Curve, Leicester, England

Curve is a theatre in Leicester, England, based in the Cultural quarter in Leicester City Centre. Before being named Curve, it was referred to as Leicester Performing Arts Centre. It is adjacent to the Leicester Athena conference and banqueting centre.

The £61 million project is the result of a close collaboration between the design team, Leicester Theatre Trust and Leicester City Council. The cutting edge design turns the typical theatre configuration ‘inside out’ by exposing the production, construction, craft, and technical components of theatre to the public, integrating all aspects of performance into the life of the city and making it truly inclusive and accessible.

The theatre features a four-story glazed and louvered curtain wall. Hung from a vast truss spanning the site, the glass hits the ground without interruption from structure, offering a continuous and unobstructed 4m high window revealing the two main audience volumes, a 750-seat main auditorium and a 350-seat studio, and the production and administrative facilities behind.

Architect : Rafael Viñoly

Transamerica Pyramid, San Fransisco, US

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. At a height of 260 m (853 ft), it is currently tied for 105th tallest building in the world.

Built on the location of the historic Montgomery Block, it has a structural height of 260 m (853 ft) and contains 48 floors of retail and office space. Construction began in 1969 and finished in 1972.

The pyramid is an innovative solution to this design challenge, and when viewed from the East Bay forms a prominent and unique skyline projection, forming an important element of San Francisco's "signature skyline". This Building was built under the 'Building Codes' to be Earthquake safe.

The building is a tall, four-sided pyramid with two "wings" on opposite sides of the building. The wing to the east of the building contains an elevator shaft, while the wing to the west contains a stairwell and a smoke tower. The top 64.6 m (212 ft) of the building is the spire.

Architect : William Pereira

Marina City, Chicago, US

Marina City is a mixed-use residential/commercial building complex occupying an entire city block on State Street in Chicago, Illinois. It lies on the north bank of the Chicago River. The complex consists of two corncob-shaped 65-story (including 5-story elevator & physical plant penthouse), 587 foot (179 m) tall residential towers, a saddle-shaped auditorium building, and a mid-rise hotel building all contained on a raised platform cantilevered over defunct railroad tracks adjacent to the river. Beneath the raised platform at river level is a small marina for pleasure craft.

It was completed in 1964 at a cost of $36 million financed to a large extent by the union of building janitors and elevator operators, who sought to reverse the pattern of "white flight" from the city's downtown area. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was billed as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theatre, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, several stores and restaurants, and of course, a marina.

The two towers contain identical floor plans. The bottom 19 floors form an exposed spiral parking ramp operated by valet with 896 parking spaces per building. The 20th floor of each contains a laundry room with panoramic views of the Loop, while floors 21 through 60 contain apartments (450 per tower). A 360-degree open-air roof deck lies on the 61st and top story. The buildings are accessed from separate lobbies that share a common below-grade mezzanine level as well as ground-level plaza entrances.

Marina City apartments are unique in containing almost no interior right angles. On each residential floor, a circular hallway surrounds the elevator core, which is 32 feet (10 m) in diameter, with 16 pie-shaped wedges arrayed around the hallway. Apartments are composed of these triangular wedges. Bathrooms and kitchens are located nearer to the "point" of each wedge, towards the inside of the building. Living areas occupy the outermost areas of each wedge. Each wedge terminates in a 175-square-foot (16.3 square meter) semi-circular balcony, separated from living areas by a floor-to-ceiling window wall. Because of this arrangement, every single living room and bedroom in Marina City has a balcony.

Architect : Bertrand Goldberg

Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, US

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel is the largest hotel in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is 367 feet (112 m) tall and has 35 floors. Construction began in 1974, and was completed in 1976. The top floor has a revolving restaurant and bar. It was originally owned by investors including a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation and Portman Cos. in Atlanta.

It is currently managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts (IHR). The hotel's architecture figures prominently in the work of literary critic and social theorist Fredric Jameson, who argues that it typifies the logic of postmodern social organization.

Architect : John Portman

El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, Valencia, Spain

El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (the Museum of Sciences) is an important visitor attraction in Valencia in Spain. It forms part of Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències.

The building is over 40,000 square meters in area and resembles the skeleton of a whale. It opened in 2000.

Architect : Santiago Calatrava