{"id":527,"date":"2012-06-28T12:51:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T12:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/facadesign.us\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2012-06-28T12:51:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T12:51:32","slug":"last-night-one-week-ago-in-paris-we-celebrated-the-best-of-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facadesign.us\/blog\/2012\/06\/28\/last-night-one-week-ago-in-paris-we-celebrated-the-best-of-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Last night -one week ago in Paris, we celebrated the best of the…"},"content":{"rendered":"


Dean Marchetto’s Apse<\/p>\n


Ronan’s Poetry<\/p>\n


Eiffel from Nouvel<\/p>\n


Pantheon<\/p>\n


BLDGs Building<\/p>\n


New housing near Library<\/p>\n


Goodbye Paris<\/p>\n

Last night -one week ago in Paris<\/strong>, we celebrated the best of the best with our Trophy Zinc Award ceremony.\u00a0 This ceremony takes place once every two years and is judged by an international jury of architects.\u00a0 The ceremony itself is preluded and followed by events that circle the sun of architecture and art.\u00a0 This blog entry\u00a0is a quick recap of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the ceremony began, we took the winners on a little Paris sight-seeing trip.\u00a0 First stop was lunch on top of Jean Nouvel’s Musee du quai Branly.\u00a0(http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/2oykwm<\/a><\/a>) The museum is one of the newer additions to the city of lights, and is located close to the Eiffel Tower.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One notable feature of the restaurant, out of many, is the attention to detail that Mr. Nouvel extended to the interior finishes.\u00a0 Like, for example, applying permanent shadows to casework and carpet that reflects the skeletal frame holding up yards of glazing for the restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0As the skies move from zinc-colored drama to full-tilt sunshine, the real shadows ebb and flow as they overlay the permanent (created) ones and the whole ensemble starts to dance.\u00a0 It is dynamic, but in an understated way that could easily be missed without inspection.\u00a0 With a room full of architects, very little was missed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, the views are also notable.\u00a0 The shot above of the Eiffel was taken from the restaurant’s exterior deck.\u00a0 The shot was taken from in front of a wide gutter that warns one of the edge and possibly death below.\u00a0 It is slightly visible in the lower right-hand corner of the shot.\u00a0 (Lautner-esque in execution. Think: Marbrisa in Acapulco\u00a0 <\/em>http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/7cwet9n<\/a><\/a>)\u00a0 <\/em>Whereas other parts of the restaurant deck have low rails and glass partitions.<\/p>\n

The scale, the massing of the housing blocks, and the rich texture pulls one forward -there is little choice in the matter.\u00a0 Perhaps, subsequently, someone at the museum decided that more of previously seen glass partitions should warn\u00a0patrons of a drop beyond the wide gutter-slash-water feature.\u00a0 We slipped passed these glass warnings easily and grabbed myriad shots with cheap (as is the case with the above shot) or expensive\u00a0 cameras.\u00a0 (Note:\u00a0 No participants in the Trophy Zinc Award program were hurt in the filming of this event.\u00a0 However, very few participants could resist the promise of memories of the view.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Nouvel’s aerie, we traveled to a newer neighborhood surrounding Mitterrand’s National Library -The Bibliotheque Nationale de France.\u00a0 To be honest, this was unexpected by the group.\u00a0 Most tours of Paris involve the more well known landmarks and monuments.\u00a0 This tour included this up and coming neighborhood, the library itself, the School of Architecture nearby, and tons of projects covered in glorious zinc.\u00a0 (Sorry.\u00a0 Shameless self-promotion.)\u00a0 One of Corbusier’s buildings was swathed in the clothing of remodeling -otherwise this blog post would have been easily overrun with a tribute to the master.\u00a0 Instead, we looked at the byproducts of modern masters and enjoyed every moment of it.\u00a0 We did in hours what could have\u00a0been done (enjoyably)\u00a0in days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tour cumulated in a quick stop back at respective hotels\u00a0late in the afternoon.\u00a0 This was done so that one and all could appear freshly laundered at the big event later in the evening.\u00a0 The American contingency was fairly amped up.\u00a0 But then again, what do Parisians expect of Americans?\u00a0 It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u00a0 In addition to our natural outgoing, somewhat irrepressible enthusiasm, we were jazzed because three Americans won awards in this international competition.\u00a0\u00a0 The Americans were not alone, however.\u00a0The winners arrived from distant lands such as Asia, Australia, and Hoboken, NJ.\u00a0 (Please excuse the slight ribbing that we give our good friend from Hoboken.)\u00a0 Spain, Germany and France won, too.\u00a0 Here is a\u00a0complete list of the winners:<\/p>\n