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

**lofter1** · February 21st, 2006, 04:02 PM

Don't know if this has been posted here yet, but some good stuff on the IAC building here: http://www.arcspace.com/architects/gehry/iac/iac.html

Penthouse Level:

Photo: arcspace

**Kris** · February 22nd, 2006, 03:00 PM

http://www.archinect.com/gallery/thu...album=2&page=1

**ablarc** · February 22nd, 2006, 03:21 PM

^ Crazy. Structure like that doesn't make any kind of sense. That is too high a price to pay --in both intellectual integrity and money-- for a striking look. Calatrava can get the striking look with complete architectural rigor (the engineering term is "elegance"). That's what makes Calatrava a much greater architect.

**kz1000ps** · February 22nd, 2006, 04:43 PM

It looks like it barely survived a demolition derby. Still, I can't wait to see it sheathed in glass.

**MidtownGuy** · February 22nd, 2006, 04:49 PM

The skin will make all the difference, unifying shapes and making sense out of all the angles which at this stage look chaotic.

**BPC** · February 22nd, 2006, 05:50 PM

I am not a big Gehry fan, but this building, at least in the photo above, is starting to have a Gaudi-esque flair about it. It might be pretty interesting.

**ablarc** · February 22nd, 2006, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by BPC

I am not a big Gehry fan, but this building, at least in the photo above, is starting to have a Gaudi-esque flair about it. It might be pretty interesting.

Gaudi's inclined columns were catenaries. His particular path to structural integrity was to hang weights by wires from bedsheets that represented his building's roof configuration. Every bit of the resulting structure would thus be stressed in tension. Then he'd photograph these concoctions, turn the photos upside down, and voila pure compression. Not much arbitrary form-making there; his structure is far more rigorous than Gehry's.

And at least equally interesting, no?

**NoyokA** · February 22nd, 2006, 06:43 PM

Originally Posted by ablarc

^ Crazy. Structure like that doesn't make any kind of sense. That is too high a price to pay --in both intellectual integrity and money-- for a striking look. Calatrava can get the striking look with complete architectural rigor (the engineering term is "elegance"). That's what makes Calatrava a much greater architect.

I entirely disagree. Every interesting curve of this space will be used and enjoyed by the tenant and the passerby outside. Calatrava is a sculptor not an architect. Explain to me the "architectural rigor" of this building's wings:

**ablarc** · February 22nd, 2006, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Stern

I entirely disagree. Every interesting curve of this space will be used and enjoyed by the tenant and the passerby outside. Calatrava is a sculptor not an architect. Explain to me the "architectural rigor" of this building's wings.

A true-blue modernist like Saarinen, Rietveld, Corbu, Foster, Gehry and even Mies would be amused by your comment. Why son, they might say, an architect is a sculptor. And Calatrava would agree. He's a sculptor, an architect and an engineer. By training. Unlike Gehry. Unlike Gehry, who hires a structural engineer to design the bones on which he hangs his clothes, Calatrava designs the bones himself (sometimes exaggerating them a bit), and then he leaves off the clothes entirely. Naked structure. Like a plankton.

In this, he's in the mainstream of the greatest architecture, like the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Chartres, Brunelleschi's dome, Gaudi, the Eiffel Tower and most work by Saarinen and Kahn.

**londonlawyer** · February 22nd, 2006, 07:08 PM

This building is awesome (regardless of the weather)!

**MidtownGuy** · February 22nd, 2006, 07:27 PM

Both architecture and sculpture at the same time, Calatrava's buildings are magnificent. They have extraneous elements at times, but then- what are all those details on the Woolworth building. In the above photo, those extra pointy wings sticking up and out may not be completely functional but they extend the lines and curves of the building so beautifully. It really is poetry.

**lofter1** · February 22nd, 2006, 07:33 PM

I walked by this site the other day and noticed that the cleats for hanging the facade are all pretty much installed on the floorplates (and can be seen in the big photo above).

Glass should be going on soon ..... oh, yeah !!!!!!!!

**infoshare** · February 22nd, 2006, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by ablarc

In this, he's in the mainstream of the greatest architecture, like the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Chartres, Brunelleschi's dome, Gaudi, the Eiffel Tower and most work by Saarinen and Kahn.

I wonder if modern architects utilize traditional "Ideal" methods of creatiing thier SCULPTURE: the "golden ratio" never fails to be a crowed pleaser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ratio

**ablarc** · February 22nd, 2006, 08:56 PM

Golden section appears pretty regularly in nature and architecture. Greeks used it, you find it in the Middle Ages, Renaissance and baroque periods, it was common in the Nineteenth Century, Corbu applied it invariably (the Modulor), and so did his disciples, such as Jose Lluis Sert (Roosevelt Island housing uses it), and I use it myself.

It makes things simple.

**lofter1** · March 4th, 2006, 12:04 AM

The first section(s) of glass have gone up at the first floor(street level) on the West St. facade.

It looks awesome ... it's pretty much hidden behind the scaffolding and they've only put up one small bit: the first wrap-around at the southern end of he building. The joint at the angle is beautiful, as is the milky-white (seemingly opaque) glass and nice slim stainless steel (?) channels between the panes.