Comments on: I can't wait 'til this thing is fully operational

I can't wait 'til this thing is fully operational

NinjaTadpole — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:36:23 -0800

A convention centre you say? Gosh, I wonder what sort of convention might want to turn up to a building like this?

By: Roman Graves

Roman Graves — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:46:05 -0800

Will the UAE ever get tired of building crazy shit?

By: zardoz

zardoz — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:57:30 -0800

Now witness the firepower of this FULLY ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!

By: vbfg

vbfg — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:04:34 -0800

Gosh, I wonder what sort of convention might want to turn up to a building like this? One that defies conventions.

By: Firas

Firas — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:23:47 -0800

Cement envy.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:28:00 -0800

Ole Remmy (or his godawful marketing department) can tell himself whatever story he wants----but at the end of the day, it's about the pure form of the millions and millions of euros. It's not really Deleroius Dubai, it's just a simulacrum of one.

By: Firas

Firas — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:30:51 -0800

I don't know, I just can't reconcile so much exposed steel with the notion of "pure form", "modern landmark" etc. When I think of ways to break out of the grasp of old architectural style and make a distinctive form I think of something like the Lotus Temple.

By: Firas

Firas — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:35:32 -0800

I think it's because glass and steel 'ages' so quickly—it's like "digital fonts" in 80s movies. Not to mention that it's the windswept office park aesthetic.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:54:53 -0800

Cement envy. Or an edifice complex.

By: zarq

zarq — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:50:19 -0800

The design is either pure marketing genius or an invitation to a terrorist attack by a kid flying a biplane.

By: Tenuki

Tenuki — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:30:39 -0800

"...an invitation to a terrorist attack by a kid flying a biplane." Covered by a smuggler in a DC-3

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 22 May 2007 06:02:59 -0800

Will the UAE ever get tired of building crazy shit? I hope not.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 22 May 2007 06:28:23 -0800

I just can't reconcile so much exposed steel with the notion of "pure form", "modern landmark" ...I think it's because glass and steel 'ages' so quickly

By: Firas

Firas — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:04:21 -0800

Flashman, are you disagreeing with me or concurring? I think that building looks good, but like I said, I think it quite dates/periods itself as a 20th C. post-industrial white-collar artifact. I may be making more of an urban-planning criticism than an architectural one; but my point is that basically that walking through the financial district in the evening is so—alienating—compared to eg. newbury street. Nobody lives there; it's just a bunch of buzzing office floors by day and in the evening everyone leaves for their suburban enclaves. It just seems wrong. And again, the steel and glass skyscraper aesthetic connotes that sort of stuff in my mind. Stark segmented drabness. I'll readily admit that it's a matter of taste in the end, but I'll take marble and warm cement and paint over cold metal and tinted glass. And indeed if the Seagram Building is a landmark of modernist architecture, what's the next step? Modernist architecture in a sphere? Compare Faisaliyah Center to Kingdom Tower; both were constructed around the same time but the former's architects had to go for that stark solid bars of metal look. I think it dates itself quite strongly by that choice. It may be distinctively contemporary but not timelessly so.

By: Firas

Firas — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:11:20 -0800

Actually the Faisaliyah Center doesn't even look modernist, it's like a 1950's version of 'the space-age future'. An anachronism in its time and a joke after that.

By: djrock3k

djrock3k — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:42:04 -0800

uh, zardoz, it's really: "Now, witness the firepower of this FULLY ARMED and OPERATIONAL Convention Center!" Pudong , your response, and La Defense , to staging area please.

By: rossmik

rossmik — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:13:10 -0800

Thats no moon...

By: SentientAI

SentientAI — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:39:03 -0800

A boobie?

By: smably

smably — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:47:48 -0800

That's a pretty...unconventional...building. I'm sorry. :)

By: jamjam

jamjam — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:01:08 -0800

It's actually a gigantic steel and glass oocyte. ...Awaiting God only knows what fiery and apocalyptic fertilization.

By: NinjaTadpole

NinjaTadpole — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:10:31 -0800

No one notes the immense tag pun: Baby Jesus cries.

By: jamjam

jamjam — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:09:28 -0800

That's because it reads 'conventionalwea...' to us, NinjaTadpole-- a little too immense.