Today's ArchiPic #116: Fermilab's Wilson Hall

    Today's ArchiPic is Wilson Hall near Chicago, the main administrative building of Fermilab, a high-energy particle physics lab.  Basically, the whole site is a giant particle accelerator, similar to that of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland .

    Interestingly, the original director, Robert Wilson, wanted to make sure that Fermilab wasn't marred by giant, unappealing concrete blocks, so he had Wilson Hall built in 1974, and many of the structures surrounding the main building are designed after the Archimedean spiral.  It's a very unique twin-towered structure that houses over 400,000 square feet of space with beautiful views and a magnificent reflecting pond!

Read more about Fermilab's Wilson Hall.

Design Changes

    As you may have noticed, I've changed some color schemes on my blog.  This design change also includes the addition of category tabs on the top of my page, which allow quick access to the variety of topics I cover here on my blog.  Ranging from Minecraft and Skyrim architecture, to real-world structures featured in Dazzling Designs, HOUSES 101, or An Inside Look, these tabs will help make my blog much more organized and straightforward.  Enjoy!

Skyrim Architecture: Dragonsreach

Welcome to a new addition of my Skyrim Architecture series, where I scout the Skyrim world in search of the most beautiful structures and landmarks Bethesda's award-winning franchise has to offer.  This time, we're at a beautiful keep that watches over the city of Whiterun.

    I have finally bought Skyrim for the PC, and I'm now able take detailed pictures of places that I had trouble finding on the internet.  Let's take a close look at Dragonsreach!

Dragonsreach as seen from a bird!  Truly a great picture from the Elder Scrolls Wiki.

    Dragonsreach is a beautiful palace that watches over the city of Whiterun in central Skyrim.  It houses the governor of the city, Jarl Balgruuf, and its overall emphasis on dragons signifies the effect they had on the designer.  The bridge leading up to the palace was designed to give the feeling that you were walking through a dragon's rib cage, at least that's what I make of it.  The original palace was quite small, but a keep was added to the back with the intent of capturing the dragon Numinex.  (No, not Mucinex.)

  

   
With its vaulted ceilings and steep roof inclines, it looks to me like Dragonsreach was inspired by real-world Gothic architecture, the main architectural style for many palaces and cathedrals throughout history.  Even more close to reality is the way each floor becomes smaller as you move up the structure, reminding me of a Norwegian stave church I posted a while back.

    If you take a look at the picture below, you'll see the interior of Dragonsreach from the entrance.  The dragon-like support beams are continued even on the inside of the building, with archways covered with ornate carvings that separate the main hallway from smaller passageways.  It is quite a beautiful scene.  Look closer and you'll notice the smoke from the main fire pit rising to the ceiling, adding to the atmosphere.  Below are some pictures of the interior hallway and its support beams.
 

    Detailed wood archways support the palace's ceiling and second floor, made in such a way that it looks like one is inside of a dragon.

    This is the main hallway of Dragonsreach, lit by a large firepit and two chandeliers.  The Jarl of Whiterun sits in the back.

    This is the enchanting area, where the Jarl's court wizard Farengar resides.  I often come here to make myself important potions and enchant my gear.

    The second floor of Dragonsreach features, what one might call, a briefing room.  There's a door to the right that leads out to the back balcony, where later in the story the Dragonborn helps the Jarl trap the dragon Odahviing.

    The second floor gives a better view of the intricacies of the beams that support the ceiling.

    This is part of the Jarl and his family's private quarters.  It features very high ceilings, beautiful carvings, and a moose head.

    Family dining room I presume.

    Talk about lighting...this is beautifully lit up, featuring Whiterun's flag.

    Head deeper into Dragonsreach and you'll come across the main dungeon, where the Jarl decides to hold criminals of the region of Whiterun.  It's a very atmospheric place, never radiated by the light of day.

    The beautiful flag of Whiterun.

