Building Names are Actually Important

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Building Names are Actually Important

Рет қаралды 93,194

Күн бұрын

What’s in a name? Well, when it comes to building names, it can be a lot. While some monikers are fleeting and change with the most recent highest bidder, some names are indelible and leave a lasting mark on the public imagination. Client names, towns, corporations, and streets provide ample naming fodder, but some architects are more strategic. Architects like Peter Eisenman created a numbered series (House I, House II, etc.) , or MOS architects adopt a composer-like generic naming system (House with 10 trees, House with 2 Chimneys). For these architects, the name situates each building within a larger collection of projects. It ensures people will consider each act of building as part of a grand plan. Finally, sometimes, no matter how diligent a marketing team tries, a building will find a nickname it just can’t shake...Gherkin. This video considers all these as it explores how buildings get their names.
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Architecture with Stewart is a KZfaq journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
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Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
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University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: arch.uic.edu/
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Пікірлер: 427

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

What are some of your favorite building names?

@HattieMcDanielonaMoon 3 жыл бұрын

The Wrigley Building. When I was younger, it sounded like "wiggly" to me and it just stuck.

@elegotronics999 3 жыл бұрын

The walkei talkie building in London, on top of the wacky name it also had some controversy because of the way it pushes air down into the street

@milos3447 3 жыл бұрын

The "Unité d'habitation" from Le Corbusier in Marseille is also called "la maison du fada" (the crazy man's house), "Le Corbusier" and "la cité radieuse" (the radiant city) depending on the people you're speaking with.

@winthrop2005 3 жыл бұрын

Flat Iron, Batman tower…I have a lot of my own “names” that help me describe location like “the trapper John Md” building or “grape jelly” apartments!

@miralomasf7x7 3 жыл бұрын

Integratron. It's an absolutely quirky building in the middle of the desert in California, where the name is linked to its metaphysical/spiritual purpose.

@legislativequeery 3 жыл бұрын

I'm reminded of the joke about the sculpture "Cloud Gate" in Chicago's Millennium Park, better known as "The Bean." "People who don't know anything about art call it 'The Bean' because they don't know how much doing so upsets the artist, Anish Kapoor. People who do know something about art call it "The Bean" because they know how much doing so upsets the artist, Anish Kapoor."

@sean269 3 жыл бұрын

It amazed me learning how awful of a person he was growing up in Chicago with The Bean

@thevikingbear2343 3 жыл бұрын

Actually It looks like a bean, not a cloud.

@21Lauren21 3 жыл бұрын

@@thevikingbear2343 it does but they called it that because it reflects the clouds in the sky

@joannasthings 2 жыл бұрын

chicago is the home of not giving a fuck about the “actual” names of things and just calling them whatever they want

@carsonwilliams Жыл бұрын

@@joannasthings I kinda love that. I also believe naming things is usually best when it 'just happens' rather than careful design of a word.

@Chionomania 3 жыл бұрын

We have a new public library here in Edmonton, Alberta, it looks a bit like a battleship or a space fighter. Most people don't seem to like it much, but many have been calling it the Bibliotank, a play on bibliothèque, french for library. I really love this nickname and I hope it becomes widespread.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Love it

@ntatenarin 2 жыл бұрын

LOL! "Bibliotank" is such a cool and funny name that I hope it sticks as well!

@marcoconuts 2 жыл бұрын

BIBLIOTECA

@CybernerdShua 2 жыл бұрын

@@marcoconuts Une Bibliothèque

@Sergei_Ivanovich_Mosin 5 ай бұрын

Weird, I've lived in Edmonton my whole life and this is the first time I've heard about it. But also I avoid downtown like the plague so that might be the reason.

@aes53 3 жыл бұрын

There is a Jazz standard called A Night in Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie. The title is evocative and the piece is lovely. You can almost imagine being in an exotic location when listening to it. Someone asked Gillespie how he came up with the title. He said I didn’t, some guy at the record company came up with it. I don’t care what they call it as long as they play it.

@frankrypa8208 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for introducing me to a great song!

@duanevp 3 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. It didn't really have a name initially it seems, it was just a long instrumental they played in many variations. The difficulty in editing it down from multiple versions to one that would be released caused the groups drummer to give it the name Frankenstein, and Edgar Winter noted it was also appropriate given the song's somewhat lumbering beat. Also, speaking of Beethoven, there's Piano Concerto #5 in E-flat Major, Op.73 - commonly known as "The Emperor" but it wasn't Beethoven who named it that.

