Long Wharf architect designing LEED George W. Bush Presidential Library
Bush Library Sketch
I was reading TreeHugger and came across a story about the potential LEED Platinum certification for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. When I saw the sketch of the building, I thought it looked a lot like the proposed Irving Oil/Fort Reliance Long Wharf headquarters design (and sketch).
Sure enough, the article went on to note that the firm behind the design is Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Irving Oil’s architect of choice.
It seems ‘Oil Men’ like Stern – and that Irving really did pick a pretty major designer for the building.
Long Wharf Sketch
7 comments:
While Stern's got a good list of clients, from an architectural perspective, he doesn't have a great reputation and has had more than a few collosal failures. His buildings tend to be fairly ho-hum, not really pushing the boundaries of architecture, a modern reinterpretation of classicism at best, and for that reason (rightly or wrongly) he is looked down upon by many in the industry. His buildings do a better job of blending in with what has been done rather than standing out as mastery of the architectural language; they are "safe," so to speak. Stern is more of a "starchitect" by who he knows rather than what he has designed.
Pity.
Long Wharf is such a fantastic piece if land.
I tend to think a design that is safe and routed in cultural history might be better for Long Wharf than a design based on trends or hot shots looking to be overly unique. Look at the North End redevelopment from the 1960s - very 'modern' but now pretty ugly.
...on the other hand, the Benefits Blueprint strongly recommended that Saint John begin developing more iconic buildings to attract the attention of the world, (similar to the Bilbao / Guggenheim phenomenon, even if on a smaller scale) and exert its presence as a modern, progressive, forward-thinking city. Its funny, isn't it, that Irving Oil contributed more than $250,000 toward that study only to ignore it. If Long Wharf isn't the setting for an iconic building, I don't know what is...
...and I won't get into the developer-driven developments that are refered to in the North end nor how they aren't / weren't modern architecture and not successful as a result nor how they don't compare to the iconic buildings that are needed / recommended by Benefits Blueprint.
I noticed the word "modern" being used. I know this has a particular meaning in an architectural context. I would love to take some form of intro to architecture course, just to get the general ideas down (I work in a property related career and think this would be a great resource).
Does anyone know if there is anywhere I could go for an "architecture for non-architects" type course (correspondence would be ideal). Failing that is there a good online resource - other than wikipedia - that might offer some definitions.
Check out the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Syllabus program (www.raic-syllabus.ca). This is actually a correspondence course (to be completely revamped and issued online in September 2010) to become a full-fledged architect, although they also permit general interest students if you're not interested in going the full 9 yards. You may be interested primarily in course #H4 - "History of Ideas in Architecture - Modern" and even #H3 if you want a little more context.
...or try the following links:
http://textualrevolution.blogspot.com/2009/07/lesson-on-modern-architecture.html
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6461571
whould off looked so nice... dont no why he pulled out
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