Toronto X The Condominium | ?m | 44s | Great Gulf | a—A

The I-beams stuck on the outside of some of his towers are decorative expressions of structural components. In the States, where fire codes required structural steel to be encased in concrete, the concrete-shrouded beams of his buildings were then encased in metal to make them pretty, pretty, pretty.

And here's what one famous old hairdresser and stylist who worked with him said about what Mies done:

"I never really had an interest in structure, and neither has Mies, inside him. It always amused me that he started to design the Seagram Building with a perfectly rational bay system of 27 feet 9 inches, derived from the lot size and the office divisibility module. Then, we arrived at the design of the big double-height rooms in the back (the Four Seasons Restaurant now) and we needed to double the size of the bay. All right, but what happens about the column that would have been in the middle of the bay—well, take it out. We had to double the span without deepening the beam, wrenching the cost and also the logic. If you start with a bay, you have a repeatable and economic beam. If you take out a column, just like that, you quadruple everything; and yet we had to keep the beams within the same depth as the 27 foot 9 inch span because the building had to read the same on every floor. That is what I mean when I say that Mies does not pay attention to what he says.

"He took the column out for what purpose? To create space. There you come back to the theme that goes through all architecture: to make spaces, to make interior spaces—all architecture is interior spaces. The Seagram is interior space because it is on one side of a plaza. It is not a facade because the plaza is the feeling that you get and that, in a funny way, is interior space. Of course the skyscraper as such has no interior spaces other than the entrance. The skyscraper is death to architecture—no interest at all, just a beehive....
"

— Philip Johnson. from Paul Heyer. Architects on Architecture: New Directions in America. p289-290.
 
The I-beams stuck on the outside of some of his towers are decorative expressions of structural components. In the States, where fire codes required structural steel to be encased in concrete, the concrete-shrouded beams of his buildings were then encased in metal to make them pretty, pretty, pretty.

And here's what one famous old hairdresser and stylist who worked with him said about what Mies done:

You are also right to argue that the steel on the outside of Seagram was applied (hence the Loos' quote in my post), but that steel was still an expression of the materials which were used to construct that steel-framed structure. Unless you are counting the rebar reinforcements encased inside the concrete columns and floor slabs, there ain't no steel here.
 
And fittingly there ain't no steel on the exterior of X either. The "I beams" are just aluminium extrusion.
 
Well, as we al know, Project End's motto is Everything I Do, I Do It For You, Adma.

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You are also right to argue that the steel on the outside of Seagram was applied (hence the Loos' quote in my post), but that steel was still an expression of the materials which were used to construct that steel-framed structure. Unless you are counting the rebar reinforcements encased inside the concrete columns and floor slabs, there ain't no steel here.

The outside of Seagram House was made of bronze not steel.
 
June 9th Update

X creeping up, from above.
No changes that I could note since last Thursday's photo updates so I didn't take any.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
June 12th Update

The building is now at the 18th floor, cladding and glass to the 6th floor.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

South side -



South and east sides -


East side -



North and east sides -



West side -

 
This is a good example of why it's not always necessary to wait until things are completed to pass judgement.

It's gonna be a stunner. No doubt.
 
It's so pretty and they're building it real quick. What's a realistic occupancy date for the mid to higher floors?
 
It's so pretty and they're building it real quick. What's a realistic occupancy date for the mid to higher floors?

I dont know... It's quick, -but I still dont see this topping out until the end of the year to beginning of next.
If they're on the 18th floor right now, they'll be done the 20th by the end of the month. That leaves 6months for the rest of the year (Jul-Dec). And you have to guess that they're going to have to slow down once they get higher up and when the winter weather hits, so I doubt they can keep the 1floor/week pace once fall hits.

I think occupancy starts summer next year and at worst, fall 2010.
 

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