Patrick Lucas
IAR 221
08 April 2009
The Hearst Tower: A Modern Marvel
The 47-floor skyscraper in our very own Queen City known as, The Hearst Tower, is not only the second tallest building in Charlotte, but is one of the most interesting pieces of architecture due to it’s reverse floor-plate design. This means that the upper floors are about 4,000 square feet larger than the average 20,000 square foot lower floors (hearsttower.com). This building exemplifies great examples of craft, architecture, design, and planning. The Hearst Tower is a beautiful, interesting, and highly functional piece of architecture that stands in the heart of downtown Charlotte.
Construction on Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s design began in 1999, atop the former site of the CityFair retail center, and the building was completed in time for it’s opening in November 2002. The Tower’s inhabitants include, Bank of America, retail stores, and restaurants, as well as, law, architecture, and investment firms. The architect made sure this building was unique in that the, 299,000 square foot, concrete façade was precast and is topped by a steel frame tower that has a cable reinforcement system to assist in the building’s integrity. The genius designers gathered material for the interior from all over the globe. The brass railings in the College Street lobby were saved from a department store in Paris, and the marble in the opposite lobby was taken from a demolished temple in China. Also, as previously stated, the building is larger at the top than the bottom giving the exterior a very distinct flared appearance (hearsttower.com).
The building’s interior has an art deco essence with the architects personal twist. They paid special attention to leaving the public space open and connected while the business and private areas are restricted and highly protected by security gates. The Hearst Towers main function is the Bank of America offices, which is one of the reasons the building is so highly protected. All visitors are restricted to the main and first level while only people with security clearance may pass to the above floors. Also, any persons looking to take pictures or draw the building must gain prior permission, which is not easy to get. The exterior of the building takes great care in interacting with the street level while still carrying the art deco theme to the exterior. Many small details were added from the base to the shaft to the build crown. All are unique but are still unified.
I chose this building due to its creative design. It interacts with the user helping the public spaces create a town center and gathering space, while the upper floors still serve their greater purpose. The reverse floor-plate design is one of few making the Hearst Tower a unique building in Charlotte’s skyline. By incorporating old and new and taking chances the designers of this building truly created something special out of a very basic building type.
2 comments:
with some of the base information in your essay, now it's time for you to speculate : WHY is the building inverse from what you expect, especially in light of your characterization about art deco connections? how does one justify fusing old elements within a new building totally unrelated to those elements? why is it appropriate, in other words, to fasten paris department store railings on a modern skyscraper in charlotte? moreover, how is it that the building symbolizes the hearst company....in a charlotte context? what about the other materials in the composition? how do you utilize all aspects of the design to derive the building CONCEPT....rather than dwelling in the world of description.
with the base of information you have establishe din your essay and your observations, what do you think the CONCEPT for this building is? how do you justify that interpretation with architectural and design evidence you have observed? why is the building stacking upside down, especially in light of your proposal that it connects to art deco design? how do you justify the presence of the paris department store handrails on a new building, unconnected in time and place to the one where the handrails were removed? how does this building fit within its charlotte context and stand for as a symbol to the hearst company? why this configuration for the queen city?
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