Need: To see the whole and its boundaries

A Basic Need: People need to see something in its entirety. The need to see its extents and what fills those boundaries in one motion.
In Architecture: People be able to take in the entirety of a facade at one time.

For example: with a large building on a narrow street it may be kind to break the building into multiple facades so that it can be taken in in steps.

"A large building in a narrow street tends to be overwhelming, and it can never be seen as a whole. The solution adopted by the architect of 28 rue des Saints Peres in Paris was to divide his design into five narrow, distinct sections, held together compositionally by horizontal lines and a consistent formal vocabulary."

From P. 127 of Jean-Francois Gabriel's "Classical Architecture for the Twenty-First Century"

Architecture Theory

It is not enough to make architecture that is about ideas.

There are not enough ideas about architecture.

---

We are stuck. The status quo is choking us: architecture as literature.

No water is getting to the roots.


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Modern on Chestnut

It is so easy to miss many of the amazing little International Style facades in Philadelphia. One of my favorite facades is at 1318 Chestnut Street (now occupied by Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co.)

At first glance... well this one is easy to miss.

But there are subtleties to it.

The curved porous marble belongs so very much to 1950's modern architecture but also lives on its own as a nice subtle touch.

And there are the Japanese modern moments you can also arrange.

Whoever the architect was, did a beautiful job balancing textures as well as creating definite planes in not much more than about 18 inches.

It's a very cool little building.

Found in the Moment of Consciousness

[SPOILER ALERT: Herein below I speak of a moment in the last episode of HBO's "John Adams". ]

I have struggled with some of the reviews I have read about HBO's “John Adams”. Both the NYT and the New Yorker reviews seem to miss the quality of the thing. They hang their reviews of the series on the material facts of its bits and pieces. I thought both Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney were brilliant when seen across the series (and casting Giamatti was an act of genius). And the full course of seven episodes serves up a life that is both inspiring and paints a clear picture of a man whose contribution seems uncertain at times; but a man who, near his end, reaches personal resolution in a field while looking at a flower.

 

This experience illuminates for me the trap that many critics fall into. Explication wipes out the feeling for the thing. Critics, myself included, get lost in the dry ingredients and miss the form of the moment.

 

Cathy Horyn is a very good critic at the NY Times and I still have a quote of hers from three years ago near me. Right in the middle of ticking away comments on a fashion show, she writes some of the best words on design and criticism- whether that criticism is of architecture, fashion or film - I have ever read,

 

“The trouble with fashion writing, and deadline writing in general, is that it automatically acts like a search engine in pursuit of a cliché: nautical stripes, androgyny. It doesn't capture the moment of consciousness (and it is only a moment in the best of shows) when the simple but emphatic line of the dress and the bleached-white crispness of wide cotton trousers worn high in the old manner on the waist with a natural linen halter suddenly offers an illumination of a true design principle.”

 

“You say: But can clothes do that? The dry ingredients of the MaxMara collection were striped cotton jersey shorts and T-shirts with bright appliqués of flowers at the hem; slouchy linen trousers and loose open-back blouses; long sack dresses; and a homey beige cardigan shrugged over a white cotton bodysuit, its halter neck gathered almost carelessly with a flat cotton tie. “

 

“That neckline was key to grasping the subtle modernity of the collection. Somebody at MaxMara - the company doesn't promote a single designer - knew how to use a simple design gesture to communicate the ideal of freedom.”

 

Horyn shows an amazing ability: grasping the importance of what is broadcast quietly by a simple element of design like a halter neck draped across a collar bone in the middle of a fashion show. The thing about "John Adams" for me was in that short film clip of man with a flower in a field in the midst of an international political drama.

Great California Modern Architecture Precedent

I am always looking for good design precedent.
Modernist architecture precedent and ideas are presenting very well at the Arts and Architecture Magazine website. This is the magazine that sponsored the Los Angeles Case Study houses and published California's post war modernist architects.
This site selects a huge amount of content from this magazine and presents it via PDF. It's a great place to while away the time. And if you have access to someone else's printers, you'll have a stack of great reading material in hand pretty quickly that could easily catalyze your genius for your next project.

Metrozoe's top 4 coffees for getting going.

PreDesign Coffee Rankings – My Top 4

...or the Top 4 coffees to drink in the morning when it is still dark and cold and you need to get going in style.

1. Major Dickason’s Blend – Peet’s

   Truly great stuff. If you aren't in the Bay Area, you can often find it at Whole Foods.

2. Sumatra Mandheling Dark - Peerless Coffee & Tea

   Michelle turned me on to this coffee at the Cheesery in the Castro (SF). Try it with whole cream and sugar. They get it from Peerless, across the bay.
   

3. Corsica – La Colombe

   Philadelphia's great roast. Find it at La Colombe Cafes. The link above will get you to location info.

