Architecture Essays
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Architectural Detail of Webster Avenue Bridge Improvements
The Depression-era railings for the Webster Avenue Bridge have been replaced, and they are worthy.
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Abu Dhabi Slide Show, October 2022
I’ve always been attracted, since my 1970s, to the idea of a vacation slide show, with a Kodak carousel in living room darkness and screen-light. If you can handle it, re-watch Don Draper explain the carousel and the surprising corrosiveness of nostalgia: My wife and I just took a trip to Abu Dhabi with a…
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Honolulu Modern Architecture is Lit
I recently went to Honolulu. As is my endless wont when visiting new places, I walked around in near a boutique hotel to see if I could find interesting buildings, pick up Japanese stationery, and otherwise look around. Here’s some things I saw. Ala Moana Park Entrance One of my great joys in travel is when…
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Hot Springs, Arkansas: The Glory of Federal Power
Last week S-L and I were in Hot Springs, Arkansas for the anniversary of our wedding. The main riff for us was a mega-spa situation at Quawpaw. But the trip also made me grateful of federal power. The Hot Springs National Park is a towering example of federal stewardship of shared resources, its fecund collaboration with municipal units…
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The Macon I Know
I enjoy business travel. Each time I leave home, and I have it in my head that I have to make it productive, worthwhile, and fruitful. That means doing my wurk and documenting it all. I especially love to go to a new city– somewhere I haven’t been before. I try to take my good…
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The Tampa Municipal Office Building and its Adjacent Brick Courtyard are Brutalist Masterpieces
The fronds and green and waterfalls made for oasis, and the plaza pavers climb the rough surface up.
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Trellick Tower, A Brutalist Wonder Caught from a Passing Train
We were on a train from Slough this afternoon and I spotted this: A Brutalist bookend-er of a building. I did a Street View search and found the name of it, and then the Wikipedia page for Trellick Tower. Stuff: There is an entry once every two floors is because each flat is a duplex It…
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The Hidden Wonders of Brutalist London
I like Brutalist architecture, mainly because it is an expression of human capacity for newness. Having attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Walter Netsch-designed “Instant Campus“, I also have a pretty good window into the deficiencies of the raw concrete mode of creating human space. Everywhere I go, I try to see and…
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Popcorn Plant for Sale
Over the weekend, Shawn-Laree and I went to the Barker Family Reunion at her cousin’s house near Middlebury, Indiana. We had a great time. After dinner, the day-long rain had cleared and we took a walk in Middlebury, and we came across the Wanberg Popcorn Company. I loved this place. It was completely custom: a…
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My Churches of Rome
Last month our family spent eight days in Rome. We rented an apartment near the Pantheon and went all over the city. In the course of spending my time in the city that surrounds the seat of my religion, I developed a desire to be more devout. The idea is so appealing to me— to…
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Well-Played Poured Concrete Retrofit Parking Garage, Rome
I was walking along in Rome last week and came across a car repair garage (“Autorimessa”) with a pretty cool script sign above the garage door: Then I saw that the same business had a second interesting type treatment of the word “Autorimessa” a couple doors down: But when I was reviewing this photo back…
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Blarney Castle and the Concept of Touring Houses
Blarney Castle was flat wonderful. It was odd to get the real feeling of passing through someone’s home long after they are gone. The family room was epic. Here’s some video of it: It was great to go through the dungeon as far as we could and then come back. We kissed the Blarney Stone…
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The Importance of Brutalism in Destroying the Fetish of the Old
The campus of Trinity College Dublin reminded me anew of the role of brutalism in modern architecture. It was the great throat-clearer, expelling the dusty phlegm of old buildings that can oppress architects and other creators. Here’s a building right on the college green: This building is so obviously, facially new, and is 200 meters…
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Downtown in Macro: Building Surfaces, Walking Eastbound to 111 E. Wacker from the Blue Line at 203 N. LaSalle
Here’s a series of photos in macro showing the exterior surfaces of every building I pass on the way to work for the train. Some highlights: I used to work here, at 203 N. LaSalle. It is a late 80’s building with the sheen-y dark marble that was popular and opulent at the time. I’ve…
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Deserted Charlestowne Mall
There are lots of great photo essays of that most modern of detritus: the suburban mall. Here are some pics of a mall in the middle. Not abandoned, but not thriving. More than half empty, but full of current holiday decorations. Damp mustiness but not utter emptiness. Contains current candy. This is the Charlestowne Mall…
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I Do Not Believe That Mies Van Der Rohe Would Be Pleased With These Lines
Mies van der Rohe was a badass. He made buildings with crisp continuous lines and geometric perfection. His constructions make my insides ripple in pattern w/o even knowing it. He was highly interested in lines being extended from exterior walls through interior floors and plazas. For instance, the lines of the post office on south…
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New Logo In Action: Renaissance Hotel is Now Renaissance
Logos change all the time, but it’s not every day you get a chance to see a logo change right before your eyes. The other morning I was walking to work past 1 West Wacker Drive and saw sign company workers changing out the signs at what used to be called The Renaissance Hotel and…
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New Walgreens in the Old Noel State Bank Building at 1601 N. Milwaukee (corner of North, Milwaukee, and Damen in Bucktown/ Wicker Park)
NOTE: This post is an aggregation of information on 1601 North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, which is currently being made into a Walgreens. This info was compiled mainly via Web searches and deep dives into public databases. It serves as a specific manifestation of a broader idea– that the City of Chicago contains a mountain…
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On A Walk, Christmas Day 2011
We took a walk in Lincoln Park yesterday in bright blue Chicago. Here are some pics. Bench overlooks barren great garden and waits for lush return. I have no idea what kind of trees these are that produce such bright orange limbs: The sublime blues of Jeanne Gang’s People’s Gas Education Pavilion seem so stark:…
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The Sadness of Deferred Maintenance at the State of Illinois Building
I have always loved goofball architecture. I can’t pass a Brutalist structure without stopping to marvel at it. And there was nothing goofier than the State of Illinois Building (160 North LaSalle St.) when it opened in 1985. I went by there the other day and was bummed to see how muffed up the place…