America Doesn’t Think Much of Our Building Legacy
When Americans think about the national architecture, they don’t think much of Atlanta.
The American Institute of Architects surveyed two thousand Americans at the end of 2006 to find out what buildings they valued. They don’t value Atlanta much. No Atlanta building ranks in the top 50 and there are only 2 out of 150 on the list. The High Museum makes the list at #96 & The Hyatt Regency downtown makes the list at #103.
The poll was conducted by Harris and shows that Atlanta really isn’t on the national radar for great architecture. There is a certain irony in this as some of the leading architecture firms have started here or put key offices in Atlanta. The cities on the radar include New York City (25 Buildings), Washington DC (17), and Chicago (16).
We’re in the same category as St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Austin. Further, the national perspective does not match our own. In survey after survey, Atlantans choose the Fox Theater as their favorite building. The High Museum would also likely be up there, but one would guess that the Hyatt would not be the first choice of Portman buildings for Atlantans or even their third favorite building.
Hopefully, Atlantans will wake up to the importance of good solid design. Renzo Piano’s addition to the High Museum is successful not only for the attention he brought, but because the additions work well. They made the space better. They are good spaces in which one can see art. That is what will keep the building important for a long time.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I agree that Atlanta is lacking in great buildings.
I love the city’s skyline, especially in ever-changing clouds and fog. But there is no single building I love more that another. Some are interesting, and it was apparent that the architects had a “vision” of what the buildings should look like. But none of the resulting building rise past mildly idiosyncratic and achieve some level of iconic status.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
The Hyatt? Ew. The High, yes, although most Atlantans probably only think of what it looks like from the front (which is really not all that inspiring). The new Wachovia building in Midtown (the one with the wings) is…interesting. I can’t decide if I like it.
February 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Don’t feel bad about the small number of Atlanta buildings on the list - hardly anything in the South made it. The 1983 High building by Richard Meier would be first on my list, followed by Renzo Piano’s sensitive 2005 addition. The Hyatt is by far my favorite Portman building - it’s original and fairly subtle, compared to the awkward, gimmicky lines of the Plaza or the Marriott. The other building I would add is the “IBM Tower” (One Atlantic Center), which was the subject of rave reviews when it opened in the late 80’s.
I do like the building with “wings” in Midtown, but I’m waiting for a more significant building with wings to open next to it: the Santiago Calatrava designed Symphony Hall!
February 14th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Some good news: 1180 Peachtree (which I like a lot) placed #4 in the world on Emoris’s best buildings of 2006
http://awards.emporis.com/?nav=award2006&lng=3
February 15th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I’m no expert on architecture but I think ATL’s place on a general survey is a very good marker of where our city stands in this field for two reasons.
First, Atlanta doesn’t really have a centralized skyline. We have several miniature skylines that can all be viewed individually, downtown, Buckhead, galleria area and some others. If we were a bit more dense so that most of our large structures could be viewed side by side we might fare better at a glance and more of our buildings might stand out in the minds non-Atlantans. Most people don’t look at a city with the eye of an architect, after all.
Second, and probably more importantly, most of the buildings of any size here have only been built in the last two decades or so. When I first moved here when I was a kid, if I remember correctly, the only buildings of any size were the IBM Building, the Westin and GA-Pacific center. Nations Bank, Sun Trust, 191 P’tree and most of the other buildings of note have been built since I moved here in ‘91. In this survey Atlanta is competing with other, older buildings that have had time to become iconic even if they’re not as esthetically pleasing, the PanAM (now Met Life) tower in NYC springs to mind.
I’m confident that, given another few years, given some time for our architecture to creep deeper into the public consciousness that you’ll see a number of Atlanta’s buildings creep up that list.
I think that, in time, as more people