Southdale

This is where I do most of my Christmas shopping and have for years, although it doesn't really look like this anymore. This is the Southdale mall, the first retail mall in the world. It's located about three miles from the house where I grew up in Minneapolis. Probably the last place that I would think of if I had to pick the first city for a mall. The only justification I can come up with would have to be the weather. On second thought, that's actually a pretty good reason. Who wants to shop when the clothes freeze before you can try them on?

I ran across this picture of the mall from the 1950's, shortly after it opened, from Life magazine (a publication that will most likely be forgotten in a generation). The mall was designed by an Austrian, Victor Gruen. While im not sure of Gruen's particular talents, I would love it if someone could tell the ratio of talented Austrian architects to talented architects from the rest of the world. I'd be willing to bet the scales tip towards the Austrians by at least 3-1.

There's some interesting history to Southdale. It was started as an attempt to bring the feel of a city center to places that were not necessarily the center of a city and Gruen was ultimately disgusted by the suburban waste of space that malls eventually became over time.

There is apparently a spirited debate over where the world's first mall actually sat. A short and informational post over at Kottke.com has more details on Gruen, Southdale and the other malls staking claim to first.

Southdale, I'll be seeing you shortly, and no matter what anyone else says, you'll always be MY first.

Tribeca to get wicked new building in 2010

This crazy teetering, jenga building is planned for NYC's Tribeca neighborhood on Leonard and Church. One of my regular blogs CurbedLA's NYC partner, has a full post on the building complete with detailed renderings, which is designed by the architects that did the crazy bird's nest Olympic stadium in China.

I love when people put down building that are amazing like this. The floors of the residential units jut out over the sky with floor to ceiling windows and when the sun's light plays with the glass forms, it will give the impression that the building is shifting and shimmering. Since architecture is an experiential art and you need to be in the space to feel its effects, being physically in and around buildings like this is, in my opinion, one of the greatest benefits to living in Manhattan. There are amazing buildings in LA, but the sprawling nature of the city keeps most people away from their shadow on a regular basis. Unfortunate.

This post got me thinking about sense of place and the architecture history courses I took in college. Now if only I had $3-33 million to invest in one of the units, I could develop my own topophilia for this on a much more personal level.

California Dreams

This is damn near what I dream of when I imagine my future backyard (once I have one that's not owned by a vile Romanian slum lord). This here's "A solar-heated pool set amidst a restored California meadow of local flowers and grasses, with the sky and hills reflected on its water. Landscape design by Bernard Trainor. Photo by Jason Liske." Found it over at Pruned.

Back at it!

Apologies to all 3 of my readers, I have been away for the last week and the blog has sat in a pool of its own pee and sweat. While I try to get back on top of things, I figured a good way to commemorate the week off would be to share what my pristine yurt went through during that time, so you have an idea of the state of me (actually I'm doing really well).

Pic of the day 8/24/08

Project complete!

Pics of the day 7.19.08

From a recent trip to NYC. Y'all probably know what these are from.
UPDATE - Its this.

Buyer's Market?

Frank Lloyd Wright's Bowler house is for sale. Anyone have a cool $2.5 million?

Haunting Beauty

Why is it that when we see extraordinarily strange things, we often describe them as beautiful? Im referring to those glowing organisms in the deep ocean or intricate flowers in the jungles (basically everything featured on Planet Earth). This is also true with humans as well, as the extremes of the human race - the worlds tallest, smallest, blackest and whitest people are consistently ranked on pop culture's ubiquitous benchmark of beauty.

Inanimate objects are subject to this too, in fact it was a series of extrodinary shots of one of the most peculiar buildings I've seen recently that got me thinking on this path.

I couldn't say it much better than the guys over at Pruned. So if you find the images striking, are interested in how they relate to the US Government's now defunct Safeguard program, the site's architectural influence and other musings, definitely read more here.

Also check the actual site visual on google maps.

