Geisel Library

The Geisel Library is the main library building on the University of California, San Diego campus and contains four of the five libraries located on campus. It is home to the Arts Library (newly merged in July 2008 from the Art & Architecture and Music, Film & Video Libraries) (ARTS), the Mandeville Special Collections Library (SPEC), the Science & Engineering Library (S&E), and the Social Sciences & Humanities Library (SSHL). The Biomedical Library is the other library building on campus. There are 3 off-site locations: The Scripps Archives and Library Annex (available by appointment), the Annex (collections available by request), and the UC Southern Regional Library Facility (collections available by request).

The building is named in honor of Audrey and Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) for the generous contributions they have made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy. The Geisels were long-time residents of La Jolla, where UC San Diego is located.

The building is featured in the UCSD logo and is the most recognizable building on campus. It is located in the center of the campus with Library Walk to its south, Thurgood Marshall College to its West and Earl Warren College to its East.

The library first opened in 1970. It was simply called the Central Library until a renovation was completed in 1993, when it was rededicated as the University Library Building. It was renamed "Geisel Library" in 1995.

The distinctive original building was designed in the late 1960s by William Pereira to sit at the head of a canyon. William Pereira & Associates prepared a detailed report in 1969. Considering the location, Pereira originally conceived of a spherical building resting atop a pedestal, with the structural elements on the inside. After several drafts of this ball-shaped design, the structural elements were deemed as being too space-consuming, and they were moved to the outside of the structure, essentially resulting in the current "lantern" design. Pereira envisioned that future additions to the original building would form terraced levels around the tower base descending into the canyon. The tower is a prime example of brutalist architecture. It rises 8 stories to a height of 110 ft (33.5 m). The four upper stories of the tower itself house the SSHL and East Asia collections.

A photo of the building taken by Julius Shulman was used as the cover image for James Steele's chronicle of Pereira's career, called simply William Pereira.

The Library Addition, designed by Gunnar Birkerts in the early 1990s, was "deliberately designed to be subordinated to the strong, geometrical form of the existing library." Within its two subterranean levels are the other library sections as well as study spaces and computer labs.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Transamerica Pyramid

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, at 260 m (850 ft), upon completion in 1972 it was among the five tallest buildings in the world.

The tower has no public access except for the first floor lobby, thus visitors cannot ascend to the top for a panoramic view.

The land use and zoning restrictions for the parcel limited the number of square feet of office that could be built upon the lot, which sits at the northern boundary of the financial district.

The building is a tall, four-sided pyramid with two "wings" on either side to accommodate an elevator shaft on the east and a stairwell and a smoke tower on the west. The top 64.6 m (212 ft) of the building is the spire. There are four cameras pointed in the four cardinal directions at the top of this spire forming a virtual observation deck. Four monitors in the lobby, whose direction and zoom can be controlled by visitors, display the cameras' views 24 hours a day. An observation deck on the 27th floor was closed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and replaced by the virtual observation deck. The top of the Transamerica Pyramid is covered with aluminum panels. During the holiday season of Thanksgiving, and Independence Day, a bright, white light is seen on top of the pyramid. The building was built on a special base platform that allows it to reduce shaking from earthquakes. While it gradually reduces shaking, some shaking still intrudes the building.

• The building's façade is covered in crushed quartz, giving the building its pure white color.
• The four-storey base of the building contains a total of 16,000 cu yd (12,000 m³) of concrete and over 300 mi (480 km) of steel rebar.
• It has 3,678 windows.
• The building's foundation is 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and was the result of a 3 day, 24-hour continuous concrete pour. Several thousand dollars in quarters and change were thrown into the pit by observers surrounding the site at street level during the pouring process, for good luck.
• Only two of the building's 18 elevators reach the top floor.
• The original proposal called for a 1,150 ft (350 m) building, which would have been for one year the second-tallest completed building in the world. The proposal was rejected by the city planning commission on the grounds that it would have interfered with views of San Francisco Bay from Nob Hill.
• The building occupies the site that was the temporary home of A.P. Giannini's Bank of Italy after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed its office. Giannini founded Transamerica in 1928 as a holding company for his financial empire. Bank of Italy later became Bank of America.
• There is a plaque commemorating two famous dogs, Bummer and Lazarus, at the base of the building.
• The hull of the whaling vessel Niantic, an artifact of the 1849 California Gold Rush, lay almost exactly beneath the Transamerica Pyramid, and the location is marked by a historical plaque outside the building (California Historical Landmark #88).
• The aluminum cap is indirectly illuminated from within to balance the appearance at night.
• The two vertical external extensions allow preservation of useful interior space at the upper levels. One extension is the top of elevator shafts while the other is a smoke evacuation tower for fire-fighting.
• A glass pyramid cap sits at the top and encloses both aircraft warning light and a seasonal white beacon.
• At certain times of the year the glass cap will briefly cast a reflected sunlight gleam onto traffic crossing the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge

Source: Wikipedia.org

Gran Museo Maya

Gran Museo Maya by William Ramirez Pizarro, located in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Photos by Tamara Uribe.

Architects: 4A Arquitectos
Location: Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
Design Team: Ricardo Combaluzier, Enrique Duarte, William Ramírez, Josefina Rivas
Collaborators: Luis De La Rosa, Alma Villicaña, Carlos Guardián, Mariana Farfán, Julio Rosas, Aída Ordóñez, Fabián Rosas, Ricardo Combaluzier
Area: 22,600 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: David Cervera, Alessandra Ortíz, Rocío Rojo

The Gran Museo del Mundo Maya is a building with a contemporary expression about what the Mayans worshiped rather than the Mayans built, in this search we found a recurrent symbol, a key element in the cosmic vision of Mayan Culture: Ceiba, the sacred tree, whose roots penetrates and conforms the underworld, the trunk’s level lays down where life and daily activities take place underneath the shade of its frond which spreads its branches up to the sky and human transcendence.

With this concept of the world’s creation up from three stones and the Ceiba tree, we present the architectural design integrating the program needs and required spaces for the different functional activities, the structural design concept that gives physical bearing to the building and to the other infraestructure engineerings shared out for nurturing and supporting all the museum’s areas. Museum collections, transit cellars, research and study áreas of the great archaeological acquisition and a 260 parking spaces area is located at the “Ceiba’s roots” level.

At the “Ceiba’s trunk” level, up the perron, the main lobby, ticket offices, personal belongins kept area, 2,000 m2 of permanent exhibition rooms and 600 m2 for travelling exhibitions, public relations office, childcare center, restaurant with terrace , souvenir shop and a terrace bar. Executive and administrative offices are located inside the “Ceiba’s frond”, so are the high-definition large format cinema which includes performing arts facilites for various artistic and cultural activities as well as the multi-purpose hall. We understand sustainability as an integral part of any project and in this meaning the aspects considered are:

Environment

Located at the heart of an important urban subcenter at north of Merida, the design raises seeking for natural air and light using passive systems to achieve energy benefits and environmental comfort. The main lobby covered and shaded by “La Ceiba” which holds a hollow core, joints the different floors of the building.