How simply and recognisably can we draw buildings?

Inspired by Things Magazine's recent note on buildings as logotypes (London's Gherkin building and NatWest tower, etc), Rodcorp went back to an old favourite: "How simply (or in how few lines) and recognisably can we draw buildings?". The question tends to privilege strong silhouettes and bridges, but so be it. Here's a list (with the help of Arup's Mr Urick, a clever man who spends his days designing buildings) and some drawings from unreliable memory.

First, the bridges etc:
Sydney: The Sydney Opera House, the most recognisable building of all surely?, next to the Harbour bridge (which may only be unambiguous when it's next to the Opera House).
London: Tower Bridge. Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia.
Paris: Eiffel Tower. Athens: The Acropolis.
New York: Guggenheim Museum.

And then the pseudo-Platonic forms:
Cairo: A Pyramid.
Paris: La Defense. New York: Flatiron.
Washington: The Pentagon. [Brussels: the Atomium should have gone here.]
Orlando: Epcot Centre. London: The London Eye.

A list of others to do (gradually becoming a list of buildings that would be recognisable but less distinctive as a logo/drawing, or distinctive as a drawing but maybe not particularly recognisable...):
UK: Stonehenge.
Brussels: the Atomium
New York: The WTC towers, Statue of Liberty, Empire State (though confusion with Chrysler?).
San Francisco: Golden Gate bridge. And perhaps the TransAmerica pyramid.
Cairo: The Sphinx.
Moscow: St Basil's Cathedral, Red Square.
Los Angeles: Hollywood sign (building? structure?).
Istanbul: Haga Sofia.
China: The Great Wall?
Angkor Wat or various other pre-modern cities.
South Dakota: Mount Rushmore.
St. Louis: St. Louis Arch.
Rio de Janeiro: Statue of Christ the Redeemer.
London: Big Ben you idiot! (quoting Urick).
Hong Kong: Bank of China.
Birmingham: Selfridges.
Washington: The Washington Monument.
Seattle: The Spaceneedle.
Toronto: the CN Tower.
Rome: The Vatican (Michael Angelo's "arms" in front), the Pantheon (the dome and skylight from the inside).
Kuala Lumpur: Petronas Towers.
Venice: Ponte di Rialto.
Many things in Brasilia by Oscar Niemeyer.
Chicago: Sears Tower
Athens: the Parthenon
Frankfurt: Commerzbank
Nevada: Hoover Dam
Paris: Louvre Pyramid
Superheroes: Hall of Justice (introduces a whole new topic, fictional landmarks...)

Now read this:
Tesugen on imageability of cities, and Webb on the same: Lynch's Image of the City.
And then: Constantin Boym's missing monuments, and buildings of disaster.
And you could even download world landmarks for The Sims (more here).

Update:
CityOfEverythingInteresting has a much less literal way of drawing simply, and is asking whether his sketches of the Bilbao Guggenheim are recognisable. We haven't yet made a Rodcorporate trip to Bilbao, but his sketches are indeed recognisable, avoid Jonathan Bell's fear of building-as-logo (see the comments) falling short of building-as-architecture. Perhaps they even recognisably reveal the building's references: is this an echo of Niemeyer's Brasilia cathedral?

Comments

[C Gray]

How about Edinburgh's Scott Monument? It would definitely translate to a distinctive logo, but might result in associations with spaceships rather than a building...

[jwaggone]

In the bridges category you can include The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Like the Parisian tower it is inescapable as a logo for the city (though it does require a few more lines than the tower).

[ShookeprerS]

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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