Apt's Blog

“ The skyline of London has been redrawn by this building. It has awoken the enthusiasm for European architectural innovation.” -  Nengjun Luo, CTBUH 2013 Awards Juror, CITIC Heye Investment  This week I want to take you far from american buildings I wrote about in past two weeks. Actually around 7 hours by plane and 5900 km from the white house. I am talking of course about the incredible and beautiful Shard, the skyscraper standing in London. It is as high as 306 metres and it is in fact the tallest building in the UK, 4th in the Europe and 96th in the entire world. Even though it isn't the tallest or the biggest it is very unique with its design. Unlike no other building it's made to look like a shard of glass what makes it very futuristic and impressive. It owns this to a man named Renzo Piano who was the design architect working to create its unusual form and shape. It is located in the super modern part of London. The construction ended in July 2012 but It w...

The White House is for sure one of the most recognized symbols of the United States of America. It is the home of every president of the USA since 1800 when John Adams and his wife moved into the unfinished house. From the beginning, the White House was meant to be a flexible structure. With America not yet a quarter of a century old it was impossible to foresee how and when the needs of the chief executive would call for expansion, renovation, or redesign. It survived the war in 1812 and a major expansion in 1902 under president Theodore Roosevelt. His successor William Taft was the one who had the Oval Office constructed. A final major overhaul took place after Harry Truman entered office in 1945 because of the structural problems that came from many independent changes that were made to the core of the building. Almost everything except the outer was redesigned and rebuild so the buildings structure was finally consistent but the style designed by George Washington was preserv...

On 1st of May 1931 President Herbert Hoover officially opened The Empire State Building in New York by pressing the button in the white house which was the symbol of lighting the buildings lights for the first time. One of the most iconic buildings in america and in the whole world. When built, it was given a title of the highest building ever made. It proudly held that title until late 1970 when one of the World Trade Center towers. The building was designed by William F. Lamb and Its said that project was born in the race between Empire State Building, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler building to create tallest building in the history. It was planned in Art-Deco style and it's look was based on the look of a pencil. At the time of completion it was 1,250ft. Time of the construction was also a record. It took just 20 months to build the building that for around 40 years was the tallest one. The cost was as high as $645 million in 2016 dollars. Because of the market crash few y...