“The one story layout made it possible to use the roof area for parking, thus the greatest utilization of space for parking purposes was achieved. Roof parking is made accessible by up and down ramps, each 20’ wide. Entrance to store is in center of roof, thus cutting walking distance from parked cars to a minimum.”… Read More Milliron’s Department Store / Gruen & Krummeck / 1949
“Although Birkerts’ approach as a whole has changed little in his last five years of independent practice, he has reconsidered the matter of symmetry, designing a symmetrical building today ‘only when it is really called for’ […] the nave of the church is enclosed by a three-dimensional composition of planes that incorporates both structural support and sources of daylight.”… Read More University Reformed Church, Ann Arbor / Birkerts & Straub / 1964
José Villagrán was a hyper-functionalist architect crucial in the construction of many public Mexican institutions in the post-Revolutionary decades. This parish church which he designed in 1938 is something of an outlier among all the hospitals. Observe how his constructive pragmatism squares with the spiritual demands of a parish.… Read More Parroquia de San Antonio de Huatusco / José Villagrán / 1964
“This library houses a unique collection of rare books, manuscripts, and journals which record the development of the physical and biological sciences from earliest times […] The building itself is a simple pavilion composed of nine square-bayed reinforced concrete vaults which defined one large interior space. Brick panels fill in the vaults along the north and south.” … Read More Burndy Library / Sherwood, Mills, & Smith Architects / 1964
“The Port Mahon Lighthouse is a typical example of Chesapeake Bay-style screw-pile lighthouse architecture which was prevalent in the late nineteenth century. The lighthouse was designed according to utilitarian standards and is generally devoid or ornate, expressive features.” … Read More Mahon River Light / Lt. Col. W.A. Jones / 1903
“The project is conceived of as a study in reconstruction. Isolated by water, 24 cubes dimensioned 10’x10’x10’ are organized in 4 rows of 6 cubes each […] The hope is that a maze will amaze by subsuming the architecture of the whole to product.”… Read More American Standard Showroom / Tigerman-McCurry / 1990
“[George Nelson] chose what he considered to be a very uncontroversial form – a pyramid – as both roof and building for the new facility” … Read More Peoples Trust Bank / George Nelson Co. / 1971
“In these projects, special attention was paid to maximum hygiene in the storage and sale of products. Handling and local transport are kept to a minimum, as the produce goes directly from external unloading platforms through sanitary inspection points to the market halls. The sold goods are conveyed through conveyors running under the floor into packaging rooms and places of issue. From there, through hatches in the floor, it is loaded onto cars or carts.” … Read More Smolensky Market Hall / Ilya Golosov / 1926
“The corrugated asbestos-cement roof serves not only to protect the machines but is also intended to obviate the conspicuous cloud of dust which frequently tends to rise when refuse vehicles deposit their load.” … Read More Refuse Reduction Plant / Städtisches Hochbauamt Wiesbaden / 1967
“The Three distinct functional volumes of the building have been placed within an exposed structural cage of cast-in-place concrete. The four interior columns define a central circulation core, leaving the surrounding floor space entirely free of columns. […] To maintain this uninterrupted space and simplify problems of air supply and exhaust, all ductwork, piping, heating and ventilating equipment, and fume hoods have been concentrated in mechanical shafts distributed around the perimeter of the building.” … Read More Tufts Chemical Research Building / The Architects Collaborative / 1962-65
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