@aes53 3 жыл бұрын

@@frankrypa8208 thanks Frank, appreciate the comment, glad to make the case for Jazz…on an architecture page😁

@Pantsinabucket 3 жыл бұрын

@@frankrypa8208 listen to Chaka Khan’s remake

@jefffinkbonner9551 2 жыл бұрын

@@duanevp “Frankenstein” does indeed seem to fit that song very well

@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944 3 жыл бұрын

In my experience, original names or nicknames have the most staying power, no matter what the "official" name of a structure might be. I'm a born-and-bred New Yorker, and we are known to sticking with the original names. The "Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge" will always be called the "59th Street Bridge" by most New Yorkers. I still think of "David Geffen Hall" (which for many years was referred to as "Avery Fisher Hall") as "Philharmonic Hall", despite its recent name change. The "Pan Am Building" will never be the "MetLife Building" in my mind. Even street name changes usually don't take. "Sixth Avenue" was renamed "Avenue of the Americas" in 1945, but no New Yorker I know ever refers to it by that name. It is Sixth Avenue, with Fifth Avenue to the east and Seventh Avenue to the west.

@AmericasComic 3 жыл бұрын

After this past week, I'd love to see just how long the "Mario Cuomo Bridge" stays the "Cuomo Bridge."

@jimurrata6785 2 жыл бұрын

@@AmericasComic I came looking for this. Did not leave disappointed.

@mrridikilis 2 жыл бұрын

didn't realize it wasn't Avery Fisher Hall anymore. weird!

@jfwfreo Жыл бұрын

Even the Spider-Man movie called it Sixth Avenue.

@gmaidekamido 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favourite nicknames for a building is one that became the official name. It's a library in my home city of Leicester, in the UK. It originally opened in 1939, was named Southfields Library after the road it's on, and it's pretty unique looking since it's circular and made of brown bricks. Naturally everyone who saw it decided it looked like a pork pie, and just referred to it as Pork Pie Library. At some point the name officially changed to Pork Pie Library

@inktothedarkness5469 2 жыл бұрын

That story is pure gold

@95GuitarMan13 2 жыл бұрын

I've heard it said that Frank Lloyd Wright settled on the name Fallingwater because it contained his initials and the Kaufmanns didn't want a plaque bearing the architect's name on their house.

@ThisIsReMarkable 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you mentioned sponsorship stadium names. They're extremely stupid. While my affinity for baseball itself has waned, my favorite building name has to be Fenway Park. Named for it's location, hasn't changed, and hasn't given in to renaming for money's sake.

@badshot370 3 жыл бұрын

Upon its construction, the team’s owner also owned one ‘Fenway Realty Company’ which is speculated to also have played into the name, rather than just for the neighborhood. Of course, the owner claimed it was entirely the neighborhood, but it almost certainly was useful to promote his other company

@dominicjannazo7144 7 ай бұрын

Great American Ballpark is the exception. They could have called it Great American Insurance Park, but they went with an actually good name instead.

@Codraroll 3 жыл бұрын

This was a really good video, but I'm kind of surprised you didn't take longer to talk about the skyscrapers in the City of London. The Gherkin (famously not known by its official name, 30 St. Mary Axe) was the first, yes, but it was soon joined by others, and for each one the Londoners came up with a new nickname. The Cheesegrater, the Walkie-Talkie, The Scalpel, and so on. It seems like a few of the towers have escaped nicknames so far, but I guess it's just a matter of time.

@SodawarsGaming 3 жыл бұрын

And with the Shard, the building's management gave up entirely on the original name (London Bridge Tower, which was a perfectly fine name but not nearly as fun) and began using the Shard name, which had been coined by those opposed to the design of the building.

@paxundpeace9970 2 жыл бұрын

The shard London.

@Xavyer13 3 жыл бұрын

I use Latin Nomenclature because people think it sounds epic. Something like Residential Complex 1 can become Conclavia Privatis Prima

@MrRoboticeyes 3 жыл бұрын

Trueee! Foreign and ancient sounding names tend to give that effect. In Indonesia we use sanskrit instead of latin for the same reason.

@nunyabiznes33 2 жыл бұрын

@@MrRoboticeyes nothing says class more than using ancient, pretty-much extinct language.

@msdivagirl7 3 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure I've heard most people still calling the Sears tower the Sears tower lol

@hifijohn 3 жыл бұрын

It will always be sears tower, never that "w" word.

