PBS lists Top Ten Buildings that Changed America - Page 2

#21 Posted **May 19, 2012, 3:13 AM**

I think it's weird that the Wainright picture is a black and white from the '70s (60's?) but the rest are more recent color (at least) shots. Weird. As if no pictures have been taken since.

dchan · #22 Posted **May 20, 2012, 2:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swinefeld

Dear PBS, Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Sheesh. But I'm glad they included this postmodernist gem. Also noteworthy is the Esherick House (by Louis I. Kahn), just down the road a piece.

I don't know what the typical mailing address formality is in Philadelphia. I do know that in New York, people in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx typically use their borough names as their mailing city. (In Manhattan's case, they put down "New York, NY")

But for many parts of Queens, they use their neighborhood names as their mailing city. Case in point, I put down "Fresh Meadows, NY". People in Jamaica, Flushing, and Bayside would do the same for their respective neighborhoods.

There is one exception in the Bronx to this rule, and that's for the people living in Riverdale, who think of their neighborhood as a separate town from the Bronx.

I don't know what they use in Staten Island, though.

Swinefeld · #23 Posted **May 20, 2012, 3:38 PM**

I don't know if anybody in Philadelphia would put the name of their neighborhood as a mailing city. Maybe this would have been done years ago, but not nowadays. I do know that folks in Germantown would use that as their mailing city (i.e., Germantown, Pennsylvania) well into the twentieth century, but that's an exceptional case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dchan

I don't know what the typical mailing address formality is in Philadelphia. I do know that in New York, people in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx typically use their borough names as their mailing city. (In Manhattan's case, they put down "New York, NY")

But for many parts of Queens, they use their neighborhood names as their mailing city. Case in point, I put down "Fresh Meadows, NY". People in Jamaica, Flushing, and Bayside would do the same for their respective neighborhoods.

There is one exception in the Bronx to this rule, and that's for the people living in Riverdale, who think of their neighborhood as a separate town from the Bronx.

I don't know what they use in Staten Island, though.

Roadcruiser1 · #24 Posted **May 20, 2012, 8:53 PM**

Sorry, but I think these two buildings changed America in the end more than anything else on this list.

plinko · #25 Posted **May 20, 2012, 8:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

Sorry, but I think these two buildings changed America in the end more than anything else on this list.

Of course you would. But in terms of architecture they really didn't.

#26 Posted **May 20, 2012, 9:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

Sorry, but I think these two buildings changed America in the end more than anything else on this list.

you should write to PBS and complain.

Tyler Xyroadia · #27 Posted **May 21, 2012, 12:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by plinko

Of course you would. But in terms of architecture they really didn't.

AYE!

Lets be "Brutally" honest for a moment. While the Twin Towers became a symbol of NYC, an icon and something for all America to pull for... The buildings themselves were NOT great architecture. They were perhaps the pinnacle of "Big Boring Box" construction the exemplified the 'architecture' of the 60's and 70's. When all is said and down, they weren othing special, they just 'died' in a special way.

Having now spoke my curmudgeon rant, I shall return this thread to the topic on hand.

TarHeelJ · #28 Posted **May 21, 2012, 7:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

I think it's weird that the Wainright picture is a black and white from the '70s (60's?) but the rest are more recent color (at least) shots. Weird. As if no pictures have been taken since.

I know...more current photos are available all over the internet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/genospi...n/photostream/

glowrock · #29 Posted **May 21, 2012, 7:47 PM**

Honestly, I think it's a pretty damned good list, myself. Far better than the standard "Top 10" lists so many of us loathe to read on a daily basis!

Aaron (Glowrock)

TarHeelJ · #30 Posted **May 21, 2012, 8:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by glowrock

Honestly, I think it's a pretty damned good list, myself. Far better than the standard "Top 10" lists so many of us loathe to read on a daily basis!

Aaron (Glowrock)

I agree...in any top 10 list there will be omissions according to differing opinions, but this one is definitely a decent list and each entry is deserving of a place on it.

wong21fr · #31 Posted **May 21, 2012, 9:44 PM**

Wait, how could one of these not make it?

Source

Jasoncw · #32 Posted **May 23, 2012, 12:58 AM**

I think suburbia will be represented in general by the shopping mall episode.

photoLith · #33 Posted **May 23, 2012, 1:16 AM**

Yes Levittown changes America forever but not architecturally. There were already houses being built like that in America. Levittown just made America more shitty and cheap.

texcolo · #34 Posted **May 23, 2012, 3:31 AM**

This list was written by rank amateurs.

The Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth (1972) by Louis I Kahn

source

Or any Louis I Kahn building. The man was a genius in the aesthetic use of materials.

Chief Blackhawk · #35 Posted **May 24, 2012, 7:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pico44

Sony Building is a great building and absolutely belongs on this list. I guess postmodernism has to suck now like brutalism had to and modernism and art deco...

I would also put Portzamparc's LVMH tower on here as a precursor to everything built between then and now.

The Sony Building is a mistake on the NYC skyline; who the hell puts a goddamn chippendale on a blockscraper? Philip Johnson's a joke and a shit-stain on American architecture.

Roadcruiser1 · #36 Posted **May 24, 2012, 8:48 PM**

Another building that should have been here is the Singer Building. It led to the Landmark Preservation Act and was one of the best examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States.

skyscraperfan23 · #37 Posted **May 24, 2012, 11:32 PM**

This should be on the list.

Cro Burnham · #38 Posted **May 25, 2012, 4:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swinefeld

Dear PBS, Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Sheesh. But I'm glad they included this postmodernist gem. Also noteworthy is the Esherick House (by Louis I. Kahn), just down the road a piece.

if they were going to put one philly building, i'd think it would have been psfs. the first modernist skyscraper anywhere in the us by almost twenty years.

Cro Burnham · #39 Posted **May 25, 2012, 5:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyscraperfan23

This should be on the list.

why?

bhammer · #40 Posted **May 25, 2012, 7:17 AM**

Sad that it's mostly modern stuff. I hate most modern architecture, it tosses all the wisdom accumulated through human history of form following function. It abandons our western roots and way of life.
Modern architectural "thinking" and its application to urban design are one of the major reasons we in North America have such sprawled cities.