The last of Nouvel’s work is my favorite of all the buildings I found. Building C1 in Bolougne Billancourt, France is a magnificent building that has shops and offices in it. From the pictures I have seen it looks remarkable. There are rooftop terraces, gardens, and a retractable cover that can go over the roof to cover the garden. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it is green and healthy for the environment. There are three parts to the structure, almost like a wedding cake. The bottom part is dark and looks more like office buildings, the middle part is offset and has terraces with gardens around it, it looks better in my opinion and has lots of personality. The top of the building is skinnier and has a V shaped roof, with gardens throughout. This is honestly one of the coolest structures I have ever seen.

One of the coolest building I found, and the only one that I had seen in person, was the Opera Nouvel. At the time I visited I obviously had no idea who Nouvel was, and I did not even know it was named after him. While browsing through his work I found it and recognized it from my childhood trip to France. The Opera house is a blend of present and 1800’s architecture. This was a renovation, so some of the original Opera house design stayed, but Nouvel added his own flair. The renovation doubled the building’s height with a steel and glass vault. The top of the building is what really separates it from other designs in the area.

The second Nouvel building that caught my eye was the Arab World Institute. Nouvel used Islamic architecture for the buildings design. This is a work of art; I really wish I could see it in person. It is made up of light sensitive apertures, these are inspired by oriel windows. This structure is huge, the outside looks like a bunch of windows with crazy designs to an untrained eye like mine, so it is really interesting reading that they are designed after oriel windows. It was founded in 1980 and is located in Paris, France.

I had no idea who Jean Nouvel was before this blog, but after looking him up I saw what amazing work he had done. The first building of his I came across was the Torre Agbar, which is located in Barcelona, Spain. This building looks insane, in a good way. It is tall and narrow, with extraordinary colored lights all the way up. Spain’s municipal water company is the lucky dweller of this masterpiece. Nouvel wanted the building to look like a geyser rising into the air.

When I was younger I went to New Orleans and got to experience some of the food and historic areas. I was only 17 when I went, so I did not get to experience the nightlife or anything to cool, but I still got to look around the city. The French Quarter architecture stood out to me. I could not tell you anything in architecture terms but in layman terms, it was cool. Obviously I was young, so I was not looking too deep into the reasoning behind why the buildings looked the way they did. The building I am posting a picture of stood out to me, it reminded me of some movie that I cannot put a finger on. When I think back to being there and taking this picture, I feel a certain sense of nostalgia. New Orleans is a happy and goofy place, with lots of character, I think the feelings that this building represents for me are happy and goofy as well.

Two years ago my dad and I rented out a fire watchtower in the wilderness of Montana. It was located on the top of a medium-sized mountain and was one room that was about 30 feet off the ground. This building brings back good, but also terrible memories. We had to hike up the mountain with about 15lb’s of gear, a spotting scope to watch for wildlife with, and food/drink. I am an avid outdoorsman, but this particular hike had me a little sketched out. We kept seeing grizzly and cougar tracks, so by the time we were almost to the top I was extremely paranoid that we were going to get attacked. When we reached the tower, I had a sudden sensation of not being able to breathe, the altitude was getting to me. This induced a panic attack from the lack of oxygen and the overwhelming feeling of a bear attack potentially happening.

The panic attack soon went away but I was left with a hangover, for lack of a better word. We got up into the watch tower and started using our spotting scope to look for animals. We ended up seeing a grizzly on a peak across from us. Around this time we saw humans coming our way. They came up to our watchtower and told us that they had rented it and that we had to leave. We assured them that we rented it as well, we even had a key. It was dark at this time, so they could not just hike back down so we agreed to all stay in the one room together. We had to sleep with complete strangers at 9,000 feet. As you can imagine this was extremely uncomfortable. To make matters worse (or better) it was my birthday. When I think back to this building, I love the idea of it, but hate the reality of it.

When I visited Chania, Crete. I wondered upon the oldest lighthouse in the world, supposedly. It was built by the Venetians and renovated by the Egyptians. This structure has meaning to me because I had never seen anything like it before. I do not like to fly, so traveling this far was scary for me. When I think back to the emotions I was feeling when viewing this structure I cannot help but feel a little overwhelmed. The whole trip I was a little stressed out about flying back home. This structure is extremely historic in my eyes.

My first building is the Donald W.  Reynolds Recreation Center in Pauls Valley, OK. This building means a lot to me. When I was in 8th grade I went to the 5:30 A.M. grand opening of this great establishment. It has a weight room, indoor track, and 3 full-sized basketball courts. I spent the majority of my time throughout junior high and high school at the Rec Center. I still to this day workout at the Rec Center four times a week. This building means everything to me, my biggest passion is working out, so when I think of the Rec Center I think of my favorite things.