@JasperJanssen 2 жыл бұрын

@@hifijohn well, it’s been the Sears Tower almost all my life, and twenty years or so from now I might be used to the Willis name. I have no particular emotional attachment either way. If they change it again now, it’ll be Sears forever. But imagine the Lakenhal changing its name because cloth is no longer traded there. Or Windsor Castle renaming to Windsor Palace because function has changed.

@TheRealBrook1968 2 жыл бұрын

I have been corrected twice by Chicagoans to say Willis Tower. No one outside of Chicago recognizes "the WIllis" Tower. People outside of Chicago also still refer to the John Hancock Building.

@JasperJanssen 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRealBrook1968 I asked my Chicago friends and the replies were all along the lines of “Nobody uses the W word, it will be Sears forever, motherfuckers!”.

@MrNateSPF 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRealBrook1968 John Hancock? It's Herbie Hancock!

@MakeVarahHappen 3 жыл бұрын

I will say as a New Yorker no one calls it One World Trade Center because it is a mouthful of a name and impossible to abbreviate. If you say you were going to One World trade Center or the World Trade Center people will always assume you're going to ground zero. I still call it freedom tower but honestly I just don't talk about it because I don't know anyone who likes that building.

@Dev1nci 3 жыл бұрын

The first time I saw the Gherkin I was in an Aston Martin dealership and it was in an image on the wall. I stood staring at it and ignoring the cars. It’s an elongated Faberge Egg. A real jewel in the London skyline. I’ll add that this was before I started studying architecture too.

@NatetheAceOfficial 3 жыл бұрын

Sears Tower will forever stand in my mind.

@cornerliston 3 жыл бұрын

Remember that Rolling Stones song “(I can't get no) Satisfaction”? No you don't because it's from now on named “(I can't get no) Corner Liston” since I pay them a monthly fee to change the name.

@jefffinkbonner9551 2 жыл бұрын

The simplicity of something like “The Space Needle” really sticks since its all in the name. The architecture really perfectly captures a futuristic outer space look even after almost 60 years of it standing. So many places have tried copying the concept of having an observation tower that’s narrow with a wider disk of an observation deck up top, but none have really captured the elegance of the original.

@ejbarkermusic 3 жыл бұрын

A curious building rename is the Burj Khalifa, which was originally called the Burj Dubai. The rename came as a part of a deal where Abu Dhabi payed off some of Dubai's debt following the financial crash.

@specialopsdave 3 жыл бұрын

The Denver Broncos' home field switches sponsors so often, that we just call it the Mile High Stadium. Much better than remembering that Sports Authority Field is now Invesco Field.

@jetfan925 3 жыл бұрын

And now Empower Field at Mile High Stadium.

@akshataggarwal8114 3 жыл бұрын

I Love the Cheesegrater (Leadenhall Building). Makes me wonder what would happen If someone decides to slide his way down. 😅

@parparparmesan6368 3 жыл бұрын

Chicago is Toronto's sister city. I find architecture on both sides of the border, especially in these two cities are as unique and almost similar (perhaps identical) in terms of vision and ideology. I love your videos Stewart. I am almost nearing my end for mathematics, I hope to study this during my masters, and if not at least continue to be educated as such through your videos :)

@melissaharris3389 2 жыл бұрын

That's because both cities have to deal with similar climate challenges: constant freeze thaw cycles, lake effect snow and storms, high winds, etc. In Toronto: ice sometimes accumulates on the sides of glass fronted buildings during certain winter conditions; large sheets of ice then plummet onto sidewalks below when the sun warms the glass. Closing sidewalks to pedestrians due to the danger. Does this also happen in Chicago?

@ntatenarin 2 жыл бұрын

@@melissaharris3389 We don't close sidewalks in winter in Chicago, although there are warning signs placed in case icicles might fall and hurt someone.

@MiamiMarkYT 3 жыл бұрын

In Nashville where I live rn there’s only two that come to mind. First is the affectionately named “Batman” building or tower. It’s an AT&T office skyscraper whose sides converge from a square to a very narrow rectangular shape with two pointy spikes on either side that look like the ears in Batman’s mask. The other one is local to my college but we added a giant 13 story dormitory to our campus that towers over the greater area which garnered the not so creative name of Tall Hall. And the nickname became so integral to its identity that it’s now official name and the only dorm (and quite possibly only building) on campus that isn’t named after donor.

