This put 2009 in perspective for me. Have a safe and Happy New Year! I'll have my final resolution list tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a happy Holidays and great new year. I'm taking some serious time off from blogging for the Holidays, but should be back before New Years.I have a great deal to talk about including my time with the Brooklyn Bridge, and a few other issues. I also will begin to shift my attention to France as soon as all of my work is done. My nephew and I have been holding down the fort and as you can tell we are both extremely excited for Christmas.

While we were in New York. Aside from seeing so many great buildings and being able to experience 'the city' first hand we also had the opportunity to meet the Peruvian Ambassador to the United Nations-Gonzalo Gutiérrez Reinel. Ambassador Reinel was an awesome person to talk to, and he was a very gracious host while we met with him. We discussed a wide range of topics including art, architecture, and our travels. I'm including a photo. After we met him at his office he invited us to see his house, which was once owned by Gloria Vanderbilt. It was perfectly preserved, and the experience was truly undescribable. We also got to view a great deal of the Ambassadors private art collection from Peru, which was very eclectic.It included paintings and sculptures that were all native to Peru. Some were extremely old artifacts. Needless to say it was a once in a life time experience, and I thank my friend Sergio for making it happen.

Though D.C. has pretty much closed down it has given me time to reflect on my trip overall as well as finally get some work done. My sketchbook appears to have been put through a war, and my computer has an extra 1100 photos on it. The snow hasn't stopped, but here are some photos from last night that I was able to take before the mess came.

It's to the point where I'm just trying to survive in D.C. We made the trek to the McDonald's across the block, which appears to be the only institution in Washington D.C. that is still open. Even the Starbucks have closed, which might be a sign of the apocalypse. Washington DC has just over a foot of snow where we are{about 10 blocks from the capitol building} and it's not letting up. It's about 1:00pm and they are calling for the snow to continue into the evening. Here are a few pictures I've taken today. I'm not seeing much in terms of Washington architecture, but I'm going to try to get out tonight after the snow is done. I took all of the following pictures within the last 10-15 minutes.I also have to pass along a few great quotes of the local news, which is providing nonstop coverage. I'll pass along some more of my pictures from last night in a bit.
"Get inside, get warm, eat your nuts, and have a great day."
-News Channel 7
"Snowball fights are fine, but not when you're dodging vehicles in the street."
-News Channel 7

Above is a shot of the McMillan Plan.
Reality has finally hit me. In Washington D.C. on day one the sky was heavy and dark blue, and finally a weighted orange color. It was clearly a snow bound day, but the snow didn't finally hit until 9:00(PM). The fact that tomorrow might be a challenging day to tour around DC and see the sights. I'm uploading a picture now before I go to bed, and again [hopefully]after the storm is full swing tomorrow. As my tour of the northeast is winding down I'm also beginning to shift my focus back to perfecting my Ardsley Park paper and to my trip to France. I guess Christmas has to come in there sometime as well. I feel like this year is so chaotic. The ride has just begun as I also begin to switch my attention to Grad-school in the coming year. BLAHHH all of these thoughts because of a snow storm.
Above 9 PM on 18 Dec. 2009 from my hotel window. (the snow begins)

NO SNOW NO

I haven't been able to keep up with all of the wonderful things I've been seeing. I'll keep posting all great stuff that we've been seeing, today I was back on another train to get to Washington D.C. We're beginning to get so tired, and I slept today on the train. We may also have a huge issue with this impending SNOW STORM that is suppose to dump 12-16 inches on DC tonight. So we're scrambling to see as much as possible before the storm hits.

Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center.

I typically find my personal taste in architecture steering away from the international style, with that said I really had to rethink my personal misconceptions when I fell in love with the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on the Harvard Campus. It was a very unique space. As we traveled up the ramp my perception of the space changed, and it became very apparent to me that we were in a very planned spacial experience. The building had such a strong industrial feeling that the machine that we walked through was hard at work. This thought was further complimented by the Massive glass walls that were almost unapparent revealing the painters, sculptors, and other artists hard at work in the inside. It was a machine of the visual. Traveling up the ramp every compartment of space had artworks being crafted, produced, or just materials being experimented with. From the interior the experience became even more rewarding. The walls that were divided into angled cubical windows.. the structure was almost unapparent. The glass of the walls goes directly into the concrete, and is at times unnoticeable. It was truly flawless. I took the time at the bottom of the ramp to show my love to his forest of pilotis, as you can see below.

