This building by Jean Nouvel is in Barcelona, Spain and as you can see, at night it is beautiful.  The lights that illuminate the building provides cool scenery for the city and in quite a cool shape. The building has a profile similar to that of a bullet from a gun. The reason I like this building so much is because it is a corporate building! Most cool looking buildings are museums but it is not often that a company whose focus is typically making money to have an art piece for a corporate headquarters.

Unlike most of Pelli’s work in supertowers, his creation of the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan is a very different and unique architectural masterpiece done by Pelli. The construction actually began three levels underground, based on strict geometry that is expressed in the form and silhouette of the towers. The museum presents an explosive, amorphous facade, completely free of geometric constraints of any kind. The museum was mainly dedicated to holding contemporary art collections to attract the public and tourists from other countries. The limitations of the area were the main cause of why the museum had to be built underground at the start. The area is crisscrossed by several underground streams, calling for triple-layered concrete walls reaching 3 meters in thickness. This smart architecture allows for protection against earthquakes and general moisture that forms underground.

The Willow Tearooms in Glasgow Scotland were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and first opened up in 1903. They are a huge tourist destination in Glasgow and are one of Mackintosh’s most popular works. The original tearooms have been through its fair share of rough patches, being forclosed at times and even turning into a department store. Some of the tea rooms are open once again after a remodel to try to look like the original early 1900s classic British look. They were used for entertainment, having floors of billiards and bars for men as well as the classic tea rooms. <original tearoom

The Tours Duo in Paris, France is a novel of a building. This work of art was opened just this year and it just received permission to house condominiums which means French residents will be able to house themselves in this amazing building. The reason I chose to feature this building is the cool design and its practicality. Many buildings are cool but don’t have a great use. This building is quite the opposite. Housing civilians is a great way to provide people with shelter and doing so with such a cool design is very neat.

Another great chapel constructed by E. Fay Jones is also located in Arkansas. I am sensing a theme with his work, however, this specific body was built alone Lake Norwood in Bella Vista, Arkansas. The Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel is a popular tourist attraction among visitors and is continually used today as a venue for weddings.

Like many other wonderful constructions, another supertower architectural masterpiece by Pelli is the Unicredit Tower. Located in Milan, Italy, this tower began construction in 2003 and was completed around 2012. The headquarters of the tower is a complex of three towers. The tower spirals upward, with the asymmetrical main tower being culminated in a sculptural, stainless steel spire. However, like the two smaller towers, the building is clad in reflective glass. The narrow, curved forms of this encloses Piazza Gae Aulenti, a new public space recently introduced to the tower. When you look at the tower from the street level, the tower are in fact clad in stone. And, around the piazza, a ring-shaped canopy connects the podiums of the three towers. Extending the plaza is a public space with several eating places and public shops that attract the public well.

The Thorncrown Chaple is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the same state that E. Fay Jones is cited to have been born and raised. It is used as a church building and is a prominent one. It was included in Budget Travels’ 12 most beautiful churches list. It was built in 1980. The American Institute of Architects honored the Thorncrown Chapel with its 25-year award in 2006.

Queen Cross Church is also known as “Mackintosh Church” because of its designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It was completed in September of 1899 and was open immediately as a Protestant Church. Instead of a tall cathedral type of design, Mackintosh went with a design more like a Norman Castle, or modern gothic. The church decommissioned in the 1970s and is now used as a tourist attraction called the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

Another wonderful architectural masterpiece that Pelli constructed was the salesforce tower in San Fransisco, California. The elegant building joins 18 other supertowers as the only ones standing 300 meters or taller. In San Fransisco, the building towers above all others in the area, allowing for the tower’s blue glass and integrated sunshades gleam over the city for an amazing sight. The tower’s slim, but slightly inflated form sharply contrasts San Fransisco’s 1980s era skylines. The towers structure was build on the focus of stability and sustainability. Integrated metal sunshades in the tower allow for maximizing lights and views to the outside, while at the same time reducing solar gain. As far as the glass, the tower contains low-emission glass to reduce the building cooling load, making it extremely efficient. The 1.1 billion dollar tower is still being finished to house over 5000 employees, as a boom for employment in a popular city like San Fransisco.

The lighthouse in Glasgow Scotland was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and completed in 1895. It is owned by Glasgow City council and is used as Scotlands center of design and Architecture since 1999. It currently employs around 100 people and is a historical piece of architecture to learn from today. It has a very iconic and mesmerizing staircase that is timeless.