Sunday, November 25, 2012
ARCH! weekly
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The AAlphabet
I had massive writer's block on my Grad School homework, so instead I made an alphabet poem. Nerding out to the power of 10.
A is for Alvar Aalto, working with wood
B is for Banham, don’t know him? You should
C is for Colin Rowe, who likes making a fuss
D is for Deconstructivism, which we can’t always trust
E is for Eisenman, questioning modern perception
F is for Frank Lloyd Wright, always the exception
G is for Gottfried Semper, the eclectics weren't thrilled
H is for Hadrian the Emperor, who can order you killed
I is for Inigo Jones, theatrical in mortar and brick
J is for Johnson, Philip gets bored real quick
K is for Koolhaas, all in black, exploring the city
L is for Le Corbusier, chosen “best” by committee
M is for Mies, elegant, quiet, and serious
N is for Nash who works for the imperious
O is for Oscar Niemeyer, still alive at one hundred and four
P is for Pei, sharp angles with marble that politicians adore
Q is for Question, which we all need to do
R is for Rhino, but it can’t design for you
S is for the Smithsons, seeing tomorrow today
T is for Tange, with Brutalism, texture, and grey
U is for Utzon, the concrete and tile magus
V is for the Venturis, who learn from Las Vegas
W is for Wren, who no one ever expects
X is for XTREME, because it’s hard to start words with “x”
Y is for Yu Hao, writing the book on engineering
Z is for Zumthor, combining thinking and feeling
Monday, November 5, 2012
'Soane' Great Museum and Tempting Oscar Bait
So I checked the blog this morning and realized that I have been a no-show for quite some time. Well all that changes NOW. Over the past month, a lot has happened and we've been to a lot of places. Let's start in London shall we?
Part One: Luxury for Free
One museum in London is kind of a secret club: a 'shave and a haircut' knock for designers. Being able to say you've been there is nerd street cred of the highest caliber. It is of course, The John Soane Museum. If you are an obnoxious hipster designer, your first expression would be 'Oh, have you not heard of the Soane?' said with a downcast eye and a mixture of contempt, pride and superiority. Barf.
Some people are under the impression that the only kind of people who 'get' the Soane Museum are designers and that's just nonsense. Anyone who is interested in something unusual likes the Soane Museum, which is why their candlelight tours (which take place the first Tuesday of every month seriously, look it up) are always packed around the block.
So what makes the Soane so special?
If it were a movie the tag line would be: 'It Takes Progress'
The trailer would start: 'In a world, where life was run by a series of precise rules and polite society, one man decided to create his own dream scape, where anything was possible.'
Then the score starts playing and...who can we get?... Hugh Jackman... looks up from a drafting desk.
Cut to black.
Coming this Christmas: SOANE.
Getting back on track: John Soane was a neo-classical English architect in the late 1700s/early 1800s who rose up the ranks of society from a humble background, mostly through his charm, connections and talent to become one of the most celebrated designers in England. You can see his influence in London today, from public buildings to the red telephone booths (which were inspired by some of his later work). The wealth and prestige his success bought him allowed Soane to buy a house in fancy (and also schmancy) neighborhood of Holborn. Slowly the home was expanded and became a sort of playground for the brilliant mind. It was here Soane could experiment with concepts on a individual scale and magnificently arrange the numerous souvenirs from his global travels. If you have ever wondered what the concept of the 'Sublime' looks like in architecture, this is a perfect example. It's weird, it's small and you feel like at any moment you could be grabbed by a maniac or fall through the floor, but that excitement is kind of the best part. On top of that, and let's get real here: it's just plain beautiful. The light, the layering, the arrangement, the Soane Museum makes you the star of your very own version of Indiana Jones. It's personal and it's charming, you feel like you really get to know the man who designed it. Love. Passion. Fear. Regret. You can see how a guy like this could become such good friends with JMW Turner.
Due to the thoroughness of it's integration, it's hard to tell where the collection ends and the building begins. However, there are a few moments that stand out, particularly in the painting room, where you can find an original Hogarth in the form of A Rake's Progress.
More on that here:
You can also review our old posts about Northern Scotland, which goes over it, click Here
The display of A Rake's Progress is masterfully done, a visionary design of scale that opens expensively. Watching the paintings unfold, you feel sophisticated and wealthy, something I realized because Grad school makes you very, very poor. This experience is poignant especially because the display may have been designed to give Soane comfort after he realized that his own son, George Soane, was a stereotypical 'Rake'. Violent, dissolute, angry and bitter, George marries a girl to spite his parents, gets into debt he can't get out of and spends the rest of his adult life simultaneously trying to destroy his Father's reputation and, stupidly, also trying to extort money from him.
To ensure his wastrel son does not get the inheritance, and also because it's a nice thing to do, upon his death Soane donated his collection and home to the city of London, where you can view it, any time of the year for nothing. If you're in London, do it, it's a 4 minute walk from the Holborn tube station and absolutely worth your time. Go for the nerd cred, stay for the sheer experience. Even if you're not a designer, trust me, you'll love it.
Part One: Luxury for Free
One museum in London is kind of a secret club: a 'shave and a haircut' knock for designers. Being able to say you've been there is nerd street cred of the highest caliber. It is of course, The John Soane Museum. If you are an obnoxious hipster designer, your first expression would be 'Oh, have you not heard of the Soane?' said with a downcast eye and a mixture of contempt, pride and superiority. Barf.
Some people are under the impression that the only kind of people who 'get' the Soane Museum are designers and that's just nonsense. Anyone who is interested in something unusual likes the Soane Museum, which is why their candlelight tours (which take place the first Tuesday of every month seriously, look it up) are always packed around the block.
So what makes the Soane so special?
If it were a movie the tag line would be: 'It Takes Progress'
The trailer would start: 'In a world, where life was run by a series of precise rules and polite society, one man decided to create his own dream scape, where anything was possible.'
Then the score starts playing and...who can we get?... Hugh Jackman... looks up from a drafting desk.
Cut to black.
Coming this Christmas: SOANE.
Getting back on track: John Soane was a neo-classical English architect in the late 1700s/early 1800s who rose up the ranks of society from a humble background, mostly through his charm, connections and talent to become one of the most celebrated designers in England. You can see his influence in London today, from public buildings to the red telephone booths (which were inspired by some of his later work). The wealth and prestige his success bought him allowed Soane to buy a house in fancy (and also schmancy) neighborhood of Holborn. Slowly the home was expanded and became a sort of playground for the brilliant mind. It was here Soane could experiment with concepts on a individual scale and magnificently arrange the numerous souvenirs from his global travels. If you have ever wondered what the concept of the 'Sublime' looks like in architecture, this is a perfect example. It's weird, it's small and you feel like at any moment you could be grabbed by a maniac or fall through the floor, but that excitement is kind of the best part. On top of that, and let's get real here: it's just plain beautiful. The light, the layering, the arrangement, the Soane Museum makes you the star of your very own version of Indiana Jones. It's personal and it's charming, you feel like you really get to know the man who designed it. Love. Passion. Fear. Regret. You can see how a guy like this could become such good friends with JMW Turner.
Due to the thoroughness of it's integration, it's hard to tell where the collection ends and the building begins. However, there are a few moments that stand out, particularly in the painting room, where you can find an original Hogarth in the form of A Rake's Progress.
More on that here:
You can also review our old posts about Northern Scotland, which goes over it, click Here
The display of A Rake's Progress is masterfully done, a visionary design of scale that opens expensively. Watching the paintings unfold, you feel sophisticated and wealthy, something I realized because Grad school makes you very, very poor. This experience is poignant especially because the display may have been designed to give Soane comfort after he realized that his own son, George Soane, was a stereotypical 'Rake'. Violent, dissolute, angry and bitter, George marries a girl to spite his parents, gets into debt he can't get out of and spends the rest of his adult life simultaneously trying to destroy his Father's reputation and, stupidly, also trying to extort money from him.
