The Bizzell Memorial library is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. The building has a lot of windows and has extraordinary detail everywhere on the outside of the building. The inside if very large and has multiple stories that are used for different reasons. When I first came to the university I can remember studying here. The first time I ever studied at the library I actually got lost. This building is usually crowded and people seem to really love being there.
The Fort Worth Water Gardens are an amazing place to go and look at all the beautiful scenery and flowers that are planted throughout the facility. I visited this place from high school field trips and photography classes and walked through everything, looking for cool pictures and seeing the paths through the facility. The Water Gardens are fun to walk through and see all of the plants, flowers, and water attractions that they have.
The Dallas cowboys stadium is truly a remarkable building. I can remember going to watch the cowboys play in this building when I was 15 years old. The stadium is a giant dome but, what truly makes it a spectacular building is that the dome shaped roof is actually retractable. The roof can completely open so the entire field can be exposed to the natural sunlight. When I was at the stadium the stadium was relatively new. When I walked in to the stadium I was completely shocked on just how huge it was in person. I can remember looking up in the stadium and seeing the real sky above me.
Asbury Methodist Church is the most memorable building in Tulsa. It is defined by a massive spire in the front of the building. The windows underneath mimic the peak of the tower in the center. Despite this grand entrance, the walls of the building are fairly plain. There are a few arches along the sides of the building, only small peaks that faintly echo the grand tower of the entrance. The interior of the church is vast and can seat thousands of people. I like this building because it gives a sense of place to an otherwise very commercial part of Tulsa.
The Philbrook Museum is a building defined by the huge arches and red roof. The sheer size of the building is made interesting by the utilization of depth in the building. The Philbrook building is not just a big box. It has two square protruding towers that add depth connected by a series of arches on the patio. The garden is meticulously groomed creating a feeling that you are in the Victorian era.
Maya Lin is an American Architect that made one her biggest successes in here career while she was still attending undergraduate school at Yale University. Lin designed the memorial for Vietnam Veterans in Washington D.C. She won a contest that was made to help chose the design of the memorial. That was a truly amazing feat to accomplish and was able to do it at the age of 21. Lin has gone on to design various building for various universities all over the United States, and continues to be one of the more successful architects of our time.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame was like a second home to me. I lived close to downtown Tulsa before coming to University. This is the building that I spent almost all of my free time in.
The building is defined by large arched windows on the front and sides, two towers standing on either side of the entrance creating an atmosphere of foreboding. The exterior is made out of plain stone bricks, but defined by the different levels of depth in the exterior.
Steven Hol is a architect based out of New York City, and is also know as a watercolorist. I guess it kind of makes sense given that some of his buildings are so extravagant that they look as if they are from some sort of colored art piece. He is internationally known for his innovative architecture styles and that is what he is known for best around the architectural world.
Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, there was always one landmark that the culture of Tulsa revolved around. The BOK Center, or as I call it, the THC, or The Aluminum Can.
Cesar Pelli was the modernist architect that thought up the design of this building. The BOK Center was built in 2008. It could house a concert or show of up to almost 20,000 people. The building was designed to be a meeting place of the people of Tulsa. A place where people could come together to enjoy music, but instead it looks like an ominous tin can lurking in the distance. The building does not blend in to the surrounding downtown Tulsa and in my opinion, is the largest eyesore in our town.
Seth Hernandez
October 7, 2019
Rick Joy is an architect from Tucson, AZ and if you look at the way his structures show and the settling around it you can see his Arizona upbringing. To me, his buildings fit the desert scene perfectly especially the one pictured above. The dullness of the building itself fits in the nature setting that is in, and is not meant to take away from the nature around it, instead it complement the surrounding scene. I believe that is what Joy does pretty well in his work.
