As reviewed in my last blog post, I got inspiration from Stewart Hicks’ youtube video WHEN ARCHITECTS COPY. The following are not in the above referenced video, but examples that I have always found amusing or outright fascinating in terms of their similarities (copies?) of somewhat well-known to rather famous buildings.
Over the years I have occasionally run into scaled down versions of the famous Kallmann McKinnell & Wood’ Architect's Boston City Hall design, which was the winner of a famous 1960’s design competition. One of these copies is here in the Bay Area, just south of SFO at 1710 Gilbreth Road in Burlingame. This building has been remodeled a couple of times, and I do not have a photo of the original before the first remodel, but the following photo (left) shows that it still has a significant resemblance to the original Boston City Hall shown beside it (right):
The architects have always said that their entry, shown here, was inspired by Corbu, and in particular the monastery Sainte Marie de la Tourette shown below, so the beginning point of a building that is copied, the City Hall, is in of itself a derivative:
In addition, an honorable mention goes to this public building in Calgary:
Having discussed the actual Boston City Hall architecture, there also exists the story behind the plaza upon which the building sits. It is a direct copy/derivation of the Piazza del Campo and was laid out by I.M. Pei’s office in 1962 for the city of Boston. This City Hall plaza is shown below to the right of Sienna’s famous piazza on the left:
The 1970 Ohio Historical Society Museum (Oin Columbus, Ohio is a building that I have often admired. The way its on a podium (the traditional piano nobile level) with a floating silo tile faced concrete box, is dramatic. Especially from the adjacent freeway at 65 mph. The building really sticks out.
Then later, quite by accident, I ran onto the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manilla. Built around the same time from 1966-1969. It’s practically the same building. From a “big idea” massing point of view, the Cultural Center is also a large scale concrete box floating above a piano nobile level and visible from a freeway. Both have extended ramps to the podium level, with the only difference being they return on themselves at the Cultural Center rather than extend like at the OHSM. It is interesting to me how these two pieces of rather fine architecture ended up around the same time being so similar. I did know that W. Byron Ireland was the OHSM architect and had at one time worked for Eero Saarinen, but it was later that I learned that the Cultural Center architect, Leandro Locsin, had on his only trip to the U.S. worked and/associated with Saarinen and likely knew Byron Ireland. The rest I don’t know. Who knows if they copied each other, but it sure is quite a coincidence:
Looking backwards a bit, there was a precursor to the above 2 projects: The 1960 Kahn and Jacobs American Airlines terminal at JFK with the beautiful Robert Sowers stained glass façade facing the entry procession. There, like in the above 2 projects, is an elevated piano nobile level upon which the rather elegant, elongated version of the upper architecture is placed:
Looking backwards a bit, there was a precursor to the above 2 projects: The 1960 Kahn and Jacobs American Airlines terminal at JFK with the beautiful Robert Sowers stained glass façade facing the entry procession. There, like in the above 2 projects, is an elevated piano nobile level upon which the rather elegant, elongated version of the upper architecture is placed:
I think that we can all agree that the American Airlines Terminal is pretty darn elegant in the way it establishes the above precedent.
Then there was the 1980’s Vintage Club in Indian Wells, California, by Bob Geering of Fisher Friedman Associates. With a direct copy in Chiba, Japan, only accidently discovered by Bob upon a helicopter visit to Japan later in the “80’s:
The name of the copy club project is the Kimisarazu Golf Club. More photos below. The top photos show the original Vintage Club and on the bottom is the copy:
A couple of side notes here: the first is a mention in Burj al Babas, Turkey, where over 500 French “chateaus” were constructed as a development project that went nowhere but left a bit of a Disneylandesque tourist destination that has become rather successful. This is really how one copies, to the max:
The other is an example of more serious architecture in that the seminary in Scotland at left below “borrowed” arch details from Louis Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management, on the right:
Side note: I once had a conversation with Kahn about why he used a concrete vs. steel horizontal restraint as seen in the above photo since the horizontal restraining member at the base of this particular arch is a tension rather than a compression member. He really did not have an answer, except that concrete in India is much cheaper. Good answer.
The above borrowing of certain details is pretty common in architecture and is seen commonly in history. But occasionally something comes along that, at least to my eyes, is refreshingly original. One such building I found by just fishing around on the internet in Ljubljana, Slovenia:
I really don’t know what this architecture is used for or who did it, but it is adjacent to the Hotel Lev on the right and it’s beautiful. If anyone knows let me know. It’s a great way to turn the corner.
The last derivative/copy to talk about is the round Apple HQ in Cupertino. A very famous building by Norman Foster. I know, I know. There is no patent on round buildings, examples abound, such as the following:
Top, left is a new elementary school in the desert of Iran. Top, right is a similar elementary school building in India. The lower left is the bay area Tobias Elementary School in Daly City, and the lower right is a student housing project, Tietgen Hall, in Copenhagen.
So…since we all know that round buildings are ubiquitous, it is striking the similarities between Foster’s Apple Headquarters in Cupertino and an earlier Gensler design for the British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, UK, shown in the lower photograph:
Both, I believe, are great buildings, but Foster’s derivative design for Apple is much cleaner and pretty darn successful.
I really enjoyed the referenced youtube video and will keep looking for more copies, or should I say "tributes."
Blog Post written by David Tritt, Senior Architect.
