Redesign the U.S. White House
A newly launched project called White House Redux invites you to design a new home for the U.S. Presidency:
What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today? On occasion of the election of the 44th President of the United States of America, Storefront for Art and Architecture, in association with Control Group, challenge you to design a new residence for the world's most powerful individual. The best ideas, designs, descriptions, images, and videos will be selected by some of the world's most distinguished designers and critics and featured in a month-long exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture in July 2008 and published in Surface magazine. All three winners will be flown to New York to collect their prizes at the opening party.Link. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin!)
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oh, we're gonna have FUN with this!
It's an awesome idea and I would love to participate... but what kind of contest is this?! $20 to enter? Why have sponsors when they will easily get the prize money and profit from the entrance fees. Does any one want to pay for me to enter :-)
If they'd like, we can send some Canadians to burn it down again. That would make it easier to start fresh.
OK, this is a little rough, and it's for the current occupant only, but I figured I'd post it here to see what you guys think (and to save the $20 registration fee).
http://tinyurl.com/3ywo87
You get my vote, but take away the pillow. Our nation's leader should set an example of austerity.
how about
http://intertwingled.net/images/lotr/Mordor.jpg
this is nice
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.educima.com/es-colorear-dibujos-imagenes-foto-lubianka-p5004.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.educima.com/es-colorear-dibujos-imagenes-foto-lubianka-i5004.html&h=880&w=660&sz=141&hl=en&start=8&um=1&tbnid=NAaEAfx3XnATAM:&tbnh=146&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlubianka%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3DGGGL,GGGL:2006-32,GGGL:en%26sa%3DG
also doubles as tomb
http://www.gadling.com/photos/north-korea-the-ryugyong-hotel/524003/
@#2, entrance fees are hardly unheard-of for art/design competitions, and $20 is definitely at the low end of the spectrum. my favorite competitions are the ones that charge a fee to be included, once your application has been accepted.
what i really want to know is, to whom should i direct my proposal for the Reagan Living Memorial Vegetable Garden? it's lost some of its impact now that he's, you know, actually dead, but i still think the idea of a cabbage patch on the washington mall has some currency.
Tak-kun,
Who exactly might stay in that Stalinist spike of a hive? Do outsiders travel to North Korea, or is it for party members who come for an audience with the Dear Leader? Barad-dur looks like a cozy B&B in comparison.
Th Wht Hs Rdx Prjct s wsm. Ths blg dsn't cvr th dtls. Chck ths nd crss srch n th lft. Cl stff:
http://www.mngdq.cm/srch.php?q=wht+hs+rdx
There is only one.. and only one design appropriate.. Pee-wee's Playhouse www.peewee.com
I don't think the hotel is actually usable. They literally ran out of concrete at one point. Now no one talks about it. Or else.
So it's one giant Watts Tower, only by accident?
Definitely needs some holes in the roof for the puppet strings to pass through.
no windows, concrete that washes away in the rain...
a huge embarrassment that they don't have the money to take down. "The Worst Building In The History of Mankind", as someone dubbed it.
A replica would be a fitting monument for the Cheney Presidency
@11
Dear Sophia, is there a reason why you always do a plug for managed Q?
You read my mind. Again.
I did a project a few years ago in which we re-designed Buckingham Palace in London. we concluded that the Queen could have a couple of rooms at the back of the building, in deference to her tenancy but that the rest should become a place to roam, since we own it anyway.
"the ultimate architectural symbol of political power", eh?
So:
1. The USA is the "ultimate political power" (unlike, say, France or Great Britain in 1800, when the White House was built.)
2. This power rests "ultimately" with the president (not with the senate, congress or the media).
3. A piffly little Georgian country house is an "architectural symbol of power" at all?
The rhetoric coming out of the USA these days is often amusing (and/or frightening).
(and what's more frightening is that, the first time I tried to submit this post, Boing Boing gave me an error message and logged me out ... /removes tin foil hat)
Some real architectural symbols of political power might include Westminster Palace, the Moscow Kremlin, the Forbidden City in China and the Palace of the Parliament in Romania.
Of course, these were all built by oppressive, totalitarian (or imperialistic) governments, but that's what they're going for in this competition, right?
Of course, the half-a-billion-dollar Baghdad superfortress (ahem) embassy probably counts, too...
We already have an assortment of residences available for Bush, Cheney & Chertoff.
http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/fema+trailers/SIP0518343-fema-trailer-photo.html?g2_GALLERYSID=5cd122675dbd9d063aa24a17a67ac141
Redesign? Easy - just rename it the Hite House.
Notice there's no dubya. *snort*
I think the design should represent democratic ideals, such as it does now. The Parthenon utilizes some of the best archetectural design values ever, and this is what the White House is based on. If it needs an update, perhaps it could be rebuilt with diamond nanotubes, such as the edifice in Greg Bear's Slant. Or put a real cool dome over it! The future is all about domes.
Um, dwell magazine did this back in 2001.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gH538CNLY1AJ:findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20010105/ai_n9608012+dwell+%22white+house%22+2001&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us
Again thinking of the current resident...
Wouldn't it just be a large white middle finger sticking up ?
I'd like to see the White House redesigned as a penitentiary, along with all the usual accoutrements and customs. Dubya and Dick need to spend time in orange jumpsuits.
The White House was a modest palace by early 19th century standards. It remains so today, despite the addition of the East and West wings.
Redesigning the palace is a excellent and time-tested tactic to divert the attention of a weak and vain head of state. While it's not cheap, it's far less expensive than, say, having that leader order an unnecessary invasion.
Therefore, I urge each of you not to participate in this effort. While we haven't used this tactic often enough in the past, there's no reason to preempt our ability to use it in the future.
Besides, any design is DOA until the new Corporate Sponsorship Agreement is worked out.
I picture something with tilt-up precast concrete walls like most modern development in the US. Picture a Wal-Mart - but have the sign replaced with "President's House." Some coke machines out front and a deck in back and he's set!
Whatever it is, it has to be phallic.
umm, you mean a flacid ,wrinkled little pup tent?
I'd start with emptying the cluttered interior specifically getting rid of George W Bush!
Once he's been removed the place would be MUCH more attractive (and smell better).
Just a thought...
Ever since becoming a father I can't envision valid architecture without chutes, ladders and bright colors.
Tho JenJen is right, but IF Clinton wins phallic would be the least preferred (or not?)
Charred ruins with the head of G W Bush prominently displayed. How disappointing, I voted for the man.
Antinous, Takuan, far too many things remind Sophia of something in her weblog. All of her posts are now without their vowels. If she hadn't used a false address when she registered, by now she'd have gotten my letter recommending a period of penance and reflection, followed by sending me a query about getting her account turned back on.
Kieran (20), please send me a description of your experience in e-mail. We have an unacceptably high failure rate when readers try to register or post comments.
Jeff (24) FTW.
I'm not an architect or designer, but I'd like something in all glass, please. Perhaps even magnifying glass. No doors.
Only tangentially relevant to this competition, but I'm reminded of one of cartoonist B. Kliban's few political cartoons, "The Richard M. Nixon Presidential Monument," which was a picture of an enormous black hole in the ground. I expect a companion monument for our current prexy proxy, deeper and blacker. Kliban's spiritual inheritor, Tim Kreider, can design it for print; he's got more than enough vitriol to spare.
The White House was built by Slaves, so sad that this historical landmark still remains to be called The White House. I would love to see the name of our country's capitol called THE PRESIDENTS HOUSE. IT's TIME FOR A CHANGE.