To ensure his wastrel son does not get the inheritance, and also because it's a nice thing to do, upon his death Soane donated his collection and home to the city of London, where you can view it, any time of the year for nothing. If you're in London, do it, it's a 4 minute walk from the Holborn tube station and absolutely worth your time. Go for the nerd cred, stay for the sheer experience. Even if you're not a designer, trust me, you'll love it.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Love Letters to Dead Architects: I trust you, you got an honest face.
Dear Barthelemy Lafon,
What am I going to do with you? You're carousing all over New Orleans making a right nuisance of yourself: lurking around the Quarter and the Garden District, all man, all maneuvers and all mustache. Piracy! Smuggling! Bow ties! Unbelievable!
Lucky for me, I'm not the type who gets all googlie-eyed at bad boys. At least not anymore.
Why did you did you do it Thomy? Was the humble charm of designing streets and bath-houses too lowly? Was the making of one of the strangest, most wonderful, most sublime cities in the world not enough to sate your appetites? You, the classicist scholar, you the philanthropist, you the man who saw past race at a time when it was not considered. So ahead of your time, yet stooping to petty lies and criminality. This is a grand and glorious disappointment.
Maybe I'll forget you move back north and flirt with some city folk, or maybe I'll become one of those great New Orleans eccentrics and wander the streets in a veil made of satin, weeping over a good man who was as bad, bad, bad as the darkest secrets on the hottest nights. The war made a lot of men and took a lot of men. I'm sorry to say that it took all the good out of the Barthelemy Lafon, at least the one I used to know.
Farewell,
Retly Corm
Dear Pope Sixtus V,
You know your Eminence, I'd be lying if I said that I'd never written one of these to a Pope before. Mama always told me not to lie to the leader of the Catholics, and I follow that advice. I gotta hand it to you, you're a man who knows marketing. Now I know what you'll say, that this great re-structuring of the Roman streets isn't for profit, it's for the glory of God and typically I'd think that was just lip-service, but I bet you really mean it.
See, your holiness, I've seen Popes before who claim to be holy, but really, they're just in it for the money and the power. *cough Alexander VI cough* What? Oh nothing. Just got some Borgia stuck in my throat.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that you saw a unique opportunity and took advantage of it. All of Europe is engulfed in a cataclysmic war, that is except Rome. So what do you do? You make Rome the #1 go-to site for all Catholics from everywhere. This may be anachronistic, but your Disney-land this town like none-other. It's smart. You make sure that every major church has a relic and that you can get from one to the other without a map. Then you build fountains and obelisks so the faithful, and maybe even the not-so, will gather around and use public spaces, bringing a sense of community. If the Reformationists want a battle of art and ideas, you give them the best you can give. Rome will Baroque thehell heck out of this time period. Bringing it Grottammare style.
Now, if only you could lay off the Inquisition and the whole Spanish Armada thing, we might actually have a decent Renaissance Papacy going.
Best,
Retly Corm
What am I going to do with you? You're carousing all over New Orleans making a right nuisance of yourself: lurking around the Quarter and the Garden District, all man, all maneuvers and all mustache. Piracy! Smuggling! Bow ties! Unbelievable!
Why did you did you do it Thomy? Was the humble charm of designing streets and bath-houses too lowly? Was the making of one of the strangest, most wonderful, most sublime cities in the world not enough to sate your appetites? You, the classicist scholar, you the philanthropist, you the man who saw past race at a time when it was not considered. So ahead of your time, yet stooping to petty lies and criminality. This is a grand and glorious disappointment.
Maybe I'll forget you move back north and flirt with some city folk, or maybe I'll become one of those great New Orleans eccentrics and wander the streets in a veil made of satin, weeping over a good man who was as bad, bad, bad as the darkest secrets on the hottest nights. The war made a lot of men and took a lot of men. I'm sorry to say that it took all the good out of the Barthelemy Lafon, at least the one I used to know.
Farewell,
Retly Corm
Dear Pope Sixtus V,
You know your Eminence, I'd be lying if I said that I'd never written one of these to a Pope before. Mama always told me not to lie to the leader of the Catholics, and I follow that advice. I gotta hand it to you, you're a man who knows marketing. Now I know what you'll say, that this great re-structuring of the Roman streets isn't for profit, it's for the glory of God and typically I'd think that was just lip-service, but I bet you really mean it.
See, your holiness, I've seen Popes before who claim to be holy, but really, they're just in it for the money and the power. *cough Alexander VI cough* What? Oh nothing. Just got some Borgia stuck in my throat.Anyway, what I'm saying is that you saw a unique opportunity and took advantage of it. All of Europe is engulfed in a cataclysmic war, that is except Rome. So what do you do? You make Rome the #1 go-to site for all Catholics from everywhere. This may be anachronistic, but your Disney-land this town like none-other. It's smart. You make sure that every major church has a relic and that you can get from one to the other without a map. Then you build fountains and obelisks so the faithful, and maybe even the not-so, will gather around and use public spaces, bringing a sense of community. If the Reformationists want a battle of art and ideas, you give them the best you can give. Rome will Baroque the
Now, if only you could lay off the Inquisition and the whole Spanish Armada thing, we might actually have a decent Renaissance Papacy going.
Best,
Retly Corm
Monday, October 1, 2012
ARE: Site Planning & Design (Round 2)
I am pleased to say that I have not let history repeat itself with this one! I messed up on the vignette the first time when I took this back in February, so they issued me a "FAIL." This time, I practiced my britches off with the vignette, and I have to say come exam time, I was impressed by my own solution!
I barely studied any text for round two. I figured I did not have any problems taking it the first time, and I was getting 90% on the practice exams in preparation for it this time, that what else could/should I study? Well, if I had to go at it a 3rd time, I would have reviewed the contract documents again, and read through all the applicable code sections, specifically ADA.
This time I was able to recall 31 of the 65 questions, which in my experience, is an indication of non-failure.
Next week I have to retake Programming, Planning and Practice. I have already studied more than I did the first go-round, so hopefully that will help me push through!
6 down, 1 to go!
I barely studied any text for round two. I figured I did not have any problems taking it the first time, and I was getting 90% on the practice exams in preparation for it this time, that what else could/should I study? Well, if I had to go at it a 3rd time, I would have reviewed the contract documents again, and read through all the applicable code sections, specifically ADA.
This time I was able to recall 31 of the 65 questions, which in my experience, is an indication of non-failure.
Next week I have to retake Programming, Planning and Practice. I have already studied more than I did the first go-round, so hopefully that will help me push through!
6 down, 1 to go!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Norm follows function
Currently I am without a working computer so I apologize for my lack of contribution to the blog since all my communication has been done via smart phone. BUT NOT ANYMORE.
For the past three weeks, I've been adjusting to life in London. The most surreal thing about it is how comfortable and familiar it feels. Part of that is the city, part of that is the weather and the other part is returning to life as a full-time student. Let me tell you, it is ridiculously easy to get back into student life. While working, my day started promptly at 6:30 am, at which point I would check my email, inspect reports, escort contractors and review construction progress in addition to any lingering problems all before 9:00am.
This week however, I've been getting up at 11:00 and drinking coffee at the cafe below my building before strolling to campus to read. 6:30 am now sounds like a made up time for crazy people. Before I left, I had it in my head that I would get up at 5:45 (as I had done before) go running then start my day of intense philosophical and mental training. Instead this happens.
I know, deep in my heart that this is not to last. Full time classes start up on Wednesday, which means my sleeping bear will turn into a bear of unstoppable architectural ambition and theoretical debate. (This has yet to be proven)
So let's get warmed up by going over a few things that have struck me since going back to Grad School.
Right now there is an ongoing and furious debate regarding whether or not architecture is being discussed properly in the contemporary field. Let's start by looking at this historically. Several years ago, I posted a joke about the catch phrases of the architectural field throughout the years. It went a little something like this:
Gothic: God is above us
Renaissance: God is Man
Baroque: God is infinite
Rococo: God, we have so much money
and so on and so forth.
The original poster is floating somewhere around my old supply closet. I may update it one of these days with whatcha y'all call your fancy 'photomashop'. The point is, for years, centuries even, movements could be defined by a catch phrase based on the drive of an individual or a solidified group. A dogma, if you will. Now though, there are so many different agendas vying for supremacy it makes for a really interesting yet sometimes depthless view on the architectural agenda. What do I mean?
