Monday, December 29, 2008

Ten favorite American Buildings

These are just personal favorites. One rule: no more than one building per city. There is no particular order to the list

1. Trinity Church, Boston (Richardson). Copley Plaza is among the best urban spaces I know.
2. Seagram's Building, New York (Mies van der Rohe and Johnson). It also has my favorite restaurant in it.
3. East Building, National Gallery, Washington (Pei)
4. Carson, Pirie, Scott, Chicago (Sullivan)
5. City Hall, Philadelphia (MacArthur and Walter) It is a silly, overdone, wonderful building.
6. IDS Building, Minneapolis (Johnson again). The rare, iconic, financially successful building.
7. Indiana University Campus, Bloomington. This is cheating, but I think IU has the nation's most beautiful college campus. And no, I never went or taught there.
8. Eastern Building, Los Angeles (Beelman). The city's best building is a lovely Art Deco number from 1930. The Wiltern Building is special too.
9. Coit Tower, San Francisco (Brown and Howard)
10. Terminal Tower, Cleveland (Van Sweringen brothers)

1 comment:

Pamela said...

I'm glad that the Terminal Tower in Cleveland made your "cut". As a Clevelander, it has always been near & dear to my heart. I used to pass through it every day on my way to ballet lessons. I was a bit sad though when they renovated the inside. It was one of the great architectural train stations! The other favorite of mine on your list is the Carson PIrie Scott Bldg. I lived in Chicago for 18 years and anyone that has been downtown and loves that city knows its great architectural significance!

Pam Gordon