492. Poznan. Wieza Gornoslaska

Dear Bruno,

The expressionist water tower of Posen was built in 1911
as an exhibition building for the Ostdeutsche Ausstellung,
before being finally used as originally intended. The
monumental form of the tower was seen then as a symbol
of "German" power. The architect, Hans Poelzig, built
among others important structures the huge office building
for the 1931 IG Farben Corporation in Frankfurt.

Best regards.
R

491. Zaragoza. El Rincón de Goya

Querido Pablo,

El Rincón de Goya, edificio mítico construido en 1927,
es la primera obra racionalista española. El edificio, que
contenía una biblioteca con libros sobre Goya y un
pequeño museo, era también un pabellón abierto a un
hermoso jardín.

La mayoría de los periódicos de la época se burlaron de
él. Uno de ellos decia: "No hay motivo de disgusto. El
monumento es realmente interesante. Ocurre solo que se
halla aún sin desembalar"

Un abrazo a ti a toda tu familia.
R

490. 30 St Mary Axe, London

Dear Mark,

The Swiss Re Building aka "The Gherkin" is London's
first environmentally sustainable skyscraper. The 

building consumes up to fifty percent less energy than 

a comparable high profile office tower. It was aerodynamically designed to reduce wind load on the structure. Since it was opened in 2004 the building has become an overnight icon of London.

Best regards.
R

489. The Solomon Guggenheim Museum

Dear Arata,

"The space within becomes the reality of the building."
(Frank Lloyd Wright)

"The Guggenheim", Wright's last major work and one
of the 20th century's most important architectural
landmarks.

Sincerely,
R

488. Belo Horizonte. Praca da Liberdade

Dear Lucio,

"My architecture followed the old examples. The beauty
prevailing over the limitations of the constructive logic"
(Oscar Niemeyer)

Regards.
R

487. Aarhus. Raadhustaarn

Cristina,

Contemplando la impresionante torre
del Ayuntamiento de Aarhus he
recordado lo que decía Pablo
Palazuelo sobre la geometría: La
geometría es lo que está en el fondo
de la vida y es lo que la construye.

Mil besos.
R

486. The Toronto Dominion Centre

Dear Chuck,

"Architecture is always the
three-dimensional expression out of
a cerebral conclusion"
(Mies van der Rohe)

Best.
R

485. Crown Zellerbach Building. San Francisco

Dear Michael,

The Crown Zellerbach Building was
the first glass skyscraper built in San
Francisco when finished in 1959.
Wonderful floor-to-ceiling green
tinted glass and beautiful details can
be seen all over it.The most striking
features though are the sunken garden
at the ground level plaza, the elegant
glass pavilion lobby and finally the
offset opaque service core facing
Market Street as a wonderful
counterbalance to the glass office
space box.

Thanks for your help.
Best regards.
R

484. New York World's Fair-Ireland (Eire)

Dear Dennis Michael,

The Irish Pavilion for the 1938-9 New York World's Fair
was the first appearance of Ireland as an independent
country at an international trade fair. The Irish Government
wanted the building to have a modern and high quality yet
recognizably Irish character. Architect Michael Scott
produced a shamrock shaped building, built in steel,
concrete and glass.

Best.
R

483. Bus Station from Custom's House Park, Dublin

Dear Mary Alice,

After talking to you about this blog, I realized I had done
a terrible mistake: I still didn't have not even a single
postcard about an Irish modern building. To compensate
my error, today I'm "sending" to you a wonderful
postcard of famous Busáras. The central bus station in
Dublin was built between 1945 and 1953 with a strong
public opposition because of its external appearance,
function and excessive cost. Architect Michael Scott was
also responsible of the design of the wonderful 1939 Irish
Pavilion of the New York World's Fair. He is considered
by many the most important architect of the twentieth
century in Ireland.

Sincerely.
R

482. Panorama over Stockholmsutstallningen

Dear David,

"Asplund's architecture explodes all the boundaries.
The purpose is a celebration with no preconceived
notions as to whether it should be achieved with
architectural or other means. It is not a composition in
stone, glass, and steel, as the functionalist-hating
exhibition visitor might imagine, but rather a composition
in houses, flags, searchlights, flowers, fireworks, happy
people and clean tablecloths" (Alvar Aalto on the 1930
Stockholm Exhibition)

Best.
R

481. Moscow. Planetarium

Dear Jennifer,

"Each form is the frozen temporary image of a process.
Thus, any work merely represents a way station in the
process of becoming, and not a frozen goal"
(El Lissitzky. 1924)

Best
R

480. Ljubljana. Narodna in univerzitetna knjiznica

Querido Jose,

"Ambos, el olvido y la memoria, son por
consiguiente, el sueño de una totalidad
que encierra en si, en la sombra o en la
luz, el pasado. Pero este sueño es
inalcanzable, en la medida en que el
pasado parece concedernos unicamente
una vision gris y continua y sin relieve, o
bien como escapados de sus mallas, unos
pocos fragmentos fugaces, sin relacion
entre si, que, sin embargo, parecen, por
la misma fuerza con que se nos presentan,
contener una vida secreta, el enigma de
una posible felicidad" ("Metamorfosis.
Imagenes del pensamiento" Franco Rella)

Saludos.
R

479. Paul Sauer Bridge across Storms River

Dear Sean,

Completed in 1956, the Ricardo Morandi designed bridge
across Storms River is peculiar for having inclined spandrel supports that radiate out from the main arch rib. The use of these inclined supports is a Morandi trait seeable on almost all of his bridges.

