1650-1972
New Sweden Outpost/Ury House and Farm 2090
1682-
Philadelphia/Pennsylvania 2093
1761
Mount Pleasant 2109
1891
Reading Terminal Headhouse 2136
1916-20
Whitemarsh Hall 2141
1917-29
Philadelphia Museum of Art 2142
1929-32
Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building 2157
1952-53
Fruchter House 217j
1954-55
De Vore House 217e
1954-55
Adler House 217f
1956-57
Municipal Administration Building 217c
1957
City Tower 217d
1957-59
Trenton Jewish Community Center 217b
1959
Goldenberg House 2179
1959-64
Vanna Venturi House 2182
1960-67
Fisher House 2187
1965-68
Dominican Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci 2206
1966
Mikveh Israel Synagogue 220c
1969
Étant donnés' back door 2215
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late Spring 1973
Whitemarsh Hall movie
1978-79
Girard East Housing 223d
1979.10.03
Papal Mass at Logan Circle 1979
1979
Clay Workers Co-op 2243
1981
Institute of Contemporary Art 224a
1982
Cooper & Pratt House 2246
1986.10.09
Three-Dimensional Graphic Model of Center-City Philadelphia 3940
1988.03.20
City Hall Centennial 2255 3952
1989
Market Street East Development 2263
1992
Gallery B 2277
1992-
Parkway Interpolation 2278
1992-
museum Annex 2279
1993
Venue 2289
1994.10.30
Sears Implosion 1994
1995
Francisville Housing 2292
1996.01.18
Gooding House
Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown's Gooding House offers some very interesting scale issues that provide excellent examples of scale used in contemporary design. The first issue, of course, is the colossal order applied to each facade. The second issue is the overscaled windows. And the third issue is the overall impression that the house is smaller that it actually is (I think because of the overscaled windows).
I just thought how Venturi's use of scale manipulation is exactly the opposite of the Disneyland use of scale manipulation, and it is ironic that an overemphesis in scale can produce a diminutive effect. I also want to mention that I first noticed Venturi's use of overscaled windows in his Chinatown (Philadelphia) Housing.
It would be beneficial to see the elevations and the model next to some other 3D models of domestic architecture... ...a comparison between the Gooding House and the Maison l'Homme and the Plecnik's Houses Under a Common Roof, and perhaps even the Bye House (for real contrast).
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1996.01.10
scale and architecture
The gigantism of Piranesi's Campo Marzio becomes perfectly evident when it is compared with other urban plans at the same scale. I have already done some comparative analysis between the Campo Marzio and parts of Center City Philadelphia, I particularly used the area around the Philadelphia Museum of Art because that building and the plan of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway are themselves, in general, fine examples of an urban design gigantism practiced in America in the early twentieth century.
If anything, this exercise will be a lesson in scale and, in particular, gigantic scale. It could perhaps lead to a better understanding of Piranesi's intention and his ideas on urbanism, and it might also lead to a finer understanding of urban scale in general, where the Campo Marzio may actually shed some light on the urban situation of some actual cities, in this case Philadelphia.
1996.01.10
scale and architecture
3-D superimposition of Giza pyramids and Center City Philadelphia. ...the height of the Great Pyramid is very close to the height of Philadelphia's City Hall Tower.
1996.01.10
scale and architecture
...[could] compile a Recueil using all the data I already have: the building models, some stray plans, the Philadelphia plan, my own designs, the Parkway project, and the Campo Marzio plans. It could be quit a document.
1996.04.06
scale and architecture
...comparing the plan/ramps of the Palais des Congrès with the Vine Street highway ramps that connect with I-95 in Philadelphia.
1996.04.06
scale and architecture
...a plan of the Parkway area of Center City Philadelphia with the building footprints x-hatched... ...the same scale as a section of the Campo Marzio.
...the Philadelphia street grid superimposed on the Campo Marzio.
...x-hatched building footprints of Philadelphia superimposed on the Campo Marzio. Where the former drawing demonstrates the relationship between a modern city street grid and the Campo Marzio, this drawing will demonstrate a comparison/contrast between the Campo Marzio and another form of urban density.
