I remember coming by that building while walking through Manhattan by chance and thinking this must be some government surveillance center or something.
I personally find it a very attractive building. Much like the Barbican Estate or the National Theatre in London.
- the lack of glass gives the granite façade lots of space to shine.
- the off-center elevator shafts on the building's two long sides prevents the entire building from being disorienting at street-level: https://i.imgur.com/DQdWQ36.jpg
- the round-rect vent windows contrast with the sharp lines of the granite they're cut from, echoing an overall theme of natural skin versus high-tech innards just like the granite itself versus all the telecom gear inside: https://i.imgur.com/BQmYnuw.jpg
- the re-use of the roundrect windows to hide the former Long Lines microwave horn antennas on the roof of the building, coupled with a Disneyland-style perspective trick where the microwave windows are double the height of the vent windows so they look identically-square when you're on the street looking up: https://i.imgur.com/6TYn6Ug.jpg
Absolutely gorgeous building, probably my favorite in the entire city <3
Yeah I can see it, especially with the "33" street address. Druids love that shit, like 555 Cal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_California_Street
not really mutually exclusive. More positive description would be that it looks imposing. Also it's in a sense aesthetically honest because it reflects what it does openly, which is rare for surveillance infrastructure and even kind of ironic
I find the opposite to be unattractive, which is this sort of Silicon Valley HQ childish design where surveillance and power is hidden behind rainbow colored ping pong tables and so on
Sometimes buildings and architecture are testaments to the culture of the time that it was built, some might say it was the beginning of the cold war and the rise of secrecy etc.
https://www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings/everett-m-dirksen-us-...
You can see right through it: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8784431,-87.6293035,3a,37.5y...
The real gem of the Federal Plaza is actually the post office building. When you walk inside you have the feeling of a floating ceiling with no columns (there are well-hidden columns).
My girlfriend has a thing for architecture and is always talking to me about this stuff.
Really cool, how do you know so much about architecture?
They did this to the Verizon tower in Lower Manhattan, and arguably I think it looks worse than the old design. https://www.6sqft.com/skyline-blights-ugly-verizon-building-...
BTW this is unrelated to the thread, but Mr. Robot is an incredible show, and the middle of season 3 (where this building is featured) in particular is probably the greatest television I've ever seen. Episodes 5 and 6 are like a full two-episode climax to a story arc that had been building since season 2. I generally avoid any "hacker" type shows/movies for the cheesiness/cringiness of the hacker portrayals (and Mr. Robot does start off a bit cheesy), but I'm glad I made an exception here.
Vaguely reminiscence of the the St Mary of Nazareth hospital in Chicago, actually: https://chicagomodern.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/resurrection-...