Machu Picchu, Peru

Anyone who’s traveled to popular touristic sites knows the feeling of being caught in the crossfire of countless camera lenses—the annoyed (and annoying) jockeying to capture the perfect shot … which in most cases looks exactly like everyone else’s. Striving to take that “perfect shot” reinforces the established, proper view of a monument, fully imprisoned in the image frame. When we stumbled across Richard Silver’s photographs of iconic monuments, we were shocked—caught in the same tourist hustle, Silver manages to give us a new perspective on famous landmarks we didn’t think possible.

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury and Popular Choice Awards in BOTH the Government & Municipal Buildings AND Parks categories. See the full list of winners here.

Rising above misty Norwegian fjords, the Trollstigen National Tourist Route provides unprecedented access to a sublime Scandinavian landscape. The bold forms and robust materiality employed by Oslo-based Reiulf Ramstad Architects evoke rugged modernism with a cinematic flair. This exquisite project astounded our esteemed jurors and avid fans alike, sweeping both the Jury and Popular Choice Awards in two different categories to become the most highly decorated Architizer A+ winner! A masterwork of composition and material, the project’s true beauty lies in its restraint and technical execution, perched atop the world. Read more.

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Voting for the Public Choice Winners is going strong, so keep checking back for spotlights on the best projects in each category! Today’s finalist showcase covers Civic architecture. With projects ranging from town halls to crematoria, civic architecture is a dynamic and essential pillar of architecture world-wide. Despite a global economic slowdown that has seen devastating austerity measures imposed across the globe, these projects testify to the social need for well-designed, innovative buildings, no matter the economic climate. In the realm of architecture, civic works are projects we can all enjoy. Click through to see them all!

Like what you see? Make sure to vote for it over at the A+ Public Voting site!

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Photo via flickr

Having survived the great Nor’Easter of 2013 (otherwise not known as “Nemo”), and now with the near foot-yield of snowfall virtually erased by rain, we’re already feeling a little nostalgic for the powdery stuff. (True, had we been just that much more north and east, we’d probably be singing a different tune.) These photos of Japan’s Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, for instance, have us hoping for many more canonical blizzards, sled rides, and snowmen.

The route, which links the Tateyama and Omachi municipalities, is a tourist destination. Where the road passes through the Hida Mountains, monolithic walls of packed snow bound either side of the motorway. The 20-meter-high corridor was sculpted using snowblowers and backhoe. The path was completed in 1981 and continues to draw tourists, actually only tourists—the road only services charter buses of gawking visitors—to this day. Click through for more photos!

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images © Boltshauser Architekten

One would be very surprised to know that Zoo Basel, an urban animal kingdom in one of Switzerland’s most beautiful cities, is the most visited tourist attraction of all of Basel. In fact, it’s the country’s second most visited attraction! So news of the zoo’s new aquarium center, and the results of a competition to design it, is kind of a big deal. Swiss firm Boltshauser Architekten edged out 55 international teams of architects, including Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, and MVRDV with their beautiful above-ground water cube design called “Seacliff.” Read more.

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Somewhere in Mexico, rising out of the natural landscapes, exists a single concrete tower marking the journey from Ameca to the Shrine of the Holy Virgin of Talpa in Talpa de Allende. Designed by Basel-based practice Christ & Gantenbein, the “Cerro del Obispo Lookout Point” or “Pilgrims Column” is now open, harkening pilgrims from atop the 2,000 meter high peak. Entering through a single, small passage, visitors are greeted by the sunlight that has been filtered through the tower’s open roof (now that seems like a lighting plan worthy of an Architizer A+ Award). Read more.

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Soon(ish), there will be a major attraction awaiting tourists making the free, and thus, perfunctory Staten Island crossing. The world’s largest Ferris Wheel is being planned for St. George, Staten Island, as part of a large $500 million complex including a 350,000-square-foot outlet mall and 200-room hotel. With an expected completion date of 2015, the “New York Wheel”, as its being unimaginatively called, will account for nearly half of the project’s budget. Read on.

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Photo: Urse Ovidiu

Last year, experts were surprised to discover that the Colosseum in Rome was leaning during routine maintenance operations. Now, it seems as if the problem might be more severe than first imagined, with the south side of the structure slanted more than 40 cm off of vertical.

After surviving the fall of the Roman Empire, various sacks and invasions, as well as the next 1,600 years, the ancient amphitheatre might succumb to a very recent phenomenon. The director of the site, Rosella Rea, has asked La Sapienza University and the IGAG geology institute to look into possible causes for the sagging, which might include disturbances from the busy traffic on roads nearby.

Some think that the sagging might also be the result of cracking within the concrete ring that lies beneath the structure, raising the possibility that stabilization, such as was carried out at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, might be necessary. For now, though, the Colosseum remains open to visitors.

[via The Guardian]

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Less than 50 miles northwest of the famed city of Birmingham rests the medieval city of Shrewsbury, the quiet hamlet that is home to 96,000 residents and not much else. To be fair, Shrewsbury in Shropshire actually offers residents and guests of the city wide-ranging cultural experiences; they were just having difficulty proving that to outsiders. In a bid to popularize the city among tourists, the city sanctioned £25,000 to be used towards a new brand identity and campaign, which was created by London agencies &Smith and We All Need Words.

The designers knew they were looking for a way to tie the community and local businesses together, but which could be used or even applied by proprietors themselves. The result? The “One-Off”, a graphic stamp device that brings the campaign to life within the town’s small shops. The stamp is faced with the slogan “A Shrewsbury One-Off Since…”, cutting off where users can fill in a time signature, allowing all business owners to personalize the brand for the promotion of their own wares.

From the “One-Off” the campaign grew to encompass other, more visual aspects of Shrewsbury life. Typographic elements inspired by the wood-beamed Tudor buildings that are so prevalent around the city are printed on business cards, catalog covers, and tote bags alike. The patterns are coupled with modified Dalton Maag typeface Efra and laid over photographs depicting charming idiosyncrasies (16th-century wood scrawl labeled “Graffiti”) which highlight the town’s (still-intact) history.

“We wanted to come up with a shorthand for Shrewsbury,” explains Rob Mitchell of We All Need Words. “If Hay-on-Wye is books, what is Shrewsbury? The more time we spent there, the more we realised that Shrewsbury has lots of things to talk about. We had to come up with a way to sum that up that was memorable and could be used in lots of ways by different people.”

[via CreativeReview]

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The Havøysund Tourist Route by Reiulf Ramstad Architects; All photos: courtesy of the architects

Rest stops just aren’t what they used to be–they’re a lot more. Designed as sculptural one-offs, the contemporary rest stop is called upon to both embody and communicate a country’s singular cultural sensibilities and idiosynchrasies–at least, those which have been officially sanctioned by tourism departments. Five years ago, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration launched a campaign to build a robust network of such rest stops meant to enhance the country’s diverse terrain. Since it’s initiation, the project has built an extensive portfolio of severe, yet expressive structures from the likes of Peter Zumthor, among several other architects and artists.

The Havøysund Tourist Route by Reiulf Ramstad Architects is the latest of these to be completed. Located in the “extreme north” of Norway, the project bridges the gulf from roadside to beach. The winding concrete pavilion frames spectacular views of the clear blue waters of the Arctic Ocean. Continue.

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