Toronto City Hall via Erindesignr/Flkr
I thought it was worth putting a few more words about Viljo Revell (with two L's please note Ms. Kilpikonna) as his work still has a big impact on Helsinki at least, and you can't help thinking he would have gone on to do a lot more if he hadn't have died at only 54, before his best know work, the Thunderbirds style (optimist-futurist-expressionist-modernist) Toronto City Hall, was completed in 1966. Whether it would have been popular is a different question. The 'City-Center' Makkaratalo ('sausage house') is pretty much universally reviled (I also struggle to find much positive to say, except the concrete brute with car ramps trumping pedestrian access is 'of it's time'. On the other hand 'Lasipalatsi' the 1935 'Crystal palace' is certainly still a gem of white functionalism.
Anyway how many internationally successful architects can you think of who said anything like 'It was was teamwork you see' when asked how they designed a competition winning scheme? No - I thought not.
1 comment:
Was he forced to say it though as it was a team who designed/won the Toronto project.
Viljo just happened to send the registration info under his name...
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