Houston19514 Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 (edited) Competent, but certainly won't be making it into any architecture books: Hobby Center, cathedral, Beck, Reliant HP, downtown Hilton.Oops. The Hobby Center has already made into an architectural book. Yes, it is included in The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture as one of the "greatest buildings of the 21st Century." Edited December 29, 2008 by Houston19514 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VelvetJ Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Oops. The Hobby Center has already made into an architectural book. Yes, it is included in The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture as one of the "greatest buildings of the 21st Century."I will then be the first to say that book is bogus. I don't believe there is a person here who believes the Hobby Center is one of the "Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century". That building, like too many others in current day Houston architecture, was designed based upon how cheaply it could be done, leaving design quality as a afterthought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 I will then be the first to say that book is bogus. I don't believe there is a person here who believes the Hobby Center is one of the "Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century". That building, like too many others in current day Houston architecture, was designed based upon how cheaply it could be done, leaving design quality as a afterthought.Wait til you see the rest of the 21st century. Frugality will be essential to any design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 I will then be the first to say that book is bogus. I don't believe there is a person here who believes the Hobby Center is one of the "Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century". That building, like too many others in current day Houston architecture, was designed based upon how cheaply it could be done, leaving design quality as a afterthought.Did you give any thought at all to perhaps taking a look at the book (or the qualifications of the people making the choices) before making your judgment? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VelvetJ Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Wait til you see the rest of the 21st century. Frugality will be essential to any design. Now that, I can believe and can find justifiable. Houston however, for the most part apparently reached the 21st century a little over a decade before everyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VelvetJ Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Did you give any thought at all to perhaps taking a look at the book (or the qualifications of the people making the choices) before making your judgment?Quite simply Houston19514, "The Hobby Center is one of the Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted December 31, 2008 Author Share Posted December 31, 2008 Quite simply Houston19514, "The Hobby Center is one of the Greatest Buildings of the 21st Century".So, you disagree. The fact that they did not poll the members of HAIF for this book does not make the book bogus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Posts peeled off of another topic. The fact that they did not poll the members of HAIF for this book does not make the book bogus.Perhaps not precisely bogus, but if the editors seriously think that the Hobby Center is one of the greatest buildings of the decade then one would really have to question their judgment. This was the building that one newspaper compared to a small town airport.Maybe they're not saying it is truly great as much as trying to get representative samples of buildings from a bunch of different cities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 (edited) Well, it was probably considered "great" since the Starchitect Robert AM Stern designed it. In fact, it's not even original; a structure designed by him in California or something beforehand bears a striking resemblance to the Hobby. It seems that most Starchitects can get away with that these days (ie Gehry and his multiple clones of crumpled-tinfoil buildings). Perhaps the editors at Phaidon enjoy stirring us architecture critics into debates over things like this; maybe they are just as sadistic and argumentative as we are here. *Line Deleted, disregard* Edited January 3, 2009 by UrbaNerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 It's pretty clear after looking at the Phaidon atlas for a while that they are picking things that are either very dramatic or very minimalistic. It's also clear that Houston, or for that matter any city in the US, is not the modern architectural leader that it (they) might once have been when compared with some of the stuff going on in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Well, it was probably considered "great" since the Starchitect Robert AM Stern designed it. In fact, it's not even original; a structure designed by him in California or something beforehand bears a striking resemblance to the Hobby. It seems that most Starchitects can get away with that these days (ie Gehry and his multiple clones of crumpled-tinfoil buildings).Perhaps the editors at Phaidon enjoy stirring us architecture critics into debates over things like this; maybe they are just as sadistic and argumentative as we are here. *Line Deleted, disregard* Didn't "Mike Brady" in the Brady Bunch Movie try to sell the same architecture design over and over again until some Chinese tycoons finally bit on it. I quess you could say Robert Stern is our 'Mike Brady". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 It's pretty clear after looking at the Phaidon atlas for a while that they are picking things that are either very dramatic or very minimalistic. And yet somehow they missed the Rothko Chapel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 And yet somehow they missed the Rothko Chapel. It's only buildings completed since 2001. I actually suspect, based on other structures featured, that had the Rothko been newer it might have been featured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Well, it was probably considered "great" since the Starchitect Robert AM Stern designed it. In fact, it's not even original; a structure designed by him in California or something beforehand bears a striking resemblance to the Hobby. It seems that most Starchitects can get away with that these days (ie Gehry and his multiple clones of crumpled-tinfoil buildings).You probably hit the nail on the head there. It's got to be easier just to pick out projects by the starchitects, regardless of merit. It bothers me sometimes when big commissions go to big names that go on to produce second rate work (Cf Moneo's Beck Building at MFAH). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Posts peeled off of another topic. Perhaps not precisely bogus, but if the editors seriously think that the Hobby Center is one of the greatest buildings of the decade then one would really have to question their judgment. This was the building that one newspaper compared to a small town airport.So, I guess your criteria for judging reviews of Houston buildings is not based on the qualifications of those making the judgments, but rather whether their judgments agree with your opinion. A random newspaper writer dissed the building. Whoopee! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 So, I guess your criteria for judging reviews of Houston buildings is not based on the qualifications of those making the judgments, but rather whether their judgments agree with your opinion. I guess that's fair to say. I'm sure the editors are very well qualified, but notwithstanding, I still think this is a bad call. Is your argument that the Hobby center is actually a great example of this century's architecture, or that we oughtn't disagree with the experts who write these books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 You probably hit the nail on the head there. It's got to be easier just to pick out projects by the starchitects, regardless of merit. It bothers me sometimes when big commissions go to big names that go on to produce second rate work (Cf Moneo's Beck Building at MFAH).Hey now, what exactly qualifies the Beck building as "Second Rate"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Hey now, what exactly qualifies the Beck building as "Second Rate"? Are you saying it is only third rate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Are you saying it is only third rate? Nah, I wanna hear your reasons for calling it "second rate". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 It's only buildings completed since 2001. I actually suspect, based on other structures featured, that had the Rothko been newer it might have been featured.There's something very strange about an artist being commissioned to paint 14 paintings (all basically just covering a canvas in black paint) and slitting his wrists before the building to hang them is complete. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 (edited) I guess that's fair to say. I'm sure the editors are very well qualified, but notwithstanding, I still think this is a bad call. Is your argument that the Hobby center is actually a great example of this century's architecture, or that we oughtn't disagree with the experts who write these books? Well, of course you think it's a bad call when the mere publication completely demolishes your confident prediction that this building would never appear in any architectural books. I am not making any particular argument for or against the building. I like the building and think it is completely fair to include it in a book of the 21st century's best buildings. Do I think it is the century's greatest building? No. But one judgment does not require the other. For some reason many people on this forum cannot bring themselves to accept that anything good ever happens in Houston, let something worthy of note by the world outside of Houston. (And by they way, the subtitle you chose for this thread is a bit, shall we say, tendentious. NOBODY has ever claimed that the Hobby Center is THE GREATEST building of the 21st century. Buildings can be excellent and worthy of praise without being THE BEST of the century. Edited January 4, 2009 by Houston19514 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Maybe they're not saying it is truly great as much as trying to get representative samples of buildings from a bunch of different cities.That makes sense. What resident of a major city that prides itself on modern architecture would buy a book which snubs them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Otto Mation) Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 bill barfield has added a photo to the pool: Houston Click here to view this photo at the HAIF Photo Pool on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Otto Mation) Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 THIRD EXPOSURE has added a photo to the pool: Click here to view this photo at the HAIF Photo Pool on Flickr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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