From the south side the damage doesn't look too bad.
Moving around to the east side and things look a bit different. When I first saw the windows falling that Saturday morning during the storm I thought it was a repeat of Alicia, with debris flying into the building. Instead, it turns out that the windows popped out in whole pieces due to the difference in pressure. This is why computers, monitors and filing cabinets were "sucked out" of the building. This will be something engineers and architects will be studying for quite some time.
11 comments:
Wow nice pictures Lou.
I double clicked the east side photo which enlarged the heck out of it and showed what appeared to be a double cable hanging from the building roof.
Turns out it was just kooktrails!
It's an ugly building, but the plywood improves its appearance somewhat.
IM Pei should be tortured slowly just for the stupid pyramids that ruins the view and ambience of the Louevre in Paris. Knowing he designed this building just reinforces my opinion that he is mediocre at best.
By the way, just got back from Dubai.... that appears where all the talented and visionary architects have gone.
IM Pei should be tortured slowly just for the stupid pyramids that ruins the view and ambience of the Louevre in Paris. Knowing he designed this building just reinforces my opinion that he is mediocre at best.
Amazing, isn't it? The Chase Tower was hideous from Day 1. It looks like a very tall government building circa 1974.
Fortunately for Houston, Philip Johnson was very active in locally and much of his best work can be seen throughout town. One of his local building even appeared in Sim City.
I disagree though about the glass pyramids at the Louvre. I've been there, and in a strange way they do work. I find them attractive in that setting, considering they scooped out that section underneath to build what amounts to a mall and fast food court. If they had tried to recreate a 17th century building it would have looked dumb. It is a museum, after all.
How did I know this was an I.M. Pei? Because of the iconic style? No, because of this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Plylwood_palace.jpg
I can tell you stories of trying to walk nearby in the erratic 100mph gusts.
Dawg, I remember seeing the John Hancock Building as a kid when we visited Boston a few times. It was definitely a remarkable thing to see. Boston's a great place to visit and I still enjoy my trips there.
I am curious to see what it looks like now. I haven't been there since the Big Dig was completed. Last time I was there they were just tearing down the eyesore elevated freeway.
Unfreakin' believable. I turned out of the rental lot at Logan, one stop light and then 65mph to Braintree. And yes, the city is much better for not having the elevated expressway. Much of the rest of the city looks as it did as when I was burning through colleges there so very long ago.
I'm glad non-residents of Massachusetts like the Big Dig... Those of us stupid enough to live here have to pick up the bloated mega-billion dollar cost for it :-(
Much of the rest of the city looks as it did as when I was burning through colleges there so very long ago.
That is something that is nice about New England towns and cities. Here, if you come back after 20 years you wouldn't recognize the place. Everything is new. Stuff built in 1970 would be considered old.
Unfortunately, with so much old stuff lying around, the urge to make it "new" again was strong in New England over the past 10 years. How many mill towns thought it would be a great idea to turn their old decrepit mills into expensive "lofts"? Too many. New England is facing an aging population and too many of the youngsters are leaving after graduation.
Tesla, a couple billion means nothing now. There's no point in beating up the project. Detroit received $25 billion to patch up the old auto industry. And what have we spent in New Orleans? I think it was approaching $100 billion last time I checked. So what's a couple billion for a covered ditch?
$22B is the total cost of the Big Dig with interest but the figure keeps growing due to mandatory rework. It doesn't sound like THAT much compared to the current bailout numbers being thrown about but it is in no way peanuts. Roughly 3/4 of the tab is being paid for by Massachusetts taxpayers. MA has about 6.5M people so this is a heavy burden. It's turning into a real mess like California: the state needs loans to cover payroll, money is not going to other badly needly infrastructure repairs, etc.
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