Architecture that does not excite...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been spending the last week or so downtown field measuring a building set for renovation.  My office is north of the city in the suburbs, so I rarely get the chance to walk around the city and observe the weekday happenings of Cincinnati.  There were a couple of things that stood out to me.  The first is the parking garage of Cincinnati’s newest and tallest building, the Great American tower.

What I noticed right away was the glazing at the corner of the garage.  Inside this glazed box is, of course, the stairs.  It got me thinking about how many times (numerous) I’ve seen this done in buildings, especially in the past few years.  Then I realized that I myself did the same thing on my semester 2 studio project; not a parking garage stair, but an emergency egress stair regardless.  Anyway, looking at this in the freezing cold made me realize that I really don’t like this evolution in design.  What is it about stairs that architect's feel the need to show them off?  How often do we really "see" the people moving in the stairs?  It seems like a very elementary solution to the question of how to make a parking garage more aesthetically pleasing.  Is tacking on glazing to reveal stairs the best solution we have.  Personally, I'd rather see the cars moving up and down rather than the people.

The other gem I found was this tropical paradise at the food court / atrium of an office building.

Notice how my co-worker stares longingly at the soothing waters and he watches his hopes and dreams float away.  Now, I have seen indoor fountains, and I have seen indoor reflection pools, but I have never seen an indoor stream.  I guess with a cold climate like Cincinnati, we are forced to create artificial outdoor spaces on the interior; but I just can't see how anyone would find this pleasing.  Do people find this type of arrangement appealing?  Couldn't this space be put to better use?  I realize we need interior spaces like this, but can't we come up with a better way to incorporate water into our interior spaces?  I bet Sal and Angie would be interested in this.