    In other games, one would assume these sewers were not accessible, but in Bethesda's open world, one can go there too.  Maybe I'll come across some skeevers?

    The dungeon's guards keep a close eye on prisoners...if they're not eating a boiled cream treat in their headquarters that is.

    Even though these night pictures cannot replace seeing it in person, they are worth showing.  Notice the effect that ambient light and strategic lighting both have on the structure as a whole, something I adamantly discuss in Minecraft architecture, which is equally important in real architecture for that matter.

    Dragonsreach features its own water system, which runs down the steps leading up to the palace and flows around the main courtyard of the city.

    Dragonsreach offers great views and some good inspiration for making medieval Norwegian architecture.  Outstanding job, Bethesda!

    Oh, and there's me cooking some skeever meat.

What would you like to see on the next Skyrim Architecture post?  Let me know below.

References:
>> Skyrim Architecture Series
>> The Elder Scrolls Wiki

Minecraft Architecture: The Final Tour of the Cathedral

    On May 10, 2014, I posted the progress I had made on the cathedral, a giant survival build that would take over thirty hours to complete.  I finished it in late June, and it was the most enjoyable project I've ever worked on in Minecraft.  Today, I'll be showing the cathedral in its entirety, including the interior.  I feel like this one deserves a good wrap up here on my blog.  Last June I put the project to rest, posting the final cathedral video on my YouTube channel.  Let's get right into it!  (At the bottom of this post, I have included the world save download so that you can explore the cathedral in person!)

    First of all, let me point out that the pictures inherently do not capture the full scale of the cathedral, but aside from that, I hope these screenshots show a good perspective.   I tried to capture many different angles.

Cities: Skylines - A Breakthrough For City Simulation

    Normally I wouldn't cover something like this on my blog.  I've played my fair share of city games, and I have even tried to turn Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 into one, posting architectural creations inside a theme park game!  But I feel like this one deserves attention.  Cities: Skylines is releasing tomorrow, and in my opinion, it will be a major breakthrough for the city simulation genre.

    *All pictures shown were taken in-game.*

City Builders of the Past

    In my opinion, city simulation has recently been plagued by broken games, failed launches, and simply inadequate titles that fail to create a truly unique city builder.  SimCity 2013 is unfortunately a good example of this.  An open-ended city builder game like its popular predecessor SimCity 4, SimCity 2013 was expected to be an even better title.  It was published by Maxis, a division of Electronic Arts, but had countless problems at launch.  

    The game forced you to stay connected to the internet.  If EA's servers went down, you couldn't play the game.  (Maxis released an offline mode in March 2014...a year after release...but that is not the point).  City saves could only be saved on the cloud, not letting players to save their cities on their own hard drive.  If this wasn't bad enough, your city was limited to a small section of land only 4 square kilometers.  That's small!  This game isn't the only one that fails to represent a solid city builder, but I'll leave the others for another time.

    *SimCity's small plot size seen here.

Cities: Skylines

    I believe Cities: Skylines is the next innovation in the city simulation genre, and I think it could have a presence here on my blog.  Here's why.  

    After reading about the features and watching countless YouTube producers, who got their hands on press passes to show of the game-play, I have a good idea of what the developers at Paradox Interactive are wanting to create: a better and more robust SimCity.  First of all, you can unlock up to 100 square kilometers of seamless land to construct your city.  (100 square kilometers!  That's 25 SimCity-size plots all connected without borders.)  

    People love the ability to stretch the limits of simulation.  In SimCity, many players felt restricted, but with Skylines, there's plenty of room for expansion.  Skylines is very well optimized, and unlike other city titles, if your city starts to get really big, it will still run smooth if you have a decent computer.  (I'm looking at you Cities XL!)

    One of the coolest aspects of the game is the organic road system.  You can create and tweak almost anything in your city, and the intuitive road tool allows you to create organic and intricate road infrastructures to connect people effectively around the city.  Road traffic is simulated dynamically in-game.  Every car you see is going somewhere.  It's not some random object that disappears at different intervals like other city games.  