Let's look at what's popular:
Things like Arch Daily and WAN are awesome, eye grabbing websites. Sexy images, sharp focus and high resolution denizens of genius that scream 'look at me!'. White backgrounds in a hermetically sealed world can make almost anything look thoughtful. However, this presents a problem: in formats like this, all you have is the image.*
*and sometimes there is nothing wrong with that. Many sites like this are just a vessel, a 'front page' of information. Therefore the flaw lies not with the monitors but with the up loaders.
Now while I'm sure that there is a deep philosophical meaning for each and every building, table, lamp etc. on these sites (please please PLEASE have meaning!), I don't know what it is. And now I don't care. Why? Because the pictures are pretty and it's shiny and I'm too in love with the object to see anything else. Not to be crass, but its like dating someone just because they're good looking. Deep, deep, DEEP down in the ugly part of your brain, you know you don't respect them, you just want them around so people know that you could afford them. (No hate, we've all done it. If you haven't it's because you are incredibly attractive. Also, do you want to go out?) It's fun and harmless, for a while, but in the end it can't last.
This presents us with the following topics:
1) If there is no defining ethos, can we positively identify the strongest trend in architecture right now?
2) You can't touch an image, how do I know if this actually works?
Options are the following:
The first problem will solve itself. In one scenario, 70 years from now, people will look back at architecture of our time and say 'oh, that looks like it was built in 2012'
'Why?' a Betty-White-style version of Retly Corm will ask from her futuristic Rascal scooter having been kept alive entirely by spite.
'Because' the cyborg replied, 'it's clearly a reflection of the computer derived neo-Baroque championed by the New York 5 and their subset. An obvious evolution from the tools of the age.'
The now whithered Retly Corm won't remember this because she is senile and fights her grandchildren for power of attorney.
OR
This period in architecture will be almost universally hated because there are so many different architects vying for position at the top of the heap. There are no more rules, yet everything starts to look the same with the exception of the 'brand name buildings' trying to out shock one another. Without devotion to a movement, the architect maintains their own name, vision and purpose and by proxy, the money they can make. A generation of Han Solos. If viewed negatively, it's like a never ending spiral of miserable performance art pieces, that are either obvious of or devoid of meaning. A group of people putting all the pressure on the tools used to create the art, not the art itself. This leads a viewer to think that there is an end to innovation.
But we can't really blame the architects, there is just a lack of unity. Which, for some (if viewed positively) means that the field is actually way more interesting. Then why the debate?
I think the problem is not necessarily what is being created, rather how we record what is being created. Does every site, blogger, writer, architect etc. need a chock-a-block manifesto stating their beliefs when creating a building? I mean, come on.
My response is a resounding: It can't hurt.
I've heard the argument that the creation of architecture is now, more than ever before, getting closer to the creation of art in its processes. That would be true, except that art does not need to fight gravity. Usually. But more so, I think there is a stereotype in the architectural world that art is created as a pure catharsis of emotion and that no rhyme or reason enters into it and sometimes that feels true. However, I have yet to meet any artist that did not have a strong philosophical meaning for why their art looks and or feels they way it does. Jasper Johns has oft claimed that:
For the past three weeks, I've been adjusting to life in London. The most surreal thing about it is how comfortable and familiar it feels. Part of that is the city, part of that is the weather and the other part is returning to life as a full-time student. Let me tell you, it is ridiculously easy to get back into student life. While working, my day started promptly at 6:30 am, at which point I would check my email, inspect reports, escort contractors and review construction progress in addition to any lingering problems all before 9:00am.
This week however, I've been getting up at 11:00 and drinking coffee at the cafe below my building before strolling to campus to read. 6:30 am now sounds like a made up time for crazy people. Before I left, I had it in my head that I would get up at 5:45 (as I had done before) go running then start my day of intense philosophical and mental training. Instead this happens.
I know, deep in my heart that this is not to last. Full time classes start up on Wednesday, which means my sleeping bear will turn into a bear of unstoppable architectural ambition and theoretical debate. (This has yet to be proven)
So let's get warmed up by going over a few things that have struck me since going back to Grad School.
Right now there is an ongoing and furious debate regarding whether or not architecture is being discussed properly in the contemporary field. Let's start by looking at this historically. Several years ago, I posted a joke about the catch phrases of the architectural field throughout the years. It went a little something like this:
Gothic: God is above us
Renaissance: God is Man
Baroque: God is infinite
Rococo: God, we have so much money
and so on and so forth.
The original poster is floating somewhere around my old supply closet. I may update it one of these days with whatcha y'all call your fancy 'photomashop'. The point is, for years, centuries even, movements could be defined by a catch phrase based on the drive of an individual or a solidified group. A dogma, if you will. Now though, there are so many different agendas vying for supremacy it makes for a really interesting yet sometimes depthless view on the architectural agenda. What do I mean?
Let's look at what's popular:
Things like Arch Daily and WAN are awesome, eye grabbing websites. Sexy images, sharp focus and high resolution denizens of genius that scream 'look at me!'. White backgrounds in a hermetically sealed world can make almost anything look thoughtful. However, this presents a problem: in formats like this, all you have is the image.*
*and sometimes there is nothing wrong with that. Many sites like this are just a vessel, a 'front page' of information. Therefore the flaw lies not with the monitors but with the up loaders.
Now while I'm sure that there is a deep philosophical meaning for each and every building, table, lamp etc. on these sites (please please PLEASE have meaning!), I don't know what it is. And now I don't care. Why? Because the pictures are pretty and it's shiny and I'm too in love with the object to see anything else. Not to be crass, but its like dating someone just because they're good looking. Deep, deep, DEEP down in the ugly part of your brain, you know you don't respect them, you just want them around so people know that you could afford them. (No hate, we've all done it. If you haven't it's because you are incredibly attractive. Also, do you want to go out?) It's fun and harmless, for a while, but in the end it can't last.
This presents us with the following topics:
1) If there is no defining ethos, can we positively identify the strongest trend in architecture right now?
2) You can't touch an image, how do I know if this actually works?
Options are the following:
The first problem will solve itself. In one scenario, 70 years from now, people will look back at architecture of our time and say 'oh, that looks like it was built in 2012'
'Why?' a Betty-White-style version of Retly Corm will ask from her futuristic Rascal scooter having been kept alive entirely by spite.
'Because' the cyborg replied, 'it's clearly a reflection of the computer derived neo-Baroque championed by the New York 5 and their subset. An obvious evolution from the tools of the age.'
The now whithered Retly Corm won't remember this because she is senile and fights her grandchildren for power of attorney.
OR
This period in architecture will be almost universally hated because there are so many different architects vying for position at the top of the heap. There are no more rules, yet everything starts to look the same with the exception of the 'brand name buildings' trying to out shock one another. Without devotion to a movement, the architect maintains their own name, vision and purpose and by proxy, the money they can make. A generation of Han Solos. If viewed negatively, it's like a never ending spiral of miserable performance art pieces, that are either obvious of or devoid of meaning. A group of people putting all the pressure on the tools used to create the art, not the art itself. This leads a viewer to think that there is an end to innovation.
But we can't really blame the architects, there is just a lack of unity. Which, for some (if viewed positively) means that the field is actually way more interesting. Then why the debate?
I think the problem is not necessarily what is being created, rather how we record what is being created. Does every site, blogger, writer, architect etc. need a chock-a-block manifesto stating their beliefs when creating a building? I mean, come on.
My response is a resounding: It can't hurt.
