Guthrie Masonic Lodge (Guthrie, Oklahoma)

I just visited this building couple days ago. To be honest I never though I was going to find one building like this one at Oklahoma. To start, first this building was the first state government of Oklahoma building, when the capital city was Guthrie. Then a university bought this building and hosted classes for a while. Around 1920s the Masonic Brother or the Scottish Rite brothers, they are the masons of higher rank, decide to start their temple in this building. The building has more than 400000 sq feet, and everything is beautiful.  

The building has more than 400 rooms; the main rooms are dedicated to different periods of history (Pompeii, Asyrrian, Egyptian) with every single detailed (architectonic, furniture, windows from the era. It was two big auditoriums with perfect acoustic were concerts are hosted as well, almost all the windows and roofs were designed by an alchemist giving you optical illusions (the roof is moving, the painted faces at the windows are looking at you). As any temple, from the outside has a greek style, with the masonic symbols, columns and material of construction. 

I liked that the rooms were dedicated to different ancient civilizations. The library had quotes wrote or painted on the walls, the windows art and colors. The optical illusions of the roof (if you stand on a corner, it looked like the roof was shipping places; the same applies for every corner. I like to call it water illusion). The windows painting and illusions. It was great.

The Master Piece (Asuncion, Paraguay)

The Master Piece is an exhibition house that opened doors in Asuncion, Paraguay in the year 2007. The house was built in a 17300ft² lot, with the collaboration of the most known architectures and designers of Paraguay, around 35+ collaborators. The main goal of this exhibition was to show the future and development of the vanguardist edge cutting architectonic style in Paraguay. This was the first house with the vanguardist style. The exhibition was a total success that people started hiring architects to develop more houses with the vanguardist style. Personally I don't like houses with a vanguardist style to live on, but I do like them for business, shopping centers and others. This house/exhibition in addition to the CONMEBOL Complex not only gave a shout out to the architects and engineers but it set a trend for the design, simplicity and sophistication in Paraguay.

You can observes some details from the out (how the house is hiding behind walls and fences) while the outside the is also a vanguardist/ edge cutting style backyard and pool. Many houses are adopting this style.

El Saladillo (Marcaibo, Venezuela)

  

 This particular neighborhood located near the city of Maracaibo is one of the oldest and brightest cities of Venezuela in terms of its architecture. When you look at the architecture you can see the roots of colonialism from South America. This part of the city is no longer for use, is a historic place at Venezuela that once served as the most important part (religious, cultural and governmental activities). Urban development almost caused the lost of this precious city. By the colors you can it gives life to the neighborhood and goes in par with Venezuela climate; this gives it an autochthonous and identity to the city. The city was established before the independence of Venezuela.

JFK Memorial (Dallas, Texas, USA)

 One building (more monument) that caught my attention is the JFK Memorial at Dallas, Texas.

The memorial is so simple yet minimalistic. From far away it looks like its a flying box with two spaces to enter. In the middle you'll find the step of marble with JFK graved/carved in gold (I think so). The flying style represents freedom, liberty and the opening represent open to everybody.




In fact the memorial is a representation of a open tomb or cenotaph. This symbolizes the free spirit of JFK. Indeed when you see the memorial you can think about that as well.

The memorial very well represent what it wants to say to its audience and it is really nice.

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)

The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a very different stadium from what I usually know as stadiums. You see it from far away and it looks like a circus tent or a fancy shopping place, mostly looks like anything except a soccer stadium.

I'll say it doesn't looks like a stadium because of the ceiling that gives a effect of a cap, tent, umbrella and that it's near the bay. But it is a Stadium and a very nice stadium, the ceiling style is "petals" giving it an aspect of a flower thats why it's known also as The Protea.

The ceiling is retractable from left to ride in a circulatory way. Thats some good technology and eye catching. The first time I went to the stadium was during the 2010 World Cup. My reaction was to take a picture of it, film it when it was opening and obviously a picture of me next to it. I was very impress, the inside was beautiful and well take care of.

Cape Town Stadium (Cape Town, South Africa)

This stadium was built specially for the World Cup 2010. It has an amazing structure, it's a perfect loop. In my opinion it looks like something from another place, specially when the lights are turned on at night. The style comes from Germany architectures and South African Architectures. This stadium caught the attention of many people due to its style.

I really liked the outside structure, how it seems that there are different levels (little rectangles). It look like a headquarter of a company (Apple Infinite Loop). But is a stadium, even though the stadium was used for the world cup 2010 the capacity is for 50,000 people.

I think this stadium is very modern and eye coughing and deserves a shot-out next to the stadium of Nelson Mandela Bay. Yes, South Africa have very nice stadiums such as Soccer City as well which was main stadium. I had a very positive experience viewing matches, and I loved how it caught my attention.