4. Bay Blend – Trader Joe’s

   Solid consistently good coffee at a great price. Feeling budget conscious lately, I've been going through lb. after lb. of this.
   

Creative Spaces for Web Teams - and Others

Designing a space for creativity is always hard - especially teams focused on interaction design. If this is your current design challenge, check out the answers to,
"What are some of the best qualities or features you've experienced in physical workspace to do Creative/User Experience work?" at LinkedIn.

The New Decorative Modern in Philadelphia

I am seeing more modern interior design in Philadelphia mixing in decorative and floral elements. Most often this means mixing large pattern wallpapers and furniture that is reminiscent of early French pieces in with very modern pieces. I think my wife, interior designer Michelle Waldo of Michelle Waldo Interiors, did a pretty great job of this for a photography studio here in Philadelphia recently.

I like the frames on the wall, the modern couch and the trippy modernized classic chairs that face it. And then there's the pink - which with the white floor (that doesn't show at all in this pic) is pretty cool.

(Note: So I’ve avoided mentioning Michelle's work as a modern designer in this blog because doing so would seem like an advertorial – but I give up. I think she’s one of the best modern interior designers in Philadelphia. I also think this room merits attention, so I hope you don't mind that I point it out).

Robert F. Boyle’s Honorary Oscar : Art Direction

Boyle has said some of the best words I have ever heard about architecture. Although his comments below are about production design for the movies, I think they apply perfectly to architecture as well. Using his words to guide me, I think that ultimately architects are creating spaces within which the action and meaning of a person’s life is arrived at. This is a basic truth about architecture. A truth that becomes “an emotional truth as well.”

I’ve transcribed some of his quotes from the clip shown at his award.

“Production design. Art direction. Very few people know what that means. A production designer is responsible for that space within which the action and the meaning of the film is arrived at. What we are looking for is the appropriate environment .

“As a designer, my obligation is to give a physical interpretation of the script.

“The basis of production design is an architectural truth, which becomes an emotional truth as well. That’s what we’re really after is the emotion.

“We try to return to that essence. To get back to feelings. And that’s what we in movies try to do.”

FLASH: Grammarian Police State Rules Architecture

I was watching a lecture at Temple University this past Thursday. My wife and I were hoping to learn a little more about the principal of a design firm whose work we found interesting. We lasted 20 minutes. Her lecture was all in terms of semiotics: subject-object and the concepts that bind, illuminate and confront these grammatical components. And it went on and on and on. I was so furious (that shows my weakness. But it was architecture theory as practiced in the late 80’s all over again. Or… and here is my fear… it is STILL the late 80’s).

I watched the students in the audience. They were listless and uninspired. To those inside the current discourse on architecture, in other words my peers guided by critical theory and semiotics, it must seem like they are part of an inspiring rebellion. But from the outside, it looks as it did this night, like they are part of the boring old Academy.

And they are losing their audience: young designers.

This kind of discourse is just not relevant enough. I won’t reject the critical theory/semiotics mix out right – everyone has a right to a steak cooked to their taste – but it isn’t relevant enough. There is no soul in it. There is no love. There is no beauty. There is no spirit.

The primary paradigm that this kind of theory operates within is oppressive. We can’t go stamping people (the bourgeoisie) on the head with our (academia) awareness, and we can’t reject people’s uninspected impressions because of what we believe about ideology and culture (and the subconscious).

This is the new police state at work: The Grammarian Police State of the Arts. Art and design theory grounded in sign and message has become “The Academy”. It replaces the “Academy” that was overthrown at the turn of the last century . Semiotics and Critical Theory are the hegemonic bonds that now constrict the architecture profession.

Watching this Principal with degrees and merits given by the Harvard Design School and Cornell speaking about the work of her office in these terms was watching the Grammarian Police State in full wing.

Music to Design To

I put together a music mix on Panodora. Something to have on the headphones that frees up my mind but doesn't take over my head space. I also listen to Chill Out 2 New York through Live 365.

Neither are perfect. I was shooting for a down tempo-ish mix on Pandora, but Pandora can be random.

My preference is the music selection that is streamed out of Chill Out 2 New York, but I really don't like the interface. I don't mind the ads - it's the user interface that mucks up my mental map of what is going on with what I have open on my computer. I need mental clarity when I work. Live365 who hosts the station, attacks this. They make me spawn a player window and then spawn iTunes (the player I prefer from there) to listen to the music. In so doing you lose touch with the songs - information about them and where to buy.

Pandora's winning play is to have the music player on their home page so there is not a lot of crap spawning all over my monitor. I also like the connection to the music more. There are screen shots of the album covers, the ability to get background info on the music and seeing what others also listen to. Pandora is also a different beast than Live365 - it builds it's music list from music that you've seeded; providing selections based on what it imagines is your preference.

