The Amsterdam Stock Exchange Competition

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange by the famed Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage is a fine structure. The imaginative use of brickwork and steel in the main hall displays a mastery of color and material.

However, the exterior as executed by Berlage leaves a bit to be desired. It is a bit too severe for a city that has such a fine heritage of building in brick.

I, for one, much prefer the design put forth by Berlage in conjunction with his partner, Theodorus Sanders.

This design by Johann Frederik Lodewijk Frowein isn't bad either.

Nor is this one by Ludwig Klingenberg and Ernst Tauschenberg.

Visibilium Omnium et Invisibilium

This is a drawing I did for the 37th Annual KRob Architectural Delineation Competition, which I was encouraged to enter by one of my professors. The subject matter is a sort of abstract hall of Gothic pillars and vaults. Light emanates from somewhere in the distance, casting strange shadows on the floor. It's a bit surrealist, and detail is deliberately avoided. This is not a real place.

The title, I think reveals a bit more about the work. I chose the phrase "Visibilium Omnium et Invisibilium" as the title of the piece. This phrase comes from the Nicene Creed and is translated as "All things, visible and invisible" (or, as it is currently rendered in the mass, "All that is seen and unseen"). The title adds another layer of surrealism, given the implied infinity of the view. The viewer is meant to feel that this huge hall could encompass all that is visible and invisible. Perhaps it's a portrait of the universe.

It will get a bit of touch-up before I send it off to the competition to be judged. Let me know what you think!