Classical Music

I finally made a trip to Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was for the LA Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series where they highlight new classical music and hang green umbrellas from the ceiling (oh those crazy artists). I knew someone playing in the show (and my attendance was courtesy of my friend's parents) and was really excited to see him play and also to check out the interior of the space of the building.

The music was interesting and dynamic, if a bit different, but it was incredible to see a familiar face on stage (one of 4 in the quartet). Unfortunately it was a one night only thing. For more on the show you can check out the LA Times review. Also, if you fancy classical music, check out the Calder Quartet.

As for the hall, I was pretty underwhelmed by the interior space (not the hall itself, but the other spaces in the building). The exterior is stunning from every single angle, but the interior left me hanging like the missing hanger steak at the pre-concert dinner. For one, the carpet looked like it got cleaned with buckets of rotting flowers (this was the best pic I could round up on the interweb). While writing this post I learned that it was designed by Gehry himself, which confused me and drove me to investigate further, where I found the following snippet from an LA Times story.

Los Angeles architect Gehry, however, explained how he designed a floral pattern that adorns Disney Hall's carpets and seats in homage to just one woman: the late Lillian Disney, whose $50-million gift in 1987 set the project in motion. The hall is also flower-like in form and is surrounded by lush gardens. "I told her I'd make a flower garden for her," said Gehry, as he leaned into a clear podium with his hands clasped. Gehry described his role in the project as "a great experience, personally."

So, is that how you honor a $50 million dollar gift - with blood red flower petal carpet? Should I expect more from Frank Gehry? Am I totally missing the artistic and symbolic subtleties -is that carpet seen as beautiful in the land of carpet critics? I have no idea. All I can say is that it was offensive enough to me to generate this response and in a space that glorious on the outside, I expected a little bit more...

A really really big house

Ready for some Monday ridiculousness? The fifth richest guy in the world is building himself a new home.... to the tune of $2 billion. Its a 27-story tall building in Mumbai without adjective to describe the outrageousness. You must see the video. There are also pictures and more from forbes.com. Some of the amenities:

• Nine elevators


• A ceiling 80% covered in crystal chandeliers


• Finely woven Indian rugs!


• A full fledged movie theater with wine tasting room


• Health club


• and of course a six-story garage

via Kottke

Art and Architecture = Enternal Youth?

A story today marks one of those special occasions when the NYT profiles "different" people. In this case the subjects are two very out there artists, Arakawa and Gins, who recently completed their first house in the US - a crazy, fun house-looking structure they claim will increase your immune system and sustain longer life.

Then Ms. Gins, 66, began holding forth about the health benefits of the house, officially called Bioscleave House (Lifespan Extending Villa). Its architecture makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways to maintain equilibrium, and that, she said, will stimulate their immune systems.
“They ought to build hospitals like this,” she said.
A reporter, who thinks they should never, ever build hospitals like this, tried to go with the flow. Like the undulating floor, Arakawa and Gins, as they are known professionally, tend to throw people off balance.

...In 45 years of working together as artists, poets and architects, they have developed an arcane philosophy of life and art, a theory they call reversible destiny. Essentially, they have made it their mission — in treatises, paintings, books and now built projects like this one — to outlaw aging and its consequences.

... In addition to the floor, which threatens to send the un-sure-footed hurtling into the sunken kitchen at the center of the house, the design features walls painted, somewhat disorientingly, in about 40 colors; multiple levels meant to induce the sensation of being in two spaces at once; windows at varying heights; oddly angled light switches and outlets; and an open flow of traffic, unhindered by interior doors or their adjunct, privacy. All of it is meant to keep the occupants on guard. Comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death; the house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually “tentative” relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young.

The reporter starts skeptical, which in the face of the unbridled enthusiasm of Arakawa (called a 10-yr old trapped in a 60-yr old Japanese man's body) could make him seem curmudgeonly, but by the end you can tell that even he (along with the couple's numerous financial and artistic supporters) got caught up in the whirlwind of zest and passion. The full story can be found here and an audio slide show here.

thanks pops