Make Mine a Minaret from the BLDGBLOG

Make Mine a Minaret

As many—if not all—of you will know, last week saw Swiss voters ban the construction of new minarets in their country.

Fear, on one side, of watching Europe turn into "Eurabia"—even if the demographics don't justify such worries—and, on the other, of seeing centuries' worth of social liberalization—including women's suffrage and gay rights—fall apart in the face of religious conservatism, has led to the illegalization of an architectural form.

When your culture is under threat, ban a building.

Writing in the L.A. Times, Christopher Hawthorne calls it "Islamophobia lightly veiled"—whereas Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in a rambling article for the Christian Science Monitor, views it as "a rejection of political Islam, not a rejection of Muslims." The minaret, she continues, "is a symbol of Islamist supremacy"; its ban is thus a much-needed wall against what she calls "Muslim immigrant newcomers who feel that they are entitled, not only to practice their religion, but also to replace the local political order with that of their own." Writing on his own blog, meanwhile, architect Sam Jacob views this as a conflict over architectural ornament: "Switzerland has banned minarets," he writes. "In a sense, that is no real surprise coming from the home of architectural minimalism."

So what would happen if we temporarily—if only for the sake of argument—treated this whole thing as a design problem? What if architects could redesign minarets—what would that do to the efficacy of Switzerland's ban?

Archinect has stepped into the midst of this fight over religious expression, architectural form, visual traditions, national identity, future migration, international borders, the scenographic purity of the Alpine landscape, and more with a public design competition: Switzerland, We Have A Problem.

From the competition brief:

To address this impasse between the rightful expression of the Muslim religion and the value of Switzerland’s overwhelmingly scenic environment, we challenge you to design a solution that allows the best of both worlds. Can you design a minaret as event rather than object?

Your task is to design a deployable minaret that can attain full presence, visible from a distance, during each of the five daily calls to prayer.

You may use any technology you like, choose any site in Switzerland, and your minaret may reach any height so long as it’s at least twice as high as the building it sprouts from.

There are more specific requirements over at Archinect.

In the end, then, how might certain building types respond creatively to a legal ban? What private chapels might result if megachurches were universally denied planning permission—and what effect might this architectural gesture have on Christianity itself?

Might Switzerland, ironically, become a site of intense design virtuosity and formal mutation in the historical typology of the mosque?

_______________________________In my opinion the Minaret is critical to the mosque type. Why ban it? What does it harm or threaten? The freedom of an idea can't be stopped by banning an architectural form it only disguises it, which in tern makes the idea more complex to understand. It's stripped of it's physical form, and must become strictly ideological.The people of the Islamic faith won't be deterred just like the Christian faith wouldn't be deterred by the banning of a cross. I'm simply disappointed by the public votes cast, and will watch the situation closely.

flikr.com/bradley222

Simmons Hall and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Another great building we got to check out in Boston was Simmons Hall. It was a contemporary student housing building on the campus of MIT. The architect, Steven Holl, has a very accomplished resume including having taught at Columbia University. Though we never got to explore the whole building, I'm sure you will see from the photos below why it sticks out in my mind as one of my favorites. Also, we made the train ride from Boston to NJ yesterday.We're staying just across the river from NYC with my roommate. New York is the next stop on this tour of US cities. Last night we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the I-Zod Center. It was insane. It reminded me why drugs are bad, and what happens when motorcyclist,violinist,and go-go dancers get together to play with lasers and do acid. A bit more Boston, and thousands of more photos to come.

Boston Boston Boston.