Regards.
R

478. Edificio Sede do Ministerio da Educacao e Saude

Dear Lucio,

The Ministerio da Educacao e Saude
building in Sao Paulo was the first
government modernist building in the
Americas, and the largest one that Le
Corbusier had built until then.

Respectfully.
R

477. Liceo Andres Bello. Caracas 1948

Querido Carlos,

El primer edificio del Instituto Pedagogico de Caracas
es el Liceo Caracas luego renombrado Liceo Andres
Bello que data de 1936 y que representa la asunción del
movimiento racionalista en la arquitectura moderna
venezolana. Su arquitecto fue Cipriano Domínguez,
formado como tal en Francia en el taller de Le Corbusier.
En el año en que esta elegantisima construccion es
terminada el maestro suizo esta en Brasil trabajando con
Costa, Niemeyer, Reidy y Moreira en la Ciudad
Universitaria y en el Ministerio de Educacion. Es en este
momento cuando empieza la epoca dorada de la
arquitectura moderna en Sudamerica.

Saludos cordiales.
R

476. Londrina. Est.do Parana. Vista Parcial

Dear Paulo,

"The level of happiness in a particular community usually
can be seen in the degree of beauty of the city where this
community lives in" (Vilanova Artigas)
Showed in the picture, to the left of the big building and
characterized by a graceful series of arches the 1950
Londrina Bus Station by Vilanova Artigas.

Respectfully.
R

475. Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dear Eliel,

"Architecture is the reaching out for the truth"
(Louis I. Kahn)

Best
R

474. Sevilla. Estadio Olimpico de la Cartuja

Querida Olga

"Nos interesa que la arquitectura siga teniendo misterio,
que haya expectación ante lo que va a ocurrir y que
entrar por una puerta lleve tiempo"
(Antonio Cruz & Antonio Ortiz)

Feliz Año Nuevo!

R

473. Above San Francisco

Dear Aston,

"There are no perfect answers. The earnest search is all
we can expect.” (Pietro Belluschi)

Best Wishes for the New Year.
R

472. Educatorium, Utrecht, Netherland

Dear Shoei,

"Raw material worth just what you do with it"
(Mies van der Rohe)

Best.
R

471. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Querida Luz,

"El paisaje retiene
alrededor del pez inmovil
toda la luz del fondo no visible"

(Homenaje a Klee-J.A.Valente)

Feliz Navidad.
R

470. Flughafen Halle Leipzig b. Schkeuditz

Dear Leopold,

As you can see in the picture the view over the airfield
is the main theme of this airy and functional new restaurant
building for the Schkeuditz Airport recently finished in
1931. It has been designed by Swiss architect and
Bauhaus teacher Hans Wittwer. Did you meet him over
there? I really hope this building will manage to survive
through this unsettled times we chance to live.

Best regards my friend.
R

469. Bauhausbauten in Dessau

Dear Sybille,

The Torten district in Dessau was built between 1926
and 1928 for the Reichsforschungsgesellschaft by
Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. The new district was
organized from a central small square where the tall
cooperative building was located. From there, and
spreading out in concentric rings, two-story row houses
with small gardens behind were laid-out.

Best regards.
R

468. Terneuzen. Stadhuis

Dear Remment,

In this design for the Terneuzen City Hall there is a sort
of uplift spiral movement feeling produced by interesting
relationships between the different building masses that
make up its structure.

Best.
R

467. Moscou. Maison du Journal Isvestia

Dear Louis,

The Izvestia building is located on Pushkin
Square in Moscow and it was finished in
1927. The initial design was inspired by
another newspaper building project: the
Gropius and Meyer entry for the Chicago
Tribune building competition of 1922.

Best.
R

466. The Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm

Querido Cesar,

El edificio del periodico Dagens Nyheter en Estocolmo
es obra del afamado arquitecto Paul Hedqvist que lo
completo en 1964. Hedqvist fue el arquitecto del
aeropuerto Bromma y de numerosos y magnificos
colegios en esta inolvidable ciudad.

Un abrazo.
R

465. Turku

Dear Leopold,

I have just arrived in Turku. I'm staying at the new
(still some construction going on) Hospits Betel Hotel.
I read in the architectural periodical "Arkkitehti" that
this building, the one across the alley and the bell 

tower of the next door church shared same architect: 

Erik Bryggman. I will sending you this issue along 

with this postcard.

Regards to Suse and all the best to you.
R

464. Radiostation du Soviet de Moscou. Chabolovka, 53

Dear Richard,

The famous Shabolovka Radio Tower
is shown in this vintage postcard. The
tower, built in 1922, is 150 meter high
and built from a series of stacked steel
hyperboloids. Originally it was designed
to reach 350 meters (surpassing Eiffel
Tower) but a shortage of steel forced to
reduce its height.

