Building Week

Text Dublin Castle, Ireland

Throughout its 800-year history, Dublin Castle has hosted army contingents, English viceroys, the Irish Parliament, troves of gold, state papers, prisoners of state, and at least one gladiator-style battle for justice.

Text Moscow’s Hotel Ukraine: A Style of “Meglomaniacal Grandeur”

Moscow's Hotel Ukraine at night

An opulent relic, Hotel Ukraine is one of Moscow’s Seven Sisters, seven massive buildings constructed in a similar style during the 1950s. The other Seven-Sister buildings house institutions such as Moscow University and Russian’s Foreign Ministry.

Armed guards and impossibly expensive cars surround the Hotel Ukraine, whose lobby I visited during a trip to Moscow to see an impressive, 1:75 scale diorama of the city.

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Notes Coney Island’s Cyclone

When Vernan Keegan designed Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster, he gave Roaring 20s New Yorkers just what they wanted: danger.

Or the illusion of it, at least.

“People nowadays like to wave to their friends and show off,” he told Popular Science in 1927, the year the coaster opened, “They want to believe the rides are dangerous. If they think they’re in peril every moment, they come back for more.”

Text Shanghai’s Structural Peaks

It doesn’t look as dismal in real life.

Pictured above are the tallest peaks of Shanghai’s impressive skyline.

The bottle-opener shaped tower on the right is the Shanghai World Financial Center. The pointy Jin Mao Building stands in the middle, and on the left you can see the unremarkable Citi Tower.

All the buildings pictured rise from Shanghai’s Pudong financial district. The area was mostly mud and farmland before the Chinese government decided to develop it in 1990.

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Notes Dohany Street Synagogue, Budapest

Walking through the Budapest Jewish Quarter, it’s tough to miss this eye-catching structure.

Also tough for some people? Figuring out what it is.

Text Building Stories

This is a blog about great buildings: who built them, how they work and what sets them apart.

When I look at a skyline, I’ll often see buildings that are sleek, powerful, or just plain fun to look at. I wonder about their stories.

Now, I’ll scope them out, write them down, and share them here once a week.

Enjoy!