Boston is a city that stands out. It's a city of numerous academic institutions, and a city that has a very important role in American history. It's a unique case , and today I had the opportunity to explore it's academic institutions. The wind was insane, but MIT and Harvard have work by some of the greatest architects America has seen. My day had three highlights. Two of which were on the campus of MIT. When I studied the work of Saarinen the younger in class I was less than impressed-almost bored. Today I had a religious experience that completely changed my perception of the architect. His chapel at MIT is a spacial spectacle that I thoroughly appreciate. A few of the pictures of the chapel I am going to upload, while I am still working on a Flikr account for the rest. The other two highlights were by Hall and Corbusier(TO FOLLOW).As you can see from the photo above the undulating brick work is only attached to the waste high skirting board by a running strip of glass. This creates extremely dramatic lighting as you can see below by the central skylight, and metal installation that centers around the platform and alter.It also creates a very dramatic structural affect, that one might not even realize is taking place. This play on structure is very characteristic of Saarinen.

Chicago III

When we began planning our Chicago trip...okay that's an exaggeration. As we road in the van from the airport to our hotel, we began throwing out the buildings and monuments off the top of our heads that we knew were worth seeing in Chicago. We eventually came up with a hand full of both extremely contemporary works, and early 20th century works with the occasional Urban form or area. I eventually began to Google the city hoping to come up with some other good ideas..
If you are planning a trip to Chicago make sure to check out architecture.org (The Chicago Architectural Foundation). The Chicago Architectural Foundation is extremely active. They are located at 224 South Michigan Avenue. They have numerous tours and activities for tourists, as well as regularly scheduled lectures. Below are pictures of the model city we got to see. There are currently Centennial Events going on to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Burnham's plan.

CHICAGO II

Can you guess this interior?


?


We stopped by Crown Hall on the campus of IIT. After taking tons of photos of the exterior we helped ourselves to the inside with some awkward glances from architecture students in the midst of finals.

I have soooo many more to pass along.

CHICAGO my new favorite?

Chicago is a great city. It's been freezing, but we've handled well, and we've been seeing so many architectural sites. Although the weather has been less than ideal, the environment of the city has been extremely uplifting. I traveled through the city with two of my friends who are architecture majors. While they seemed to be gearing their interests toward the modern era, I tried to capture and explore as many styles and time periods as possible-THERE WAS SOOO MUCH TO TAKE IN. Chicago is a great place to see architecture, and feels like it's been a progressive city to what it allows to be built here. While Burnham's ideas still shine in this urban giant, modernists like Mies, Kahn, just to name a few, have left their very timely finger prints. There are also a great deal of very contemporary buildings that make me categorize this city as architecturally progressive. They aren't afraid to take on the concepts of the future, while preserving the architecture of the past. Materiality issue isn't an issue here-the more the merrier, the flashier,the tackier, make it old, make it new, it's a big urban boat that everyone is invited to sail on. What would Burnham think about Gehry's Millenium park? Not the City Beautiful he wanted perhaps, which brings me to a discussion my friends and I were having all day. They would say, "Mies this and Mies that" and I would say "Burnham this and Burnham that" Perhaps instead of focusing on 'whose city it really is', the lesson may be in the argument. Time and trends have been good to this city. It's not about what styles and trends, but perhaps that all the style and the trends of the past have graced this city with examples of the best. I look forward to studying more about this city in my Urban Form class, and am truly fixed on some of the issues and architects, and especially Burnham as a designer. I took soooo many pictures and am working on setting up a Flikr account to be able to share them. I will be in Boston on Thursday...I'm gearing up for another overwhelming and mind blowing experience. I CANT WAIT, because I feel like I know the least about Boston in any of the cities I'm going to. More updates to come soon.

Here it goes.

I leave tomorrow from Pittsburgh to meet in Chicago. We'll start our American architectural tour in the 3rd largest city, and I've already seen the forecast, which makes me shiver in my skin. We have a tentative list of sites and buildings that we want to see, including a contact in Chicago I made while being a docent at the Auldbrass Plantation. She's a preservationist with Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. Perhaps SCAD's networking philosophy will pay off a great deal in the next few days. More soon.

I love this. It's by Teagan White, Chicago designer.