View Full Version : [Americus] Flint Riverquarium - Antoine Predock
I spent a weekend in a small town called Americus in my state of Georgia (about 2 and a half hours south of Atlanta, Ga). Just a 30 minute drive from this small town is a building by architect Antoine Predock called the Flint Riverquarium. So, being curious, myself and girlfriend headed down on a Saturday to check it out.
here are a few links related to this building...
Flint Riverquarium's website (http://www.flintriverquarium.com/)
contruction Photos of building (http://www.flintriverquarium.com/BuildingSteps.aspx)
Antoine Pedock's website (http://www.predock.com/)
Architectural Record project spotlight (http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0505riverquarium.asp)
and my Flickr set of this building (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84279479@N00/sets/72157594236036521/)
directions...
The riverquarium is in a town called Albany, Ga... The town is not along one of the major interstates and is about 2 and a half hours south of Atlanta, Ga...
Generally you get to Albany from I-75... here are the directions from I-75 and one from I-85...
From I-75 North:
Exit onto GA-300 S. at exit 99, just after Cordele. Turn right towards Warwick, Georgia. Travel straight on Highway 300 for approximately 33 miles. Turn right on Oglethorpe (Business 82). Proceed on Oglethorpe to the Flint River. Immediately after crossing the Flint River, take the first right onto Front Street. The Flint RiverQuarium will be two blocks, straight ahead, at the corner of Front Street and Pine Avenue.
From I-75 South:
At Tifton, take exit 62 onto Highway 82 west. Travel approximately 35 miles to the junction of 82 and 300. Turn left and proceed to the next traffic light at E. Oglethorpe. Proceed on Oglethorpe to the Flint River. Immediately after crossing the Flint River, take the first right onto Front Street. The Flint RiverQuarium will be two blocks, straight ahead, at the corner of Front Street and Pine Avenue.
From I-85:
Take I-85 South to I-185. Proceed south on I-185 through Columbus. Take exit 1A, Highway 280 South. Highway 280 becomes Highway 520 and eventually Highway 82. At the Albany City limit, Highway 82 becomes Dawson Road. Follow Dawson Road into Downtown Albany, where it becomes Pine Avenue. The Flint RiverQuarium is at the end of Pine Avenue, on the left, at the corner of Pine and Front Street.
here is the KMZ file... unfortunelty it is in a low rez area... :(
sorry for dark quality of picture... Just after I took this shot the heaven's opened and it started to rain... seems to happen to me every freak'n time I go somewhere to visit some architecture :(
this shot is taken from the bridge that crosses the river coming into town from the east.
view from the entry street just off the bridge... this is the main entry into the building
this shot is taken from the main parking lot... at first I thought this was the entry side but really it is the "side" of the building... the overall massing of this building is pretty simple... you have one main pyramidal type of mass, with a square base, that is then penatrated by two walls from two sides...
This is the slanted wall that penatrates into the building. just to the left of this wall is a simple waterfall feature that steps downwards... pretty basic really... but yet clean and effective...
here is a panoramic of the main corner of the buidling... here you can see those two walls I was speaking about earlier...
this particular view really is the place were I was able to get some of my better shots... the "money shot" view :)
Predock uses simple forms here with manipulations of ground/earth and planes to open of the massing of the building. when you first look at the buidling it really is very simple but yet the way he is able to creat space from these basic elements is very clean and works well...
here is a view from the main entry side and the steps along the vertical wall that cuts through the building mass and helps to define the entry space...
those same steps from the previous image but just to the left... what I really liked here is the way that the architecture blends with the burm (earth)... nice, clean, and effect way of "gounding" the building to the earth...
I didn't take any shots really of the lobby space, as it was a low ceiling and nothing really special... but in this space there is a stair that takes you up at the interesection of the two walls that cut into the building. this stair takes you into the main viewing room and acts, similar to the high museum, as the space of orientation for the building. This view is of that space but looking at the stair, on the left, and the back wall. The stone wall that is lower and to the left is the slanted one from the outside that cuts intot he building. This creates a nice articulation of continuation from elements inside and out... simple but effective...
this is the main viewing window from that main space... Predock uses these glass fins for structure of the glass wall... I have seen it before on commercial buildings, but I really likes how it worked here... The view is of the main "pond" that sits within boudries of the building.
here is another view of the "pond" you can see from a outdoor terrace that you find once you go into the riverquariums exibit space.
here is a nice detail of the glass and the stone that is used throughout the building. The stone used is very rich in color and is what made the building for me. Reminded me of the stone used by Meier at the Getty...
Once you travel through the main exibit space you eventually come up some ramps and you get to this nice litte in-set glass space... you get a very close-up view of many of the creatures they have in this place...
and here is a veiw of that ramp that leads you from the exibit space...
well thats all for now...
I wasn't sure what to expect of this building. Knowing the area being a rural place with a very conservative culture I wasn't expecting it to be too crazy :) But, I thought the building was well done. It wasn't the most inovative archteicture ever done but it still was a building that used some basic design principals and was able to carry out a very functioning and yet different building. I thought the scale of the building was perfect for the town and it by no means was an "in your face" ego driven design.
The only one issue I had with the building, and my girlfriend's friend actually commented on it, was that you have two places within the exibit space that was used just for ramps... there was nothing on display and it was a large amount of space being used... it seemed very strange...
If you ever are driving down I-75 in Georgia and can spare a few extra hours I would recommend checking out this building...its a nice piece to a small-ish south Georgia city that is very traditional and conservative...
spadestick
14-08-2006, 11:28
very nice, I like all the captured details. Thanks for the images photos Wizum.
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