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

Gemini Residence

Gemini Residence is a residential building on the Islands Brygge waterfront in Copenhagen, Denmark. Built to the design of MVRDV, the building has been created by converting two former seed silos. It is located at the end of Bryggebroen, connecting Amager-side Islands Brygge to Zealand-sideVesterbro across the harbour, and close to the southern end of Havneparken.

With a reference to the twin silos that have given the building its shape, Gemini Residence takes its name from the Astrological sign Gemini, the Latinname of the Zodiac sign The Twins.

The converted twin silos were raw concrete cylinders, standing 42 metres tall and 25 metres wide. The hollow cores of the silos are used for the infrastructure of the building, stairs, elevators and hallways. The two silos are connected on each floor, giving the building a basic layout resemblying the infinity symbol, ∞. The two rotundas are capped with a Texlon roof for natural light, creating a lobby area as tall as the building itself, within which residents and visitors can move up and down.

The apartments have been clipped to the exterior of the silos. The apartments have floor to ceiling windows and balconies along their entire length. At the foot of the silos, the raw concrete has been left uncovered to highlight the origin and history of the structure. This creates a marked horizontal overhang above the quayside esplenade passing below, while the narrow chasm it leaves at ground level creates a passage between dockside and streetside.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Updates

Heya everyone. I will stop making Drawing of the Day videos for a short period of time, not because I don't have time but because my YouTube account acts very strange and doesn't save the changes I do to my videos. I'll move to another channel and hopefully this won't happen again.

Also I have some new and nice ideas to experiment.
See you soon!

Protestant Temple

Protestant Temple by Ciel Rouge

Architects: Ciel Rouge
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Project area: 1100 sqm
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Henri Gueydan

The architecture for this Protestant Church is centered by a wide nave arranged with six arches and a bell tower that symbolically lay importance on the seven elements, the seven days of creation, the seven churches of the Orient… We create the impression of a biblical open sky image from which the light amid the Holy Spirit descends upon the followers and worshippers.

The softly curved arches specifically designed for fine acoustics also remind of a hand overwhelming the crowd. For the use as an authentic concert hall facility the temple displays the comfort of lodges discreetly positioned right from within the arches.

(Source: archdaily.com)

Kunsthaus Graz

Kunsthaus Graz by Sir Peter Cook and Colin Fournier

The Kunsthaus was built in order to celebrate Graz’s designation as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003, on a budget that is comparatively small for similarly focal cultural venues in large(ish) cities. Graz is the second largest city in Austria, a sprawl that can be appreciated from atop the castle in the center of town. From this location the Kunsthaus stands out like a rather blue, sore thumb. It is difficult to pass judgment on the aesthetic qualities of such a building; it definitely is there, and it definitely is blue and blob-shaped, but it also seems very much a part of the city.

You want to hate it, because of what it is: a symbol of the new modernism which has been pioneered by these architects since the 1960s and recently by the likes of architects Future Systems in Birmingham. But it is impossible to ignore how well the building works as a space to display art; and besides which, when up close, or even inside, the building becomes cute and actually quite lovable. Indeed, it has been nick-named ‘the Friendly Alien’. Built primarily of reinforced concrete and covered in translucent warm-blue plastic panelling with white plaster and metal mesh on the interior, the Kunsthaus feels very well constructed despite the low budget.

(Source: galinsky.com

The Kunsthaus provides 2,500 square meters of generously arranged space for changing contemporary art exhibitions, functions, and events. The amorphous form of the blue bubble blends in the heritage-protected part of the building 1,288 semitransparent acrylic glass panels have been used to create the bubble. While the glazed outer skin takes an important mediating role, it also generates power through integrated photovoltaic units. The Berlin designers realities:united used 930 computer­con­ trolled light sources located under the acrylic skin to create a display forty­five meters wide and twenty meters high that enables the museum to communicate with its environment. 

(Source: ignant.de)