Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Servo
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This isn't a project in Indiana; this is Illinois.
When MAD designs a world class project in Indianapolis, he can draw inspiration from the Dunes all he wants, but for a project here in Illinois, inspiration should be drawn locally. You don't fucking go out of state for inspiration on a project like this.
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aside from whether its a good comparison or not (fwiw chicago has its own small natural dunes as well, and would probably be much larger if we werent constantly paving over them with buildings like this), architects and all artists for that matter draw inspiration from the totality of their lives lived. shapes, forms...theres only so many ways you can arrange a liveable space without being derivative of something already done. at the end of the day, the stuff that gets spouted off about "organic forms" and being drawn from the immediate land is just marketing fluff. i remember when Calatrava announced the Spire and everyone went gaga because he had like, seashell doorknobs and oh my this represents such a clear connection to the natural area around Chicago (as if the U.S. dosent have 95,000 miles of coastline where the same metaphors could be ham-fistedly applied as well)
in short: youre reading too much into this. its just as much a surface level "cool" design as aqua if not more so. its starchitecture, the guy is a brand and its what Lucas wanted. dude booted up CAD (or whatever theyre using these days), stretched some stuff around, and voila. id worry less about the inspiration (hes clearly trying to create something that looks vaguely Star Wars-y) and more about whether it actually works as an inviting, attractive, and functional building while still respecting its surroundings.
at the end of the day it just dosent look as refined as his other designs. that metal crown or whatever you want to call it looks especially tacked on and out of place with the rest of the building. get rid of that, lower the height, smooth it out a bit more, and i think it would be a lot nicer looking.
my 2 cents