I've heard the argument that the creation of architecture is now, more than ever before, getting closer to the creation of art in its processes. That would be true, except that art does not need to fight gravity. Usually. But more so, I think there is a stereotype in the architectural world that art is created as a pure catharsis of emotion and that no rhyme or reason enters into it and sometimes that feels true. However, I have yet to meet any artist that did not have a strong philosophical meaning for why their art looks and or feels they way it does. Jasper Johns has oft claimed that:
| "I don't think that you can talk about art and get
anywhere. I think you can only look at it." but what I think he meant was its transference of meaning and not necessarily in its creation. If we follow Tolstoy's definition of art as described in 'What is Art?' we find that good art is a creation of experienced emotion that is then felt and understood by the viewer and bad art is selfish. aaannnd here is the crux of our problem. While Tolstoy's examination of art is not (to use my favorite phrase)'exclusively awesome', it does tell us that purely vision based architecture is pretty to look at, but is shallow. The only way to prove its meaning is to experience it in person. Not in a self publishing, self aggrandizing way, but in a way where you go, stop staring and a screen for 5 minutes and just be. Just you and the architect. Figuring out what you mean to one another. This can be increasingly difficult as architectural communication is now world wide. I can't drop everything and visit Vietnam...or can I? *checks bank account* nope, definitely can't. THIS LEADS TO OUR SECOND POINT. Art as well as architecture is moving towards one thing. That is, the tactile experience. If you are as drenched in the Internet as we have all become (Which is an incredibly ethnocentric way of observing culture) it is automatically assumed that you can't believe what you see, even in person. Therefore seeing is no longer believing. Spending +6 hours of your day waiting for a rhino screen to load will make you doubt that even the sky has not been photo enhanced and why? Because you don't watch it from start to finish, who has time for that? However, what you can trust is what you can feel. It's the Doubting Thomas philosophy, even if it's standing right in front of you, you still need to experience it in an undeniable way (the only exception being that eyeball/peeled grapes gag). This leads to architecture in many ways, from the scale of an entrance, to the material choice used, the feel of a door handle, that's the moment you connect with the architect on a human level. Not on what they were able to contrast out in the post-shoot, not what they were able to bloom out of the picture, just a physical moment. There you are, having a wordless conversation with an architect via an object.  The best example I have ever seen of this is the East Gallery by I.M. Pei, specifically one corner which is so worn down that the sharp, unforgiving edge has bowed in from oiled touch. When Pei designed the work, it was to meant to match the specific rules of the street angle. This is a recognizable moment if you are standing at the site. It frames the area and to be part of that philosophy, you touch a corner. The connection is real. That's what we should record. Not a press junket binder, but a moment where you feel real. But maybe I'm wrong. Stay tuned for more on the London experience. |
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Scoring on the ARE's
I know you are all but fed up with my posts about and theorizing on the ARE's, but I believe the following to be true: You must get roughly 70-75% of the multiple choice questions correct in each content area in order to pass. Why do we care? Well, on an exam with only 65 questions, like Site Planning & Design, and a possibility of 3 to 8 questions in a given content area, that means you could score a 63/65 (97%) and still fail. Why? Because you only got 1 out of 3 correct in the lesser of the 5 content areas. I believe that is what happened to me on PPP, and I am afraid that is what has just happened to me on SPD. I know I didn't get a 97% on PPP, I simply blew off studying the one content area, figuring I'd compensate on the others. Turns out they have you pegged for that!
Luckily, I believe my vignettes for SPD this time were beautiful. I finished early, but so as not to repeat last time's premature sign-off, I triple-checked everything and even made it crisper! I ended up only having 5 trees removed (the max was 6), but decided I needed to get more noon-time sun onto my terrace, so I relocated a sidewalk to delete the tree that was there. Never thought I'd intentionally delete a tree for something like that, but I suspect my neglect of the sunlight requirement was what in part tripped me up the last time. I just hope my indecisive studying this time didn't screw me up on the MC section. I did 90 - 100% on the 3 practice quizzes I did, so I figured what more could I study and just practiced on the vignettes. I wish I had reviewed codes more, but I kinda forgot about them - mostly forgot how specific the questions would be and how much memorizing was necessary in preparation!
Crossing my fingers majorly and hoping for the best!!
Luckily, I believe my vignettes for SPD this time were beautiful. I finished early, but so as not to repeat last time's premature sign-off, I triple-checked everything and even made it crisper! I ended up only having 5 trees removed (the max was 6), but decided I needed to get more noon-time sun onto my terrace, so I relocated a sidewalk to delete the tree that was there. Never thought I'd intentionally delete a tree for something like that, but I suspect my neglect of the sunlight requirement was what in part tripped me up the last time. I just hope my indecisive studying this time didn't screw me up on the MC section. I did 90 - 100% on the 3 practice quizzes I did, so I figured what more could I study and just practiced on the vignettes. I wish I had reviewed codes more, but I kinda forgot about them - mostly forgot how specific the questions would be and how much memorizing was necessary in preparation!
Crossing my fingers majorly and hoping for the best!!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Barnes Museum: Hubris, Agony and Matisse
So last weekend I made a quick trip to Philadelphia to visit Jo Feb and marvel at the size and comfort of her Doylestown farm house apartment. When you live in the downtown area of a city, sometimes you can forget that something more than 300 square feet exists as actual living space. For more on the improvement work Jo Feb has done to her place, check out our earlier posts.
On the way back, I ran into some trouble at the bus station. Which was unusual (said no one ever) and I had to take a later one. Fortunately, this allowed for a walk with some friends to the new Barnes museum. I should be clear that in this analysis, we did not actually go in, as it was past 6:00 pm on a Sunday. Therefore I will limit thoughts and observations to the exterior.
Many moons ago, when I was actually a pottery major at St. Joseph's University and looked roughly like this:
I had been to the original Barnes to help a friend escape from the French Club that she had conned for a free trip from Chestertown, MD to Philadelphia. I have to be honest, it was not love at first sight.
The original Barnes had been set in a back area of a quiet neighborhood known as 'Lower Merion' in the suburbs of Philadelphia, near the intersection of the affluent 'Main Line' and the nice, but not as fancy 'City Ave'. It was not particularly easy to find, and the force was strong with the Neighborhood Association, meaning that there were strict rules for buses, tourists, loitering, etc. in the general area. Additionally tickets had to be bought in advance and were not always easy to obtain.
The first time around, something seemed so, I'm not sure... miserly, I guess about the whole transaction. As if they were doing me some great favor, that I should be down on my hackie-sack playing, save-the-whale-protesting, cafeteria-cake-stealing knees, thanking them for the opportunity to take what little money I had.
I think part of this was the natural snobbery which comes from being a college freshman, especially an art major. Additionally, let's be honest, in those days my number one concern was where you could get a cheese-steak at 2 in the morning.
Then, a little while later, my parents visited me at school and we went back. The second time around, I stopped being offended by the process and actually looked at the art and the space which enclosed it.
It. was. phenomenal. It was clearly the work of someone who not only had an eye for a particular style, but an eye for excellence and eclecticism within that style. Someone who loved and guarded their collection with pride and ferocity.
I would have classified it as the love child of the Villa Borghese in Rome and the Walters in Baltimore. From the Borgheses, it gets the privacy, privilege and clarity, from the Walters it gets the excellence in detail, the overwhelming size of the collection and the sense of self-accomplishment. It was tucked away, a solitary as an oyster but a gem to be discovered. I didn't understand that the first time: that you didn't get to just 'have' the collection, you had to earn it.
"The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America" - Henri Matisse
Many have debated whether this is actually true or not. For my part, once I got over my sense of naive moral outrage, the gallery was nothing if not logical...and beautiful for that matter.
So if this gallery was SO GREAT, why move it at all? There in lies one of the most intriguing political questions in the world of art and architecture today. Similar to Sex, Politics and Religion, it seems the Barnes is not a topic you bring up at a cocktail party if you want to be polite (that is if Momma raised you right). Everyone has a differing opinion and if you want to look at it from a balanced perspective, neither side is totally wrong.
On the one side there are the believers that this fabulous collection was going to waste in a neighborhood that didn't appreciate it. They already have so much, good schools, beautiful homes, money: Why take this too? Plus all they do is complain about people coming to see it, you think they'd be happy to see it go. This collection should be seen by the whole world, not some uppity suburbanites.
On the other hand, you have those who wanted it to stay in Merion because it was not only a deeply rooted part of the culture, the pride of the area, but
also the will of the man who had bought the collection with his own
hard-earned money. Why should the intent of his will be stripped away by a bunch of money grubbing bureaucrats who only care about profiting from the art? They don't love the paintings, they love the prestige.
