InterActiveCorp HQ - 555 West 18th Street @ West Street - by Frank Gehry

[infoshare]

Attachment 1704This is the print on the glass

Still....Ghery "blob-architecteure" is "all" about the non-linear contours: these structures dont have much else going for them aethetically speaking. So my attitude is that any courtain wall choice "must" serve to "accentuate" those unique undulating forms....not detract form them.

This glass choice will visually detract from the overall form: regardless of interior lighting.

But in all fairness.....they not done yet......so its wait and see.....I may yet have to recant my opinion as stated: but this seems like a real "blunder".

cheers

p.S. thanks for the attachment (cool photo link) viewed it in its larger size. Nice glass....wrong building.

[lofter1]

p.S. thanks for the attachment (cool photo link) viewed it in its larger size. Nice glass....wrong building.

Yes ... Thanks, Cayo.

But I totally disagree that this is the "wrong" glass, particularly after seeing how the glass looks with the fade from nearly opaque to translucent.

At night especially my bet is that it will look magnificent.

[Kris]

From this article:

Gehry also showed a slide of the new headquarters he has designed for Barry Diller's Inter Active Corp. near the Chelsea Piers in New York. Gehry said its giant glass panels were bent more than three inches to give the impression of sails. "Barry is a sailor, as I am," Gehry said. "He has a sailboat that'll be in the harbor in front."

[infoshare]

I enjoyed reading this article because there were many comments on Architecture that go beyond the aesthetics of only the "Visual Arts". The Architects that were quoted in the article seemed to be addressing matters of morality, politics, philosophy,,,,,,heady stuff for Starchitects. Thanks Kris

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from Article in Business Week By Christopher Palmeri
http://www.businessweek.com/print/in...404_384813.htm

----- Like most of Gehry's work, Pelli added: "It's just a phenomenal will of an individual over matter."

----- "It's a pharmaceutical company," Gehry said. "It's not a bottom-line place."

---- "I don't design for me," Pelli said. "We have different devils urging us and different angels helping us."

------ His popularity with the feds led Gehry to jokingly ask: "Are you a Republican?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was an interesting panel discussion. Well, this building is a work of Art with a capital "A" : even with the zebra stripes.

[lofter1]

I encourage everyone to take a walk over to this building and take a look at the glass up close. Stand on the corner of West / 18th St. -- get as close as you can (there's a gate there and the perimeter fence is very close to the building) and look up the side of the building.

Wow!

The glass is awesome -- almost like a cloud in the way that the coloration moves up the facade. The striping effect is much softer in person than it appears in photos (funny how architecture often works much better in 3 dimensions).

[infoshare]

I encourage everyone to take a walk over to this building and take a look at the glass up close.

I will go there, probably tomorrow.....however, opinions to the contrary are mounting.........I "want" this to turn out GREAT.....Other views on the project can be found at the GUTTER - http://gutter.curbed.com/archives/20...debut.php#more

[lofter1]

GUTTER is fun -- but they never say anything GOOD about ANYTHING (it's their reason for being)

[finnman69]

I am perplexed by the glass choice: bold horizontal lines across the entire structure will visually "cancell-out" the the overall form of the building.

To go to the time/expense/effort to achieve those subtle contorted forms only to "hide" them behind bold horizontal stripes - what a blunder.

I wait and see - they cant be that daft. or can they?

I realy liked what Gehry is doing with the building massing. It's not his usual crumple up a piece of paper and then scan the modell. It's non traditional, but there is a rational logic to the massing of forms, almost like the edge oif a glacier or a mountain range that is very appealing.

However, the horizontal glass stripes totally dominates over the forms themselves and to me ruins the effect.

[finnman69]

The stripes will be much less pronounced once the lights are on inside.

I also can tell for obvious reasons the glass frit is opaque at the spandrels. At night it could be interesting, but it really depends on the interior lighting. Hopefully it will be uplight pendants and not a hung ceiling w/ 2x2 egg crates.

It could look a bit like the Louis Vuitton store in midtown. Not one of my favorites.

[finnman69]

Finnman made a great post and a good case....a sharp critical eye. However.... the fact that the clear stripes have a "feathered" edge ... with a transition from clear to solid, leaves me hopeful that the final effect will be something more interesting than "zebra stripes". We´ll see.

And yes, 7WTC and 505 5th do have nice glass (and I especially like the traditional verticle shape of 505´s windows). While we´re at it: wouldn´t the Time Warner have looked great with this kind of transparency...)

Gehry had the glass right for this building in this study model. I like seeing the angled columns through the glass.

[lofter1]

... the horizontal glass stripes totally dominates over the forms themselves and to me ruins the effect.

This is similar to discussions at the Times Tower thread about how the horizontal openings in the rod curtain were overhwhelming the building and minimizing the verticality of the tower.

Now that the rod screens have reached almost halfway up the Times Tower the entire mass of the screens reveals a verticality that wasn't apparent when the width of the installed screens was greater than the height. Now the vertical nature of the Tower is reinforced by the screens.

Similar situation at IAC: With only a portion of the glass installed the horizontal aspect of the clear portions of the facade seem to overwhelm the upward thrust of the building. Once it is all installed the overall massing of the building will take precedence.

[Citytect]

You're right about that, Lofter. But there are a few important differences between NYT and IAC that should be noted. Most importantly, the huge difference in height. The Times tower has the great advantage of being tall to overcome its horizontal lines. Secondly, the shapes of the buildings are quite different. Gehry's building is all about it's unique shape. Piano's building has a simple shape with a unique skin applied to it. In the case of Gehry's building adding a eye-catching skin only detracts from the building's main architectural statement, it's shape. Lastly, and least important I think, is the different relationships between the transparent, translucent, and opaque portions of the buildings. The treatment of the NYT tower facade seems to transition mostly between translucent and transparent, with the translucent portions dominating the overall effect of the facade. The IAC building seems to transition between opaque and transparent with a little translucency in between. The overall effect here, is more pronounced horizontal lines because you have both visual extremes, opaque and transparent... But that point probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me, haha.

I did walk past the IAC last weekend on my way to the batting cages in Chelsea Piers with some friends. I don't think they knew what to make of it. I thought the effect of the glass became a little more abiguous the closer you got the the building. The fading effect worked better and the stripes became less pronounced. But you still notice the weird glass with horizontal stripes more than the sail-like shape of the building. However, like always, I'll wait until it's finished to form a definative opinion.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Gnaw on these bones.

[ZippyTheChimp]

.

[antinimby]

Don't like the glass at all. Now that the glass is covering up the unconventional leaning columns, it could fit in any suburban office park and wouldn't even get anyone's attention.
I suspect the original glass design might have been scrapped due to high cost. A fact of life these days but still unfortunate.