RIP IM PEI, passed away May 16, 2019. A life worth lauding. He designed so many buildings that it's hard to know which would be most ...
read moreRIP IM PEI, passed away May 16, 2019. A life worth lauding. He designed so many buildings that it's hard to know which would be most appropriate to include within a tribute puzzle. I'd bet that his glass pyramid in front of the Louvre is the first one that comes to most people's minds, so it's appropriate to put that in a featured location.
STARCHITECT is a fun portmanteau. I wondered if it's in common usage? The real question is, what similar portmanteau can we constructors create to self-describe? I hereby declare myself a BEACONSTRUCTOR. Get it, BEACON + CONSTRUCTOR = BEACONSTRUCTOR? A shining guide in the sea of crossed words?
What, you say that it sounds like B-constructor? As in a second-rate hack?
WELL, WHO ASKED YOU?!
I'm not sure why a lot of constructors are so enamored with themer interlock. I did enjoy LOUVRE PYRAMID crossing IM PEI, that's neat. But ROCK AND ROLL (with HALL OF FAME elsewhere) and STARCHITECT crossing, too? Inelegant to have that partial in a featured position, plus it creates gridwork problems. It's akin to IM PEI's firm designing the Hancock Tower, only to find that the reality of physics made that implementation a disaster. ISOLE, AFOR, ASL, IRAE, SKUA, now those are some plywood cover-ups.
I applaud the decision to celebrate one of the best minds in the world of architecture, a person whose work has influenced millions of lives all around the world. I'd have loved something more architectural, though, like a masterpiece dedicated to the Guggenheim … or one to PEI himself!
David couldn't have straight-up copied Liz's brilliant concept, but it'd have been fun to brainstorm other visual implementations of other PEI buildings.