Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Oxbow Art School



The Northern California Wine Country was a welcome respite from the heat of Palm Springs in August. And, they have a lot of good architecture up there, among which was this great Art School by Stanley Saitowitz.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Balboa Park, San Diego


I was in San Diego yesterday for a play at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park. "In 1915, Bertram Goodhue re-interpreted a masterful Spanish Baroque complete with Churrigueresque detailing, for El Prado, in Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, for which he was the lead designer. The Panama-California Exposition's style was extremely influential and led to California adopting Spanish Colonial Revival architecture as its unofficial regional style, which continues to this day."

-Wikipedia

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Modern Paris












Usually, when I'm in Paris, I'm only interested in the historic architecture, although I have made exceptions. On my last trip, I made a point of going to look at Paris' modern architecture. I'm in love.....

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Rome









The image above was taken in the "new" town of Eur, just outside Rome. The high style modernist town was created before Mussolini's ouster, in a style that is today known as "Mussolini Modern." The other images are Rome proper. Peter Greenaway's film "The Belly of an Architect" is set in Rome, and is a beautiful travelogue of the city, as well as a compelling story. Check it out on Netflix.

Sardinia Cathedral





Sardinia was another of the stops on this cruise. The Cathedral there was among the high points of the trip.

Minorca





We visited Minorca on the same cruise. Imagine an island with windmills, Palladian Villas, and Gothic Cathedrals....

More Corsica




Looking back at that house on Corsica reminded me of these other images of the island. It was a really moody place with great photo opportunities.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Corsica 2005



I was talking with friends recently about the difference between "size" and "scale." In this image, "size" is illustrated by the Mountain - "scale" is illustrated by the building, in relation to the mountain....

It was a great trip.

Service Station - Stephen Kanner, Architect



Stephen Kanner is a Santa Monica architect that gave a lecture at the Palm Springs Museum last year that included this project. If Le Corbusier had been commissioned to design a service station, it might have looked like this. There is a competing service station at each corner of the intersection where this building is located, but Kanner's appeared to be doing the most business. I'd like to chalk it up to a discerning public that appreciates good architecture, but the price of gas was also considerably lower here...

Saturday, August 1, 2009

The New Museum

One of Phillip Johnson's Last Projects

Top of the Rock Waiting Room



They have built this new queing and waiting area for the ($20) elevator ride to the Top of the Rock.

Rockefeller Center Public Art





Radio City Music Hall



We did a great tour of the Interiors of Radio City Music Hall(1934, Donald Deskey) but the images are a little murky so I'll save them for another time.

Cast-Iron Bridge



There is a great view from the High Line of this beautiful cast-iron bridge that connects two warehouses.

Westside Highway Condos by Richard Meier


Three in a row for Richard Meier

Perry Street Condos

Longchamps Store

New York Times Building (Renzo Piano)


New Condos near Cooper Union

The Standard

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Le Corbusier



This painting by Le Corbusier is also at MOMA

Notre Dame by Henri Matisse


Not really New York Architecture exactly, but it is an incredible painting of Notre Dame by Henri Matisse at MOMA...

Nouvel & Gehry on the Westside Highway