As the Associate Architect of the design of the Nashville Music City Convention Center, at 1.2 million square feet and covering over six blocks, it features a green roof and a view of the Nashville skyline. Its main plan was to have natural light and flexibility among the spaces. If I ever travel to Nashville one day, I would love to visit here.
Constructed to be the headquarters for the American Electric Power, this building located in Albany, Ohio, was planned to be multi-functional, with private offices and exterior walls that gave off sufficient daylight. It has access to walking and bike paths and an outdoor dining terrace. The offices are modular; they can be converted into a conference room. A four-story atrium resides at the heart of the building.
This photo is of Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, which is located in the center of Paris, France. It is a very beautiful Gothic Christian church building. I have always wanted to see Notre Dame de Paris. It appears in many literary works, and also in my junior high school history textbook. So I always wanted to see this magical building with my own eyes. Although we live in modern times, when I see it, I seem to be back to the Middle Ages. The sculptures and paintings inside the church, as well as a large number of art treasures in the church, make me very yearning. But before I had time to visit, the roof of Notre Dame de Paris caught fire, causing irreparable damage. So I can only watch the photos now.
This is a Florida house that Rudolph designed in 1952. Rudolph was famous for his membership in the Sarasota school of architecture and this a prime example of a home built with that school’s philosophy and the Florida environment in mind.
The Walker Guest house in particular emphasized praticality both in construction and the finished product. All materials were brought in by boat and were easily assembled as well as low priced. The house itself is a one story structure made up of a 9, 8′ x 8′ square units arranged in 3×3.
There are exterior sister-ed columns around the house which support a pulley system. This pulley system uses a weighted ball to open and close plywood panels. For every two units with panel coverings there is one glass unit per side, with two doors fitting into the glass panels.
Lastly the interior of the house is composed of a split living room and kitchen while the other side is a single bedroom and bathroom/laundry room. Ultimately the Walker Guest House is one of Rudolph’s earlier works, however it showcases his desire to for practicality and adaption of architecture to it’s native environment.
Architect Curt Moody and engineer Howard E. Nolan, founders of Moody- Nolan architect firm, designed the Martin Luther King Branch Library as a redesign of the Columbus Metropolitan Library Brand. At 18,700 square feet, it has a changing art gallery and many levels of spacial organization for lounge space, utilizing natural light and transparency. On top of functioning as a library, it is also used as a community center and gathering place. The building has three main sections, referencing Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. The building has a stone exterior and stone patterned glass. What I think is cool is that Moody is president of the largest black-owned architecture firm and got to do a project honoring Martin Luther King.
This is the Great Wall. It is an ancient defense project with the longest construction time and the largest amount of engineering in China and the world. Since the 7th and 8th centuries BC, the Great Wall has been built. The construction time has continued for more than 2,000 years, and the length is about 50,000 kilometers, which is a very vast project. When I was young, I always wanted to visit the Great Wall. Its historical features were too attractive to me. When I went to Beijing and finally boarded the Great Wall. At that moment, I felt that there was some kind of magical connection that connected me to ancient times. Let me know more about history.
The Tower of Ring in Tianjin, China was completed in 2012 and is one of the most complex towers in the world. Everyday, the visibility of the tower will change as it was designed to change based upon the motion of the atmosphere in addition to the wind patterns and light. This tower is located in the center of the city with a very large square surrounding it making it one of the most important parts of the city. The tower symbolizes that there is nothing within or on top of the tower to represent the possibilities of meeting new people and finding something new for anyone in the square. There is no fee to visit and there is essentially no point to the tower besides being a representation of how little there is impeding people in the modern era to interact and find beauty and enjoyment in the things that are around us everyday. It truly is something that needs to be replicated in other places around the world as there are so few public places that exist in many parts of the world including the United States.
-William Cole Miller
The Step Tower in Osaka, Japan stands out amongst the bricks and bright colors that surround the structure and really help it stand out. This building was inspired by ships and maritime feelings. The flow of the building and the curved designs are supposed to remind one of the flowing ocean as the ship cuts through the waves bringing peace to those who are within it. Located in the center of town, the building is well known in the growing town that really ties together the ideas that the city is growing and becoming more and more modern. For those living within the building each floor has a larger and larger view of the city skyline that contribute to the simple, clean, and neat feeling that was the intention of the project from the beginning. I think this is an interesting structure and although it is intended to stand out amongst the things around it, I don’t find this structure to make a lot of sense to me and I don’t feel that there is enough for me to really feel the ship and maritime feeling that the firm was going for.
-William Cole Miller
The Hotel Ninja Black is a structure that is focused on being a symbol of the historical purpose of the Ninja. Quiet and operating in the shadows while still being a felt presence in society as a whole. The client of the building has traced their lineage back to a group of people connected with the Ninja disciplines so they may be a descendent of one of these mysterious “people of the shadows”. The lobby of the hotel has a deep pit dug in the floor that is filled with sharpened sticks covered by a very thick pane of glass to give the illusion that there are traps and mysterious things await anyone who decides to stay there. Many of the doors are built seamlessly into the walls along with all of the staff being dressed as ninjas to truly embrace the essence of the building as a whole. In addition to all of these aspects there are shuriken, throwing stars, that are decoratively stuck in walls and optical illusions of ninja silhouettes are randomly projected on the walls at times to complete the experience. I think this would be one of the coolest places to stay within Japan and would truly be an experience that would interest visitors and help immerse them in the culture of the country and feel as if they are a part of the shadows.
-William Cole Miller
The Concrete Square House was designed by the Eastern Design Office and completed in 2019. The architecture was specifically designed to be concrete square tubes that were stacked on top of each other. According to the firm the blocks could technically be piled up limitlessly horizontally and vertically. The most interesting part of the house to me is that there is a maple tree that runs through the entirety of the structure. At the top of the structure there is a pool that is lit by floodlights and has a clear glass exterior that helps keep the lower floors lit to make sure that the structure has adequate natural light streaming throughout. The coolest part of having the pool shine through all the way to the first floor is that the light changes colors and moves with the motion of the water.
-William Cole Miller
