Top Guy
1) China Central Television Headquarters, Beijing
This building should be considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world. You can read about it yourself here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/arts/design/16rem.html?scp=4&sq=cctv%20headquarters&st=cse
2) Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow
Best known for its colorful onion domes, the cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the capture of Khanate of Kazan. Upon its completion, Ivan asked the architect if he could recreate the structure. When the architect said yes, Ivan had his eyes cut out.
3) Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
While the home of the Baltimore Orioles isn’t my favorite baseball stadium—I’ve never actually seen a game there—it was the first of the modern throwback ballparks, which include truly beautiful baseball stadiums in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
4) Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest office building. Its distinctive shape improves functionality—each of the Pentagon’s five buildings is connected through a series of concentric rings, which allows quick navigation from one side of the structure to the other.
5) Rockefeller Center, New York City
OK, Rockefeller Center isn’t technically one building. But the 19 buildings spread between 48th and 51st Streets have housed NBC, Radio City Music Hall, Simon & Schuster, the Associated Press, Exxon and Lehman Brothers, among many, many others.
Top Lady
Top 5 Buildings
1) The Chrysler Building, New York City
The Empire State Building gets all the glory for dominating the skyline, but the Chrysler Building is the city’s true Art Deco masterpiece. The streamlined eagle-shaped gargoyles also embody the spirit of aggressive, unapologetic capitalism in a way it took Ayn Rand 900 pages to express.
2) St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
For those who are not aware that, for much of the past Millennia, the Roman Catholic church was just as much a political and monetary power as a religion, I present The Vatican. One of the few man-made places on Earth that genuinely inspires awe.
3) Smurfit-Stone Building, Chicago
The entire Chicago skyline is actually my favorite in the world, and the Smurfit-Stone building manages to stand out without shouldering its way forward like its more famous, gigantic neighbor to the south (if for no other reason than its role in Adventures in Babysitting). The diamond shape was designed (by a man) to resemble a sailboat on the lake, by the way—despite whatever urban legends you may have heard.
4) Capitol Records Tower, Los Angeles
Aside from the fact that it actually looks like a stack of 45s on a spindle, the architecture of the Capital Records building encapsulates the laid-back glamour of ’50s Hollywood. Even though L.A. is a little less laid-back these days, this round, future-modernistic building looks more California than a tower of glass and steel ever could.
5) The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
I think more people know about this building in Europe than in the United States; and I know more people actually like it over there than here. Regardless, it took a lot of guts for Mr. Wexner and Ohio State to look at the plans for this building and say “go ahead” in the '80s, before Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas made it cool for college campuses to have randomly bizarre buildings. It’s a grid-gone-mad playland based on skewing everything 12 ¼ degrees off square; and it’s a nice counterpoint to that horseshoe-shaped building down the road—proving that there is something to see between No. 1 and No. 4 on this list.
1) China Central Television Headquarters, Beijing
This building should be considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world. You can read about it yourself here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/arts/design/16rem.html?scp=4&sq=cctv%20headquarters&st=cse
2) Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow
Best known for its colorful onion domes, the cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the capture of Khanate of Kazan. Upon its completion, Ivan asked the architect if he could recreate the structure. When the architect said yes, Ivan had his eyes cut out.
3) Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
While the home of the Baltimore Orioles isn’t my favorite baseball stadium—I’ve never actually seen a game there—it was the first of the modern throwback ballparks, which include truly beautiful baseball stadiums in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
4) Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest office building. Its distinctive shape improves functionality—each of the Pentagon’s five buildings is connected through a series of concentric rings, which allows quick navigation from one side of the structure to the other.
5) Rockefeller Center, New York City
OK, Rockefeller Center isn’t technically one building. But the 19 buildings spread between 48th and 51st Streets have housed NBC, Radio City Music Hall, Simon & Schuster, the Associated Press, Exxon and Lehman Brothers, among many, many others.
Top Lady
Top 5 Buildings
1) The Chrysler Building, New York City
The Empire State Building gets all the glory for dominating the skyline, but the Chrysler Building is the city’s true Art Deco masterpiece. The streamlined eagle-shaped gargoyles also embody the spirit of aggressive, unapologetic capitalism in a way it took Ayn Rand 900 pages to express.
2) St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
For those who are not aware that, for much of the past Millennia, the Roman Catholic church was just as much a political and monetary power as a religion, I present The Vatican. One of the few man-made places on Earth that genuinely inspires awe.
3) Smurfit-Stone Building, Chicago
The entire Chicago skyline is actually my favorite in the world, and the Smurfit-Stone building manages to stand out without shouldering its way forward like its more famous, gigantic neighbor to the south (if for no other reason than its role in Adventures in Babysitting). The diamond shape was designed (by a man) to resemble a sailboat on the lake, by the way—despite whatever urban legends you may have heard.
4) Capitol Records Tower, Los Angeles
Aside from the fact that it actually looks like a stack of 45s on a spindle, the architecture of the Capital Records building encapsulates the laid-back glamour of ’50s Hollywood. Even though L.A. is a little less laid-back these days, this round, future-modernistic building looks more California than a tower of glass and steel ever could.
5) The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
I think more people know about this building in Europe than in the United States; and I know more people actually like it over there than here. Regardless, it took a lot of guts for Mr. Wexner and Ohio State to look at the plans for this building and say “go ahead” in the '80s, before Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas made it cool for college campuses to have randomly bizarre buildings. It’s a grid-gone-mad playland based on skewing everything 12 ¼ degrees off square; and it’s a nice counterpoint to that horseshoe-shaped building down the road—proving that there is something to see between No. 1 and No. 4 on this list.
2 comments:
Sorry, in my opinion, and that of many, Smurfit-Stone is one of the worst builings in the great city of Chicago. It's what we call a "one-liner." You see it and you get it in a second. Then it does not continue to satisfy you. It could be designed to be seen from a speeding car. That's bad urbanism. Its detailing is really bad. The way it makes the corner is okay. It's facades are boring. And now that fantastic Millennium Park is there and people spend time in the park, underneath Gehry's genius trellis, it's a shame we have to look at the overscaled, underdetailed Smurfit-Stone building. Chicago has many, many better buildings! All best regards.
Taj Mahal.
Poland's Crooked House.
St. Peter's Cathedral.
Pantheon.
Palace of Versailles.
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