I would have loved to see this place in its prime (or, at least, when it was new -- I'm not sure if it was ever all that successful). It must have looked so modern and futuristic when it was built, with glass everywhere, exposed structure (back when that was done for aesthetics rather than just to be cheap), and those see-through escalators stretching up to the rooftop theater. I wonder what sort of architecture of today we'll look back on in a similar way 30 years from now -- I can't think of much that has been built recently (in the Seattle area, at least) with a similarly timely and impressive design.
The standards seem to be a lot lower these days with modern buildings! Forget impressive elevators and escalators. A modern building, or even an older one, is lucky these days to even have operating elevators and escalators. So many of them are out of order these days (or escalators just turning into stairs as Mitch Hedberg might have said!) and it takes a long time to get them fixed. The building I work in has an elevator which has been out of service for at least a month now 'because it is old'. But then my workplace has a newer facility, built in 2022, and all four of their brand new elevators went out and were out for about four months because the same part failed in all of them and there was a long backorder! Without working elevators, any multi-floor building basically turns into a functional disaster especially given handicap accessibility and so forth.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly the JCPenney at my local mall has had both of their escalators out of order for over five months now. Now, there might be problems there that are more JCPenney-oriented than anything else, but still. It is hard for the public to take these stores seriously when even basic things are non-functional.
There are things from this generation which will probably stand out in future decades, though I don't know if it'll be in a good way. LED 'neon' might be a good thing, at least compared to no neon at all. A return to earthtone flooring, in builds which have flooring, might not be a bad thing. Weird looking LED lights, simply because LED lighting allows such strange things, might be a weird fad and maybe there will be a return to more functional lighting fixtures once the gee-whiz factor in lighting goes away.
One design I've noticed which is trendy these days, though less so in retail than in hotels and other public buildings, are tiles which are put which make them look like 3D boxes. You see this in software all the time these days too. I'm sure that trend will come and go at some point and will look very dated, lol.
Oh, there are also those buildings, mostly small retail ones, which have that fake rusty look. Eww. Hopefully you don't have those in your area!
That sort of "weird" decorative LED lighting is to this decade what neon was to the 90s, like it or not. Though narrow LED strips taking the place of general lighting (in place of panels or wider fluorescent strips) is a big trend right now! Earth tones (green more than neutrals), woodgrain, and "soft"/curved designs are also big trends these days -- it's trendy to call that "biophilic" design, especially when plants are included. Cedar Hall at the US Bank Center in Seattle is one of the best large-scale examples of that I can think of (which is interesting since it's not actually a new building, just a remodel of what used to be a very 80s lobby), and also features a lot of Art Deco flair, which also seems to be very popular in interior design right now (the Delta One Lounge at JFK that I recently visited is another good example of that trend).
DeleteOh yeah, that 3D tile thing is definitely another right-now sort of trend. I prefer the actual 3D wall tiles that are somewhat popular (mostly for residential use, I suspect). To be honest, I just like most tilework, especially if it's colorful (like we see on the floor here)!
Huh, is the fake rusty (Corten steel) look still trendy in your area? I feel like that was a trend that peaked maybe 5-10 years ago.
Now that you mention it, the fake rust look buildings I'm familiar with probably did open in the 2010s sometime. Hopefully that trend has passed! I should say that I rarely visit the newer suburbs of Houston, especially 2020s ones, so it is hard for me to say what is really trendy around here since most of the buildings I go to, including retail, are from the early 2000s or older...sometimes a lot older.
DeleteMy workplace has two newer buildings I've visited and one of them, which was completed in 2020-21, has that 3D looking tile pattern on their water fountain backsplashes...and maybe in the restrooms too, I've never been in one. It looks kind of neat and trendy, though I don't know how well that'll age! I also doubt my workplace would spend a lot of money doing retiling in the future, so it'll likely just get painted over or something if it gets really out of date. Ick. At least it looks okay now.
The new building which is being built where I'll work has a lot of woodgrain finishes and such, but there isn't really any green to it that I know of. Mostly just wood finishes, red, copper, and so forth. It isn't like the 1970s, though that US Bank Center does look a bit like that! It has too much natural light coming from the walls to really be 1970s looking, though that might be unavoidable in that type of building. Hopefully the new building I'll be in will be a bit more conservative with the wacky LED lighting fixtures like what the aforementioned 2020-21 building and the 2022 building has!