1996.04.06
scale and architecture
...compare [the PSFS Building] with the Philadelphia City Hall and the other skyscrapers, i.e., the worlds tallest buildings.
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1996.04.06
scale and architecture
The next group elevation features the John Wanamaker Store and the PSFS Office Building. Both buildings are in Center City Philadelphia, and both are fair representations of their respective building types. The most obvious difference between the scale of each building is the fact that one is horizontal with a very large footprint and the other is vertical with a very small footprint. Both buildings, however, employ a special scale where they meet the street and the pedestrian vantage point.
The Wanamaker building is massive, and somehow attests to the power and magnitude of capitalism and consumerism. The rise of buildings like Wanamaker's, I assume, is due to the Chicago Frame, and the experiments of Eiffel (Tower). Perhaps I should investigate the effect that the Chicago Frame had on American urban scale. I will compare Wanamaker's to the Altes Museum (because of the stoa at ground level), the Parliament Building of West Pakistan, and perhaps even St. Pierre at Firminy-Vert...
1996.04.06
scale and architecture
...the irony of how a car garage [of Capital Park West] can take on such a massive scale, and in many ways is comparable to the repetition of the John Wanamaker Store and perhaps even the Altes Museum.
1996.07.06
Palais des Congrès documentation
The Palais des Congrès documentation is now in progress. The document is developing as the work proceeds. The content is broken down into several parts. Part one presents the site and the building. Part two presents the promenade architecturale formula. Part three compares the Palais des Congrès with Hejduk's House 10: Museum. Part four presents a straight-forward comparative scale analysis.
Part four will be the most resourceful. There will be plan comparisons with other buildings designed by Le Corbusier, as well as with other buildings in the collection including Center City Philadelphia, the Ichnographia Campus Martius and historical plans via Durand. The Center City Philadelphia comparison will highlight the similarity between the Palais ramps and the ramps of the Vine Street Expressway/I-95 connection. There will also be split-elevation comparisons.
This documentation will be the first of an ongoing series of documentations from the Virtual Museum of Architecture.
1997.02.07
5233
1997.03.01
Center City Philadelphia 2093b
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1997.08.09
experiments with the Philadelphia model/virtual history
...create a surreal environment, something not seen before.
...this idea stems from working on the Campo Marzio, and wondering whether the Campo Marzio will somehow inspire a new theory on urban design. ...there might be a way of presenting the same type of graphically evocative urban design "plans" as the Campo Marzio using the Center City Philadelphia model... ...a comparison between what Piranesi did with the plan of Rome and what could be done with the model of Philadelphia.
...rotation/scale manipulation of the Philadelphia model parts. ...potential commentary regarding urban design in the computer age (or perhaps just in the virtual realm). ...the positive impression of downtown Pittsburgh with its collage of street grid patterns, and thus its strong contrast to the ubiquitous orthogonal grid of Center City Philadelphia.
See full note.
1997.08.09
racing thoughts
...creating new urban landscapes with deformed models from Quondam's collection. ...this relates to the deformation of the Center City Philadelphia model. ...a manifestation of the metabolic imagination.
1997.12.23
merge building models
...use the Philadelphia model as the site for virtual architectural exhibits. ...the Great Pyramid superimposition was just the beginning. ...morph any building or section of the city all in the name of a virtual architectural exhibit. ...has implications for virtual exhibits and museology as well.
1998.02.07
Tacony Creek Park
1998.03.14
ideas
3. replace level 3 of Palais des Congrès with Hejduk's House 10.
7. Rising Sun Avenue & Tabor Road as Lenni Lenape solstice celebration spot.
1998.03.21
virtual Philadelphia
... using the Philadelphia model as a base for new "construction" of unbuilt or demolished Philadelphia, for example, M/G's Market St. Gallery, Kahn's Planning Commission studies and his City Hall, the Furness buildings that are long gone, and the cast iron district torn down to make room for Independence Mall.
1998.04.03
B. F. Parkway: An Interpolation
...the Parkway as virtual space from its very inception.
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