Varying Perceptive – IAC Building

Added : 05 Oct 2010 | Visits : 3931 | Average votes : %

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Constructed in concrete, California based architect Frank Gehry’s IAC buildings in New York is a dynamic well-designed building with different perspectives in form.

It is complex to perceive a building with a changing image from all directions, but one can experience it easily in Frank Gehry first building in New York, IAC building, headquarters for Barry Diller’s Media and Internet Empire.

Frank Gehry is well-known in designing each building with an innovative concept, and has designed his first project in New York with the use extensive concrete, as a landmark in the city in 2007. The project brief was to build a structure, which would serve as world headquarters for the Media and Internet Empire, reflecting a new creative subject.

The architect worked on creating an elegant building with sharp edges and inscrutable features. Innovatively, the entrance to the main building is designed on the side roads, thus leaving the façade for creativity which is a smooth surface and horizontal windows, achieved with base of complex concrete structure. The unique combination of rawness and finished look at some places reflects the features of his early works.

In contrast to the building approach and the façade treatment, the internal aesthetics of the building are little subtle with abstract colour compositions and video art projections. One can look at the views of Chelsea Piers and Hudson River from the corporate offices, where there is double heighted atrium and translucent glass partitions.

A panoramic view of the Empire State Building is seen from the glazed area of the service staircase. Because of the use of materials, the creativity in the finishes and the strategic location of the staircase can truly be considered as one of the finest designed service staircase in the city of New York. Due to the combination of two different materials, glass and concrete, the façade creates different perceptions. The innovative structural form is creatively achieved, with the use of concrete, which as a material allows flexibility in construction.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that the architecture of the building has interplay of various materials, combination of various forms and finishes untouched at places. The building has an expression which could be identified in numerous ways with different perceptions by the users that come within the building and the visitors who pass by the building.

Text Compilation: Rati Singh

Photographs: courtesy the architects

Architects website: http://www.foga.com/