Bata Shoes Head Office

The white, pavilion-like building, designed by architect John B. Parkin and completed in 1965 was considered by many as an example of the Modern Movement in architecture.

Simple and seemingly weightless, it rests on rows of columns, reminiscent of an ancient Greek temple.

Its north elevation is clumsy, with a porte-cochère intended as the connecting piece between the original building and a second (never built) retail space and warehouse tower.

Instead, surface parking spreads out to the north and west of the building, fulfilling the deadening formula of the industrial office complex.

The umbrella columns, though exhilarating to look at, are not as original as they might appear: They are a direct quotation from one of the buildings commissioned by Emhart Manufacturing Co. in Connecticut designed by the eminent American modernist firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.