Architecture Recently

One of the things I love about Vienna, and much of Europe in general, is the amazing architecture.  Not that we don't have plenty of beautifully designed buildings and structures in the US, but in many cases here you can see the progression of time through hundreds of years of architecture along a single street.  I don't always take the time out to enjoy this unique feature of the city, especially when I'm going about my normal life, running errands, meeting friends etc., but last week two of my fellow students and I took a little early evening stroll around the city.  Klaus is Austrian, and had offered to show Nora and me some of the sights in the first district that he shows to guests when they come into town, and it really ended up being a very fascinating architectural tour, all the way from Gothic to modern!   

We began at Ruprechtskirche (as I have shown here before) which is in the oldest part of the city, where the original Roman settlement was on the banks of the Danube.

Klaus and Nora

Hoher Markt.  Standing in this one place (as well as many other similar squares) you can see examples of Baroque and Renaissance architecture, all the way up to post-WWII architecture to replace buildings destroyed by bombings.  

The Wedding Fountain at Hoher Markt, dedicated to the marriage of Mary and Joseph

These are new, just the window coverings for the new Merkur market (fancy grocery store) that's there, but I like them a lot.

This is the clock at Hoher Markt, each hour a different figure from Vienna's history passes by. 

Here is an excellent example of buildings being repaired and redone in the current architectural style of the day.  Along this building are very plain Gothic windows, then replaced by Renaissance windows, some windows seem to have a middle eastern influence, and others seem fairly modern...and almost none seem to match. 

This street is where we have examples of the oldest buildings that people actually lived in (not a church or something) and these are mostly Gothic structures. 

Greek Orthodox Church

Back side of Stephansdom

That concluded the end of that particular tour, I would have taken more pictures of various examples Klaus pointed out, but mostly I was too busy listening to him to be taking pictures constantly, but for any of you that come visit me, don't worry, we'll follow a similar route I'm sure :)

Another amazing example of architecture and urban planning is at Gasometer.  I had to go out there yesterday for a conference, and while it isn't really that far away (the U-Bahn stops there, takes me about 30 minutes from home) I don't really ever have reason to go out there.  They have a shopping mall and restaurants and a movie theater, but I have all of those things much closer to me.  I am really glad that this conference was there though, since it really is an amazing thing to see.  

Built in the 1890s, these four buildings were used as gas storage tanks for the city of Vienna.  They each have a capacity of 90,000 cubic meters, and once they were no longer necessary in the mid-1980s, they held a design contest to see what should be done with them.  They preserved the outer brick layer of each of the storage tanks, and converted the insides into shops, apartments, etc.  They really are some of the most gorgeous buildings I've seen, and they are all in amazing condition.

 

Again, not afraid to mix the old and new.

This is the building where our conference was held, directly across the street in the same complex.

So that's a bit of the architecture I've been around recently.  We have a national holiday here tomorrow so everyone is excited for the long weekend...although the forecast still includes snow for Saturday, so we shall see!