Your favorite building ever built!

[citiesxlfan42 27]

Hey everyone! Here are my two favorite buildings ever!

  The World Trade Center, sadly destroyed in 2001. These towers showed the best of glass and aluminium architecture and exquisite design. These towers included the Windows of the World, an underground mall, and a Marriot hotel. These towers are deeply missed (by me, anyway).

The other...

    The Sears Tower (Now the "Willis Tower") stands proudly as the world 3rd largest building over Chicago. At about 1500 feet, this tower stood as the tallest until about the '90s. This tower is another nice one.

[blade2k5 1,523]

My favorite tower hasn't been built yet.

Hi, this seems to fit better in the Architecture and Urban Planning thread, so I'm moving it there.

--Liv

ST Staff

[astronelson 339]

My favourite skyscraper would be the Eureka Tower in Melbourne.

As to my favourite building, that would be my house, of course.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Favourite skyscraper: Empire State Building (I think it doesn't need pics to be described!)

Favourite all-time building: Duomo de Milano

I know this is not a BAT request thread, but if someone BATted the Duomo, it would make me really happy... It's just amazing!

[tcx 170]

This is my favorite building:

Torre Latinoamericana in Mexico City

I like a lot of buildings but this is my favorite since I was a little boy.

[Keegan V50 15]

Well,my favourite is still the Petronas Twin Towers,its a architectural wonder to most and it displays our nations development.Its the best building ive seen in my life.

Taken from KLCC Central Park,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia by me.

[jim 546 43]

My favourite "building" ever is the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.  I love the way it combines the old architecture that once stood here with the new.

 

The north stand is the remainder of the old stadium that once stood here, hence the gap.

Plus, it has the second largest retractable roof in Europe, making the atmosphere inside even more intense!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

The Kolner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) and the Rogers Centre are mine.

[SoltStan 0]

Burj Al Arab, I bet you know how it looks like. It's so modern.

[RedImperator 16]

Pennsylvania Station, New York City:

Torn down in 1964 to make room for a toilet-bowl arena and a dreary Modernist slab (like New York doesn't have enough of those).  The present train station on the site is a charmless claustrophobic warren that's hopelessly over-capacity.  Progress!

[CTMandR 9]

Falling Water, great way to blend into nature! Also, courtesy of the Wright House

[Odainsaker 2,135]

Perennial favorites of mine:

Byodo-in, Oahu, Hawaii

This is actually a 1960s commemorative replica of the ancient Byodo-in Phoenix Hall in Uji, just southeast of Kyoto.  Unlike the flat urban surroundings of Uji city, however, the Valley of the Temples on Oahu is a dramatically lush landscape of rain forest mountains often embraced in cool mist.

Certainly a tranquil spot for a cool picnic, though only the Buddha could meditate through the throngs of tourists.  I think every kid on Oahu has played crazy swinging the temple's bronze bell.

---

Smolny Convent of the Resurrection, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russian Baroque and rococo in its most extravagant, this was Empress Elizabeth's most pious pet project, designed by her favorite architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli.  I must admit, Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace and the czarist Versailles of Tsarskoye Selo, is one of my guilty pleasures.  Catherine the Great, who tastes didn't care much for buildings covered in so much frosting and whipped cream, dismissed Rastrelli before he could complete the convent's loftily planned bell tower, which likely would even today be St. Petersburg's most fabulous and frothiest structure had it been built.

---

Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb, Agra, India

It's the Baby Taj, a direct precursor the more grandly scaled Taj Mahal, which is also a favorite of mine.  This was commisioned by Empress Nur Jahan, wife of Jahangir, for her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg, a leading court official and "Pillar of the State."  Nur Jahan's niece and Ghiyas Beg's granddaughter would be Mumtaz Mahal, for whom the Taj was built. Mughal's loved their jewelboxes.

I must admit, I had miniature models of both this building and the restored old Jama Masjid from Ahmedabad as sunken ruins in my fish tank, with happy fish swimming throught the arches are though they were the Grand Mughal.

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Shah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran

Also called the Imam Mosque, this is part of vast series of buildings forming the historic center of the old Safavid capital of Isfahan.  I suppose Isfahan is the city most popular with orientalist Westerners, but it is hard to deny the polychrome beauty and scope of the conception of this remarkable Silk Road city brought to world fame by Shah Abbas the Great.  I wish I had a how-to technical guide on traditional Persian geometric art and decoration, as it is beginning to seem like an art that the modern world can no longer successfully reproduce with the same level of sensitivity or design depth.

The whole complex around the vast maidan square is a wonder, with the delicate Ali Qapu palace and the nearby Mosque of Shaykh Lotfallah, whose domed interior has been acclaimed as among the most perfect idealized spaces in Islamic architecture.

---

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

You can almost taste the ancient history, long lost empires, and continuing overlap of civilizations.  The Ottomans and their most-reknowned architect, Mimar Sinan (another personal favorite), knew a good thing when they saw it, and left Constantinople and surrounding cities festooned with descendant homages to this timeless building.

