the Chrysler Building. Therefore, this criticism is warranted, as they're fat, tacky and unimaginative copies.

However, I've never had a problem with them, or at least nowhere near the degree that some people have shown. Maybe they're fussy and derivative, but I've always found their contribution to Philly's skyline to be a plus.
 
I also think the towers look amazing. I love the color of the glass and the spire itself. Though it was known to have copied the Chrysler tower, the design is much different besides the spire. The spire itself have a different setback.
 
DarkFenX said:
No offense but this isn't fair. You can't just say they are rip offs of the Chrysler. Saying that means any building with a pointy spire like that is a rip off. You might as well say that the JHT is a rip off of the first box tower in the US or that the International Place Towers were cheap rip offs of the first cylinder tower.
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Not really, because these towers are the icons of the skyline and, as I stated above, they aren't tributes to a bygone style in a modern era. They are just phoned-in derivatives with predictable features.

JHT was on the cutting edge of glass towers and its wedge shape wasn't ripped off completely or "copied in honor of" one of the (if not THE) most iconic and trendsetting towers in the skyscraper catalog, and not just because it literally appeared to poke the sky. And International Place as well wasn't copying THE skyscraper, and even though many do in one way or another, it wasn't so lazily and consistently and unimaginatively taking its cue's. More so, International Place is one of many in the skyline, and takes cues form several skyscrapers, architectural styles, and put things together creatively.

These buildings anger me because of much more than their general shape.
 
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