@shukezi3619 3 жыл бұрын

tbh i've always really liked the name of the shard in london. it just fits it really well.

@crotchwolf1929 2 жыл бұрын

9:51 The model in that photo is the College of Education building on the Wayne State University campus in Detroit. Yamasaki designed the building to have an interior core of classrooms which were meant to prevent students from being distracted by the outside world. This design choice succeeded in giving off the effect of soulless dank holes that banish the warmth of natural light for the glare of artificial fluorescent lighting that somehow still leaves dark corners. Yeah I took classes in that building. It's nice on the outside with it's modern take on gothic arches but those classrooms are just plain awful. He also designed three other buildings including the leaky Hellen DeRoy Auditorium and the far better designed McGregor Memorial building.

@MelvinLim 3 жыл бұрын

Buildings also get the names archaeologically such as Hadrian’s Villa, Caracalla Baths, or The House of the Faun. We may never know the real names given to those buildings during their respective eras. Then we have buildings that are (re)named after religious figures such as Castel Sant’Angelo, when during pagan times it was known as Hadrian’s Mausoleum. Although both names are still used to day, the former is more popular due to its visual and current connection with the Vatican despite the obviously Roman architecture. My favourite is the Barbican because despite the ever changing political, social, and architectural climate that is associated to it, the name remains.

@nunyabiznes33 2 жыл бұрын

Isn't "barbican" an architectural term? Maybe that's why it stayed?

@GBGinmyheart 3 жыл бұрын

Hey Stewart, thanks for more great content. You should update your channel logo to include that glorious mustache, makes it easier to recognize you.

@mirhamzah7733 3 жыл бұрын

YESSSS

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Will do!

@rochelle1192 3 жыл бұрын

Loll yes

@tylero8595 2 жыл бұрын

The VAG................The Vancouver Art Gallery. No joke. Thats what they call it on the advertisement. Makes me smile every time.

@mdhazeldine 3 жыл бұрын

WE love to give buildings nick names in London: The Walkie Talkie, The Scalpel, The Cheesegrater, The Gherkin. Even Big Ben is a nick name!

@crusader9576 2 жыл бұрын

Only Big Ben technically isn't a building, it's a bell inside a building

@mdhazeldine 2 жыл бұрын

@@crusader9576 But we say Big Ben to mean the Elizabeth Tower, so that's a nick name. Lol

@crusader9576 2 жыл бұрын

@@mdhazeldine Yeah, yeah, ruin my pedantry.... ; )

@ImranZakhaev9 3 жыл бұрын

"The Mighty Black Stump"

@TheBraveExalted 3 жыл бұрын

I wonder how many times the ancient Romans changed the name of the Colosseum… “Caesar Colosseum”, “Jupiter alpha Stadium”, who can say? 😂

@sixthirty7485 3 жыл бұрын

Surprised that 20 Fenchurch Street (the Walkie-Talkie) in London wasn’t mentioned. Don’t know how anyone can dislike The Gherkin. It’s iconic in my opinion.

@alexwhitwell4266 3 жыл бұрын

The Walkie-Talkie aka the 'fry scraper' after the curved glass reflected sunlight onto the street below causing cars to melt!

@archwaldo 3 жыл бұрын

@@oltedders then you probably wouldn't like Jean Nouvel's Torre Agbar

@zantac180 2 жыл бұрын

There's a building in downtown Buffalo, NY called the William J Mahoney Building. My office was doing a project in it a few years ago, when a contractor provided us some preliminary data, but called the building "Manhoney" on the form. It's been the "William J Manhoney" building for me ever since. My coworkers are less enthused about the name.

@Hamstray 3 жыл бұрын

11:24 i thought this building was known as the *nal plug

@alexwhitwell4266 3 жыл бұрын

that title would have to go to 'the tulip', another foster and partners building not yet built

@Stettafire 2 жыл бұрын

On the North Wales coast there is a concrete monstrosity all local people call "the skip" cus it looks like a skip

@marekspike3891 2 жыл бұрын

When it comes to nick names there's a building in Warsaw, Poland which is officially named Atlas Tower (Millennium Plaza before that) that people always referred to as Toi Toi (brand of portable toilets) because of its resemblance to said establishment as well as the name of the architectural company (Vahap Toy).

