The choice of topic for today’s architecture blog post was easy. Set to change the live entertainment standard, every major news media was covering the opening of The Sphere at the Venetian in Las Vegas: BBC, Forbes, Euronews, CNN,



At first I was going to do explore other large Speres but all things considered there is so much material here – I thought let’s focus. The Sphere is 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide. For reference purposed the Peace Tower is 302 feet light. There are 1.2 million LED puck lights inside and outside. The Sphere was opened September 29 with a U2 residency. It was designed by Populous a prolific architecture firm. Haptic technology is built into 10,000 of the 18,600 seats which of course all have access to wi-fi. SACO Technologies a Canadian company designed both the exterior and interior screens. I don’t feel I can adequately address the speaker system but I can say it has 4D technology which includes wind and scent.

Is it tacky, ridiculous, over the top: Well yes. It’s in Las Vegas and adjacent to the Strip.

Archdaily presents some fun pics.

Eileen Gray was an Irish architect and furniture designer. Born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland in 1878, she died in Paris in 1976. During her carreer she was influenced professionally by Philip Wilson Steer, Henry tonks, and Frederick Brown. Personally she was linked to Romaine Brooks, Loie Fuller, Marie-Louise Damen, and Natalie Barney. Her most famous residential structure is E-1027. Furniture wise the E-1027 table designed in 1927, remains a very popular table almost 100 years later. Her Dragon chair was sold in auction at the Yves Saint-Laurent estate sale. I love chairs but it’s hard for me to understand how a chair can be sold for so much. My thought is as is for all high end pieces if someone paid that for it it must have merit, merit that we may not understand.

Le Corbusier, an architect I normally respect was a houseguest of Jean Badovici (a coleague of Gray) he took it upon himself to paint murals on the walls. Much to Gray’s displeasure!


E-1027



E-1027 table



Dragon Chair

Frida Escobedo has won the 2023 Charlotte Perriand Award. The award serves to recognize an architect who infuses quality of life into their work. Escobedo has repeatedly done so. The award is named after the late Charlotte Perriand, a French architect who assisted Le Corbusier. She contributed greatly to the design of 3 of his most iconic chairs: the B301, the B306 and the LC2 Grand Comfort.

ArchDaily tells us about an Art Deco Revival 100 years after its introduction. Interesting! Perhaps Doug Casey of Charlesfort Developments was ahead of that curve. I remember coming back to the country a few years ago and being startled by the number of Art Deco buildings. I coined the buildings Neo-Deco. See article in the Ottawa Citizen in 2015. The most prominent projects include:

• The Continental at 75 Cleary Avenue;
• Hudson Park at 235 and 245 Kent Street;
• The Gardens at 85 and 95 Bronson Avenue; and
• The Merit at 108 Lisgar Street.

Those who know me, know I love my chairs. If I were to lay on Freud’s couch I’d probably say it really became a passion when I visited a chair museum in Denver, Colorado.

Here, ArchDaiy proposes designs by Alvar Aalto, Eileen Gray (oops a name I had not heard before, though I’ve seen some of her work and yes we must explore), Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, and Verner Panton.

Interesting that most iconic chairs were designed by architects. Something else to delve into!

I do love brutalist architecture. I find it so sculptural. I’m aware it’s not for everyone. Here Atsy has put together a post of 10 icons of Brutalist Architecture.

My favourites in this list are:

• Paul Rudolph Hall
• Marcel Breuer
• Boston City Hall
• Habitat 67

I stumbled upon an interesting article on architecture in the Walrus. A good read! Shall we call it checkmark architecture. Architecture by committee. New architecture in the city is good, but arresting, not so much, when you think of what is being built in Europe or Asia.

The article starts out talking about the new library being built in Ottawa – something I wrote about some time ago. Then of course there was the controversy around the addition to the Chateau Laurier. Should we talk about the restoration of 24 Sussex Drive.

ArchDaily presents 24 architecture masterpieces from the 20th Century. Enjoy!

There are times where an architectural style emerges from an architecture school. Often a smaller school. A school where suddenly something amazing emerges. ArchDaily delves into the style of 6 of those schools.

• Bauhaus International Style/Bauhaus Style
• Vkhutemas: Russian Constructivism
• École des Beaux-Arts: Beaux-Arts Style
• Glasgow School of Art; Art Nouveau/Glasgow Style
• Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo (FAU-USP): Paulista School/Brazilian Brutalism
• SCI-Arc: Post-modern Industrialism