The Taiwan Tower International Competition

by Stanley Collyer

The sponsors of the Taiwan Tower Competition have managed to come up with a departure from a generic solution to an observation tower. Instead of settling on the ubiquitous column with a sphere on top, they picked a green solution by the Japanese architect, Sou Fujimoto, which simultaneously conveys the appearance of a giant theater curtain, ready to reveal the unfolding of an interesting drama. Instead of illustrating the bare bones of a support system, the structure is shrouded in mystery, and, aside from its character as a model of sustainability, it should draw crowds of curiosity seekers for decades to come.

The Aberdeen City Garden Competition

by Stanley Collyer

Aberdeen, Scotland has long been the beneficiary of the oil bonanza off its coast in the North Sea. But faced with declining oil revenues from this source, the community now finds itself at a crossroads: how do you reinvent yourself while a once dependable revenue stream is slowly disappearing? Urban issues logically came to the forefront, and the discussion concentrated on Aberdeen City Gardens, an underused park smack in the middle of the city. If this relatively dormant piece of real estate could be turned into a people place for the community and beyond, it might not only help to rejuvenate the city’s urban core, but provide it with an asset having a symbolic value well beyond that of a common green space.

The Holodomor Memorial Competition

Commemorating Ukrainian Famine Victims Under Communist Rule

by Stanley Collyer

With the approval of a memorial to commemorate victims of Communist genocide in the Ukraine under Stalin, a new precedent may have been set for placing memorials in our nation’s capital. Until now, memorials in the central business district—with the notable exception of the Holocaust Memorial—have dealt exclusively with subjects connected to our history. Now, it seems that related events in foreign lands can also be on the agenda.