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Say goodbye to “wow” buildings?

The sputtering economy and markets might mean more than a shrinking 401(K) and a mortgage at odds with reality.

This Foster design is planned for Moscow

I’m not talking about hunger, job losses or increased poverty: I’m talking about plans to build crazy skyscrapers coming to a halt. Architect David Chipperfield told Bloomberg this week that the global financial crisis will take the wind out of the sails of the “wow” building industry.

Chipperfield said “wow” buildings are a result of an excess that just can’t be counted on to fund such projects anymore. I’m not sure if we’ve really reached that point in places like Dubai and the former Soviet Union where announcements for new record-setting buildings still seem to come in at a pretty good clop.

I do wonder what kind of architecture will spring from the coming decade. Will it be borne of necessity, hinged on frugality, or greased by lots of public dough? What will it look like if it’s all of the above? Will it at least stop getting taller and taller and taller?

What about here? We all know about the staggering number of public projects built in the U.S. during the Great Depression. Some are still “wows,” others might best be categorized as “hows?” Construction on Seattle’s own Viaduct and seawall started in 1934.

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This entry was posted by Shawna Gamache on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Architecture, Government, Historic, Politics, Seattle lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Mark

    In Seattle’s case, all it needs to do to have “wow” buildings is to stop putting beige and dingy colors on its buildings. Imagine vibrant color!

  • Matt the Engineer

    Why imagine when you have photoshop? Really quick rendering here (I’m sure someone with an eye for color could have done a better job).

  • Shawna Gamache

    Matt, that’s hilarious. I can’t put my finger on it, but that colored Seattle skyline really reminds me of something from my childhood. I had an immediate memory overwhelm me. Maybe an old Bumbershoot poster or a Christmas in the Northwest album jacket or a Pearljam T-shirt or something. Does anyone else get that?

    Mark, I’m glad you bring up color. I’ve been having some fun conversations lately about whether building colors will indeed become brighter during the recession (I mean downturn) because paint or colored materials are such a cheap way to bring more to a design.

  • Confit de Canard

    It is a relief that “wow” architecture has faded in the economic downturn. During the recent gilded age, success had become synomymous with excess; designers forgot that in architecture (as Louis Sullivan famously admonished) form forever follows function. Instead, they competed for headlines by producing the most outrageous effects possible. Architecture, traditionally a practical art where geometry and proportion are applied to enoble shelter, crossed the line into sculpture — and silly sculpture at that. For example, what was Norman Foster’s design for a Moscow skyscraper but Stalin’s equally grandiose 1930s Palace of the Soviets streamlined and bereft of its Lenin ornament? But for every cancelled project, many were built. Funhouse additions were grafted onto otherwise sober museum buildings across the globe in expectation (not always fulfilled) of increased attendance.

    Fortunately, however, even in the most decadent eras, genuine talent manages to produce fine work. For example, when all the exalted crap built of late is forgotten or bulldozed with the next shift of fashion, the world will still admire The Museum of Islamic Art by I. M. Pei.