Cathedral of Lima (Peru, Lima)

One building that marked my life was the Cathedral of Lima. It is a beautiful building with a lot of religious significance. I personally love Cathedrals the way they are represented, the sculptures and every detail. It is beautiful from the inside and the outside. The to towers plus the bells are located at the far end of the front panorama while in the middle you'll find the central portal where there are columns and in the middle are the apostles guarding Jesus Christ.

I love this Cathedral from the outside to the inside. The doors, decorations, the inside main are shaped as the Franciscan cross, the roof and columns it give the Cathedral character. But it has it cons, you'll find crypts inside (down the ground); even though I found that amazing I feel is creepy. The purpose is to honor them, saints, priests and others.

It's a nice Cathedral with great history and architectural design.  

Tietgenkollegiet (Copenhagen, Denmark)

When I first saw this building from the outside I thought "what a weird building" because of its circular form and how the room are displayed from the outside. When you get closer and in the inside you start to feel comfortable, it welcomes you.

This building is a student residence with more than 300 room, and personally I think its more awesome because its dedicated to the students and not to the general public. The building has a common are in the middle which all windows point to, also the outside/city.

I think that this building is inspiring and a real form of art that can be interpreted in many ways. It circular = circle of life and infinite. It's a student residence = young happy and supportive. I really loved this building and all of its aspects.

Galerías Pacífico (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

 Galerias Pacifico is a shopping mall located in the main streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Is one of my favorites places. The outside looks like a normal shopping on the streets of Buenos Aires but on the inside is very different, looks like a Cathedral. The story is very fascinating, it was built back in 1888. It served as museum, school of arts, others.
The inside of the mall is very well organized toward consumers consumption. You will not find one stair that goes up next to a one that goes down between two same floors; it force you to go around all the stores to get to your desire stair, so probably you will buy something.
I really like the shopping style and strategy.  In the inside, look the picture (the ceiling decoration) it was inspired in Galerias from Europe. The mall is perfect to sit and drink an espresso next to the fountain or eat a cheese sandwich with a coffee.

The Mall is spectacular and is one of my favorites at Argentina. I love going there to shopping and eat.

Bourbon Hotel (Luque, Paraguay) (3/3)

One last addition made to Luque by Dr. Leoz was the Bourbon Conmebol Convention Hotel finished by the end of 2011. This building was the last cutting edge style at Luque. It add up to CONMEBOL Headquarters and it's museum, the combination of all three are known as CONMEBOL Complex (Headquarters, Museum and Hotel). All cutting edge style inspired many Paraguayan architects and it allowed expansion into further lands (Luque) from the capital of Paraguay.

Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay is having space problems causing urban sprawl to happen. The Conmebol Complex is located at Luque (the next top attraction) is the airport (7 mins away). People liked the idea of moving towards Luque, so did the urban sprawl began in 2013.

The cutting edge and vanguardist style of the Conmebol brought new ideas for the development of the capital in Paraguay. It also brought tourism.

The Conmebol Complex(reaction and opinion 1 to 3):
Personally I think that Dr. Leoz did a great job and had a great vision towards the development of Luque. I'm happy, it's a nice place and different. Many people says that the Conmebol Complex doesn't look like Paraguay due to it's architectonic style, it's more like Europe. Nowadays Paraguay is making newer building with cutting edge style and more vanguardist rather than colonial or neoclassical style.

Article (3/3)

Conmebol Museum: South American Museum of Soccer (Luque, Paraguay) (2/3)

Following the cutting edge of the CONMEBOL and modernizing Paraguay, Dr. Leoz started the development of the Museum of South American Soccer, finished in 2009. The cutting edge of this building is even better than the one of CONMEBOL. Looking the front entrance there are fountains everywhere, specially a fountain that dance to the rhythm of the music. As well you will find a front wall that covers the front of the building with a very vanguardist style. In the inside the roof looks like its hanging from the windows (very nice effects). At the far end you will find a soccer ball, is very different compared to the one at the CONMEBOL fountain. The ball is the first real 360 degrees theater that works only for the museum, showing the history of soccer.

This brings more tourisms to Paraguay, it is also used as a convention center. In addition to the CONMEBOL this building adds more towards the home of soccer, not only the offices are there but a museum of South American Soccer!.

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Conmebol (Luque, Paraguay) (1/3)

Paraguay is country with characteristics of colonial architecture and neoclassical. In 1988 CONMEBOL open their headquarters in Paraguay under the presidency of Nicolas Leoz. This brought a new style of architectonic style to Paraguay, a cutting edge style. This started a new beginning of ideas and specially expansion to Paraguay.

The CONMEBOL is a great example of breaking the routine and innovation. I went many time to Conmebol and was fun. The building is still the only one of it's kind. 

In the front you can find a really big fountain with a huge tower holding a soccer ball which gives a touch to the building. The lot is surrounded by flags of the South American Soccer Affiliated countries making CONMEBOL feel like the house of soccer.

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