This structure is a memorial located in Padua, Italy built in honor of victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York City in 2001. One interesting thing about this memorial is that it has a twisted steel beam that was salvaged from the World Trade Center after the attacks incorporated in it. The design of this memorial was meant to model an open book, which was the first thing I initially thought before reading that. The project was completed in 2005.

This particular part of the Royal Ontario Museum is an extension completed in 2007 and looks almost like crystals coming out of the back of a building. This building is probably my favorite that I’ve seen of Libeskind’s work so far, simply because of how the exterior blends so well together even though it is compromised of two entirely different structural types. The Crystal structure was apparently one of the most complicated projects in North America at the time, and involved lots of different strategies to be able to build it and have it be a stable structure.

This apartment building is located in Berlin, Germany and was completed in November of 2017. The bottom floor contains retail shops and the rest of the floors are for residential living. Each apartment has an angled window to bring in natural light and make the apartment feel more spacious. I like this building because of the geometric patterned layout that Libeskind incorporates into his work. It makes each building look like they are popping out at you, as if it is an optical illusion or something.

This building was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and the project was completed in 2016. Durham University was looking to house a new research facility for the study of fundamental physics and commissioned Libeskind to create it. The building is very interesting to look at, you can see it allows for natural light in very interesting ways besides just lining up rows of windows. The program particularly wanted smaller workspaces for research, which are all located along the exterior of the building so that each room gets an adequate amount of natural light. The exterior of the building is my favorite, it almost looks as if two structures are placed kind of on top/inside of each other.

I chose to write about the new Norman Public Library because I just love the way it is designed both on the outside and inside. When I first saw the library being built in town, I had no idea what to expect as to what the building was going to turn out to be. When I learned it was going to be the new library, I was excited to see what the finished product would be. The design of the building is an open concept with lots of windows to allow natural lighting in, which is one of my favorite kinds of design concepts for buildings.

Meow Wolf is an art exhibit building in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s kind of like an interactive art museum, which looks like a normal building from the outside and then has insanely detailed exhibits inside such as the one pictured above. I visited this place last year when I was visiting some friends in New Mexico, and it was definitely one of the coolest buildings that I had been inside of to date. There are lights of all different colors, everything was built in an interesting way with all sorts of different building materials. If you are ever in Santa Fe, I would recommend stopping at Meow Wolf.

This building is interesting to me because I can remember when I was a child and thought it was so cool that they were building a new restaurant on the water. As I grew older, this building has still sat in the same spot unoccupied. There could have been a lot of good investments made in this building, but it doesn’t seem like anything will ever happen with it. It’s become a sort of joke amongst people who have lived in Norman for a while.

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A building that has influenced me in a positive way is Devon Energy Hall on the University of Oklahoma’s campus. I like this building because it takes advantage of natural lighting with plenty of windows surrounding the perimeter of the building, which I have found that a lot of buildings that I have had classrooms in on campus have had a lack of windows. The design of the building is also intriguing to me. The building has a balcony on the 5th floor that only students in the college of engineering have access to, which makes for a great study area when the weather is nice.  Overall, this building is what I would consider an ideal learning environment for students who like to feel like there is more “open space” around them in the classroom.