Your town's best building?

[Jayfil]

I get to travel quite a bit for work and I'm always curious to see what locals view as their best buildings when I'm taken on an architecture tour. Some of it is taste of course, and I think sometimes people put too great a focus on something being by a big name architect even if it isn't their best stuff.

Here in Baltimore we're lucky to have some very good buildings of just about every style, period, and type. Many of our best are Catholic churches though, and I don't think many people would argue with Latrobe's Baltimore Basilica as our best building. It's tough to photograph, but here are some from the web:

http://www.baltimorebasilica.org/gallery/content/45895085290f7.jpg

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/03/17/PH2006031701774.jpg

http://www.jcu.edu/library/johncarr/basilica.gif

To me this is the finest building of the Early Republic, although I'm sure Bullfinch, Jefferson, and Mills fans might argue.

[Jayfil]

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd narrow the scope a little bit. Since I live in a big city it's perhaps more sensible to define my "town" as my neighborhood. Upper Fells Point is 4 blocks by 4 blocks, almost entirely consisting of 2.5 storey rowhouses from the Greek Revival period. We have a few landmark buildings, again both Catholic churches:

St. Michael:

http://oriole.umd.edu/~mddlmddl/791/communities/media/hisp4.jpg

and St. Patrick:

http://oriole.umd.edu/~mddlmddl/791/communities/media/stpatricks.gif

Obviously these are both pretty high-style ecclesiastical buildings, Richardsonian Romanesque and Gothic Revival respectively.

What's your town/city's best building?

[Matt in the Hat]

http://www.hallwall.com/central1.jpg
the CRRNJ Railroad Ferry Terminal - The Gateway to America

or

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/30hudson.jpg/200px-30hudson.jpg

The Golman Sachs Tower

[Jayfil]

the CRRNJ Railroad Ferry Terminal - The Gateway to America


Wow! Is that still used as a ferry/train station? That's kind of a wild mix of a bunch of Victorian styles. Totally dig it.

[Matt in the Hat]

Wow! Is that still used as a ferry/train station? That's kind of a wild mix of a bunch of Victorian styles. Totally dig it.
Kinda. The railroad station is no more, even though all of the platforms are still intact. The ferry terminal side is used for the boats from Jersey City to the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island and the terminal building is used for social events.

But the coolest thing about it is that if your family came through Ellis Island but did not settle in NY, they went though that terminal. Lots of history.

BTW, my grandparents were married in St Michael in Baltimore.

[art]

Portland's got some great old buildings, one of my fves being the custom house:

http://www.airforcebase.net/personal/architecture/US_Customs_Bldg_Portland_ME_200405.JPG

[art]

or the 1807 Observation Tower

http://www.portlandlandmarks.org/portland_observatory/portland_observatory.jpg

[johan neeskens]

In Enschede, the building with the most historical interest probably is our synagogue:

http://www.enschede-stad.nl/gebedshuizen.php?gebouw=Synagoge&foto=1

In terms of architectural interest, probably our city hall, a product of the Delftse architectural school, designed by Friedoff and built in 1930:

http://www.enschede-stad.nl/gebouwen.php?gebouw=Stadhuis&foto=1

[Burkies Ginger Mop]

Hmmmm. Well technically I grew up in a village! :) It's best or most famous building is India of Inchinnan where they built the first air ships. Art Deco building. Listed. It was derlict for until a computer company took over it and revamped it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/83/India_of_Inchinnan_from_North.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/India_of_Inchinnan_from_South.jpg

[Jayfil]

Great stuff! I actually have a postcard of that Portland Observation Tower on my filing cabinet at work.

The rear addition on the India of Inchinnan building is pretty sweet. Despite having every reason not to be compatible I think it works quite well. Which village is that exactly?

[Burkies Ginger Mop]

Great stuff! I actually have a postcard of that Portland Observation Tower on my filing cabinet at work.

The rear addition on the India of Inchinnan building is pretty sweet. Despite having every reason not to be compatible I think it works quite well. Which village is that exactly?

I believe the design is some sort of tribute to airships from above. A tiny little village called Inchinnan on the outskirts of Glasgow.

[Katie!]

My favorite in Baton Rouge is the Old State Capital building:

http://www.censusfinder.com/images/laoldstatecapitol.jpg

http://media.louisianatravel.com/images/photos/docs/low/low_old%20stcapital.jpg

[warmblooded]

The Watts Towers

http://www.arts.ufl.edu/ART/RT_ROOM/watts/tower2.html

[FiveToOne]

That is a very tough question...the Colosseo, St. Peter's, Vittore Emanuel...

[Jayfil]

That is a very tough question...the Colosseo, St. Peter's, Vittore Emanuel...

Ok, I'll give you that it's extra tough in places like Rome to pick one building. It's not that much easier in a place like Baltimore. Still, I'll help you out: Vittorio Emmanuel's monument definitely doesn't belong in the same breath with those others. But then again, the Pantheon does. Crap. I didn't help at all.

Anyway, it's all cool. It's great to see some of these really interesting buildings, many of which you never hear about in the 47 architectural history classes I've taken...

I've been trying to dig up some photos on the internet of the town I grew up in but it's pretty obscure and I haven't come up with anything. Maybe I'll take some this weekend when I'm home.

[FiveToOne]

Yes, there are so many amazing examples of architechture, it is hard to choose. And the V. Emanuelle monument is stunning.

Back in the USA, I always found that every town had a few noteworthy buildings: the city hall and any Carnegie library. It does not matter if it is the east coast, south, or midwest, most have great examples of these.

In the west, the adobe style structures of Sante Fe, Albuquerque, and the missions in Arizona and New Mexico are also on par with anything you'll see over here.

[Toon³]

Newcastle Central Station

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/Newcastlestationext.jpg

Might not be the prettiest building in Newcastle, we are spoilt for choice but I think it's our best building due to the sheer scale of it, built over 150 years ago and it still dwarfs many modern buildings.

[malby]

Newgrange

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/images/newgrange1.jpg


Beat that!

[Dr. Know]

http://www.suagm.edu/congreso_suagm/newweb/convention_06g.jpg
Convention Center

http://www.sanjuanbeachhotel.com/newsite/images/elMorro.jpg
El Morro

http://www.baurock.ru/tbr/puerto/PR%20Old%20San%20Juan.jpg
Old San Juan architecture in general.

[Crimen y Castigo]

Herzong and Meuron's new De Young Museum in SF.
which is plunked in the middle of Golden Gate Park.

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/de_young/4deyoung.jpg

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/de_young/13deyoung.jpg

The building's outer layer -- or skin -- is really amazing, with a seemingly random, non-repeating pattern...

http://thegogglesdonothing.com/photos/d/165-2/de_young_skin

..but is in fact based on photographic data:

" The building’s copper skin is on an accelerated path to antiquity, and will turn green as it oxidises over the next ten years, making the building recede deeper into the surrounding forest. The 3,600 unique copper panels are embossed and perforated to varying degrees in pixelated patterns derived from photographs of the park’s arboreal canopy – albeit abstracted to the point where the source is unrecognisable. In places, such as on the tower and the porch, the cladding is as diaphanous as a veil: elsewhere it resembles camouflage netting or tree bark. "