Week 2 independent studies: 3 more examples of selected architect's work

1. National gallery of art:

Details:

Location: National Mall in Washington,D.C.

Establishment: 1937

Building area: 1500 square metres

Visitor figures: 4.6 million (till 2009)

Scale: 7 stories

Description: The East Building remained Pei's most famous work. It will surely endure as one of his best. Here was the refinement he had felt unable to achieve in the detailing of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, the massing of the Dallas City Hall, and the spaces of the Kennedy Library. It combined the best of his planning experience gained under Zeckendorf with the full fruits of the later years of experimentation in geometric complexity and the exploitation of materials. More than any of his previous buildings, it was also informed by an inescapably Chinese sensitivity to light and space and subtle control of how the user experiences a work of architecture. The building was at once monumental and animated, a mature expression of all the Pei had been moving toward as an architect.

References: I. M. Pei Wiseman, PQ 724.9, p. 155-156 (accessed 26 July, 2011)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery_of_Art  (accessed 26 July, 2011)


2. The Fragrant Hill Hotel

Details:

 Location:In the former Imperial Hunting Grounds, 32km from downtown Beijing, China

Gross floor area: 36900 square metres

Construction: April, 1980

Completion: October, 1982

Description: This hotel stands in a public park within the former Imperial Hunting Grounds outside Beijing, not far from the Summer Palace and other key historic sites. Balancing symmetry and asymmetry, the 325 guest rooms zigzag out from a central skylit space to preserve the site's ancient trees. Each guest room opens onto a courtyard through a shaped "window picture" that frames the landscape and brings the outdoors inside. Building and gardens merge inseparably in an intimate reciprocal relationship.

Underlying the design is a strategy to provide a "Third Way" wherein advanced Western technology is grafted onto the essence of Chinese vernacular architecture without literal imitation. The skylight was the only major imported component; everything else was constructed by local craftsmen using age-old techniques and materials. Fragrant Hill thus draws from the living roots of tradition to sow the seed of a new, distinctly Chinese form of modern architecture that can be adapted, not merely adopted, for diverse building types. 


References: I. M. Pei Wiseman, PQ 724.9, p. 185-203 (accessed 26 July, 2011)
http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/7905/s.html (accessed 26 July, 2011)

3.  Louvre Pyramid

Details:

Location: The Louvre Palace, Paris

Completion: 1989

Height: 20.6 metres

Description:
Commissioned by the President of France Francois Mitterrand in 1984, it was designed by the architect I.M. Pei, who is responsible for the design of the Miho Museum in Japan, and Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, and the National Gallery of Art(East Building) in Washington, D.C. among others. The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments, reaches a height of 20.6 metres (about 70 feet); its square base has sides of 35 metres (115 ft). It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.

The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of a series of problems with the Louvre's original main entrance, which could no longer handle an enormous number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then re-ascend into the main Louvre buildings.

References: I. M. Pei Wiseman, PQ 724.9, p. 235-247 (accessed 26 July, 2011)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre_Pyramid (accessed 26 July, 2011)