@jason3304 2 жыл бұрын

The football stadium at UCF is now officially called Bounce House, as it had long been nicknamed the bounce house for the way the stands bounce when the crowd jumps

@robertadkinsii1825 3 жыл бұрын

I like the name "One Woodward Avenue", which Minoru Yamasaki used elements of when designing the original Twin Towers. It's the address of the building. BUT, there's two others in Detroit that I like the names of slightly better... "Guardian Building" and "Fisher Building". Both are visually attractive and have some really neat history in and around them.

@TreverUO 2 жыл бұрын

I’m an architecture grad of the University of Oregon and this is my new favorite channel. This made me look up “Lady Lawrence” on KZfaq and reminisce the all nighters I pulled in Lawrence hall

@devanshshah4393 3 жыл бұрын

love how you included silicon valley, man love that show

@dennisverweij4817 2 жыл бұрын

It seems to be most comments here are about pretty big or important buildings in their communities. In the city where I live, there is a whole street where above the doorway of each building there is a name for the building, regardless of their stature. Upon this street there is a building called the "Unicorn" which is neat...until you realize not even two buildings further (though a different street name) there is another building called the 'Unicorn". Both of them have a unicorn sculpture included in the facade. Just across the street more or less, there was a building called the "Kleine Winst" (the small profit), which this year was changed to "Huis van Bosch" (The house of Bosch) for the famous painter that use to live there. But when he lived there the building was probably called "Sint Anthonis" (Saint Anthony) and had at least one other name in the last 400 years, "de Rozenkrans" (The Rosary?). Ahh, the joys of naming buildings.

@JineousJ 3 жыл бұрын

10:35 also known as the Wilco towers

@PeterLiuIsBeast 3 жыл бұрын

Guangzhou Tower is sometimes called by the locals 小蛮腰 which is a colloquial term for thin waists as in a person's body.

@twistedsymphony 3 жыл бұрын

I love your videos and I've always loved architecture. Could you do a video on how to find, hire, and work with an architect for someone looking to build a modest but unique home? I'm planning on building a house soon and I'm incredibly discouraged by the building industry that seems more interesting in shoehorning generic house-plans to fit my needs and the environment rather than a house that is designed to suit those things from the ground up.

@youreyesarebleeding1368 2 жыл бұрын

Good video, you had an image of Kroger Field at the University of Kentucky at the beginning, I pass by there every day, really rare for me to see something on youtube that I've also see IRL so frequently.

@underwaterlaser1687 2 жыл бұрын

A historic 1809 windmill in my hometown is called Fool’s Mill (“Narrenmühle”).

@sixtimes 2 жыл бұрын

I went to the Illinois Institute of Technology fifteen years ago, such is just a few blocks away from Comiskey Park. The CTA Green Line runs right through campus, and just before I got there they opened a few new buildings - new dorms designed by Helmut Jahn, now called Rowe Village, and a new student center designed by Rem Koolhaas, called the McCormick Tribune Campus Center. The dorms have a glass wall that faces the train tracks meant to dampen noise, but due to their distinctive shape we called them the Toasters. The student center is right beneath the Green Line and uses a long metal tube around the tracks to deflect noise upwards, so we called it the Building Under The Tube, or The BUTT for short.

@UltravioletNomad 3 жыл бұрын

I don't know of any greater ergonomic complications created by the Gherkin, but at a glance I think its looks great. Its like if you took the top of the towers in Moscow and stretched them all the way down.

@clonemarine1 3 жыл бұрын

Not sure if this counts, but here in my local area a sculpture was recently erected on the median of a highway. It takes the form of a giant, golden ring. I don't even remember what the official name is, but everyone calls it 'The Golden Butthole', much to the chagrin of the city. Suffice to say, most people think it's an ugly waste of valuable resources.

@ryanmcpartlan8612 2 жыл бұрын

Can you do a video series that follows the progression of a single architect, looking at each of their works in detail? Idk if this would be a good topic for your style, but it would be super interesting to me if it works. I was really interested in the Peter Eisenman houses and feel like there was more to them than the 2 minutes they were touched on in this vide. Would love to see more about them!

@inktothedarkness5469 2 жыл бұрын

The students at the university I attend used to call our main building complex "the cookie boxes" because frankly, thats what the hexagonal conglomerate of shapes looks like. I hope this comes back again

@phpn99 3 жыл бұрын

In Montreal we have the Cheese Grater (Château Champlain Hotel) - that too, for obvious reasons

@athornforeveryh 3 жыл бұрын

In St. Louis, we have a large outdoor concert venue that was originally called "Riverport". It is now named "Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre", but if you're from St. Louis you still call it "Riverport". Its address is still 14141 Riverport Dr...

