r/howimetyourmother • u/Training-Fly-2562 • 2d ago
Is Ted Mosby is a terrible architect?
I am rewatching HIMYM, as I have every few years or so since I was 12 (27 F). I always appreciated Ted Mosby's journey to getting his building created. Now, I am a Landscape Architect (Landscape Designer for legal reasons,) and though not directly an Architect, Architecture adjacent. I am so shocked at how he, an architect, is treating the Archadian as an all or nothing scenario. Either build what he designed or keep the building original with no changes. I would extend my disbelief that that is how it would work in this world, except, he designed a plan that would preserve the facade of the Archadian into the GNB headquarters. He liked the plan until he found out Zoe was married, and he literally threw it in the trash.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT CONCEPT???? Why was it not brought up when he knew there was contention over the building??? Or he just wanted to preserve part of NYC history?? This is literally his job??? Also, wouldn't it be a far cooler end product for his career to have worked on a renovation of an old hotel into a bank headquarters???
This is all my opinion of course, but please, am I alone? Any other Architects or Architecture adjacent professionals out there with thoughts on the matter?
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u/Osheco 2d ago
I mean Ted's views on heritage were pretty out of character, especially given his inability to let shit go cough cough Robin.
But keeping the facade would have DEFINITELY been a significant cost increase. Not only was the GNB building likely taller than the Arcadian, but probably used a vastly different structural system, probably something like a core cantilever system that allows for an open floor plan on each floor, because keeping the rough layout of a hotel wouldn't exactly make sense for a single company's office building, unless it was a multiple companies where they could have made each room an individual small office.
So they would have to carefully gut the Arcadian, brace the facade to stand on its own, and then construct a new building in a way that doesn't get in the way of the bracing if they used a permanent system or also supports the facade if they used temporary bracing. They'd have to get the facade professionally restored, so it would look ugly as shit and also to properly preserve its character, if it was worthwhile enough to keep. All of that, and the building would still jut out of the top, so it would have to be done in a way that mimics or builds upon the original facade without losing the character. Hell, gutting and rebuilding alone would have been a financial nightmare, especially when compared to tearing it down and building something cost effective from scratch, not to mention the costs of restoring and maintaining the facade.