    This complex road system and the simulation of traffic, creates issues for the player.  You have to manage and try to solve traffic issues across your city if you want everything to function efficiently.  I've watched many people spend a lot of time tweaking and managing their roads to help make their city traffic lighter, and I have to say, it's a blast to watch.

     Each person in your city is also simulated like the cars.  What you see is what you get.  If the game tells you that you have 500,000 people in your city, that's how many people are really there.

    From what I've seen, the game is pretty amazing.  As the city planner, you can build everything you would expect in a real city.  Metro systems, trains, transportation, leisure, residential zones, commercial zones, industrial zones, districts...the list goes on and on.

Cities: Skylines and My Blog

    I'm still debating whether I should start a series of this game on my blog.  It's definitely a very creative and artsy game, and I really think I'll have a great time playing it.  Road systems would certainly be an interesting aspect to showcase and discuss problems pertaining to traffic and possible solutions.  I could also post the progress of my city as I build it.  I really think Skylines has the ability to show off architecture and architectural engineering from a very broad, city-sized perspective.  Everything you do affects your city.  On the other hand, YouTube could be a better outlet for this kind of content, but we'll see.  

    This blog is meant to show architectural creations from around the world, but you all know I enjoy to post content from video games as well, whether that be Minecraft, RCT3, or Skyrim.  Anything that involves designing and being creative is up for grabs as content on the blog in my opinion, and Cities: Skylines definitely encompasses that.

References:

>> Official Cities Skylines Page

>> CNET: SimCity Launch a Complete Disaster

An Inside Look: The Magnificent Moscow Metro

Tonight, let's take a look...An Inside Look...at the Moscow Metro.  Specifically, we will be focusing on the interior architecture and how Stalin used his influence to construct one of the most magnificent architectural projects during the Soviet Union.

    Before I came across the article on Visual News over the Moscow Metro, I had no idea it looked like this.  Just like the article mentioned, it makes you feel like you're in an underground palace, which is pretty insane.  After doing some research, it became apparent that Stalin was very concerned about the image of the USSR, and the Moscow Metro architectural project definitely confirms it.  It can go without saying that the intricacies of the design serve as a piece of propaganda, constantly reminding the subway riders during Stalin's leadership that he was doing great things for the country.

    Each hallway, room, and station was designed to make the travelers feel like they were riding in luxury, all thanks to Stalin.  Its architectural design is known as Stalinist architecture, which I've noticed incorporates elements of Neoclassicism, a revival in the architecture constructed by the Greeks and Romans in antiquity.  This architecture style requires labor-intensive masonry, which was actually a contributing factor to the downfall of Stalinist architecture.

    The main architects involved in Stalinist architecture and the Moscow Metro actually studied in Neoclassicism school before the Revolutions of 1917 and ended up working for Stalin.  I guess you could say they helped him find his own architectural niche.



    During the Great Depression that affected Western countries in the 1930s, Stalin wanted to prove that a "socialist metro could surpass capitalist designs" by building this impressive metro system.  Everything is highly decorated and ornate, reminding me of the Palace of Versailles in France...just not as intense.  It's very neat!  

    Many extravagant parts of the metro were taken down after Stalin's death in 1953 because of unpopularity and the changes that the USSR would start to undergo under Khrushchev.  But many years later after the Soviet Union fell, most of the things that were removed were replaced, and the metro returned to its former glory.

    If you want to see more pictures of the Moscow Metro, make sure to visit the Visual News article.

"Metro wagon 81-720" by Иван Гриценко - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

References:

>> Visual News Article

>> Wikipedia - The Moscow Metro

*Side note / series update*

After some series reorganizing, I decided that Dazzling Designs will now return to strictly prototypes and future designs, while this new series, An Inside Look, will take over Dazzling's old style.