Last year I inaugurated my Birthdays of the Great Ones series on this date with Frank Lloyd Wright. I enjoy the little inspirational boost I get from this series. (Looking back, I guess I didn't post as many of these as I added to my Google Calendar. Hopefully I'll be better at it in the coming year.)
And now a year has gone by, and we're back around to Mr. Wright. Here are a few links on Wright and his work for your edification and Friday enjoyment.
ArchDaily has a nice little piece on Wright today with a lovely photo of Fallingwater surrounded by colorful autumn leaves.
Here is an enjoyable lecture by historian Robert Twombly, discussing the relationship between Wright and his mentor Louis Sullivan. I listened to this on the plane back from ATLOSCON. It's about an hour long. As I recall, the audio is a little rough at first, but it gets better after a minute or two. He does an good job of fact-checking a lot of the dates and assertions put forth by Wright regarding his relationship to and work for Sullvan, and has an interesting take on Wright's moonlighting and subsequent firing from Sullivan's office.
Of course there's always Wikipedia's entry on Wright for the relatively brief overview of his long career.
He didn't get a Google Doodle this year, but he got one in 2005, which you can see here. I can recognize the Larkin Building (I think, in yellow), the Guggenheim, and of course Fallingwater. I don't quite see what the little cube next to the red O is supposed to be.
Lastly, you can also check out my posts from last year, where I posted a YouTube video of Wright from the early days of television, and some photos from my visit to Fallingwater a few years ago.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
ATLOSCON 2012 Wrap-Up
Over Memorial Day weekend I had a great time in Atlanta attending (and presenting at) ATLOSCON, the mini-conference of the Atlanta Objectivist Society. I also presented a seminar on how modern architecture is much more than just blank white minimalist boxes, which is what I think most members of the general public think of, if they think of modern architecture at all. My talk was both well attended (over 40 people, about half of the total conference attendance! WooHoo!) and very well received.
The few weeks leading up to the conference, I was completely deluged with work, and the week immediately prior, I came down with a bad sinus infection. All of this combined to make getting out of town in any kind of reasonable way almost impossible, and I nearly missed my flight. I gave up on preparing my remarks in advance, and decided to just skip half a day of the conference to do it in Atlanta. That part worked out pretty well, and, combined with the fact that I can stand in front of a room full of people and talk about architecture all day long anyway, meant that I was in good shape by the time it was my turn to present.
But before I get ahead of myself, let's briefly recap the whole weekend.
I flew in on Thursday, arriving at around 3:00. Tom picked me up at the airport and we we went back to our hotel. We had arranged to split a room and a car, which all worked out very well. I needed the car because I had another architectural agenda for the weekend besides my talk: visiting and photographing the Peachtree Center and its adjacent hotels in downtown Atlanta, all of which were designed by the architect John Portman.
Thursday night was the conference meet-n-greet event, and it was like a homecoming for me in many ways. I had gotten to know many of the ATLOS folks when I was in the area (sort of) building the Tennessee House. That was almost 2 years ago! It was great to see old friends again and begin to get caught up in person (which is so much better than Facebook and the blogs, although they are better than nothing). The highlight of my evening was meeting Lynne Bourque and her husband Stephen. I have known them online for a while, and they are every bit as great in person as I had expected them to be.
Friday morning I discovered that the local public library was next door to the rec center where the conference was held, which made it extra easy to cut class and work on my talk, while still joining everyone for lunch. The rest of the day I had 3 seminars, which were "What's So Darn Special About Firefly?" with Kelly Elmore; "Design Thinking" with Tim Cheadle and Tori Press; and "Wine and Cheese? Yes, please!" presented by Maggie Roberts. All of them were fun and engaging, and a good time was had by all.
That night I got busy polishing my talk for the next day, and decided in the process to scrap all the slides I had prepared earlier at the library, and devote my entire talk to John Lautner's architecture. I realized that since I had tons of photos of some excellent examples of his houses, both from the tour I took last summer and a couple of events I had participated in since, I would show those. The photos really did deserve a wider audience, and they fit my talk perfectly, which was titled, "Style and Individualism in Modern Architecture". You will be hard pressed to find a more individualistic architecture than Lautner's, and I had around 8 very good examples of his houses (some of which I still need to write up for the blog), ranging from his early career in the 1940s to as late as the '80s. By the time I pulled it all together and appropriately revised my introductory remarks, I finally made it to sleep by around 2am.
Saturday morning rolled around and I was up extra early re-editing and revising, and deciding which shirt to wear for my talk. Before I presented I attended Miranda Barzey's talk on "The Importance and Value of Personal Style" which I enjoyed, although I was mostly focusing on my notes for my talk, which was next. (We were a little late to Miranda's presentation because Tom let his GPS talk us into going to the wrong Starbucks (#firstworldproblems) which I bring up here in the spirit of not being ready to let him live it down.)
Then it was my turn! The room was packed and I was a little nervous at first, but then I was fine once my own enthusiasm for the work took over. They audience was responsive and engaged, and asked great questions along the way. I had floor plans for some of the houses, and one person remarked to me that he started to glaze over at first, when the first plan drawing flashed onto the screen, but that when I started pointing out specific features of the house in plan and linking them to the photos too, that it really came alive for him. Also, he observed that others in the audience were having a similar experience. I had many comments afterward that a) my enthusiasm was infectious; and b) that people in general had no idea that modern architecture could be so interesting!
