Single-Storied America
Posted in Reviews on Fri Oct 13, 06 by Kyle under Books and Photography.
People joke about the four remaining ostensibly communist countries of the world, North Korea, China, Cuba, and the People’s Republic of Berkeley mistaking the distinctly un-blue collar but earnestly organic, macrobiotic, imported French blue-cheesed, “animal companion”ed, more terroir, not war on terror sensibility of Bay Areans for communist ideology.
After all vegans nearly starve themselves for a smug sense of superiority on the world dietary stage much like North Korea starves its people to fund a weapons program to give their leaders a smug sense of superiority on the world political stage. Cubans and nearly-elderly acid heads alike expend enormous amounts of energy and resourcefulness to maintain a fleet of decrepit, rusted, flamboyantly psychedelically colored, hopelessly out of date cars that have been strained by use for almost half a century. Of course, it must be noted that the hippies got their cars and vans from Germany, and the Cubans got theirs from the United States and the old Soviet Union, but that is but a minor point of contention. Like the new market fixated People’s Republic of China certain intrepid BoHo’s have become adept at selling the accouterments of the spiritual culture of Tibet to our craven capitalist souls and heading straight to Banana Republic, the Farmer’s Market, the new subdivision, and the luxury high-rise with the resulting profits.
Taken individually one could easily dismiss these similarities as happenstance or mere conspiratorial talk radio fodder. That is until one comes across a little red book, well, actually a medium red and grey book entitled Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers. This book with its expository title, originally published as Single-Storied America in the Soviet Union is the travelogue of two satirical Soviet journalists as they drive across America in from New York City to San Francisco and back taking sharp, witty verbal and photographic snapshots the entire way.
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Time travel station
Posted in Discourse on Thu Oct 12, 06 by Kyle under Design.
I got onto the BART train this weekend to go downtown and for a moment was transported to back to the 1970s or 80s when the BART system was still fairly new. The interiors of the cars and stations and even the exteriors of the train cars are now filled with advertising posters and admonishments to be wary of and report suspicious packages. However in between moments of consumer cajoling and paranoid persuasiveness you might, like I, happenstance to glance upon a poster slot that no advertiser had the heart or full coffers to fill that month or the empty spot left when a disgruntled passenger not satisfied with mere disfigurement and graffiti alone ripped down whatever message used to be there entirely.
As often as not you’ll find that beneath all these advertisements are very old BART safety posters. In the life of a poster, usually measured in weeks or months, these are unusual specimens that though somewhat worse for the wear have still managed to survive intact. The above is a sample, a little blurry from the being underground in a crowed train taking a telephoto picture effect, but for that I hope you will forgive me. I love little moments of anachronism like this. There is something about this poster and its series brethren that make me pause for a moment and look more carefully than I might otherwise.
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The Eclectic Royal Insurance Company Building
Posted in Discourse on Tue Oct 10, 06 by Kyle under Architecture and 19th Century.
I love old commercial buildings, especially crazy eclectic ones like the above Royal Insurance Company Building in Philadelphia. If you look closely at the photo you can see that this building was built in 1882, during the peak of Queen Anne architecture and Aesthetic the movement in the United States. Close inspection reveals the de rigueur sunflower motif on the panels beneath the windows. The sunflower was to the Aesthetic movement what the I-beam and plate glass was to corporate Modernists. You can also see classical columns and pilasters mixed with pointed gothic arches and finials, among the other delightful details that abound on this building.
The late 19th century is know for this kind of eclectic mixing. The build up of an integrated look through the combination of small details such as arches, decorative panels, brickwork, moldings, shingles, slates, and finials contributed to the aesthetic goal of creating a “picturesque” effect. Like all styles a skilled sense of design is required to make it work well, this mix and match approach did not always ensure pleasing results. However, the toolkit of the 1880s and 90s was big enough to ensure a lively variety and individuality on the street front while still maintaining a common architectural language.
See the full Library of Congress record.
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Rowhouse Bibliography
Posted in Guides on Wed Oct 4, 06 by Kyle under Domestic Architecture and Books.
In honor of my ongoing obsession with row houses of all kinds I’ve decide to compile a bibliography of books of note concerning the topic. Expect this to grow as I come across new resources, please bookmark and visit back if the topic interests you.
Click the continue reading link below to see the full list.
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Recent Reading No. 1
Posted in Reviews on Mon Oct 2, 06 by Kyle under Books and Painting.
A great as the internet is, I still revel in the depth and breadth that a good book can bring to a subject. Not to mention the fact that one does not have to wait for it to download, and you never get a busy cursor. So in light of that, and the fact that I have actually have made the time to read, I’d like to share some of what has be occupying my time lately.
Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture by Malcolm Barnard. (Palgrav, 2001)
American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the America Experience by Barbara Novak. (Harper & Row, 1979)
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Contemporary Rowhouse Designs
Posted in Discourse on Fri Sep 29, 06 by Kyle under Domestic Architecture.
I am completely obsessed with row houses, or terrace houses in the British parlance. If you aren’t familiar row houses are tall houses built on deep narrow lots directly touching each other with no side yards, usually involving some kind of shared party walls. Old American cities like New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and San Francisco are famous for their 19th century row houses. Of course most of Europe and Britain are blessed with many centuries of such urban houses. There is a lot of general interest in free standing single family houses and high-style apartment buildings, but to me row houses provide a great balance between the density of apartments and the privacy and neighborhoodliness of individual houses.
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I was very interested when I came across this post on the Inhabitat blog. Although the project designed by Youmeheshe is not row housing per se as the buildings do not touch each other or make a continuous street front, I was thrilled to see that tall, skinny, and densely packed houses are being worked on by contemporary architects.
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1950s Consumer Panacea
Posted in Discourse on Wed Sep 27, 06 by Kyle under Midcentury Modern and Film-Video.
A couple of posts back I looked at the concept of postalgia, a yearning for the future that never came to pass and presented a futuristic marketing film featuring an idealized panoply of mid-century modern goods and environs. In contemporary times midcentury modern design is often now considered as being emblematic of a clutter-free, pristine, meditative, and elegant era and existence. I have always thought that this was a curious characterization.
In my mind, albeit not having experienced it myself, the 50s was the decade when the tide towards the culture of consumerism and delight in acquisition of “stuff” was at its most eagerly accepted and heartfelt peak…
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Ornamental Design Media Blitzkreig
Posted in Discourse on Thu Sep 21, 06 by Kyle under 19th Century and Decorative Arts.
If the New York Times says it, and no-one on Apartment Therapy listens can it still be true? After nearly a century of egregious contempt from high-style minded critics it looks as if the century that brought us the domestic use of electricity, the telephone, the bicycle, photography, film, the recording of sound, canned food, flush toilets, large scale public transportation, the study of psychology, department stores, metal and glass as structural building materials, and pre-perforated cross-stitch cards may finally be getting some serious attention in regards to its aesthetic output.
If you didn’t see it, the New York Times published a little missive headlined After Midcentury Modern, What’s Old Looks New today contemplating the future of trends in the high end design and antiques collecting market…
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