A crown for the Queen City
OK, it's a little off of my music beat, but architecture can be inspiring, too.
Do you think the design by architects at HOK for Cincinnati's proposed 40-story office tower being built by Western & Southern Financial Group is inspired or dated? Do you like/hate the tiara, inspired by a photo of Princess Diana? Do you think, as one person remarked, that "The Big O" would represent Cincinnati better? (Hm, a giant basketball hoop on top?)
Check out the comments on the message board.
Chrysler Building photo by David Shankbone, Wikipedia
posted by Janelle Gelfand at 10:57 AM
7 Comments:
at 12/27/2007 07:57:00 PM 
Anonymous said...
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at 12/28/2007 10:31:00 AM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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at 12/28/2007 10:34:00 AM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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at 12/28/2007 10:36:00 AM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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at 12/29/2007 03:35:00 PM 
Anonymous said...
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at 12/30/2007 02:58:00 PM 
Anonymous said...
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at 9/10/2014 05:53:00 AM 
Unknown said...
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Post a Comment*I agree with the critics -- the building is nice, but is so outdated a design. With the Hadid and Gehry buildings setting the tone for new architecture in Cincinnati, this building looks as if the designers just woke up from a Rip Van Winkle nap and haven't had the time to read the paper yet to see what's been going on while they were asleep.
This is a chance for Cincinnati to have something important downtown, something reflective of the current age instead of a salute to the past.
We need someone like to act like Cummins Diesel did in Columbus, Indiana, to inspire the building of important buildings. That small town has more interesting architecture than we do.
Let's take this opportunity to do it right instead of copying the past.
I'm going to post some comments I've received via e-mail. This is from Denise Fornshell, via Cincinnati.Com:
I absolutely love the new building profiled in Wednesday's Kentucky Enquirer. I am a native of Cincinnati and now live in Charlotte, NC. The most beautiful sight in the world to me is crossing the river into Cincy and seeing the skyline. I think this building would make Cincy's skyline even more spectacular than it is now!! I vote YES!!
Denise Fornshell
And here's another one from UC professor emeritus Robert Burnham:
I saw your story on the Great American Insurance Building being developed by Eagle Realty in today's paper and appreciated the discussion of stylistic issues and other civic concerns. There is no doubt a building of this magnitude will have an important civic impact. It is difficult to make judgments about proposed building designs without a fair amount of information regarding the design and its proposed content. But, there are clearly a number of questions that ought to explored in addition to esthetics and height as important as they are. Among them are the design's impact on the the climate of the surrounding public spaces and buildings(shadows and wind speeds). This is particularly important for public spaces at street level. The building's contributions to heat island effect and light pollution have important civic implications and it is possible to develop designs that are positive in these regards. The building's impact on activity at street level should be questioned. Maintaining and enhancing street level activity in cities is important to their long term health and viability.
In addition, this is a major building involving substantial material resources and energy to both construct and operate. The degree to which it is sustainability designed and constructed should be examined. Historically, we would have thought that this issue was primarily the owner's concern, but in the contemporary world with numerous and severe ecological problems such as global warming it has become a major civic issue. This building can be designed to minimize its ecological footprint. This would be positive in absolute terms and would also provide an example of how buildings of this sort should be designed for the region in this respect. It is likely that a positive example of this sort that has some related iconic qualities would have far more impact in the future than any specific stylistic expression.
Robert Burnham
Green Building Consultant
Professor Emeritus, School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati
And this is from Brad Beckett:
it turns out that architects were royally inspired when they designed the tower destined to be Cincinnati's tallest. They drew on one of Princess Diana's tiaras as inspiration for the crown atop the planned 40-story Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Square.
I am sorry, but that is incredibly stupid.....
Well, whatever the inspiration of the architects, I think it's a great building.
It will be a wonderful addition to the skyline.
Enough of ugly, "cutting-edge" design.
The Molecular Biology building at UC, to me, is a complete embarrassment. No, no more of that in Cincinnati.
I am absolutely on board with Professor Burnham's letter. Is anyone aware that our very own Civic Garden Center at the corner of Wm> Howard Taft and Reading Rds. is engaged in a project to create a building on their grounds which has a "green roof" and is meant to educate about it's positive effects on urban design? This concept whereby rooves are planted in order to affect temperature control inside primarily, is very popular in Germany and is becoming a sound environmental strategy in other European countries as well.
Such dyanmic civic projects shouldn't exist as well meaning experiments but should co-exist with the public forces making the changes with which we will all have to live for some time to come.
Any additions to our city must make environmental issues a priority for their own sake and to demonstrate that, as one poster put it, we are not always 20 years behind in our thinking. Princess Diana? That's merely interesting but not germane.
P.S. I was around when the Albee bit the dust in favor of tinkering with downtown's skyline and the ugly Fifth Third Building went up looking like a 30-years-too-late version of the Bauhaus inspired Park Ave. skyscrapers in NYC.
This is a great and informative site. Really well written and precise.
Cosmetic Dentist
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