@tahimig1 3 жыл бұрын

Chicagoans specifically just don't like name changes. As soon as you call it the "Willis tower" or "cloud gate," you're immediately outing yourself as not being from Chicago. And I have literally never heard anyone call White Sox Stadium "guaranteed rate stadium," or whatever. The name the public uses is the important one, which isn't necessarily the one given to it by the architect or owner

@winthrop2005 3 жыл бұрын

Stewart, I really enjoy your videos, especially since you connect seemingly unrelated forces, inspiration, and context. My boyfriend is an architect and I like talking to him all about his projects, experience-a lot of influences, etc. Thanks for the content-rich information, and your own explication on design!

@georgeharris9452 3 жыл бұрын

here in chesterfield we have the crooked spire. it’s not it’s official name but it’s so important to the town that ‘spire’ is used in a lot of local businesses and other things to identify ot with chesterfield . our football club is even nicknamed the spireites because of it.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

That's a great example!

@0cer0 3 жыл бұрын

Many architects have ”case study houses“ with consecutive numbers. It started with the Eames’ and goes on to Shigeru Ban.

@ThomasB-656 3 жыл бұрын

The new owner of the Sears Tower should just rename it the Sears tower because it will always BE the Sears Tower.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Great idea!

@rapjul 3 жыл бұрын

I don’t think that would happen. Sears (the company) is unlikely to pay for their name to be on the building again, they are not doing too good financially speaking. My suggestion, if they wanted something similar to Sears but not a trademark, would be to name it either Sirius Tower or Cirrus Tower after the North Star or Cirrus clouds, which are thin, wispy clouds that form high up, respectively. We can just say the Chicago accent makes it sound like “Sears” ;)

@fc1114_ 3 жыл бұрын

@@stewarthicks I was born in Chicago. If the name on the building is Willis then I will refer to it as Willis. I do not live in the past. I am happy to embrace new names. Many people today don't even know what 'Sears' is.

@sdeepj 3 жыл бұрын

Despite having corporate names, fans will develop nicknames for their team’s arena. For example, the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia 76ers’ current arena was called the First Union Center (now called the Wells Fargo Center) back in the 2000’s. Fans would call the arena the “F U Center”, which is just so Philly. In Boston, the Bruins and Celtics play at the TD Garden, but locals simply call it “the Garden”. The “TD” stands for Toronto Dominion, which makes it odd since the Bruins’ rivals are the Toronto Maple Leafs

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Haha!

@jpmojo 3 жыл бұрын

Not a favorite but the Comcast Center known as the Comcast Tower reminds me of a giant USB stick connecting to the sky.

@cygnusx-1318 Жыл бұрын

In Northern VA we have "The Candelabra and "The Toilet Bowl" buildings.

@MrOrvilleman 2 жыл бұрын

In Brussels the football stadium was called the Heysel Stadium, named after the area it's in. However after a disaster in 1985 where several people died by trampling, after that it was renamed 'King Baudouin Stadium' after the fifth king of Belgium

@peyuko5960 2 жыл бұрын

In Mexico City there is a very tall monument named “Estela de Luz” (light trail). It was built as commemoration towards Mexico’s independence bicentennial but wasn’t opened until a year delay after the celebrations. Due to exceeding its budget and public funding (with hints that it was used to launder money), the structure is known as “The Monument to Corruption”, or as “The Great Wafer” for its resemblance to wafer bars.

@zehan2316 2 жыл бұрын

I've heard the brutalist building at the University of Toronto, the Robarts Library, be called "the Turkey".

@philthornton1382 3 жыл бұрын

Great American Ballpark is possibly the greatest naming rights deal

@tyeteams7928 2 жыл бұрын

This video had me laughing. I live in a city that is obsessed the finishing a building name with PLACE!!! We have so many places to go, but nowhere to go.

@stephanierando3477 3 жыл бұрын

I'm in San Antonio Texas. Here one of the most famous examples would be The Enchilada Library. Officially named the Central Library, when it opened in 1995. It is painted enchilada red and gold, so locals call it what it looks like, an enchilada.

