Architecturally speaking, sports venues have traditionally been thought to have little to no architectural value. And for many garish and uninspired stadiums, this is true. For years, stadiums and arenas were built simply as places to “play the game” and watch with seats, a field, and little in between. However, in recent years, this stigma has been changing. In fact, sports venues have become an opportunity for designers to be architecturally daring and innovative. The Dallas Cowboys’ recently completed stadium and Beijing’s National Stadium (nicknamed the bird’s nest), used for the 2008 Olympics, are perfect examples of this emerging sense of innovation.
Beijing National Stadium
The state of Wisconsin is fortunate to be on the forefront of this trend: Milwaukee’s Miller Park features North America’s only fan-shaped retractable roof and Lambeau Field, after its 2003 renovation, managed to successfully blend the historic with the new.
Miller Park
Yet, perhaps the greatest question may be whether this new sense of stadium innovation will uphold the test of time. The many infamous multi-use stadiums built in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s were considered innovative for their time. However, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, most of these were replaced, criticized for their odd seating, cookie-cutter designs, and lack of character. Backlash has even already begun against the design of the new “retro-classic” design present in stadiums like Miller Park and the brand-spanking new Yankee Stadium, despite the innovative engineering they may possess. Critics claim these designs are knock-off recreations, similar to something Disney World would build, and lack a true architectectural heritage.
Whatever the critics say, I just pray stadium and arena designers keep it fresh. I’m not a sports fan, so if I go to a sporting event, I’m watching the retractable roof, not the game.
A Disturbing Trend
Architecturally speaking, New York City is experiencing a disturbing trend. Some call it proof of the city’s declining sense of innovation and economic power. Some blame “NIMBYs.”
Whoever’s to blame, it’s become increasingly clear that building tall is no longer a priority for the city of New York, home to eight skyscrapers that all at one point held the title of world’s tallest building.
In fact, many would be shocked to hear that New York City does not currently hold the title of world’s tallest building, and hasn’t since 1973 when Chicago’s Sears Tower surpassed New York’s World Trade Center. The United States isn’t even home to the world’s tallest anymore; that title goes to the United Arab Emirates’ Burj Dubai.
Okay, so maybe calling this trend disturbing is a little dramatic – we’re only talking about the height of buildings, afterall. However, it’s desire to stay closer to the ground is a sign of the times in New York, a city that may not have invented the skyscraper, but did perfect the construction and design of them. A poor economy, zoning issues, and trouble attaining air rights – the empty space above a property – are partially to blame. “Not In My BackYard” opponents (NIMBYs), often consisting of local residents and business owners, also put pressure on the city’s planning commission to deny proposals over 1,000 feet in fear that their construction will affect the aesthetics of their neighborhood and create unwanted shadows on the city streets.
NIMBYs can be so influential that they recently succeeded in chopping off 200 feet of a proposed skyscraper designed by Jean Nouvel in Midtown Manhattan that was to become the city’s second tallest. The building will still be built, but just a little shorter.
Reducing a proposed building’s height or even cancelling it all together isn’t uncommon in New York. However, buildings do still get built; it just so happens that none of them seem to exceed 1,000 or so feet, creating what has come to be known as New York’s skyline tabletop effect. With so many buildings in one area, all of which are roughly the same height, no one particular building stands out in the skyline, creating, in essence, the appearance of a tabletop. While this is nothing more than an aesthetic issue, this effect makes the skyline seem less dynamic and shorter than it really is.
Lower Manhattan's tabletop effect - The red line represents the "top" of the table
And the only way to remedy the tabletop effect is by building taller. Building towers that exceed the height of the tabletop (in New York’s case, anything over 1,250 feet) will add points of interest to the skyline, kind of like giant exclamation points.
Again, there may be more important things to worry about, but aesthetically speaking, this is a problem that hopefully finds a solution.
Talk About a Haunted House
An aerial view of The Winchester Mystery House
Haunted houses are a movie staple this time of year. However, architecturally speaking, their architecture is all too often exaggerated on the big screen for dramatic purposes. Winding stairways leading to nowhere, dozens of drafty rooms, and hallways with dead ends are common in film, but impractical and uncommon in real houses – usually.
The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose California, as it is commonly called, defies the laws of architecture and seems as if it was built specifically for a horror movie. This Victorian mansion, which was continuously under construction from 1884 to 1922, does in fact contain stairways that lead to nowhere (except maybe a ceiling), over 160 rooms (including two separate basements), and hallways upon hallways that end up as dead ends.
Stairs leading to nowhere but a ceiling
But, why you might ask? Well, every eccentric mansion needs a good ghost story and The Winchester is no exception. According to legend, the recently widowed Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Rifle company, was so upset by the death of her husband that she consulted a psychic. This medium told her that a curse had been put on her family because the guns from their rifle company were responsible for the deaths of so many people. These ghosts now haunted the Winchester household and in order to sooth their vengeful spirits, Winchester must never stop building the residence.
Sound familiar? It should if you’re a Stephen King fan. King based his screenplay of the made-for-television mini-series “Rose Red” on the legend of The Winchester Mystery House. However, the house is intriguing regardless of whether you believe the story or not. Today, the house serves as a popular tourist attraction in the San Jose area and even has special flashlight tours around Halloween.
Just don’t get lost; you probably wont find your way out. . .
Restoring History
Milwaukee City Hall after its recent renovation
The city of Milwaukee recently announced that its Milwaukee City Hall restoration project, claimed to have been the city’s largest public works project in the city’s history, finished under budget and on time. Architecturally, financially, and governmentally speaking, this project was a huge success for Milwaukee.
