Word: fa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Parisians raised such a hullabaloo about a structure. The new $9,010,000 UNESCO Headquarters is a mammoth (by Paris standards) concrete complex that soars up 95 ft. to the top limit allowed by Paris' building code, and spreads over 7½ acres. Where were the plain grey façades, balconies, front-to-sidewalk walls and classical details? Every tradition lover in town was up in arms. To make matters worse, the new structure was directly across from one of the gems of 18th century architecture-the revered Ecole Militaire, facing on the semicircular Place de Fontenoy...
...central service core at the axis of the prongs. To cut down glare from floor-to-ceiling windows, Breuer incorporated a variety of sunshade devices (horizontal sun-louvers, vertical slabs, extended brackets holding panes of thermal glass) that varied according to the various sun conditions and enriched the façades with glittering patterns...
Equally successful is the butterfly-roofed conference hall. With roof and monumental façade shaped from folded concrete slabs, it attains simple dignity by the drama of its stark engineering. Says Nervi: "At last reinforced concrete has become a 'noble' architectural material...
...Parisians got used to glass façades and folded concrete, the new UNESCO was steadily winning new friends. "This architecture is done with such talent that it goes perfectly with the Ecole Militaire," decided former Chief of French Museums Georges Salles. "A splendid poem in concrete and glass," said Paris' leading art review, L'Oeil. And from the top of the Eiffel Tower, guides were beginning matter-of-factly to point out UNESCO as one of the marvels of Paris. Modern architecture, like modern art, was beginning to seem like something the French had been in favor...
Many a tear has to fa...