@guyron8833 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for great videos! We actually have one good example here in Israel, to buildings that are named differently by the public as you said. The official name of the building is "Government Complex" located in Haifa (northern Israel), but it is best known for "Missile Tower" or "Sail Tower" due to its shape (the shape mimic a sail, as it is Haifa is a port city) 😉

@sonicgoo1121 3 жыл бұрын

Rotterdam has lots of nicknames for its architecture, from the swan (Erasmusbridge) to the pencil (Blaaktoren), and sometimes several for one thing. The beurstraverse is known both as 'koopgoot' (purchase gutter) or 'beursgleuf' (exchange slit). Meanwhile in Dublin they give their statues rhyming names. Molly Malone is the tart with the cart, James Joyce is the prick with the stick, etc.

@GameBoy616 3 жыл бұрын

I like Rialto Towers in my home city of Melbourne, very fitting for our city.

@archiboldleech 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite is “The Golden Turd” which is the nickname given to the Asahi Beer Hall in Tokyo, Japan. It was designed by Philippe Starck.

@robertwalker2052 3 жыл бұрын

There is an odd building which is part of the State Capitol complex in Albany New York. It looks like a giant tankless toilet, or perhaps a bidet. Absolutely huge, and directly across from the State Capitol, a bid Queen Anne style building. What a juxtaposition!!

@Ekebis 2 жыл бұрын

13:04 this building was also used as cover art for Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002, great indie folk rock album

@rev_dude 4 ай бұрын

As someone from chicago, it will always be the Sears Tower

@sukosuko 3 жыл бұрын

honestly, this is probably the best architecture channel on KZfaq.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the kind words!

@jfwfreo Жыл бұрын

There is a building here in Brisbane, Australia that is officially named 1 William Street because that's its address. The building is used to house bureaucrats and public servants and because of how it came about and how big it is has the unofficial name of "tower of power". There is also the State Law building that (due to the shape that the top of the building has) is nicknamed the Batman building.

@TatAlbring 3 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget the walkie talkie building in London or the cheese grater.

@ulysseslee9541 3 жыл бұрын

Due to power of Property Developers are too strong in Hong Kong, Buildings and Complex in Hong Kong are very rare to hear change the name, only like Sears Tower does, a company that rent the building almost the floor of the building as the main renter will have the Naming right of the building, such as AIA Tower in Fortress Hill and PCCW Tower in Tai Koo Place.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting!

@iantojones8021 3 жыл бұрын

in Berlin, several buildings have been giving nicknames (by tourist guides, local newspaers, sometimes the locals) "Telespargel" - tele asparagus, the TV tower at Alexanderplatz "Schwangere Auster" - pregnant oyster, house of the cultures of the world, responding to the shape of the building "Elefantenklo" / "Waschmaschine" - elefant loo / washing machine, the federal chancelary "Mäusebunker" - mice bunker, a brutalist style building which formerly housed the animal testing labs of the Free University of Berlin "Erichs Lampenladen" - Erichs Lamp Shop, the former Palace of the Republic, seat of the GDR Parliament and entertainment center, Erich = surname of Erich Honecker, longtime Head of State; lamp shop = outstanding lamp artwork inside etc. etc.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

These are great!

@howieroarke 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve taken to giving all my projects names of songs by my favorite musician. Thankfully the catalog runs pretty deep so that I can choose something appropriate without being too obvious (or likely running out!).

@fernandol.6770 3 жыл бұрын

Hello Stewart, I'm physicist who has a thing for architecture. I find your content particularly engaging, for me is the way you complement architecture topics in an integral way. The one on liminal spaces is particularly good. Some times I find the music of your videos awesomely chosen as well. I'd like to now the name of the song you use at the beginning of this video. Thank you and keep up with the awesome work.

@Ariridesbikes 3 жыл бұрын

Mexico City has a bunch of popular names for buildings. The Washing Machine (La lavadora) for the Kalakmul Building by Agustin Hernandez, the Blender (la licuadora) for the Former Mexicana Headquarters, La Suavicrema for the Estela de Luz monument, the Trousers (el pantalón) for the two main buildings in the Arcos Bosques Center, The Dorito for the Virreyes Tower, and many many more, these are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Good ones!

@robbiethemann 3 жыл бұрын

Love the first page of the xylophone part for the Copland. Really makes it.

@George-ni5ic 2 жыл бұрын

Falling Water is a great name for that house. I don’t know if it’s the official name but that’s how it’s universally known.

@javierbenez7438 3 жыл бұрын

Philadelphia used to have Veterans Stadium, where the Eagles and Phillies played. It was demolished and replaced with Citizen's Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field. Talk about reflecting our values...

