One of the first projects that Le Corbusier constructed was known as Villa Le Lac.  Villa Le Lac was designed as a private home for Le Corbusier’s parents and was completed in 1924.  It was the first of his seventeen buildings that would later be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of Architecture sites.  Unlike most of his projects, Villa Le Loc is a modest one-story home, however, it still features many of the design elements that he was well known for during the machine age of architecture.  The building’s design is minimalistic and was the birthplace of some of the five points that would be incorporated into his greatest project, Villa Savoye.  One of the points that he realized while working on this project was the inclusion of a flat and usable roof.  This would become a key element for his later projects and helped tie inside elements with the outside elements.  The other point that he developed while working on this project was the use of an adaptable floor plan devoid of any weight-bearing walls.  This would also be a key element that he incorporates into other well-known projects.  He also included a panoramic window that stretched across the length of the main interior living space.  This element would also become one of his five points that he used for other projects.  His parents lived in the house until 1960 when his mother died.  The house was opened to the public in 1984 and was restored in 2012.

Villa La Roche is a house in Paris that was constructed from 1923 to 1925 by a French architect called Le Corbusier.  The house was designed for Raoul La Roche, a wealthy swiss banker, who contracted Le Corbusier to design him a house where he could display his art collection as well as a place to live.  This building is an example of Machine Age Architecture which Le Corbusier was well known for at the time.  It also incorporates Le Corbusier’s five-point theory of architecture which was to use pilotis, has an open floor plan, a free facade, a rood garden, and long horizontal windows.  This project was one of many of his projects from this time in his career where he incorporated a minimalist aesthetic to design a modern piece of architecture.  As I mentioned before, the house was built to serve two purposes: to act as a space to live for La Roche and his family and to act as a place to exhibit his expensive art collection.  For this reason, the project was split into two separate buildings.  On one side La Roche had a private apartment and adjacent to that was the section that was created to display his art collection.  The building was declared a historical monument in 1996 and now operates as a museum.  It is also just one of seventeen buildings that Le Corbusier designed that is now a part of UNESCO’s World Heritage List of Architecture sites. 

One of Le Corbusier’s most famous designs is a small chapel located in Ronchamp, France known as the Notre Dame Du Haut.  Notre Dame Du Haut is commonly thought of as one of Le Corbusier’s most extreme works because of its overall design and how many complexities are put into one small building.  During the time of this project, Le Corbusier was no longer interested in the simplistic and modern Machine Age architecture that he had focused on in his earlier career.  The structure is small and mostly made up of concrete and stone which was done to pay homage to the original chapel on the site which was destroyed by bombings during World War II.  It features a large upturned roof which is supported by numerous columns that are built into the exterior walls of the building.  One of the most interesting aspects of the chapel is the south wall.  Le Corbusier spent months just on the design of the south wall itself.  Rather than just a normal wall that is perpendicular to the other two that it borders, the south wall curves out from the building in a shape that is similar to the roof of the chapel.  To make it even more interesting he incorporated many different types of windows to make it look even more complex and extraordinary.  On the south wall, there appears to be a random assortment of windows of arbitrary sizes and depth but Le Corbusier dismissed this claim.  Le Corbusier claims that the windows are ordered according to the “golden ratio.”  Le Corbusier also filled the inside of this wall from the rubble of the previous chapel so that all of its history and meaning would live on in the new chapel.

Villa Savoye was designed by Le Corbusier and originally built to be a country retreat for the Savoye family.  The building was completed in 1929 and is located in Poissy, France, a small town situated just outside of Paris.  The Villa Savoye is arguably one of the most well known architectural projects from the 1930s because of its influence on international modernism.  The building was a perfect example of what Le Corbusier called Machine Age Architecture.  The villa followed Le Corbusier’s new design style which included five main points: elevate the building to allow for a garden to be situated underneath the structure, include a functional roof that also serves as a garden and terrace, incorporate a floor plan devoid of load-bearing walls, including long horizontal windows that illuminate and ventilate the building, and freely designed facades.  The base of the building is set back into the body of the house and painted green to give the illusion that the building is one giant box sitting on top of fragile piers.  Like many other great architects, it was Le Corbusier’s mission to incorporate nature with his architecture.  He achieved this by incorporating a garden into the terrace, making it a “room without walls.”  His design incorporated the indoors and outdoors which allowed the owners to experience both simultaneously.  Villa Savoye was a breakthrough for what we would now call “modern architecture” because of its use of concrete and simplicity.

The Sagrada Familia is one of the most important buildings to me because of the way it impacted my view on architecture.  The building was designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1883 and is still being constructed. Gaudi combined both Gothic and Art Nouveau design when planning the Cathedral. Since Gaudi’s death, some of his original design plans have been destroyed and engineers spent roughly sixteen years reconstructing the original plans so that they can keep building as close as possible to the original design. The building had an impact on me because of the different styles of architecture that it uses and because it is the first big piece of architecture that I have seen outside of the United States.  The different design was something that I had never seen before and something that I never would have expected for a cathedral. I recently read that it is supposed to be complete by the year 2026 and hope that I can visit again someday to see the finished product.

I am from Tulsa and the BOK Center is one of the buildings that I have always been interested in since the time that it has been built.  Recently, Tulsa has been working on some more modern projects like The Gathering Place and One Technology Center but before these projects, much of downtown Tulsa is built in the Art Deco style.  The BOK Center was different than anything that I had ever seen at that point and actually made me interested in architecture. The most interesting feature to me was the shape of the exterior of the building that uses stainless steel and glass to create a circular swirling shape.  It is also important to me because I have good memories of the times that I have visited the BOK Center. Some of my favorite memories from visiting this building include the march madness and OKC Thunder basketball games that I would go see with my dad when I was younger. While I have good memories at this building the main reason it is important to me is because of the influence it had on me towards architecture.

Walker Tower is one of the three main dormitories for freshmen at the University of Oklahoma.  It was constructed in 1966 during what was a time of enormous growth of the student body at the University of Oklahoma.  It was originally called Couch North, however, in 1970 it was renamed Walker tower to honor Edward A. Walker, who was a prominent banker in Oklahoma City.  Walker tower is important to me because I have so many good memories of living there. I met some of my best friends there and shared some of my most fond memories while living in this building.  When I think back on my time at the University of Oklahoma I am so many of my favorite memories come from my time that I spent there. While it is not the best-looking building on campus, the memories that come with it is what separates it from so many of the other buildings on campus.

Bizzell Memorial Library is an important building for me because of the amount of time that I have spent there and because I like the architecture of the building.  As a student at OU, I have spent countless hours studying in this building and it is the first building that comes to mind when I think of the University of Oklahoma.  It was constructed in 1929 and features a type of architecture known as Cherokee gothic which is something that I think makes our campus unique. I definitely spend more time at the Biz than I do any other building, whether I am studying by myself in the Great Reading Room or with friends between classes.  The Bizzell Memorial Library is definitely one of the buildings that I will remember the most after I graduate from college.