This is the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego which includes the beautiful extension, included with a courtyard, designed by Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. The design is complementary to the contemporary art that is inside the building. It captures the main idea of their architecture and their legacy.

They designed this fire station in 1968 in Indiana. The idea was to make this an ordinary building and easy to maintain. They did it but now it is an iconic fire station designed by these two. It provides a great space for fire fighters, while also incorporating the unique architecture of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

Another building designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown was the Children’s Museum of Houston. This was completed in 1992 and it shows the vibrant and playful designs. This great mixture of fun and classical architecture gave kids in the Houston area classrooms, art studios, and fun places to learn.

Robert Venturi and his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, designed an extension to London’s National Gallery. They are known for putting a contemporary aspect on the design to this building. The extension they designed was 120,000 square feet and opened in 1991. This is a picture of the Gallery and shows the contemporary design that they went with.

I visited Chicago back in middle school and one of the highlights was visiting the sears tower. This skyscraper was built as an office building for Sears because at the time (1973), Sears was a very big company and was expanding. It is 110 floors high and when you are at the top, you can look over the city and it is the highest from the ground I have ever been. It was a really cool experience and I remember doing research on why the building was designed the way it was built. I think the most interesting part about this tower was that it was just built as an office building for a company. It is an iconic building in Chicago and the biggest one too. This is the best memory I have of Chicago and the biggest structure I have seen in my life. It impacted me in a great way because it was a feeling I will never be able to forget looking down at the city from the top of the Sears tower.

I have family down in San Antonio so I get to visit the city a lot. I have learned a lot about this building and the history behind it is very interesting because it revolves around Texas earning their freedom from Mexico and fighting in the war. The Texans were way outnumbered but they put up an honorable fight. I have taken the tour a few times and one important note was how the Texans were able to turn a mission that was supposed to spread the word of God into a battlefield that they held down. Even though this building isn’t the most interesting piece of architecture or the tallest building in Texas, this structure has a special place in my heart because it is where many people lost their lives fighting for their freedom. The fighters used the building as well as they could to fight off the Mexicans and defend their position. I think the Texans were able to fight off the Mexicans well because they used the architecture of the building, even though they were under siege and outnumbered. 

Last summer I went to St. Louis and I was able to witness the Gateway arch in person. One thing I did not expect was all the history that went behind the arch. I learned about the time in which they planned on building it and I learned a lot about the Mississippi River. It is symbolic for the wayward west in the 19th century. Me and my family got tickets to ride to the top and that was an experience I would never forget. I am not a big fan of heights and this ride to the top was scary. Four of us were squeezed into a small ball that took us to the top of the arch. It was dark and it took about four minutes to get to the top and it was the four longest minutes of my life. At the top, there is a standing area and windows on both sides to look out. It was cool to overlook the city and on the other side of the river. This impacted me because I learned how we were able to build a unique structure in the 19th century. 

In my hometown of Dallas, Texas the reunion tower is a unique building downtown and it is made up of a long skinny base with a circular ball up top and this is the most memorable building I have because it was the weirdest building I have seen in person. The tower is supposed to represent a dandelion. It goes back to the prairie – bound past while also moving forward to the present skyscraper era. I have seen this building multiple times in life but I remember the first time I saw it I was amazed and I was filled with tons of questions. This building impacted me because I saw this when I was very young and it first interested me in architecture. After this building I started noticing more buildings and seeing how they were made. I want to use this building as my first one in the blog because this was the first building that opened my eyes to architecture. I remember walking through the halls and even taking an elevator ride to the top. It took awhile to get up there but the view was well worth it and something I had never seen before.