@rallezam 16 күн бұрын

The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw (Pałac Kultury i Nauki) has an interesting history... it was supposed to be an addition to Stalin's seven sisters buildings and was "gifted" to Poland as they went under satellite nation status following WWII. The government was allowed to decide how it was to be used, but the design and construction were controlled by the Soviet government leading up to this. The older locals have called it Pekin (Peking, as in opera, - the old name of Beijing, based on it's Polish initialing) in a derogatory way because it didn't blend in with other brutalist architecture of the time nor any of the rehabilitated buildings post-war nor was it near any of the other buildings of that era located in the old city (Stare Miasto). As the skyline has become more modern, it is still arguably the most recognizable building in the skyline. And as the population gets younger, it will likely remain both because it is seen as an encapsulation of Poland's history and because of its multifunctionality.

@my_granny 2 жыл бұрын

I grew up not far from the Big Chicken. It's a KFC with a large structure on it that looks like a rather abstract chicken. Back when you got your driving directions from locals rather than your phone, any directions that took you past it would include which way to go at the Big Chicken.

@zabrina1019 Жыл бұрын

There's a round concrete tower building in Tampa called "The Beercan". I actually had to look up it's real name, Rivergate Tower

@thomascoghlan5967 3 жыл бұрын

‘Jeff’s Shed’ in Melbourne. Nobody refers to it as ‘Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre’. The nickname is after the Premier who commissioned it and the uninspired shed-like architecture.

@beatejordaan3397 2 жыл бұрын

We have apartment buildings in Cape Town we call the Tampon towers. They are obnoxiously built on the foot of one of the most prominent mountains. It's very difficult to not see them, no matter where you are in the city.

@1Reevee 3 жыл бұрын

The Sears tower is probably the longest sticking old name for a building in Chicago. People still regularly use it to this day.

@shanekeenaNYC 2 жыл бұрын

When someone talks about the World Trade Center, I think of the Twin Towers, and I am a young millennial.

@quinosonic82 3 жыл бұрын

Nicknames: the walkie talkie (20 Fenchurch Street), el rulero (Torre Prourban), el panal (Centro Cívico del Bicentenario). Stadiums would need a very long list, at least in Argentina, where 99% of them get nicknames (never a brand).

@ashleyhamman 2 жыл бұрын

Here in Sacramento we have "The Ziggurat", which is the original and current name of the building, and of course calls back to ancient ziggurats, while the building itself is memorable simply because it resembles a pyramid in general. It sits right on the waterfront across from the historic district, with bridges that are local favorites to either side, giving it real staying power as an identity.

@AYoungdude 3 жыл бұрын

The box gratter and the mighty black stump

@unerbittlich 2 жыл бұрын

In marburg, a city in germany, we call one building the "affenfelsen" (ape rock)

@stewarthicks 2 жыл бұрын

Ooo good one

@nazarenoperezpelicon947 3 жыл бұрын

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of the biggest football (soccer) team's stadium is called "La Bombonera" or the Chocolate Box/ Bonbons Case since the bulk of the seats are in one side. That nickname is so engrained I bet only the most hardcore fans must know the real name!

@pghrpg4065 2 жыл бұрын

When I was a kid, I called One PPG in Pittsburgh (which was new at the time) the Wizard of Oz's castle.

@jacobash5904 3 жыл бұрын

11:26 AHEM...... "Pickle" yes that is what I was thinking..... It's a pickle👀👀

@stewarthicks 3 жыл бұрын

Double entendre

@jrm78 2 жыл бұрын

A friend of mine had told me that one of the nicknames for Soldier Field after the widely panned 2003 renovation was "the muffin-top" due to it's resemblance to the muffin-top body shape.

@TomCouger 3 жыл бұрын

The "Walkie Talkie" in London.

@joeschneider9006 2 жыл бұрын

At Arizona State we have the Nipple of Knowledge. It’s a skylight structure on top of the underground entrance to the library.

@Josh_Quillan 3 жыл бұрын

This all made me remember the 'Lego Building' at Reading University (UK) where my dad once worked and he and I used to play and cycle. It was always just "the Lego Building" and I realised I never knew its real name. Turns out it's a 1970s brutalist icon by Howell, Killick, Partridge & Amis officially named the URS Building, and I'm pleased to learn that nowadays it's a Grade II listed building (i.e. it's protected from demolition or substantial modification because of its importance as a piece of architecture).