There's also the famous question of what the intent of Dr. Barnes actually was: did he really want to create a quality experience that had to be earned, or was he just trying to stick it to the snobs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art who looked down at him and his 'new money' ways?
You see the problem here.
This debate spawned two, really interesting media works. One was a play called 'Permanent Collection' by Thomas Gibbons. Read more about that here.
The play touched not only on the political aspect, but also on how the topic of race may have had its hand in the cookie jar as well. The Morris Museum that is discussed in the play is a thinly veiled Barnes with Sterling North as a convincingly torn Richard H. Glanton, the former president of the foundation.
The other piece is 'The Art of the Steal', now streaming on Netflix.
In the end, the city of Philadelphia won. The Barnes was moved to center city and the design of the new Barnes Foundation was under the care of the architectural duo of Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.
There's no way to win this fight if you're the architect who is asked to design such a building. What do you do? Whatever you design, at least 50% of the viewers are going to hate it based on the fact that it's been (in their opinion) stripped from its rightful home.
The only people who could truly understand the predicament would either be Jorn Utzon (now deceased...also, check out the story behind the Sydney Opera House, riveting) or those who have to deal with the Elgin Marbles. (British Museum vs. Bernard Tschumi. New Acropolis Museum, look it up.)
But nevertheless they took the commission. See below for their concept:
Like the original Barnes building, I didn't love this one right away. I saw the parti in the paper and thought 'Oh God, here we go: another pressed flat panel almost-like-but-not-quite-as-good-as-the-Getty design." But I was wrong.
In walking the exterior you see what Billie and Tod are up to. They want to make a garden in the city: something like but not quite the Lower Merion location. Let's be honest: it's not...yet.
Eventually the trees will grow in and the area will retreat back from the street, maybe by then the controversy will have relaxed. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
Walking into the area, there is something to be said for the attention to detail. You can see that each aspect is considered, from the ramps onto the grassy areas to the finishes and the materiality, everything is deeply, deeply thought through. There is also the strong attention paid to the entry path. Like the original Merion design, they want you to earn the art. Walking up slowly makes you feel as if you're seeing somthing special. It's a ceremony, an honor.
However, on the other end, there's the big light sandwich that flirts with the parkway. Drawing you closer, seducing the viewer, making it something just out of reach.
This firm clearly knew what they were doing.
BT and TW couldn't just go rogue with any wild design, but neither could they submit entirely to the original Merion structure, it just wasn't big enough. Plus, what person wants to just copy the same thing over again? William Levitt
I had the opportunity one time of hearing Billie Tsien speak at Penn about architecture, specifically the firms previous work at the Folk Art Museum in New York. The lecture was thought provoking: particularly her views on the accessibility of education, which I won't paraphrase here for lack of a better memory. However, what I gathered from that lecture, is that everything about their work is considered as a piece of the whole concept. The anti-decorated shed approach.
To their credit, when I saw the Folk Art museum I thought they had made the most beautiful fire exit I had ever seen.
Now it is time for New Barnes pictures.
The new Barnes will never be the original Barnes. That's true. Whether or not the location of the institution is suitable, fair or even legal is a matter of debate. Was the original Barnes building beautiful? Yes. Is the new one beautiful? Yes.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
IDP - Experience Reportiong [the Follow-Up]
This post is a response or follow-up to my "conundrum" as described in this post.
I believe it was last Friday that my supervisor approved my IDP experience reports. This time I opted to stand behind him as he did it so I could witness the experience should I need to report a malfunction or mishap to NCARB again.
As it turned out, when my supervisor followed the link that came up in his email alerting him to the new report needing approval, he logged in and saw BOTH experience reports. I guess the one that was "hidden" or "missing" from last time somehow magically returned? Or perhaps when they were updating the interface/reporting system, the file got lost and has since been restored?
Either way, my supervisor was able to approve both experience reports without a problem. And consequently, I received in my email yesterday a notification that my IDP has been completed! Now just to wrap up those "loose ends...."
I believe it was last Friday that my supervisor approved my IDP experience reports. This time I opted to stand behind him as he did it so I could witness the experience should I need to report a malfunction or mishap to NCARB again.
As it turned out, when my supervisor followed the link that came up in his email alerting him to the new report needing approval, he logged in and saw BOTH experience reports. I guess the one that was "hidden" or "missing" from last time somehow magically returned? Or perhaps when they were updating the interface/reporting system, the file got lost and has since been restored?
Either way, my supervisor was able to approve both experience reports without a problem. And consequently, I received in my email yesterday a notification that my IDP has been completed! Now just to wrap up those "loose ends...."
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
IDP - Experience Reporting
It has been far too long since I last posted, so I thought I would put at least SOMETHING in here, since nothing more meaningful has come to mind in the past few months. Although, maybe I should make some posts about the improvements to my apartment.... more on that another time.
Anyway, so as you may have noticed, NCARB has revamped the e-EVR system, and now I believe it is just called "online reporting," or something non-acronymninal. Before they even had online reporting, you filed by paper. Well, my story starts then.
Circa 2007, I submitted my very first experience report to NCARB via the mail. I logged all of my summer intern hours in this manner. The following summer, NCARB launched their new online reporting system, e-EVR, where you had the option to submit experience reports online, or still through the mail. Naturally, I preferred the quicker, easier, online method to paper and pencil. I created my account, saw that my previous summer's experience was appropriately logged, and filled out a new experience log. Upon submitting the new experience, my employer was prompted to create an account, which he did, and the system worked flawlessly thereafter.
Circa 2009, I gain fulltime employment elsewhere, and thus create a new employer in my NCARB record and start using new supervisors to approve experience. Sometime in late 2011 or early 2012, NCARB decides to revamp or streamline or simplify (whichever catchphrase was appropriate for the time) the online reporting system. And now you can ONLY submit experience online (previously NCARB was accepting paper or online experience reports). Supervisors must create usernames to affiliate with their supervisor accounts (previously they would access using their email addresses as "usernames.") This seemed to work out fine at this employer.
2012, I change employment back to the firm I interned in the summers with. As stated above, at this firm I had submitted first using paper, second using e-EVR, and now attempted to submit a third report using the streamlined reporting system. When my supervisor was prompted to create a username, somehow it created a new account for him separate from my experience report, which has since been sitting idly unapproved. He isn't even able to see my account information from his profile, which did not used to be the case.
With the new exclusively online reporting system, I am now able to select the "employer" account that was created for my paper experience report. I have done this and added my current supervisor as the "new supervisor." I am hoping this will circumvent the need for me to reach out to NCARB again for help. While NCARB can help you out and get you what they need, they are very difficult to get into that position (i.e. email chains, on hold, etc.).
I apologize that I must pollute the internet with these rants. I anticipate 0 hits on this, but still at least I ended my posting drought!
I'll let you know how my situation pans out tomorrow (if my supervisor received the notification or if I have to call NCARB), as I'm certain you're biting your nails in anticipation!
Anyway, so as you may have noticed, NCARB has revamped the e-EVR system, and now I believe it is just called "online reporting," or something non-acronymninal. Before they even had online reporting, you filed by paper. Well, my story starts then.
Circa 2007, I submitted my very first experience report to NCARB via the mail. I logged all of my summer intern hours in this manner. The following summer, NCARB launched their new online reporting system, e-EVR, where you had the option to submit experience reports online, or still through the mail. Naturally, I preferred the quicker, easier, online method to paper and pencil. I created my account, saw that my previous summer's experience was appropriately logged, and filled out a new experience log. Upon submitting the new experience, my employer was prompted to create an account, which he did, and the system worked flawlessly thereafter.
Circa 2009, I gain fulltime employment elsewhere, and thus create a new employer in my NCARB record and start using new supervisors to approve experience. Sometime in late 2011 or early 2012, NCARB decides to revamp or streamline or simplify (whichever catchphrase was appropriate for the time) the online reporting system. And now you can ONLY submit experience online (previously NCARB was accepting paper or online experience reports). Supervisors must create usernames to affiliate with their supervisor accounts (previously they would access using their email addresses as "usernames.") This seemed to work out fine at this employer.
