The Grand Tour
Unbeknownst to me until today, Google Maps has a wide array of high-quality satellite/aerial images for cities outside the United States, particularly Europe. So to play around with this addictive site I looked for some Renzo Piano buildings scattered about that continent. Click images for satellite/aerial link and name for project link.
KPN Telecom Office Tower
Rotterdam, Netherlands
The least visually-striking aerial (it's the slightly tapered box near the center), but you'll see in the satellite link that it's near UN Studio's Erasmus Bridge and Bolles+Wilson's Luxor Theatre, among other contemporary gems.
Banca Popolare di Lodi Headquarters
Lodi, Italy
A large project centered around the circular auditorium in the middle of the aerial. Great outdoor spaces for the bank's HQ.
Centre Georges Pompidou
Paris, France
Probably Piano's most famous building. Still.
Bercy 2 Shopping Center
Paris, France
Also in Paris, but not nearly as well known as the Pompidou.
Potsdamer Platz Reconstruction
Berlin, Germany
From up here one can't even tell this urban project is covered in terra cotta.
Auditorium Parco della Musica
Rome, Italy
Definitely the most striking project from the air, and one of my favorites.
Nola Commercial and Leisure Center
Naples, Italy
Currently under construction on the outskirts of Naples, this project is more landmass than building, sure to be one of his greatest when finished.
posted by John @
10:02 PM <--permalink show/hide-->
9 comments
9 Comments:
this is totally awesome stuff...
How do you get to the satellite stuff for Europe? Been looking for it for ages.
rob - The easiest ways are to either type in a place, like "Rome, Italy" and it'll take you there, or from the main page you can pan and zoom to other parts of the globe and then switch to Satellite view. If you're zoomed in far enough you can tell if places have high-def aerials; they're rectangular patches of brown like this.
Coolness!
I've been to the Bercy project and was pretty disappointed. The manner that the metal exterior meets the ground is very unfinished and it makes the sidewalk a bit of a no-mans-land. The interior is nothing special and has no relation to the exterior. It almost seems like it was a study for the metal exterior wall that they didn't finish the edges.
Yeah, that's cool. According to Google Sightseeing, they "quietly" added the rest of the world just a day or two ago.
I'm sure you can guess, John, which country I visited first. Tokyo's lookin' great, but Kyoto is unfortunately still a low-res fuzz at any meaningful level of zoom. On to Okinawa...
Yeah, Google didn't have anything other than North America in the beginning, but they didn't tell anyone they have added other continents.
Anyone ever look at Manhattan? It's hard to see the buildings in Midtown because of all the shadows. But if you look close enough you can see the shadows pointing in three different directions.
I'm off to Germany now (Google Maps really, I can't afford the real thing...)
Actually, the building that covers the left part of the "Potsdamer Platz Reconstruction, Berlin, Germany" picture is not by Renzo Piano. It's the Berlin Philharmonie by Hans Scharoun see http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/philharmonie/.
Ah, I've got it...the satellite button wasn't there when I first tried it a few weeks ago. Thanks for the heads up!
Just a quick aside, as I was surfing the web today I did run across some great links and articles about this:
office interior design
Post a Comment
<< Home