The Beautiful Homes of New Orleans

Another fascinating aspect of New Orleans is the unique character of the homes found in the many different neighborhoods.  I have to admit that they have one of the homeliest groups of tall downtown buildings I've ever seen in a big city, but once you get out of that neighborhood, the scale and detailing of the homes in the surrounding districts is really beautiful.

Our friends live in the Garden District, one of the oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods, easily accessible by streetcar (and on bike or foot) from downtown and the French Quarter.  According to Stuart, and he'll correct me if I get this wrong, it's what's known as a double corridor shotgun camelback!  They've converted the two units into a single house, and it's really wonderful.  The camelback houses were originally built with one story at the street, and two behind, because the taxes were determined by the height of your house along the street.  This type of house is quite typical for this   and many of the other neighborhoods, as are single shotguns, and models with outdoor hallways.

This quarter is also home to some beautiful mansions, with extensive porches and elaborate wood and wrought iron tracery.

The photos that follow are just images of houses that I found of interest, regardless of size, neighborhood, or anything else.  I love the use of color - lots of subtle pastels in some areas, brighter mixes in others.  Also, the simple victorian detailing of the brackets over the generous front porches, and the trim around the doors, windows, and shutters.

As we're all well aware, the damage to the urban neighborhoods of New Orleans from hurricane Katrina, was unprecedented, and much of it can still be seen and felt.  While the trailers are now all gone, many areas are still seriously blighted.  However, there are also many areas that have really come back, and the energy and spirit of the city is contagious.  This house is one of a new cluster near Bayou St. John in the Mid-City area, and it really reflects this new energy with it's creative design and vibrant colors.

We went to visit the area of the 9th ward that was the most severely damaged, and got to see some of the contemporary reinterpretations of the traditional shotgun houses built through the leadership of Brad Pitt and his charitable organization.  Whatever you may think of the designs themselves, what's happened in this neighborhood is inspiring, and I hope it can continue.

These last images are just a few great details from some of the many houses I got to experience in exploring New Orleans as a pedestrian.  Just take care when you visit, because the sidewalks are a mess!  We architects tend to look around us rather than at where we're walking, and that can be risky in New Orleans.

Invention and Intervention

I recently had the opportunity to attend the latest show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, featuring the stunning drawings of Lebbeus Woods.  I'm not going to attempt to write a philosophical or critical analysis here, just give you my impressions, along with images that I got of the internet of some of his drawings (hoping that's all legal, of course!)

Reading the information at the show, and doing a bit of follow up research, I can report that Mr. Woods studied architecture at Purdue and University of Illinois, but never got his license to be a registered architect.  After school, he worked in the office of Eero Saarinen, best known for designing Dulles Airport and the TWA terminal in New York.  He was a professor of architecture at the Cooper Union in New York, and taught and lectured around the world.  I remember seeing and being awed by some of his drawings while I was in architecture school myself.

He has very little built work, and what I've seen of it in pictures, honestly, doesn't live up to the promise of his drawings.  But his drawings are just amazing, and these are the main focus of the exhibit, along with some models that were built by collaborators, based on  his designs.  There's also a short film that shows Woods and Steven Holl discussing a collaboration they did on a project in China, that frankly, got boring after a while.

When I looked at the pictures in the show, I felt most fit into two categories - inventions and interventions.  The first group created fantastic imaginary worlds, filled sometimes with gothic looking cities and structures, and other times with vividly created futuristic environments.

The interventions placed his fantastic structures into existing environments after disasters, like Sarajevo after the war, and San Francisco after the earthquake.  Here, Woods' unique structures are offset by the existing buildings and landforms, and in some of the SF studies, the ocean.

All of the drawings are amazing, both for their remarkable imagination, and their impeccable craftsmanship.  It's rare to see such intricate pencil work, with subtle shadings and layer upon layer of delicate lines.  I was drawn in to look closer and closer, which was tricky given that i'd just come from the eye doctor, and was still somewhat dilated!

In looking at the drawings, I couldn't help but feel that I'd experienced some of the places before, and I realized that they reminded me a lot of the computer generated fantasy or futurist cities that have been so prevalent in movies.  On looking this up, I found that his work was in fact the inspiration for the sets in the movie 12 Monkeys with Bruce Willis, and he sued the filmmakers, receiving a large settlement, and credit for his inspiration in the titles.  He also inspired the design for the memorably gross Aliens 3.