Sincerely.
R

463. Valparaiso. Escuela Naval Arturo Prat

Querida Rosi,

Dice Helio Piñon que el Proyecto revela la Geografia
Oculta. Al Pensar en esa misteriosa Geografia concluyo
que la de Mario Perez de Arce y su Escuela Naval
debe ser su nocion maravillosamente poetica del paisaje
entendido como configuracion armoniosa de tierras y
mares y su sabio planteaniento de la Modernidad
insertada en la misma.

Espero que estes bien.
Un beso.
R

462. Edificio Banco de Bilbao, Madrid

Querido Paquillo,

"Siempre he tenido esa especie de
espiritu juvenil, de no aceptar nada.
El joven es el hombre que esta
despierto ante el mundo"
(Francisco Javier Saenz de Oiza)

Un abrazo.
R

461. Pavello Olimpic de Badalona

Querido Jose,

Las grandes cerchas invertidas que cubren el pabellon
y sostienen los lucernarios en diente de sierra me
recuerdan las cuadernas de un gran buque. Algunos
detalles como las escaleras radiales parecidas a
pasarelas de barcos confirman mi impresion de cierto
ambiente nautico, parecido al que senti en ciertos
edificios medievales catalanes.

Un abrazo
R

460. Chemnitz. Kaufhaus Schocken

Querido Abuelo,

De la serie de Grandes Almacenes Schocken que
Mendelsohn construyo en Alemania, este situado
en Chemnitz es el ultimo y el mayor. Aqui la idea de
proyecto no es la aparicion de algun elemento singular
que de caracter al edificio sino desarrollar el concepto
de integracion del mismo en el tejido continuo que la
ciudad constituye. Para ello las 5 plantas sobre la banda
inferior de escaparates se disponen en voladizo,
aparentemente sin apoyos que lleguen al suelo; como
una ancha banda en clarocuro que pasa velozmente por
este centrico cruce de calles.

Un beso.
R

459. Helsinki. Kulttuuritalo

Dear Carol,

Alvar Aalto first sketched the new Helsinki Cultural
Center on a pack of cigarettes in 1954. When it was
built in 1958, it looked exactly the same as in the first
version! Persistence is a high virtue!

Best.
R

458. Federal Reserve Bank. Minneapolis

Querido Juan,

Este edificio es el unico en el mundo cuya estructura
funciona como un puente colgante (suspension bridge).
Se necesitaba minimizar la cantidad de pilares para hacer
los espacios de oficinas mas diafanos y funcionales, asi
que Birkerts, su arquitecto, propuso colgar todas las
plantas de dos catenarias que cuelgan a su vez de las dos
estructuras monoliticas en los extremos. Para realzar mas
esta idea se liberaron las dos primeras plantas permitiendo
que el ambito de la plaza publica continuara por debajo
del edificio.

Un abrazo.
R

457. Art and Architecture Building. Yale University

Querido Juan Jo,

El famoso edificio sede de la Escuela de Arte y Arquitectura
de Yale ha sido recientemente restaurado y renovado.
Tambien ha sido renombrado en honor a su creador como
Paul Rudolph Hall.

Un abrazo.
R

456. Bogota Colombia. Ciudad Universitaria

Dear Werner,

As a way to show you my appreciation for your kindness,
I affectionately am sending you a postcard of one of my
latest buildings here in Bogota: the new Department of
Physics of the Universidad Nacional. Hope you are doing
well. To receive one of your invaluable postcards always
causes me a great happiness.

Take care my friend.
R

455. Turku. Tuomokirkko-Domkyrkan

Querida Rosa,

A la izquierda de la foto se ve parcialmente la sede del
laboratortio de química Kemikum, construido por
Bryggman en 1937. En 1928 este poco conocido pero
magnífico arquitecto, visitó la Exposición de la 

Weissenhof Siedlung en Stuttgart donde tuvo ocasión

de conocer a Gropius. Posteriormente trabajó en 

Finlandia colaborando con Aalto, con quien introdujo 

los primeros edificios Funcionalistas en aquel pais.

Besos.
R

454. Berlin. Das Rudolph Mosse Haus

Querido Abuelo,

La foto de la postal es el edificio de la Berliner Tageblatt
después de la reforma y ampliación de Mendelsohn y
Neutra del año 1923. Esta a continuación es una cita del
propio Mendelsohn justificando conceptualmente el uso
de lineas horizontales en sus proyectos de aquellos años.

"A new rhythm has seized the world, a new movement.
The man of the Midle Ages, out of the horizontal calm of
his contemplative working-day, needed the vertical
cathedral in order to find his God high above him. The
man of our day, out of the excitement of his rapid life,
can find compensation only in an unrestrained horizontality.
Only by the will to realize facts will be able to master his
unrest; only by the highest degree of speed can he conquer his haste. The rotating earth stands still"

Un beso.
R

453. Salto, Uruguay. Terminal de Omnibus

Querida Cristina,

"Tan infinita es una gota de agua como el firmamento"
(Eladio Dieste)

Mil besos.
R