F

Flavorwire

I.M. Pei

New York

12 Horrible Plans for New York That (Thankfully) Never Happened

By Adee Braun on

There have been some epically bad plans for New York City over the years, like drying up the rivers, building an underground city, and encasing Midtown in a bubble. Here, we look at the worst of the… Read More

Architecture

10 of the World’s Most Remote Museums

By Claire Cottrell on

Here at Flavorpill, we have a thing for gorgeous museums and virtual globetrotting, so we thought it was fitting to give you fabulous fodder for adventure daydreaming on one of the last Summer Fridays of the year by taking a look at stunning museums in some of the most remote locations in the world.

As Helen Keller, the eternally inspiring, well-traveled activist and author, once said, “life is either a great adventure or nothing,” and we couldn’t agree more. Whether you’re planning your next extreme vacation or just want to get the mental heck out of dodge, click through to check out some extraordinary museums that will require logging a few extra hours with your online travel agency of choice. Help us discover more awesome isolated cultural destinations by telling us about any you’ve visited in the comments below! … Read More

Architecture

The Most Beautiful Tall Buildings of the Year

By Claire Cottrell on

As their site explains, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the niche, non-profit organization that’s straight out of a Wes Anderson film, is “the world’s leading body in the field of tall buildings and the recognized source of information on tall buildings internationally.” Fittingly, their criteria is used to determine which building can lay claim to the title of tallest building in the world.

As we learned over at Kottke, the group has just released its annual roundup of the year’s best tall buildings. From an innovative tall building with computer-controlled sunscreens in Abu Dhabi to a naturally ventilated office building with a rooftop garden in Australia to a curvaceous tower nicknamed Marilyn Monroe in Mississauga, Canada, click through to check out the best vertically superior design in the world today. Tell us about your favorite tall building in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

Watch MIT Students Transform I.M. Pei Building into Playable Tetris Game

By Architizer on

There are end-of-term pranks, and then there are end-of-term hacks. MIT students have been known to integrate entire campus buildings into theirs, the most famous (and coolest) example being the Great Dome’s transformation into everyone’s favorite droid, R2-D2. The latest hack occurred last night, when a team of students programmed a monumental game of color (!) Tetris on the gridded facade of MIT’s Green Building. Designed by I.M. Pei, the concrete structure is the tallest building in Cambridge, and its modular frame of windows proved the ideal vehicle for the task. These factors marked the tower prime real estate for future hacks, so much so that “Tetris on the Green Building” had long been coveted as the “Holy Grail of hacks.” Apparently, the students used a joystick mounted on a podium at ground level to control the game, which mimicked the original’s title scroll and its classic “game over” animation. You can watch the video below to see how the night played out. … Read More

Architecture

Spectacular Hotels Designed by Famous Architects

By Claire Cottrell on

When Frank Lloyd Wright said that “a great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart,” surely he was alluding to the fact that travel and exploration are important aspects of any designer’s process. Seriously, what better way to feed your soul and get the creative juices flowing than a fabulous get-away in an inspiring and culturally significant hotel?

A testament to the splendor of heart-driven design, we’ve married two of our favorite things – extraordinary hotels and stunning architecture – to bring you our guide to the most architecturally significant hotels in the world. From Frank Gehry’s iridescent design set against a medieval backdrop in Spain’s Rioja wine region to a recently renovated mid-century icon by John Lautner to Renzo Piano’s whimsical update of an old Fiat factory in Italy, click through to check out these visionary and inspiring designs. Let us know in the comments which one you’ll be booking for your next creative crusade! … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: DesignGuide.com

By Shana Nys Dambrot on

DesignGuide.com is an online community of designers, architects, engineers, and other masters of the organized universe.

What makes this web-based community unique is its dual focus on the practical and cultural threads of the design discourse. Its most media-savvy aspect is the DG Movie House — a sub-site and email digest dedicated to rare films and archival videos, including interviews with architectural icons IM Pei, Louis Kahn, and Frank Gehry, plus clips featuring everyone from Brad Pitt to the Monty Python crew. … Read More

Design

Video of the Day: I.M. Pei Talks About Louis Kahn

By Caroline Stanley on

And in the process explains why he’s way more chill than the famed architect from Philly ever could be. It’s pretty cute. Also: I.M. Pei is 91. Doesn’t that blow your mind? [via DesignGuide]