MY FIVE FAVORITE BUILDINGS. This is how I voted: the Chrysler Building (# 9), Grand Central Station (#13), Sever Hall (#77), the Rookery (#128) and the Carson Pirie Scott store (#145). There is a personal element to these votes. I took the criterion “beloved” seriously. However, even before I spent years working in the Chrysler building, it was the place my eyes went to when I looked at the New York skyline. Grand Central Station changed the face of the city north of 42nd St and, in addition to its beauty, is remarkable for what it does. The Rookery and Carson Pirie Scott buildings are Chicago buildings that I look at almost every time I’m in Chicago. The Rookery has a beautiful, delicate interior. The Carson Pirie Scott building has delicate tracery on the exterior that displays Sullivan’s love of ornament. I passed Sever Hall almost every day for several years and had classes and exams there. Sever and the Carson Pirie Scott building are by two of my favorite architects (Richardson and Sullivan).
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I wish more new buildings had truly beautiful architecture like you mentioned. Nowadays it seems de rigueur for businesses to present some giant, soulless glass monolith to the world.
Richmond’s Old City Hall is a gorgeous old building that was replaced with an ugly one (think of what a high rise DMV might look like). I understand the move towards these less than inspiring buildings is practical in more than a few ways, but it still makes me a little wistful.
Although my favorite bldg. in NYC is the New York Public Library, I am eager to visit the glass house in New Canaan. It’s going to be open to the public soon.
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