---

Himeji Castle, Himeji, Japan

Japan's best preserved and most famous feudal era castle.  If I am ever named Shogun, I'll remodel the family house to look like Himeji-jo!  Of course, the samurai guards would have to commit seppuku for letting strangers with cameras get so close to the castle keep.

Hmmm, anyone see a running theme in these selections?

[StanislavSoltys 47]

Same as CTmandR it's my dream home!

[MariusBleek 5]

The imperial palace is a crazy work of art.

But in terms of mind boggling "how'd they do it" type structures....It has to be the great pyramid. I mean.......HOWD THEY BUILD IT?

[feelgood 0]

Petronas Twin Towers for me too. It never fails to amaze me whenever I see it...

[BuggUla 405]

The more I learn about the Parthenon, the more I respect it...

just one heckuva building.

[BuggUla 405]

The more I learn about the Parthenon, the more I respect it...

just one heckuva building.

[buildsolid 4]

My new home town Perth:

Only got a few months before BHP build their "ugly" building.

[Ewan117 0]

^^ Yeah, it will ruin the skyline IMO. I guess a new tower is better than no tower though. Perth is my home town as well and i hope one day we will get an iconic tower, or at least something elegant, tall and modern, something like Petronas in KL, Jin Mao in Shanghai or 2IFC in Hong Kong !!

[Duke of York 23]

Well there really isn't a way for me to list or show pictures

of my Favorite Buildings at once ...I simply like them all for

what they are ...However I will attempt to only display the very

unique imo , and the ones I favor at the moment .

First up would have to be the Prague Castel ..

Next would be Trevi Fountain ...

Last but not least The Great Wall of China

This is just the start

-Duke of York-

[Cockatoo 2,257]

The Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong.

Even if you're the type of person who couldn't care less about architecture, when you see it up close in real life - particularly at night - it just blows your mind like no other building I've ever seen.

[zahrul3 472]

Chrysler Tower-The best art deco building in the world

[Josh6 873]

I would have to go with Penn Station like RedImperator

But I also like Grand central Terminal, NYC

[Xascul 7]

for my money, i would have to say that the hungarian parliament building is by far my favorite building in the world, it looks so grand and majestic, something that modern skyscrapers can't imitate

[clhigh7 583]

My favorite building would probably have to be the bank of america building in Houston Texas, its a very familiar building in the skyline
                                          I know this building isn't really anything "special" but it just catches my eye and i love it!!

[Gierek2010 0]

Palace of Culture and Science-Warsaw,Poland (Pa?ac Kultury i Nauki)

[willfish 0]

sky tower auckland, nz or ....?

[thorntot 25]

My favorite is the Laveque Tower in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

[hihi122 0]

I have a bit of a cathedral fetish, so they make up most of my favourite buildings.

I think some of the best are:

Lincoln cathedral

Florence cathedral

Cologne cathedral

I also like Bradford city hall. Its a big old victorian thing with the statues of all the british monachs from William the conqueror to Victoria (inc. Cromwell surprisingly) along the front.

[hamsterTK 93]

Eh, I'll copy some others and do a few because I have no one favorite

1. Guardian Building, Detroit USA 1922

My favorite Art Deco building. It just feels "downtown" to me. But while many huge brick buildings are cold and oppressive, the Guardian is almost wacky instead. I bet you've never seen anything like it.  Another factor is that unlike many buildings in Detroit, the Guardian is lucky to be restored and occupied, and also has protection as a historic landmark.

On the inside, it has equally inspiring spaces with the same colorful finishes

2. Hyatt Regency, Atlanta USA 1967

This building was designed by John Portman and was the first atrium hotel. It is part of downtown Atlanta's heart, near Peachtree center, a massive multi-tower complex with an equally impressive atrium, a subway station, mall, and convention/trade center called Americans Mart.

The thing about many of Portman's buildings is that on the outside some don't care for their appearance, it is too 70's. But on the interior, they are marvels.

This is the Hyatt's interior. It feels massive, not like most hotel atriums that are a few floors, but rather as you would expect from hollow skyscraper many hundreds of feet tall.

This is an outdoor picture of the Hyatt and Peachtree complex(Hyatt is the top corner with the blue dome, a now closed revolving restaurant).

Also Westin Peachtree has a Mini-Me, if you look closely at the picture

3. Random Safeway/Ralphs/Vons/Albertsons, West Coast USA, 1960's

I know this isn't any one building. But according to my personal tastes I have always loved the "swoopy" googie type artchitecture they have. Dig that groovy flagcrete siding.

I never cared for the staid neo-traditonal brick sh*t that many suburbs and retail chains mandate today. When I see, for instance, a Home Depot with a colonial facade or "Tuscan decor" I want to puke. Let in some natural sunlight, plant some treets, and go for a nice clean look that makes me feel good on a sunny day.

This particular store is not in sunny San Francisco but Winnipeg, however I am trying to only post photos from Wikipedia that are not copyrighted.

But it would look better with palm trees, wouldn't it?