Friday, September 14, 2007

The Truncated Lozenge Progress

Some progress plans:
1st Floor:

2nd Floor:

3rd Floor:

4th Floor and Green Roof:
A view from the corner:

Posted by at

3 comments:

Amr Raafat said...

Rick,
Is there is a specific reason for the structure to be as it is now?
can't the structure, columns follow the well established lozenge module? and vary in columns sizes?
all best
Amr

September 15, 2007 at 9:32 PM
Eddie Alvarado said...

Rick,

I really enjoy your sketches, they are simple, yet say a lot about the mood. If feels almost like winter in Boston and your scheme could actually be the place to be in the winter. Lifting itself from the ground to allow the passerby to pass and experience, feel protected, therefore is not an umbrella but a warm coat.

I am having a bit of a challenge with the word "lozenge", I am sure its me, but I can't help to think cold medicine, I had to look for the definition online. I see is a rhombus, but then I think we should look at the overall volume in kind of figure ground view, why separate the corner element from the other. Should it be read as a whole diamond? I think Amr is right about the columns, can't they angle, or some of them do and others don't. Frank Lloyd Wright used side entries and never the center, your centered view of the entry would not be your typical vanishing point.

September 16, 2007 at 8:11 AM
bac dmarch said...

Rick,

A warm coat and lozenge as cough medicine is a well placed comment from Southern Florida. Whatever the metaphor, I think the truncated shape is starting to get somewhere and I appreciate your attempt at re-visiting the ideas in sketch form. I worry quite a bit about this massive building hovering about the street. Take a look at Ed Barnes IBM building in Manhattan. The corner hangs ominously above the sidewalk. Yes, it gets out of the way physically, but is ever present in ones perception of the street. It remains a virtual obstruction and manipulates the flow of space simply by hanging there.

It occurs to me that a driving desire for your work is to not be present. What I mean is that you are proposing a non-building. You have repeatedly drawn a triangle that fills the space between the alley and the CVS building on Boylston Street. It is not there, simply out of the way. The element that brings attention to it’s self is proposed to hover above, and in effort, be out of the way. As a result, there seems to be a desire to not build at all. Or, if you must, propose a building that does not effect the flow of Boston. So, in some ways you are hitting the concept you set for yourself. However, I would say hitting it by avoiding the problem.

Architecture is about building. It requires that we cut down trees, remove green space and have an impact on the environment. This much must be accepted in order to consider becoming an architect. Once this is accepted, the pursuit, in your case might be about how the effect can be minimized. However, this does not mean that the building hides. I think the building needs to be ever present, yet in a way that is gentle to its surroundings, be thy urban, sub urban or rural.

Again, I think you should develop vertical circulation diagrams that bring one into an opening, up a ramp and back down to Dartmouth Street. In light of this go back to your plan level circulation diagrams and work within their assumptions. My preference is that your insert walls / objects / elements in places that are voids in these diagrams. By doing so, you create something that is already out of the way, and does not interrupt the flow of Boston. But at the same time, your building is present in the most respectful way. After mapping the foot paths, you’ve determined the most sensitive spaces to build. Again, my preference is that you do this 3 dimensionally so as to keep your assumptions in check about how space flows up and down. I can’t help but think the result will be organic in ways you have not defined as yet.

September 17, 2007 at 3:52 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)