13
$\begingroup$

This is part 9 of A Trivial Pursuit, a 25-part puzzle hunt. Each part is solvable on its own, with the exception of the meta-puzzle at the end.


Skyscraper with rows of coloured windows and clues
Colourblind-friendly version available here.

Puzzle in text format, for accessibility:

Total height of the Empire State Building (including antenna), in feet        [Gn] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
Year that the cathedral in Lincoln, UK, became the world's tallest building   [Gn] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
Number of steps in the Eiffel Tower                                           [Gn] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
Year that Europe's current tallest free-standing structure was completed      [Gn] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
Year of the inauguration of the Burj Khalifa                                  [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Gy]
*YEAR* [4]                                                                    [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn]
Frank ----- Wright (US, 1867)                                                 [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
----- Niemeyer (Brazil, 1907)                                                 [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gn] [Gy]
----- Piano (Italy, 1937)                                                     [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Gy] [Gy]
Zaha ----- (Iraq, 1950)                                                       [Gy] [Gn] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
César ----- (Argentina, 1926)                                                 [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy]
*COUNTRY* [5]                                                                 [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn]
Sixth and Guadalupe                                                           [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ]
Vasco da Gama Tower                                                           [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Y ]
BCEAO Tower                                                                   [Gy] [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Gn]
DC Tower 1                                                                    [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Gn] [Y ]
The Shard                                                                     [Y ] [Y ] [Y ] [Gn] [Gy] [Gy]
*CITY* [6]                                                                    [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn]
First name of architect who was born in [6] in [4] and worked in [5]          [Y ] [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Gn]
Kingdom where he was born…                                                    [Gy] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Y ] [Y ] [Y ]
…in this modern-day country                                                   [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Y ]
His naturalised surname on becoming a US citizen                              [Gn] [Y ] [Gy] [Gn] [Gy] [Gn] [Gy]
US architect under whom he worked at the start of his career                  [Gy] [Y ] [Gy] [Gy] [Y ] [Y ] [Gy]
*The relevant final answer to this puzzle*                                    [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn] [Gn]
$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

13
$\begingroup$

The relevant final answer to the architectural puzzle is:

Reimann

The green and yellow windows of the skyscraper give us four Wordle style puzzles to solve.

 Total height of the Empire State Building (including antenna), in feet       1454
 Year that the cathedral in Lincoln, UK, became the world's tallest building  1311
 Number of steps in the Eiffel Tower                                          1665
 Year that Europe's current tallest free-standing structure was completed     1967 (The Ostankino Tower)
 Year of the inauguration of the Burj Khalifa                                 2010

From the green windows we have 1???
And the gray windows exclude every other digit except 8.
So the answer here is:

YEAR [4]                                 1888

Stage1

The second group are all architects, with their dates of birth:

 Frank ----- Wright (US, 1867)    Lloyd
 ----- Niemeyer (Brazil, 1907)    Oscar
 ----- Piano (Italy, 1937)        Renzo
 Zaha ----- (Iraq, 1950)          Hadid
 César ----- (Argentina, 1926)    Pelli


From the green windows we have ?A?A?
And from the yellow windows we know we must use an N (not 3rd) and a P (not 1st).
And the only country that fits is:

COUNTRY [5]                      JAPAN
enter image description here

The third group are all skyscrapers, and we want their locations.

 Sixth and Guadalupe     Austin
 Vasco da Gama Tower     Lisbon
 BCEAO Tower             Bamako
 DC Tower 1              Vienna
 The Shard               London

From the green windows we have ???DNO
And from the yellow windows we know we must use an L (not 1st), an A (not 1st or 2nd) and a K. There are also several letters excluded by the grey windows, but the known letters are enough to give us:

CITY [6]                KLADNO

enter image description here

Finally, using the answers to the first three puzzles, we find information about Antonin Raymond (born Reimann):

 First name of architect who was born in [6] in [4] and worked in [5]   Antonin
 Kingdom where he was born…                                             Bohemia
 …in this modern-day country                                            Czechia
 His naturalised surname on becoming a US citizen                       Raymond
 US architect under whom he worked at the start of his career           Gilbert (Cass Gilbert)


From the green windows we have R??M?NN.
And from the yellow windows we know we must use an A (not 2nd), an E (not 3rd) and an I (not 2nd).
And that gives us:

The relevant final answer to this puzzle                REIMANN
enter image description here

$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ This is the correct answer. Since the colours are lost in a text-only explanation, it may be useful to point out some parts of the deductive logic so that solvers can see how you reached the final answers in all 4 cases. Readers interested in seeing a fully coloured solution can see the one I created during testing, here. $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 18, 2023 at 12:10
  • $\begingroup$ @stiv I started editing the graphic but it got quite messy, so went with text. I'll steal parts of your tidy version if that's ok, and add some details for the solving logic. $\endgroup$
    – fljx
    Commented Sep 18, 2023 at 12:37
  • $\begingroup$ Absolutely - please feel free to cannibalise my diagram as required! Definitely much easier to add text to the original Excel file it was designed in than to the image itself... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 18, 2023 at 12:50
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv You designed this to grate on the nerves of mathematicians who think the solution word is naught but a common misspelling, didn't you? :-) $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 19, 2023 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Randal'Thor that's just an unproven hypothesis. $\endgroup$
    – fljx
    Commented Sep 19, 2023 at 14:48

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.