THE BEAUTY OF PYLONS. I was pleased to see that one of the structures that was singled out in the Vanity Fair article was the Millau Viaduct in France, which is classified here as a “highway bridge and viaduct.” The Millau Viaduct was designed by Norman Foster, whose buildings include the Gherkin in London. Foster also designed (with the “involvement of a feng shui geomancer”) the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters in Hong Kong, which came in fourth in the Vanity Fair voting.
I was happy to see the respect for a “highway bridge and viaduct” because I have just posted on Alain de Botton’s observation that our society doesn’t appreciate the beauty of pylons and other industrial structures. It’s good to see an architect of Norman Foster’s stature designing structures like this.