This leads to finding new music but also to some disasters. For an example, I don't want female vocals as a rule in my chill out mix, but I like Sneaker Pimps' 6 Underground. I chose that once for my Pandora Designer station and got an endless stream of music from Madonna and onward which didn't fit the vibe I wanted at all. Pandora does not deal with balancing music choices well. It's not an option. So the one-offs that you like can throw the thing into a tail spin.

You'll need to register for Pandora and Chill Out 2 New York (at Live 365) but don't worry too much about that. Friends and I have been using these services for a while and nothing horrific has happened; no spam or weirdness.

Wood and Modern II: Concrete Forms

Some of the nicest work I see are the wood forms for concrete. These are almost Japanese in their form. Pics taken while waiting for the train at the 46th Street Station,
above the intersection of Farragut in Philadelphia.

Taken as a design source for architecture, concrete form work could lead to very engaging details and human scale. The discipline of the forms also allows the plywood itself to have flaws. It all still hangs together nicely even with the plugs in the plywood.

Grommet in North Philly

If you want an architect to sign up for your social cause, show him how it messes up a nice building.

On March 14^th 2006, I had only been in Philadelphia for a month. I was working as a project architect for Wallace Roberts and Todd and we were working on housing projects for the local housing authority, Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA). Well I was in for a surprise. A couple of architects and I were visiting a site for a project we were doing for the PHA in North Philly.

I had never seen anything like North Philly in San Francisco and was stunned and confused by it.

Things that I don’t notice now, having been here a year, were jumping out at me then. Camera in hand like a tourist, I was taking pictures of everything in this poor neighborhood. Everything burned into my mind intensely. I had never seen such a place. I could not believe that such beautiful houses were being let to rot away. In SF these buildings would have been prizes, gems, objects of reverence. Here in Philadelphia they were just the accessories to an indelibly hard neighborhood. I just could not get it. So, camera in hand, I shot away.

I was wondering at the time, where is the outrage that this is happening to people and these houses? Why is no one sweeping in and taking care of these buildings? Where is the help for North Philadelphia? Surely there would be change in the year if good people knew. Do the people on the Main Line (a fine neighborhood outside of Philly) just not care?

Now I know. It’s easy to accept things. But you don’t accept what is happening in North Philadelphia consciously. It just creeps away as you get on with other things. Nowadays, I remember my concern when the newspapers put it in front of me while I ride the R7 Train. This person shot. That person shot. And I can see it outside the train window. I see the neighborhoods tumbling in on themselves. You can see it is hard. But now it just seems like a large something that is here like a lot else: the train, and the weather and the flat rolling hills.

As I have been thinking about this, I realize that there is another side to my story – and that is Oakland California. San Francisco is not a place of magically concerned people who wouldn’t let this happen to the people around them. The grittiness of 14^th street in Oakland is invisible from San Francisco. San Francisco can’t see West Oakland. San Francisco can not see Richmond CA. It does not get off at the 11^th street exit and take a look around. It is on its way to Marin - or the Cheesery.

What’s my deal anyways? I was in and out of those neighborhoods enough to know the deal. Heck, I bought my second 280z in a neighborhood in Union City California that was just the kind of neighborhood I am talking about. As a matter of fact, I remember right after I bought it, an awfully nice man from the CHP pulling me over before I could hit 55 on I-880. Why? Because there was a warrant for the arrest of the previous owner and – well – they profile Z’s....

And I did get off at the 11^th Street exit in Richmond CA all the time. The foundry that cast much of my furniture is there. So why my shock about N. Philly?

In San Francisco you can get along very well with out seeing poor people stuck in the arcs of their lives because The Bay holds everything at a distance. It also helps that in the Bay Area, poverty happens in ranch houses – not in tall brick Victorians.

Ranch houses don’t look so shocking to an architect as they implode.

Here is one of my concept sketches. I was trying to get away from language of the Victorians and Colonials that so dominate the neighborhood. I was trying to bring forward the Scandinavian substrate that is under it all here (since the 1600's) rather than rely on the default philly colonio-victoriana. I was also thinking of something new without connotation that could be adopted by the people living there - something that would help rebrand existence. Something not branded as poverty.

Are architects shallow for not reacting to poverty until the buildings look like crap? No. Look at it this way, we are the people who think that buildings can save the world. So when we see them falling apart - we see the inverse. We see that the world is falling apart. And we react. We work for the PHA and try to put it back together. Of course things get by us. I missed the grinding poverty in Richmond's ranch houses.

And most architects know that better buildings aren't enough. But it is the part we can help with. A part, hopefully, of a big fix (TBD).

Liquid Lines

As I live longer and longer in Philadelphia, I am beginning to overlook things. It’s coming up on 2 years now for me that I have been here. I walk across Broad Street several times a week, often stepping off from the corner controlled by the Union Club. I don’t notice the club all that much any more; which is too bad. I just came across this photo I took when I first arrived in Philadelphia. Everything was exciting. And the lines of this staircase where just amazing.