The Seagram
building
The Seagram
building by Mies Van Der Rohe is without doubt a masterpiece. The first
approach to the building comes from the streets. You first have to approach a stairway witch
combined the street level to the plaza. It feels like approaching an old temple,
stepping up for something holy.
The Seagram
has a big generous plaza witch attracts many people and creates a building
which isn’t isolated, but addressing it self to the city context. The main
thing for this big plaza is that the tower itself only takes a small amount of
the site space, giving an indulgence of open space.
The
building itself gives you an feeling that inside and outside floats together in
one, starting with the travertine tiles outside continuing inside in the same
direction with a precise geometry. The buildings big glass façade reflect the
inside out and outside in witch only reinforce the feeling of being outside
when you are standing inside.
It seems
like the building stands on its own and that the plan floats without any load,
but actually the load is carried by big columns placed in a perfect geometry
for giving you the illusion of free floating plans.
Inside raw
walls of concrete gives a very modernist look, but at the same time you also
can feel a sleight of classicism and the temple feeling because of the big
amount of columns.
The lobby
itself doesn’t seem to be a lobby; you would rather define it as an open multi station
where it is possible to enter from every side. Also people from outside can se
what the employees are during because the space is so open, but at the same
time the staff will have a change to feel connected to the outside.
The big
sliding doors at the front façade invites in and because of the big glass
façade the whole space is filled with light and you therefore only have to use
artificially light in the afternoon.
You feel
very social when you walk around in the lobby area with no places to hide, but
at the same time you get the feeling of being in the spotlight because the
space is so open that everybody can see what you are during.
The Ford Foundation.
The first
sight of the building only comes when you suddenly realize that you actually
are standing I the middle of the plaza, witch leads to the entrance. Somehow
the plaza is adapted to the street and therefore you feel welcome, when you try
to enter the building that is pulled away from the street and other massive
buildings, and stands like an independent building. The building is made out of
steel and glass and has the same reflecting effect as The Seagram. Here you
also get the feeling of inside and outside is melting together.
When you
take the first step inside, you will see the most fantastic waiting room ever.
From the main floor you are able to have a sky look directly to the last floor
and further on in the big glass ceiling above. You can see all the offices and
their steel frames/construction, which is filled with daylight through the
glass walls.
Even though
the integrated natural light is beautiful inside it still seems like that the workers
have a decent view simultaneously with privacy.
The most
fantastic thing about this waiting area or atrium is without doubt the
subtropical garden with a little burbling pool, which grows inside. It is indeed
a magical place, a building that represents a remarkably humanistic view of the
workplace.
Because of this
attraction the waiting area/atrium have, you don’t really care about the boring
and totally uninteresting lobby, which only are there for its purpose and
nothing more.
The
Marriott Maquis Hotel
You first
approach the hotel from the Broadway. At first sight I doesn’t look like a
hotel. Here you have shops, theatre and other entertainment places. Then you
enter a small arcade and then you see the first sight of a entrance. First you cross
a parking area with lots of people and noisy cars, and then you are allowed to
enter the building.
I have to
say that the location of the hotel is a bit nice, it is also being pulled away
from the streets, but at the same time it is directly in the centre of
Manhattan.
Inside you
don’t think of the building as a hotel, rather a big casino, and it also takes
you 8th floors to get to the lobby area.
The lobby
is big and quit hectically with lots of people and several employees. The lobby
is serving its purpose, to help and direct people in the right way.
At first it
doesn’t seems to have other functions than a lobby, but then you get to sit in
their waiting couches, and a whole new universe reveal itself.
From here
you are allowed to experience the architecture of the hotel, and it is
magnificent.
The
hallways on every floor is build so you have a eye vision down to the main
floor, and to the big glass ceiling witch is pouring natural light down in the
atrium.
I a way you
can say that the lobby is a small space in the bigger space, and somehow it is
interacting with the rest of the space, looking like a place to stop and look
at, but not think of as a lobby, until you actually starts searching for it.