2012, I change employment back to the firm I interned in the summers with. As stated above, at this firm I had submitted first using paper, second using e-EVR, and now attempted to submit a third report using the streamlined reporting system. When my supervisor was prompted to create a username, somehow it created a new account for him separate from my experience report, which has since been sitting idly unapproved. He isn't even able to see my account information from his profile, which did not used to be the case.
With the new exclusively online reporting system, I am now able to select the "employer" account that was created for my paper experience report. I have done this and added my current supervisor as the "new supervisor." I am hoping this will circumvent the need for me to reach out to NCARB again for help. While NCARB can help you out and get you what they need, they are very difficult to get into that position (i.e. email chains, on hold, etc.).
I apologize that I must pollute the internet with these rants. I anticipate 0 hits on this, but still at least I ended my posting drought!
I'll let you know how my situation pans out tomorrow (if my supervisor received the notification or if I have to call NCARB), as I'm certain you're biting your nails in anticipation!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tiptoe through the Tulips with Mies
So currently my house is somewhere between the minimalist De Stijl designs (empty and full of bright colors) and, how can I accurately put this, a garbage can (all my junk is piled into a corner). It has been said that if you want peace, you must prepare for war. Similarly, if I want to move out of this house, I must prepare to spend the rest of my life as a hoarder. 3. 3 copies of Zoolander. Who needs that many? No one, That's who.
But I digress.
In the process of boxing up the books, I was reminded of the good reads that have taken place during the 3 years I've lived here. So here - because you didn't ask for it - are my top ten favorite design books (today. right now.)
In the hope of not being too anecdotal I'm just going to put gifs down to sum up how I felt when I first read each of these books.
Why? Because it's the Internet.
#10) Phenomenology of Perception - Maurice Merleau-Ponty
#9) A Good Chair is A Good Chair - Donald Judd
#8) The Ice Palace that Melted Away - Bill Stumpf
#7) Architecture: Form, Space, Order - Francis D.K. Ching
#6) S,M,L,XL - Rem Koolhaas
#5) The Architecture of Happiness - Alain De Botton
#4) Philip Johnson: Life and Work - Franz Schulze
#3) History of the Future - Donna Goodman
#2) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture - Robert Venturi
#1) 101 things you learn in Architecture School - Matthew Fredrick
Honorable Mention: Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 - Kate Nesbitt (technically a 'Best Of')
How about you guys? What were are your favorite design books?
Thanks to Whatshouldwecallme for the gifs.
But I digress.
In the process of boxing up the books, I was reminded of the good reads that have taken place during the 3 years I've lived here. So here - because you didn't ask for it - are my top ten favorite design books (today. right now.)
In the hope of not being too anecdotal I'm just going to put gifs down to sum up how I felt when I first read each of these books.
Why? Because it's the Internet.
#10) Phenomenology of Perception - Maurice Merleau-Ponty
#9) A Good Chair is A Good Chair - Donald Judd
#8) The Ice Palace that Melted Away - Bill Stumpf
#7) Architecture: Form, Space, Order - Francis D.K. Ching
#6) S,M,L,XL - Rem Koolhaas
#5) The Architecture of Happiness - Alain De Botton
#4) Philip Johnson: Life and Work - Franz Schulze
#3) History of the Future - Donna Goodman
#2) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture - Robert Venturi
#1) 101 things you learn in Architecture School - Matthew Fredrick
Honorable Mention: Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 - Kate Nesbitt (technically a 'Best Of')
How about you guys? What were are your favorite design books?
Thanks to Whatshouldwecallme for the gifs.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
New Orleans Part IV: How the Other Half Lives
We've got a lot to cover so let's dive right on in shall we?
The Plantations
There is a sense of romance when one talks about the "Old South". The finery, the culture, the dresses, the balls it's all very charming. However, we can never forget that all this luxury was built off the back of hypocrisy and slavery. Now, technically, Louisiana was not part of the "Old South" as it was not a state during the Revolutionary War, it was more correctly part of the "Antebellum South" which was prominent during the four score and seven or so years between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. On our trip up the river, we drove by several fine homes, but for the sake of time, let's look at two. Which are:
Oak Alley Plantation and Laura Plantation.
Let's start with the grander "Oak Alley"
The
trees of Oak Alley were present long before the house was built in 1837 as the trees are expected to be about 300 years old. The
stately home was constructed via the funding of Jacques Telesphore
Roman for his wife Celina.
Celina's father was Gilbert Joseph Pilie a noted architect and probable designer of the plantation. While Jacques had been unofficially dubbed "The Sugar King" of New Orleans, he died about 10 years after the house construction and despite marital woes, left the plantation in the care of his wife. It is important to note that Celina was as bad at business as she was good at throwing parties. Nearing bankruptcy in 1859, the eldest son, Henri Roman took control of the property, but by then they were too deep in debt to turn it around. Before long the union soldiers came down the bayou and the Romans were forced to sell their fine and financially unsustainable home.
It was left in disrepair until it was bought and restored in the 1920s.
The architecture of it is just phenomenal. It's one of those places that's hard to describe why it works, it just does. Nature does not build in straight lines, but somehow this places feels so natural. As far as the design goes, it's a perfect balance of natural elements and man-made possession of landscape. It's real purdy.
The second plantation we will look at is the Laura Plantation.
Unlike Oak Alley, Laura stayed firmly in the hands of the same family since it's construction in the early 1800s. That is until the last owner, Laura Locoul Gore (the fourth owner in a direct line of succession) gave it up to move to St. Louis. The architecture is clearly much more Creole and Caribbean based than that of Oak Alley. The colors, the decoration and the functionality are much more condensed, much less focused on entertaining. Like Oak Alley, the kitchen is off to the side to take away from the heat, practical and interesting flow-wise.
However, Laura Plantation is clearly a working house, vs. Oak Alley which is very much about showing off. This is most clearly evident by the reception halls. In Oak Alley you feel you have arrived, at Laura, it is as if you have always been.
While there was a sort of tragic element to the fate of the Roman family, I have to say I was removed from that pity for the main antagonist figure of the Laura plantation, Elizabeth Locoul.
Elizabeth
was forced into ownership of the plantation when we was young, still
very much a teenager. In part due to the culture around her as well as
the responsibility thrust upon her at such a young age, she became a desensitized bully
especially with the enslaved people on her land. She bought female
slaves for breeding purposes, tried to break up families (which at the
time was against French law, but not American law) and had at least one of her
slaves branded on the forehead for trying to escape. It was these ugly
tactics that, while keeping the plantation profitable, convinced her
grand daughter, Laura, that she wanted nothing to do with running a
plantation. Laura abdicated her duty in 1891 and sold the lot. In her
later years, Laura wrote a book about her memories of growing up on a
Creole Plantation. It's a pretty good read if you're interested. Find it here
Sadly, the home was damaged by fire in 2004 and repairs have not yet been made to restore it. Despite this, I would recommend taking a tour of it to see how different it is for all the other plantations in the area.
The Garden District
Moving closer to the city, we can find ourselves in the Garden District. This part of town is for the more suburban set. When you have lots of money, but don't want the remoteness of a plantation, nor the pressures of a house in the Quarter, which is all code for, the Americans wanted it. Many of the homes are what you would consider to be "Victorian" however, unlike the Victorian homes in Boston or Denver, it's just too hot to have the layering affect that mansions of that time were so famous for. Instead, the Garden District houses combine the best of the creole row homes, especially in regards to the porches, with the basics of Victorian architecture. As a result, the houses are large and open. Also, they are frequently adjacent to huge gardens, which gives the district it's name.
The best way to see this neighborhood is by street car. Here are some examples of the kind of houses you're likely to find in this part of town.
While touring, we were able to stop by the The Columns Hotel which is a bed and breakfast. Staying there was out of our price range, but tea in Albertine room was not.
While we were there, people brought up about five times that the house is where the movie 'Pretty Baby' was filmed. Maybe I'm an uncultured closed minded plebeian but that movie gives me the creeps. The straight up Game of Thrones creeps.