But I see his influence in even more films, like Lord of the Rings, Brazil, Jack the Giant Slayer (which I am embarrassed to say I both saw and enjoyed), the new Wizard of Oz, and all of the Star Wars films.  But again, I would say that the drawings are even more compelling than the inspired realistic urban visions in all of these films.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to visit and take the time to really enjoy this show.  I know I'll be going back to be transported into his mystical worlds again myself.

this is a parking garage??

Normally, the architecture of parking structures doesn't really stand out.  However, in the past few weeks, i've seen a couple of garages that are really stunning.  The first one I just happened upon while riding my Deco-Bike from south beach into downtown Miami, on the beautiful Venetian Causeway.

I knew I'd seen a photo in one of the architectural journals, but when I got back, i looked up the project, and saw that it was actually designed by the Viennese firm of Herzog and deMeuron, who had also done the DeYoung art museum in SF.

It is an amazing structure, and I planted the bike by the stairway, and explored all of it's different levels. I was surprised to find a trendy clothing shop on the 5th floor, and there's a nightclub called Babalu on the 8th.  Reading the articles about it, i also learned that locals are renting out the 7th floor, which is a double height space with views out over all of Miami Beach and the Atlantic, for their weddings and receptions.  How cool and unexpected is that!

The second is in San Francisco, part of the new UCSF Mission Bay Campus.  This recently opened garage was designed by the SF firm of WRNS Studio, and really stands out.  The angled recesses change with the angle of the sun, creating a very dynamic facade, and the building fits in will with the other new labs, hospitals, clinics, and dormitories that surround it.

Miami Deco

One of the most fun aspects of touring Miami Beach was taking advantage of their bike share program, called Deco Bike, and riding all around the south end of the island, now known as the Deco District.

This area is comprised of lots of small hotels and apartment buildings, mostly built in the 1930's in the moderne or art deco style that was a popular offshoot of Bauhaus design.  In fact, the area this most reminded me of was the district of Tel Aviv that is known as the White City, built by many of the original Bauhaus architects when they had to immigrate from Germany to Israel in the 20's.

The Miami hotels are more playful and colorful, displaying a wide range of pastel tones, and some great signage.  It's become a really vibrant neighborhood, as can be seen in the movies The Birdcage, and, with a lot more violence and blood, Scarface.

I spent a couple of hours riding around and taking photos, and here are some interesting details I saw.

A Tale of Two Symphonies

We have just returned from a trip to Miami Beach, where I was fortunate enough to be able to go on a tour of the New World Symphony Center, designed by Frank Gehry.  Earlier this year, we attended a performance at Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.  I thought it would be fun to post some photos and comments on the two buildings.

The New World Symphony Center was created by Ted and Lin Arison in 1987.  They were the owners of the Carnival Cruise Line, and wanted to create a venue for the advanced training of young classical musicians.  They brought in San Francisco Symphony Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and created a fantastic program, that is fully subsidized so that the students can participate as fellows for three years at no cost.  Each student works with a tutor, and also participates in the orchestra, and many are involved in music programs in the public school system.

                           

Maestro Thomas brought in his old friend Frank Gehry to be the architect for the new center.  From the outside, it is a mostly very sedate building, facing a 2.5 acre public park.  The front facade is a blank white wall on the right side, and this is used for projecting live screenings of many of the concerts being performed inside.  The lawn is lined with two large arches containing over 100 speakers, as well as a very bizarrely shaped projection room.

The rest of the front is a simple glass curtain wall, but the very sculptural entry canopy gives a clue as to what you see once you walk in the front door.  Then you are in a large open, skylit space, filled with white sculptural forms, which house the rehearsal rooms.

It's a very dynamic and exciting space, which also includes a bar, topped with a floating blue metal sculptural element.  To the right of the entry, behind the blank white wall, is the main performance hall. I wasn't able to photograph this space, because there was a rehearsal in progress when we visited, but it too is very dynamic and colorful.  The fabric on the seats looks like a Miami bathing suit.  The seats wrap around all four sides of the elaborate, hydraulically operated stage platforms, and it's very intimate.  The acoustics are by Mr. Toyota from Japan, and it sounded great, despite the fact that they were rehearsing a very atonal piece by John Cage.

