ING House

A weird building if ever there was one - pictured - located in Amsterdam and the headquarters of the ING Group, the largest banking/financial services & insurance conglomerate in the world by revenue with gross receipts exceeding €54 billion in 2010 (Fortune). As my meeting across the street, I ask the receptionist what she thinks ? "It looks like a ship" she says. And so it does. Me, I think : AT-AT walkers used by the the Galactic Empire against the Rebel Alliance's Echo Base.

The postmodern design by Amsterdam architects Meyer and Van Schooten opened in 2003. The building's 16 angled steel legs are independent of each other, resting on pins in large concrete blocks in the ground, a technique also found in bridge construction. On this platform the floors are built. The belly of the building on the second floor is actually at the height of the highway, as the ground is lower than the highway. From the third floor one has a view of the highway.

Next door there is a forest and, following lunch, I go for a run unaware how close I am to the airport. A jumbo flies overhead , landing gear out, and I think : "Holy, shit." There is a one-mile waterway for crew and rowing races.  Center-town 10 miles away.