Libeskind's Ascent tower opens in Cincinnati

[wyliepoon]

... actually, it's in Covington, KY.

Link to article

Images: Libeskind’s first US high rise

27 March, 2008

By Nargess Shahmanesh-Banks

Star architect opens luxury Cincinnati residential scheme

Renowned architect Daniel Libeskind has officially opened the Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge, a luxury residential scheme in greater Cincinnati, US.

The scheme, his first high-rise in the US, includes 70 homes and penthouses.

The building provides not only dynamic views of the Ohio River and Cincinnati skyline form every home, but also 24 hour security, private car and driver, a high-tech gym, private dining club, and its own theatre.

Tom Banta, president of developer Corporex, said the scheme is proof that residential architecture can be art on a grand scale.

He said: “It is truly a new jewel in our skyline.â€

Around 70% of the homes have already been sold.

 

[urbandreamer]

It's both hideous and inappropriate considering the surroundings. Looks like pomo gone seriously wrong. Why do people even hire this man? I think his architecture is vulgar and unrefined.

 

[adma]

Reminds me of a taped-up hockey stick.

 

[Hydrogen]

Actually, now that you say that...


...it does.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Looks like it's made out of 20 million Lego blocks.

 

[marcus_a_j]

It's both hideous and inappropriate considering the surroundings. Looks like pomo gone seriously wrong. Why do people even hire this man? I think his architecture is vulgar and unrefined.

Ditto.

 

[junctionist]

You can also see it in this photo:

It isn't that inappropriate with those unexciting Pomo towers beside it. Of note is the 1866 Roebling Bridge seen in the photo. It was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

[syn]

That's pretty ugly.

 

[smuncky]

well...it's a libeskind...

 

[simply Dan]

Very vulgar indeed. This one seems lazy... he could have done a much better job.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Still more interesting than his proposals in Sacramento...

AoD

 

[Urban Shocker]

Making a spectacle and standing out - not modesty and fitting in with the neighbours - are his design vocabulary though. That's inherently vulgar. There doesn't appear to be much context to fit in with here, and he isn't trying to create any for future development. If anything, he's trying to match the bridge in importance and leave it at that.

He was hired to rebrand the ROM with an iconic structure that would attract tourists, not to be polite to the neighbours; judging by their latest attendance figures and new memberships it appears to have helped lift the Museum out of the doldrums. He's also given them new interior spaces that are pure sculpture, unlike any in the city.

I think it was a smart move to make a name for himself with the cultural buildings first, and then parlay his fame as a famous starchitect into designing condos for labelwhores and shopping malls like The Crystals in Vegas. It might have been more difficult had he gone about it the other way around like Gehry did.

 

[urbandreamer]

I totally disagree. It is better to respect the neighbourhood than to clash like Mr L likes to do. Both the ROM and this Cincinnati neighbourhood were established long before this current age of tourists and vulgar architecture and both will surely outlast such spectacle. It takes more skill to create an interesting but integrated building/addition than to drop some crude sketch on any spot that is controlled by insecure natives....

Why is there a desire in this small town to defend such rubbish? That's the problem with Toronto's art/design scene: being a loudmouth, I often offend the polite PC-ness that permulates through Toronto. Basically, bashing Daniel Libeskind is like telling William Thorsell that he made an enormous mistake chosing the design for the new ROM: well the truth is he did! An enormous waste of tax-dollars imho.

 

[Urban Shocker]

It was mostly funded by private and corporate donors, like the rest of the new cultural buildings.

 

[Conrad Black]

You can also see it in this photo:

It isn't that inappropriate with those unexciting Pomo towers beside it. Of note is the 1866 Roebling Bridge seen in the photo. It was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge.

Well the bridge is nice at least.