In Reply to: Re: comics and arch....... scary buildings.... posted by Simple Simon on February 01, 2002 at 20:23:38:
The Cathedral, Gotham City
"even the museum, however, is dominated by the Cathedral which is the key dramatic device in the film and which Anton calls 'the establishing part of the city'. the problem here was to create a cathedral which was taller than the tallest skyscraper and still make it credible. it had to be over 1,000 feet (300 metres) high. I then remebered that some of the 1930s skyscrapers in New York produced a cathedral effect at the top by means of interesting Gothic detail. I began to solve the puzzle."
"Furst was primarily influenced in his design by Gaudi, the now-feted Spanish architect who is best known for his cone-shaped cathedral in Barcelona. there is no Gothic, Norman, or any other cathedral reference in Gaudi's masterpiece, so it's sense of timelessness appealed to Furst and thus fitted the tone of the film."
"I basically stretched Gaudi into a skyscraper and added a castle feel which was especially influenced by the look of the Japanese fortress."
"the top deck of the Cathedral is strongly evocative of Hitchcock's house, a favorite image, as it happens, of Tim Burton's. the dangerous parapets, as well as the cantilevered belfry, fit the malevolent heart of a city which God left 100 years before. yet the augmented and exaggerated design, whose unreality still had to be made credible, also suggests the comic absurdity which is evident in the film."
[Ref: Marriott, John, Batman: The Official Book of the Movie (London, The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., 1989), p. 90]
--the image posted above is a sketch by Anton Furst--
:-)