Images for July 9th: "Delight" - where has it gone?

July 9th 2009: Firmitas, utilitas et venustas. Structural integrity, utility and delight.


In our conversation of July 9th, George Sawicki repeatedly refers to the condominium project designed by Swiss architects Herzon & De Meuron for the fabled entrepreneur Ian Shrager, located at 40 Bond Street in New York City as the "green vomit building." Here's that building. The "vomit" is a cast aluminum screen at street level that mimics the graphic style of 1970s-era graffiti taggers.

As you can see, and as George pointed out, the context of adjacent buildings on Bond Street is one of predominantly masonry facades.






The green glass of the ground floor level facade has a figured underlayment, which is especially evocative; here, a view at the entrance (left).

















And . . . here's the new Cooper Union building by Thom Mayne of Morphosis. "A fat lady tryin' to squeeze herself into a dress that's five sizes too small." - Roderick L Knox, Architect











"A glass box wrapped in gigantic window screen --- with a rip down the middle. Where did delight go? How is this delightful?" - Curtis B Wayne, Architect











And last, as for the delight in an artful lie - Rod Knox's enthusiastic aphorism - here's an example of Art Deco in New York: the Irving Trust Building, at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, which presents a very convincing illusion of masonry bearing wall, but is actually a steel structure with masonry curtainwall.