The Member's Lounge is located on the roof, with a large glass walled room, and a deck with amazing views out over the art deco hotel district and on to the Atlantic beyond.  The space is used regularly for receptions and other gatherings.

The New World Center is located right off Lincoln and Collins, in the heart of Miami's South Beach district, and it is well worth visiting.  They have really informative tours all through the day.

Earlier this year, we attended a performance at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.  This is a much more formidable and dynamic building from the outside, and stakes out a real presence in the performing arts area of downtown LA.  The administrative wing is a simple rectangular block, which serves as an effective backdrop for the wildly swooping titanium forms that wrap around the concert hall within.  The beautiful image above was taken off the internet, but the other photos in this post are all mine.

I liked the story that one of the elements, made of highly polished metal, was reflecting so much light into the neighboring office towers, that they had to retrofit it with a fabric "bra" to mitigate the problem.

The concert hall itself is a beautiful space, all in natural wood finishes, again with seating on all 4 sides of the stage.  The performance we saw was actually an opera (or to be honest, a half an opera, we couldn't sit through the whole thing!), so there was a flat stage platform set in front of the stepped area that housed the symphony itself.  We sat in one of the side terraces, and I have to admit, it wasn't very comfortable, because there wasn't any room to stretch out our legs.

One of the nicest parts of the Disney Hall is their rooftop garden, which unlike the members only deck at the Miami facility, is open to the general public, either during the day via a public stairway, or during intermission from the concert, when it can be accessed from the main lobby.  At night, this space was really magical, with beautifully lit trees, and this great mosaic fountain that looks like a giant blue flower.  Again, this space had great views out to downtown Los Angeles, but it was great even without those.

Both of these are exciting venues, providing flexible, acoustically wonderful performance halls, and dramatic lobbies and rooftop gardens.  I think these are two of Frank Gehry's strongest projects, because in both cases, the free form elements are played off against more rectilinear blocks, so there is a contrast.  Some of his other buildings, like the Experience Music Project in Seattle, are less successful to me, because they just have the curvy forms, with nothing to balance against.

A Pasadena Bonus - Greene and Greene

This post is a follow up to my first commentary about my experiences at the Rose Bowl and Parade in Pasadena.  On my first trip over to the Rosemont Pavilion, where the floats were being assembled, I looked out the shuttle window and noticed that we were passing by a house I recognized.  It was the home of Doc from Back to the Future, where Marty first encountered him and his Delorean time machine.  It is otherwise known as the Gamble House by the brilliant California arts and crafts period architects Greene and Greene.

Their houses were inspired by their trip through Chicago on their way to California, where they saw the Japanese pavilion at the World's Fair, and also some of the early Prarie Style work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

What I most appreciate about this and the other houses is their amazingly beautiful attention to craft in the detailing.  The edges of the supporting beams and rafters are all rounded, and the joinery is all very intentional.

The craftsmanship also carries over into related areas like the woodworking and stained glass in the main entry doors.  Where the glass in Wright's Oak Park houses is very geometric, the patterns here are much more natural and organic.

Seeing the Gamble House, first from the bus window, and later as I walked back into town, I was inspired to walk back over the next day to see all of the Greene and Greene houses in the neighborhood.  They are  really beautiful and wonderfully preserved examples of the best architecture of the period, and i was fortunate to have a beautiful day to visit them.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to tour the interior of the Gamble House, as it was closed the days I was there, but that house is open to the public, and well worth seeing.  All of the others I saw are still private homes, but you can walk around the fronts and see the amazing details firsthand.

There is a large group of homes located on Arroyo Terrace, right off Orange Grove, just before arriving at the Gamble House.

My favorite of the houses I saw is called the Duncan Irwin house, and it's located at one of the corners of Arroyo Terrace, with great views out into the surrounding valleys.  The colors, forms, and details are similar to those of the other homes, but the corner site enabled them to do an incredible composition, and the entry way, with large natural stone posts and climbing vines, is really nice.

Brothers Charles and Henry Greene had an architectural practice in Pasadena in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The Gamble House was designed in 1908, and is their largest project.  They also designed the Thorsen house in Berkeley that how houses the Sigma Phi fraternity.