Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Creech
I think there is fabulous architecture that marry's old and new. That's the tricky part. The Telfair is a good example, and in most all these good examples, there is a conversation still between the old and the new. With the Telfair, the new addition echos some of the main lines, reinterprets the columns and window punches, plays with massing. I just don't see this new building having any sort of conversation with the surrounding district of significant buildings at all. This building could be plunked in upper midtown, buckhead, lenox, downtown and it wouldn't matter. But to put it here on this this key transition site, it comes up a little short. If it was up in the midtown mile, I'd love it. Though I work across from this, and so far with the materials and such the impression is one of a high-rise office park architecture. I never realized I was such a proponent of contextualism until this building came along.
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I think lilli is great and I have no problem with it, but everything you said about the Telfair was the result of a literally years-long process of dialogue (and a bit of a fight) between Moshe Safdie and the historic review board. I wish I could find a photo of one of his first proposals, but it was a giant glass curtain wall that was beautiful, but totally lacking in context with its surroundings. It looked like something you'd see as the street level on a high-end apartment highrise in Atlanta. It would have been an attractive building, but not one worthy of a spot on one of Savannah's squares.
That kind of architectural design review on a civic level is what Savannah has that Atlanta does not, and it's why even our best buildings (like lilli) aren't as good as they could be.