Why? Well, here's the trailer.
Gross.
Secondly, this is the Garden District, Storyville is on the other side of town, just saying. But if you're into sordid histories, Storyville is for you. It's one of those "if you're going to do that sort of thing, could you do it over there" type places.
While we're here, I know it's technically not part of the Garden District, but it was part of our Trolley Line so let's cover it.
One of my favorites of the City: The Piazza D'Italia.
In 1970s the leaders of the Italian Population of New Orleans sought a monument to honor their contribution to the Crescent City. In 1974 former Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Charles Moore took the bait and designed the most pop of pop art, the most post-modern thing ever: The Piazza D'Italia. The Piazza had a rough start: as soon as it was completed and getting settled into the city, there was a drop in the interest of domestic oil production which meant that the community that surrounded it withered. It was almost lost as a "Post Modern Ruin" until a renovation in 2003-2004 by the Lowes Hotel Company.
I was surprised not only by how much I liked it, but also how well it was crafted. The jokes are perfectly timed:
-Architect Head Sculpture spits water onto the viewer
-The columns are just for show
-Flying buttress for some reason
-NEON!
-It is literally a map of Italy
There have always been mixed feelings about post-modernism in architecture. I had a professor in college who refused to even say the name James Wines because it caused too much controversy. On the one side some architects will note that Post-Modernism is a cheap shot, an easy out, a way of mocking the beliefs of others while contributing nothing yourself.
However, if you like Post-modernism, you see it as a witty, charming, tongue-in-cheek way of seeing the world. It doesn't always have to be significant to be meaningful, sometimes it can just be silly and still resonate with the viewer. Po-Mo moments like the Piazza D'Italia, are like the fool in King Lear, it's garish and loud but sometimes the jokes can more accurately describe the situation than the stone faced report.
I guess the best way to describe the Piazza's appeal is with this metaphor:
is kind of like:
but more sophisticated. So really it's the most like this:
and now to totally switch gears....
The Lower Ninth Ward:
In late August of 2005 a force of unprecedented impact struck the coast of the Southern United States with the heedless determination of a wild beast, destroying everything man and God had wrought there. The impact was undeniable, the blame for the aftermath was shoved and passed from person to person, agency to agency, derision infectious and despair insurmountable.
Hurricane Katrina is now as woven into the fabric of New Orleans as much as any other siginificant portion of their history. The haunted memories of long since past invasions, deadly plagues and all consuming fires were in one fell swoop eclipsed and washed away by the storm. However, seven years later, we see what makes people fall in love with New Orleans. It is not only the music, the color, the passion; it is the determination within its' people. They survive, and always will.
This is not to say that the problem is solved: "Mission Accomplished", far from it in fact. However, it does afford us an opportunity to look at the Ninth ward then and now.
Prior to 2005, the Ninth ward was famous for it's characteristic abundance of shotgun houses. Originally the area had been plantation land which was then adapted into military housing related to the Jackson Barracks (circa 1830). The neighborhood slowly grew over until it was as much part of New Orleans as the Garden District or the French Quarter. What held the water back in this area (as we mentioned earlier, most of the city is below sea level), was a series of levees along the adjacent canals.
One of these levees had broken during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the damage from this was monumental. It was in reaction to this storm that President L.B. Johnson stated on his visit to oversee the damage: "I am here because I want to see with my own eyes what the unhappy alliance of wind and water have done to this land and to its good people." This visit prompted the Flood Control Act of 1965 which resulted in the design and maintenance of the levees being handed to the Army Corps of Engineers.
When Katrina hit, several levees broke, and despite the mandatory evacuation of the area, the storm resulted in the death of over 1600 people and billions of dollars worth of damage. I am unfit to properly categorize what this meant to the city as a whole as the aftermath is both measurable and immeasurable. You can put a price on a house, but what about a life? For further information I would recommend Chris Rose's 1 Dead in Attic
The immediate response was to give those displaced temporary shelter, which turned out to create even more problems, as some of the poorly constructed trailers were laced with toxic chemicals, creating severe health risks.
In the years following the disaster and its aftermath, a series of sustainability friendly non-profits started drawing its attention to New Orleans, in particular the Lower Ninth Ward, where the damage had been greatest. Including but not exclusive to, LowerNine, Habitat for Humanity, and most famously, Make it Right. Most people are acquainted with Make it Right as one of their spokespersons is an almost universally recognizable figure. That's right.
Come on. We all know it's Brad Pitt:
It's an example of using your celebrity for good and as glibly as it portrays the sometimes shallow reasons for supporting charity, let's use it as a means to an end. I mean, at the end of the day, who are you going to give money to:
--This guy.
Or
---- This guy.
The correct answer is both of these dudes. Because they both support worthy causes.
However, while Jimmy Carter's outfit is typically more homogeneous, Make it Right has the advantage of celebrity and with that in mind arranged for some of the best architects in the world to design their homes. (Click on the names to see what they are most famous for).
Shigeru Ban
Hitoshi Abe
Bild
Frank Gehry
Yes, each one is a fascinating take on what a shotgun house lot can allow for. Clearly crafted by masters of the trade, creole influences, contemporary technology, functionality and just the right amount of ego. I am excited to see how they age as well.
When we first got to New Orleans I was especially interested in seeing the Make it Right houses as I had read so much about them. However, I was lost as to how to find them, as no addresses were listed on any website. This reminded me of the paradox of architectural interest, especially when it comes to residential works: on one side, you are curious about the object as an aesthetic piece, on the other, these are people's homes and you should respect their privacy. There in lies the darker side of celebrity endorsement, people are interested in helping, but they also want to see the result and take their share of pride.
While I did find the streets that the Make it Right houses were located on, I will not post it here. The important thing is that, should you want to see them, you should drive the whole area to see the place and also probably donate to the cause of rebuilding it.
The other interesting side of this development is the aging that has taken place thus far. On one end of the spectrum are the Make it Right houses that embrace nature, on the other, is the consuming methods of Nature itself. With the sharp decrease in population (about 1/2 from 2000 to 2010 according to the census) many places have been abandoned, leading them to be reclaimed by selfish nature of plants and man. For more information on this phenomenon, see point and counterpoint.
Conclusion:
New Orleans, city of music, dark sides, light sides and everything in between. She is a romantic survivor, she is Carmen, you will love her, she will leave you broken hearted but you can never blame her for it. She is not to be trusted and always to be adored.
The Plantations
There is a sense of romance when one talks about the "Old South". The finery, the culture, the dresses, the balls it's all very charming. However, we can never forget that all this luxury was built off the back of hypocrisy and slavery. Now, technically, Louisiana was not part of the "Old South" as it was not a state during the Revolutionary War, it was more correctly part of the "Antebellum South" which was prominent during the four score and seven or so years between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. On our trip up the river, we drove by several fine homes, but for the sake of time, let's look at two. Which are:
Oak Alley Plantation and Laura Plantation.
Let's start with the grander "Oak Alley"
Celina's father was Gilbert Joseph Pilie a noted architect and probable designer of the plantation. While Jacques had been unofficially dubbed "The Sugar King" of New Orleans, he died about 10 years after the house construction and despite marital woes, left the plantation in the care of his wife. It is important to note that Celina was as bad at business as she was good at throwing parties. Nearing bankruptcy in 1859, the eldest son, Henri Roman took control of the property, but by then they were too deep in debt to turn it around. Before long the union soldiers came down the bayou and the Romans were forced to sell their fine and financially unsustainable home.
It was left in disrepair until it was bought and restored in the 1920s.
The architecture of it is just phenomenal. It's one of those places that's hard to describe why it works, it just does. Nature does not build in straight lines, but somehow this places feels so natural. As far as the design goes, it's a perfect balance of natural elements and man-made possession of landscape. It's real purdy.
The second plantation we will look at is the Laura Plantation.
Unlike Oak Alley, Laura stayed firmly in the hands of the same family since it's construction in the early 1800s. That is until the last owner, Laura Locoul Gore (the fourth owner in a direct line of succession) gave it up to move to St. Louis. The architecture is clearly much more Creole and Caribbean based than that of Oak Alley. The colors, the decoration and the functionality are much more condensed, much less focused on entertaining. Like Oak Alley, the kitchen is off to the side to take away from the heat, practical and interesting flow-wise.
