25 Nov ICC Architecture Competition
The ICC has been holding a competition to determine which architecture firm will build the Court’s permanent home. Yesterday, the jury selected three winners. Here they are, from first place to third place:
As the article notes, the ICC can award the actual contract to any of the three winners. The final design will be chosen in 2010 and the building should be completed by 2014.
I would vote for the third-place design, because I appreciate its Eisenman/Gehry-like feel. The second-place design is boring and ugly and reminds me of the equally boring and ugly UN (sorry, Le Corbusier — at least you have the excuse that you designed the building in the late 40s). The first-place design is nice and seems very functional, but it’s much less interesting than the third-place one.
Readers? Which one would you select?
It all depends on the facility of the structures to support the work of the Court. That aside, being a devoted fan of boring and ugly, I’d go for the second. Eisenman is fun on paper (I mean this almost literally), but Gehry has long worn out his welcome with his silly titanium coils of dog waste plopped here and there. Anyway, the second looks more to me like run of the mill Mies than Le Corbusier. Glad to see, though, that he remains provocative.
Dean,
I should totally ban you from the blog for knocking Gehry and Eisenman. (Though you’re right, Eisenman is often better on paper. Zaha Hadid, too.)
Kevin
Seems to me the interiors might be more important than the exteriors.
Nice! A lot of work went into organizing this, both from the state parties and the ICC (bi-weekly meetings and a lot of sub-committees). I’m glad to see that, regardless of which of the designs will be chosen, the ICC will no doubt get wonderful premises from 2014.