The Shapery Park Tower, Does It Remind You Of Anything?
Filed under: Estates
We are back in San Diego today because I couldn't see this development and not comment on it. The Shapery Park Tower as conceived by developer Sandor Shapery is in the news because the design has been called phallic by Gwynne Pugh, an architect hired by the downtown redevelopment agency to review building designs . Shapery has said that he thought the 40-story residential tower, created by architect C.W. Kim resembled the shape of a flower. Now he finds himself in the awkward position of having to perhaps tone down the design.
The building is to contain 90 hotel/condominium suites, 30 one bedroom condominium suites, 42 two bedroom condominium suites, one penthouse condominium suite, a spa/health club, pool and 164 parking spaces located in the project parking garage. The building would be crowned by a restaurant, a roof-top bar and an observatory topped out with back lit canvas petals.
The design of the tower had and additional purpose, energy conservation. The plan was to use ice blocks in the air conditioning system and then reuse the melted water in the swimming pool, laundry and for irrigation. The project's water features are also designed to function as cooling towers for the air-conditioning system. Photovoltaic glass will be installed on the south side building balconies to reduce each tenant's electrical requirements.
I've always thought the Aegon Center in Louisville had a similar problem, especially when lit up at night. Boing Boing has an excellent list going of buildings and structures that also resemble nature's most excellent design.