However, Laura Plantation is clearly a working house, vs. Oak Alley which is very much about showing off. This is most clearly evident by the reception halls. In Oak Alley you feel you have arrived, at Laura, it is as if you have always been.
While there was a sort of tragic element to the fate of the Roman family, I have to say I was removed from that pity for the main antagonist figure of the Laura plantation, Elizabeth Locoul.
Sadly, the home was damaged by fire in 2004 and repairs have not yet been made to restore it. Despite this, I would recommend taking a tour of it to see how different it is for all the other plantations in the area.
The Garden District
Moving closer to the city, we can find ourselves in the Garden District. This part of town is for the more suburban set. When you have lots of money, but don't want the remoteness of a plantation, nor the pressures of a house in the Quarter, which is all code for, the Americans wanted it. Many of the homes are what you would consider to be "Victorian" however, unlike the Victorian homes in Boston or Denver, it's just too hot to have the layering affect that mansions of that time were so famous for. Instead, the Garden District houses combine the best of the creole row homes, especially in regards to the porches, with the basics of Victorian architecture. As a result, the houses are large and open. Also, they are frequently adjacent to huge gardens, which gives the district it's name.
The best way to see this neighborhood is by street car. Here are some examples of the kind of houses you're likely to find in this part of town.
While touring, we were able to stop by the The Columns Hotel which is a bed and breakfast. Staying there was out of our price range, but tea in Albertine room was not.
While we were there, people brought up about five times that the house is where the movie 'Pretty Baby' was filmed. Maybe I'm an uncultured closed minded plebeian but that movie gives me the creeps. The straight up Game of Thrones creeps.
Why? Well, here's the trailer.
Gross.
Secondly, this is the Garden District, Storyville is on the other side of town, just saying. But if you're into sordid histories, Storyville is for you. It's one of those "if you're going to do that sort of thing, could you do it over there" type places.
While we're here, I know it's technically not part of the Garden District, but it was part of our Trolley Line so let's cover it.
One of my favorites of the City: The Piazza D'Italia.
In 1970s the leaders of the Italian Population of New Orleans sought a monument to honor their contribution to the Crescent City. In 1974 former Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Charles Moore took the bait and designed the most pop of pop art, the most post-modern thing ever: The Piazza D'Italia. The Piazza had a rough start: as soon as it was completed and getting settled into the city, there was a drop in the interest of domestic oil production which meant that the community that surrounded it withered. It was almost lost as a "Post Modern Ruin" until a renovation in 2003-2004 by the Lowes Hotel Company.
I was surprised not only by how much I liked it, but also how well it was crafted. The jokes are perfectly timed:
-Architect Head Sculpture spits water onto the viewer
-The columns are just for show
-Flying buttress for some reason
-NEON!
-It is literally a map of Italy
There have always been mixed feelings about post-modernism in architecture. I had a professor in college who refused to even say the name James Wines because it caused too much controversy. On the one side some architects will note that Post-Modernism is a cheap shot, an easy out, a way of mocking the beliefs of others while contributing nothing yourself.
However, if you like Post-modernism, you see it as a witty, charming, tongue-in-cheek way of seeing the world. It doesn't always have to be significant to be meaningful, sometimes it can just be silly and still resonate with the viewer. Po-Mo moments like the Piazza D'Italia, are like the fool in King Lear, it's garish and loud but sometimes the jokes can more accurately describe the situation than the stone faced report.
I guess the best way to describe the Piazza's appeal is with this metaphor:
is kind of like:
but more sophisticated. So really it's the most like this:
and now to totally switch gears....
The Lower Ninth Ward:
In late August of 2005 a force of unprecedented impact struck the coast of the Southern United States with the heedless determination of a wild beast, destroying everything man and God had wrought there. The impact was undeniable, the blame for the aftermath was shoved and passed from person to person, agency to agency, derision infectious and despair insurmountable.
Hurricane Katrina is now as woven into the fabric of New Orleans as much as any other siginificant portion of their history. The haunted memories of long since past invasions, deadly plagues and all consuming fires were in one fell swoop eclipsed and washed away by the storm. However, seven years later, we see what makes people fall in love with New Orleans. It is not only the music, the color, the passion; it is the determination within its' people. They survive, and always will.
This is not to say that the problem is solved: "Mission Accomplished", far from it in fact. However, it does afford us an opportunity to look at the Ninth ward then and now.
Prior to 2005, the Ninth ward was famous for it's characteristic abundance of shotgun houses. Originally the area had been plantation land which was then adapted into military housing related to the Jackson Barracks (circa 1830). The neighborhood slowly grew over until it was as much part of New Orleans as the Garden District or the French Quarter. What held the water back in this area (as we mentioned earlier, most of the city is below sea level), was a series of levees along the adjacent canals.
One of these levees had broken during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the damage from this was monumental. It was in reaction to this storm that President L.B. Johnson stated on his visit to oversee the damage: "I am here because I want to see with my own eyes what the unhappy alliance of wind and water have done to this land and to its good people." This visit prompted the Flood Control Act of 1965 which resulted in the design and maintenance of the levees being handed to the Army Corps of Engineers.
When Katrina hit, several levees broke, and despite the mandatory evacuation of the area, the storm resulted in the death of over 1600 people and billions of dollars worth of damage. I am unfit to properly categorize what this meant to the city as a whole as the aftermath is both measurable and immeasurable. You can put a price on a house, but what about a life? For further information I would recommend Chris Rose's 1 Dead in Attic
The immediate response was to give those displaced temporary shelter, which turned out to create even more problems, as some of the poorly constructed trailers were laced with toxic chemicals, creating severe health risks.
In the years following the disaster and its aftermath, a series of sustainability friendly non-profits started drawing its attention to New Orleans, in particular the Lower Ninth Ward, where the damage had been greatest. Including but not exclusive to, LowerNine, Habitat for Humanity, and most famously, Make it Right. Most people are acquainted with Make it Right as one of their spokespersons is an almost universally recognizable figure. That's right.
Bob Vila.
Come on. We all know it's Brad Pitt:
It's an example of using your celebrity for good and as glibly as it portrays the sometimes shallow reasons for supporting charity, let's use it as a means to an end. I mean, at the end of the day, who are you going to give money to:
--This guy.Or
---- This guy.The correct answer is both of these dudes. Because they both support worthy causes.
However, while Jimmy Carter's outfit is typically more homogeneous, Make it Right has the advantage of celebrity and with that in mind arranged for some of the best architects in the world to design their homes. (Click on the names to see what they are most famous for).
Shigeru Ban
Yes, each one is a fascinating take on what a shotgun house lot can allow for. Clearly crafted by masters of the trade, creole influences, contemporary technology, functionality and just the right amount of ego. I am excited to see how they age as well.
When we first got to New Orleans I was especially interested in seeing the Make it Right houses as I had read so much about them. However, I was lost as to how to find them, as no addresses were listed on any website. This reminded me of the paradox of architectural interest, especially when it comes to residential works: on one side, you are curious about the object as an aesthetic piece, on the other, these are people's homes and you should respect their privacy. There in lies the darker side of celebrity endorsement, people are interested in helping, but they also want to see the result and take their share of pride.
While I did find the streets that the Make it Right houses were located on, I will not post it here. The important thing is that, should you want to see them, you should drive the whole area to see the place and also probably donate to the cause of rebuilding it.
The other interesting side of this development is the aging that has taken place thus far. On one end of the spectrum are the Make it Right houses that embrace nature, on the other, is the consuming methods of Nature itself. With the sharp decrease in population (about 1/2 from 2000 to 2010 according to the census) many places have been abandoned, leading them to be reclaimed by selfish nature of plants and man. For more information on this phenomenon, see point and counterpoint.
Conclusion:
New Orleans, city of music, dark sides, light sides and everything in between. She is a romantic survivor, she is Carmen, you will love her, she will leave you broken hearted but you can never blame her for it. She is not to be trusted and always to be adored.
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