Recent Reading No. 2
Posted in Reviews on Mon May 14, 07 by Kyle under Books and Architecture.
This should really be titled Recent Reading No 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, et al. because I all I have been doing recently is organizing after having moved to a new apartment, reading books and working, working, working. Hence the cavernous silence on this very site lately. What can I say, books are much easier than the blogosphere to curl up with in bed when you are tired. Anyway, here is a partial recap of what has been attracting my attention.
New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age by Robert A. M. Stern, et. al. (The Monacelli Press, 1999)
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. (Pantheon, 2006).
Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders. (HarperPerennial, 2004)
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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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Pamphlet Architecture contest
Posted in Discourse on Tue Sep 19, 06 by Kyle under Architecture and Books.
If you’ve not heard about it I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to the Princeton Architectural Press’s Pamphlet Architecture contest. This contest is a chance for emerging architects or architectural scholars to have their visionary and innovative ideas published by a well regarded architectural press. The contest website sums it up best:
Founded in 1977 as an alternative to mainstream architectural publishing, Pamphlet Architecture encourages architects and writers to put forth their ideas, theories, and designs in modest, affordable booklets. Its success is legendary: Pamphlet Architecture helped launch the careers of architects from Steven Holl and Lebbeus Woods to Zaha Hadid, and has influenced far exceeding the ad-hoc nature of these humble books.
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1890 Chronicle Building unmasked in restoration/condo conversion
Posted in Discourse on Wed Sep 6, 06 by Kyle under 19th Century and Architecture.
If you have been to downtown San Francisco lately you might have noticed the renovation and construction going on at the building on the corner of Market and Kearny Streets. That building, 690 Market Street, is the old headquarters of the San Francisco Chronicle. The cladding that has been hiding the original Romanesque Revival tower for the past 45 or so years is coming off and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel group has plans to restore and add additional stories to the building and put it to use as a luxury condo and time-share development.
This building was one of San Francisco’s first skyscraper buildings and was designed by the Chicago architects Daniel H. Burnham and John Wellborn Root. I was pretty stoked when I had heard about the restoration, as the the building is one of the few downtown buildings from the 1800s that (kind of) survived the 1906 earthquake. It was rebuilt by Willis Polk after the 1906 earthquake. It is always a great thing to see an old building come back to life again. Recently I ran across this old color lithograph from 1889 that shows the building in its original condition and some photos before and after the earthquake. The lithograph’s caption reads “The San Francisco Chronicle’s New Building: Throughly Fire Proof, Largest Clock in the World, Entirely Lighted by Electricity.” Truly top of the line for its time.
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The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture
Posted in Reviews on Wed Aug 16, 06 by Kyle under Architecture and Books.
One of the books that I have been reading lately is George Hersey’s The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculation on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi from the MIT Press. As the title of the book suggests the author examines the original significance and meaning behind what we now consider the ornamental aspects of Classical Greek architecture and shows how they were much more than mere decoration to the Greeks, Romans and Europeans of the Renaissance. Before reading the book I was already familiar with some of the information that he retells, for instance Vitruvius’s account of the origin of the Corinthian order. Callimachus the sculptor and architect was supposedly inspired to create the signature form of the Corinthian capital when he saw an acanthus plant that had grown up around a basket covered with a tile full of mourning mementos that had been placed over the grave of a Corinthian maiden.
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The Library of Congress, covert design repository
Posted in Guides on Mon Aug 14, 06 by Kyle under Architecture.
I would guess that when most people envision the Library of Congress they see a dusty old hall full of leather bound tomes with gilt binding holding the ponderous legal, um, heritage of the United States. Charges of dust aside, not a totally inaccurate impression, but in addition to its legislatively practical side the LOC also has an amazing and extensive archive of documentary material available for public perusal. Much of it is related to design and architecture.
“But wait!” you say, “I live outside the beltway and can’t travel to DC to go see it…” Never fear dear reader, this is where two of the most amazing internet buzzwords come into play. Digital archive. In a great example of government money spent well, the LOC has been quietly transferring its collection of documents, prints, and negatives into searchable databases available over the web.
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