Back to the Co-Lab project, and the use of precedents. I had looked at other Co-Lab arrangements to see how to organize program concerns. For the building elements, I looked towards projects that took an active role in framing views, both from within and from without. These photos were taken at the Bellevue Library... Continue Reading →
01/20: Chicago’s Art Institute
For the next week these posts may simply resemble a vacation slide show as I battle against the ULI Competition. Up today is a snowy visit to Renzo Piano's Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, from February 2011.
01/19: California Zephyr
Another train post, this time about the California Zephyr, running from Chicago to Denver to San Francisco. The images below are specifically from my trip through the Rocky Mountains, with February snow gracing the cliffs. The train leaves Denver at 8 am and has a good 8 hours of front row views through the Rocky... Continue Reading →
01/18: The Empire Builder
These posts may become reliant on photographs and other peoples words (properly cited) for the next few days as I juggle a few deadlines. The same day I visited Steven Holl's Chapel of St. Ignatius (see earlier post) I headed down to the train station to grab Amtrak's Empire Builder headed to Chicago. I had crossed... Continue Reading →
01/17: Sacred Space
A belated post for yesterday, January 17th, my mother's birthday, and an opportunity to show photographs from a trip to Seattle and a stop at the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University. It was designed by Steven Holl Architects and built from 1994-1997. It is an amazing space, curving ceilings and hidden sources of... Continue Reading →
01/16: Traditional Homes in the M’Zab Valley
This may wrap up my discussion on the M'Zab valley for the near future, but I wanted to talk about a visit I was able to take to a traditional courtyard house in El Atteuf (mentioned two days ago). To supplement my photos, I have come across a writing from the 1970s by David Etherton... Continue Reading →
01/15: Ghardaia, Irrigating an Oasis
Continuing from yesterday's description of Ghardaia, I want to briefly describe the way many families have been able to equitably divide water within the oasis. Rain events come very infrequently, and when they do it often results in flooding. The solution was a dam, of sorts, collecting the flooded river and dividing the deluge into... Continue Reading →
01/14: Ghardaia, El Atteuf, and the M’zab Valley
I am continuing the theme of medina quarters with a few photos of Ghardaia, a UNESCO heritage site located in the Saharan desert of Algeria. I was lucky enough to visit Ghardaia this past May, going with a carload of family from El Bayadh (about a six hour drive away) to stay with my uncle's old college... Continue Reading →
01/10: Concave Urbanism Pt 2
A few more photographs of a model representing an informal armature situated on a former mining operation site.
01/03: Brookside Gardens
A few inches of snow fell in the DC area last night, just enough to delay schools and render Brookside Gardens a winter wonderland: