Brookes, 1/29/09

Going downtown Orlando for class on Thursday was a really good way to relate what we are learning in CMC 300 to our every day surroundings. Before learning about these different styles of architecture, I would have looked at the Bank of American building and the courthouse in Orlando as just another building, yet since the reading, our discussions and our field trip, I have become more aware of why things are built the way they are. Looking at the courthouse, it looked powerful, dominating, serious, which is exactly what it is meant to signify. The courthouse showed disharmonious harmony, in the way that it had many different styles of windows, marble, structures that came together in a complimentary way. It was intriguing how the building looked like the actual use of the building. The way it was built signified what the purpose of the building. This shows how in previous classes we learned about signs and signifiers this can be tied in with architecture showing that the way something is built can be a clear sign of what the building is trying to signify.
Another building we looked at was the Bank of America Building. There were many different opinions about the building itself and what kind of rules and themes it followed; yet to me it was radical eclecticism in most aspects. The building did not go together at all with the “absent center” the different styles of windows, the columns, and the glass pyramid. The columns of the building looked as though it was mimicking classical style, where in ancient times it looked like a place where the ancient Greeks would do business, which is exactly what happens in the bank. This is the only part of the building that worked in my opinion. I never realized how interesting looking and analyzing different styles of art and architecture would be, yet now that I can put themes and styles with buildings and history, and see the reasons and purposes for building it in the first place.