However, even though the restoration was a success on numerous levels, the project, not surprisingly, had its opponents as most restorations of historic structures do. Restorations, many claim, damage and devalue a building’s aesthetic and historic value; the building, in essence, looses its “character.”
Milwaukee City Hall's bell tower covered in black netting before its restoration
Yet, restorations are often necessary. Before its restoration, Milwaukee City Hall, which dates back to 1895, was literally falling apart. The city even had to sheath the building’s terra cotta facade with netting to keep chunks of debris from falling on the streets.
When done well, restorations can restore a historic structure to its former glory. Yet, restorations don’t always go as smoothly as it did in Milwaukee, fueling the fire for restoration naysayers. Greece’s ancient Parthenon, for example, has been in a constant state of restoration since the 1930s. However, when I visited the country last summer, the temple’s marble columns were still covered with scaffolding and probably will be for many years to come.
The Parthenon's ongoing restoration
Admittedly, restoring Milwaukee City Hall is nothing compared to fixing up the Parthenon; the Parthenon is, after all, a wee bit older. Yet, the two structures do share one thing in common: they’re both worth preserving.
Simply put, we don’t build structures like Milwaukee City Hall or the Parthenon anymore; materials like terra cotta and marble are too expensive and take too long to build for today’s society. That’s why we need to preserve what we already have. If we let these structures crumble, with them will go part of our architectural history.
Podcast
An Architecturally Speaking Podcast with Ken Bauer, an entrepreneur, general contractor, and builder.
Remembering the rebuild
Last month, America remembered the September 11 attacks which left a hole in the architectural fabric of downtown Manhattan. And, even being eight years after the fact, no structure on the actual World Trade Center site has been rebuilt. Architecturally speaking, there is nothing to speak of. This may be a shocking revelation to many, except maybe those New Yorkers who pass the site on a day-to-day basis. But to people living outside the city (even architecturally conscious Wisconsinites) the rebuilding process has been largely forgotten. Sure, everyone remembers what happened on that tragic morning, but it seems like the country as a whole has forgotten what’s happening at Ground Zero right now.
Many assume the rebuilding process was finished long ago; others assume the site is still a ruble-filled disaster zone. However, neither of these assumptions are true. In fact, the process is somewhere in between. Clean-up crews were finished years ago and construction of a memorial and office space has begun, but it just seems to be taking a little longer than most people would like. So what’s the hold up?
Initially, feuds between victim’s families, owners of the former World Trade Center, New Yorkers, architects and the city government delayed the design process; some wanted to restore the site to look as it originally did, others wanted only a memorial to be built, while others were only concerned with replacing the 10-million square feet of office space that was lost when the towers fell. Donald Trump himself even expressed his own personal plea to rebuild the twin towers exactly as they once stood.
Fortunately, the feuding has subsided (for the most part), and money, unfortunately, has become the main source of contention. The question of who is going to pay to rebuild a structure that was never expected to have to be built in the first place is still something of a sticky situation. Arguments ensue over whether a majority of the cash should come from public funding or the current owners of the site, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Regardless of this red tape, construction has begun, slowly but surely. A memorial outlining the footprints of the former towers is starting to take shape, along with five new office towers and a transportation hub, designed by Santiago Calatrava of Milwaukee Art Museum fame. Click on http://www.wtc.com/ to see all of the construction plans.
It would have been wonderful if construction could have been finished in time for the eighth anniversary; afterall, the Empire State building took only a year to build. However, rebuilding the World Trade Center is about more than filling a hole in lower Manhattan; it’s also about filling a hole in the heart of the nation, a hole that only time – and apparently money – will heal.
Speaking of Athens . . .
In front of the Erechthion, part of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece
Architecturally speaking, the city of Athens is confused. This, to some, may be a strange statement considering Greece itself is often thought to be the birthplace of Western architectural thought. However, after a three-week study abroad stint this past summer in Greece, I found that for every classical temple dedicated to Athena, there are 102 concrete highrises dedicated to billboards and x-rated video stores. Yes, Athens seems to have lost its architectural way – something I wasn’t expecting from a major European city. After all, it’s suppose to be Americans who are often all too ready to tear down historic structures and replace them with windowless, cinderblock boxes, not the Greeks. And, I also thought Americans were the only ones to build fast-food joints next to their historic churches. I was wrong about that too.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m in no way calling the city of Athens an architecturally ugly city. Amid the concrete chaos, the city does have its gems; you just have to search a little harder to find them. And there are gems. Take for example the 1885 neoclassical Athens Academy.
Athens Academy, 1885
As stunning as the building is (especially in person), it just so happens it’s sandwiched between nameless 20th-century office buildings.
And even though many of the city’s modern structures have contributed to its graceless urban sprawl, not all of them are bad. Hosting the 2004 Olympics greatly improved Athen’s infrastructure and insight on how exactly to incorporate a 21st-century building into a streetscape that also includes 4th-century ruins. The glass-clad New Acropolis Museum, which unfortunately wasn’t yet open during my visit, serves as a perfect example. Here’s a link to the museum’s new website: http://www.newacropolismuseum.gr/. It offers some beautiful pictures of the building’s construction and the finished product.
The sleek New Acropolis Museum sandwiched between Athen's urban sprawl and the Theatre of Dionysos
Even though Athens may be an architecturally confused, I still have hope for the city. Besides, I don’t think you should ever give up architectural hope on the place that did, practically, birth the foundations of Western architecture. I think Athens just needs a few more years to figure it out; after all, its only had 6,000 years of building time.
Architecturally Speaking 