Andrew Sullivan over at Daily Dish has been fixating on penis inspired buildings for the last week (post1, post2….), so I thought I’d add my two cents to the fun.
From the time of the Renaissance, Western thinkers like Leone Battista Alberti have suggested the ultimate aim of the artist was to imitate nature, so it should be no surprise that some people look below their navels when they think of erecting something.
Anyway, here are my eight picks as the most anatomically correct structures:
- San Diego’s new downtown tower (link) which city officials want the architect to tone it down (the original edifice is pictured above);
- Hydropolis in Dubai, which is the world’s first luxury underwater hotel…comically, hotel developer & designer, Joachim Hauser said about the project, “Hydropolis is not a project; it’s a passion”….umm, ok…;
- Jean Nouvel’s Torre Agbar in Barcelona, which is the pride of the city it seems;
- Norman Foster’s Swiss Re building, often referred to as the Gherkin, but also mischievously called the “butt plug”;
- the new Cooper Square hotel in New York is definitely suggestive;
- Florida’s State Capital, is certainly the MOST anatomically correct;
- Michigan’s Ypsilanti Water Tower (aka The Brick Dick) is a historic water tower, now which way do you think the water comes out?;
- then there are these, which aren’t buildings but concrete dividers, but still getting gasps in one Oregon town (local news story with video).