Hiatus
Due to an upcoming school year and the pursuit of other interests, I have sadly decided to stop regularly posting in NeoView. Dear readers, if you want to see more of my work, visit http://cutedge.aphnetworks.com, which will be updated regularly.
First View: CN Tower
Being a resident of Toronto, I’m proud to reside near the CN Tower.
I actually couldn’t figure out what architectural genre it fit under – so I just dubbed it a tower. I believe that it’s quite justified, seeing as how many others don’t consider the CN Tower a ‘building’ (too few floors, apparently).
Anyhow, I’m absolutely awed, yet a bit intimidated by the CN Tower. Standing at 554.3 metres, it’s hard not to be – I remember as a child I loved jumping on the glass floor. Now, you will see me warily glancing at the seemingly fragile surface whenever I stride across it.
Asides from that, I think it’s a wonderful structure – although not what I would consider to be an architectural wonder. It was designed by John Andrews Architects, although I can’t truthfully say they weren’t thinking big (they thought tall – not big). If I were a bit more pessimistic – or not a resident of Toronto, I’d call it a big chunk of concrete sticking out of the ground.
It does capture a couple of world records, and does have a rotating sphere (fine you find the right word for that big spinning thing) at the top with some commercial stores and restaurants, it’s really useful for other things – like broadcasting media and capturing lightning so the rest of us Torontonians can sleep in peace.
It also dominates the Torontonian skyline. It’s difficult to look across Lake Ontario and not have this structure capture your eye – it’s just an almost natural focal point, I guess. As a child, I can remember visiting a beach near a teacher’s house for a field trip in second grade, and I thought it was amazing how I could see the CN Tower across the lake.
In fact I think I’ve gone to the CN Tower quite often for a person who’s been on this Earth for as long as I have. I really want to go there soon, once again.
What I’m trying to say is I’m proud of it, although it’s not much compared to the rest of those towers out there (especially those Petronas Towers). And it hasn’t been out-grown vertically yet, in around two decades. I guess that alone is a feat to be proud of.
Source: http://www.destination360.com/north-america/canada/images/s/canada-cn-tower.jpg
First View: Royal Ontario Museum – Third Expansion
Ever wondered what that huge crystal-encrusted structure is in the NeoView banner?
The Royal Ontario Museum (also known simply as ROM, rhymes with Tom) has been open for nearly a century (five more years). It has already undergone two expansions, with the third one nearing completion. It’s third expansion featured the crystalline design, the work of Daniel Libeskind. Contrary to belief, Michael Lee-Chin is not the architect, but is a contributor of a large sum of money ($30 million, according to ROM’s website).
It’s redesign, known as Renaissance ROM, really impresses me. I had the pleasure of seeing it through its various stages – a year ago, an excursion was organized by my art teacher, who generously took us to ROM to see some sculptures and ancient works of art. The project was already going on, and I was able to see the nearly-completed framework of Renaissance ROM.
Now it’s a little more than a year later, and it’s exterior redesign seems complete. And no other design could be further from the previous ROM look. The deconstructivist style, in contrast to its older, modernist look (second expansion of 1984), is in my opinion much…”cooler”. It has got a lot more flair, which is something that I have really come to appreciate.
Especially when located on Bloor (major southern street), across from a strip of retail stores, fast food restaurants, hotels, and the University of Toronto campus, I can say that the new ROM brings a nice touch into the neighbourhood. I just can’t wait to get in there once it’s really finished so I can see the renovated exhibits. Hope they didn’t break any important skeletons or sculptures (just kidding, folks).
First View: Burj Al Arab
Wow, who hasn’t seen the magnificent structure of the Burj Al Arab? You might be pretty shocked for now; what the heck is the Burj Al Arab, you could be wondering. And unless you reside in Dubai, or you’ve been there, I wouldn’t be surprised of your missing this hotel. I can almost guarantee that you’ve seen it before, though.
Source: http://www.silkroadandbeyond.co.uk/images/360_dubai_b_001.jpg
Does that enlighten you? I’ll admit it – until a friend of mine visited Dubai, I had no idea what this hotel was named – heck, I never even knew it was a hotel. I do recall seeing glimpses of it on Extreme Engineering when the folks were designing a man-made island for Dubai, but I didn’t see much significance – there are marvelous buildings everywhere, right?
Right. But have you seen anything this marvelous? Living in Toronto, I can say that the CN Tower is pretty wondrous. But I can definitely say that it is probably outdone by the Burj Al Arab!
It’s a beautiful piece of postmodern architecture, and was conceived and designed by the architects at Atkins Middle East. Its construction was carried out by South African contractor Murray & Roberts. I definitely want to give kudos to the folks at Atkins Middle East for the idea, and Murray & Roberts for carrying it out – the building is amazingly unique; in fact, I haven’t seen anything like it before! I think the curvature looks amazing and is just the right height, and it’s actually a few inches from being too convexed for my taste.
The lighting – the work of Jonathan Atkins & Associates – is fantastic. I do enjoy seeing the light of various buildings at night, and this one is no exception. In fact, I think it looks even more dazzling at night than it does during daytime (which is no easy feat, mind you).
Source: http://www.luxury-gadgets.com/images/Burj-al-Arab.jpg
What else can I say about the Burj Al Arab – has it not gotten enough praise from me already (haha)? I do wish to give it a visit one day in the near future, but it’s pretty low on that list of places to visit. Perhaps when you visit, you can tell me about it.
Thanks for reading – remember to check constantly for more articles, and have a nice day.
Video: Kaufmann House Tour
Haven’t you always wanted to visit the world-renowned Kaufmann House by Frank Lloyd Wright? I know the cost of the trip can be quite hefty; apparently, so have the folks at Digital Urban.
They decided to do something about it – why not create a virtual Kaufmann House? That way, everyone will get the opportunity to visit it. So after some labour, they rendered a fully three-dimensional Kaufmann House in the Half-Life 2 engine; combining a very realistic and accurate depiction of the Kaufmann House (well, the people who have been there tell me that it is accurate) with the power of the Half-Life 2 graphics engine.
Without further ado, here is the video:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You can find a much higher resolution of the video here. Right click, and save target as (or save link as if you are using Mozilla Firefox) to download it to your computer.