I can't express how happy it makes me that I took a bunch of people who were pretty much ambivalent at best with regard to modern architecture and showed them a beautiful and interesting side to it that they didn't know existed previously. It just doesn't get much better than that.
That afternoon I had 2 more seminars: "The History and Science of Five Classic Cocktails" with Trey Peden and Tori Press; and "Maintaining Rational Optimism" with Paul Hsieh. That evening was the big party at the Casey House, where I had a great time mingling, meeting new people, and talking about the events of the weekend. It was great to unwind and relax with a great group of folks, once my presentation was out of the way.
Sunday morning I headed to downtown Atlanta to check out the Peachtree Center and its hotels by John Portman. Portman pioneered the big open atrium lobby style of hotel (with glass elevators going up and down in the big atrium lobby). This model is somewhat common today, but never existed at all prior to his 1967 Hyatt Regency, which is one of the three hotels by him in downtown Atlanta that I got to see on this trip. They were doing work on the roof and skylight but it still looked pretty great:
I also saw the Westin and Marriott Marquis, both of which were amazing, but I have to say that the Marriott rises above amazing to the level of stunning. I'll discuss these buildings in more detail in the future, since I'm out of time today. Suffice it to say I have my subject matter for next year's ATLOSCON talk, likely to include a walking tour!
The rest of my Sunday afternoon included the OHomos panel discussion with myself, Tom, and Trey; and "Exploring Ayn Rand's Theory of Concepts" presented by Stephen Bourque. The panel discussion was lively and consisted largely of coming out stories and questions from parents or future-parents about gayness and kids. Stephen's talk was just getting interesting when he unfortunately ran out of time, but he had some interesting observations on the topic.
It's hard to decide which aspect of the conference I enjoyed most, between seeing old friends, giving my talk, and seeing the Portman buildings. Let's just call it a trifecta weekend of awesomeness.
Big shout out to Jenn, Kelly, Miranda, and the ATLOS-folk who put together such a great and fun conference!
The few weeks leading up to the conference, I was completely deluged with work, and the week immediately prior, I came down with a bad sinus infection. All of this combined to make getting out of town in any kind of reasonable way almost impossible, and I nearly missed my flight. I gave up on preparing my remarks in advance, and decided to just skip half a day of the conference to do it in Atlanta. That part worked out pretty well, and, combined with the fact that I can stand in front of a room full of people and talk about architecture all day long anyway, meant that I was in good shape by the time it was my turn to present.
But before I get ahead of myself, let's briefly recap the whole weekend.
I flew in on Thursday, arriving at around 3:00. Tom picked me up at the airport and we we went back to our hotel. We had arranged to split a room and a car, which all worked out very well. I needed the car because I had another architectural agenda for the weekend besides my talk: visiting and photographing the Peachtree Center and its adjacent hotels in downtown Atlanta, all of which were designed by the architect John Portman.
Thursday night was the conference meet-n-greet event, and it was like a homecoming for me in many ways. I had gotten to know many of the ATLOS folks when I was in the area (sort of) building the Tennessee House. That was almost 2 years ago! It was great to see old friends again and begin to get caught up in person (which is so much better than Facebook and the blogs, although they are better than nothing). The highlight of my evening was meeting Lynne Bourque and her husband Stephen. I have known them online for a while, and they are every bit as great in person as I had expected them to be.
Friday morning I discovered that the local public library was next door to the rec center where the conference was held, which made it extra easy to cut class and work on my talk, while still joining everyone for lunch. The rest of the day I had 3 seminars, which were "What's So Darn Special About Firefly?" with Kelly Elmore; "Design Thinking" with Tim Cheadle and Tori Press; and "Wine and Cheese? Yes, please!" presented by Maggie Roberts. All of them were fun and engaging, and a good time was had by all.
That night I got busy polishing my talk for the next day, and decided in the process to scrap all the slides I had prepared earlier at the library, and devote my entire talk to John Lautner's architecture. I realized that since I had tons of photos of some excellent examples of his houses, both from the tour I took last summer and a couple of events I had participated in since, I would show those. The photos really did deserve a wider audience, and they fit my talk perfectly, which was titled, "Style and Individualism in Modern Architecture". You will be hard pressed to find a more individualistic architecture than Lautner's, and I had around 8 very good examples of his houses (some of which I still need to write up for the blog), ranging from his early career in the 1940s to as late as the '80s. By the time I pulled it all together and appropriately revised my introductory remarks, I finally made it to sleep by around 2am.
Saturday morning rolled around and I was up extra early re-editing and revising, and deciding which shirt to wear for my talk. Before I presented I attended Miranda Barzey's talk on "The Importance and Value of Personal Style" which I enjoyed, although I was mostly focusing on my notes for my talk, which was next. (We were a little late to Miranda's presentation because Tom let his GPS talk us into going to the wrong Starbucks (#firstworldproblems) which I bring up here in the spirit of not being ready to let him live it down.)
Then it was my turn! The room was packed and I was a little nervous at first, but then I was fine once my own enthusiasm for the work took over. They audience was responsive and engaged, and asked great questions along the way. I had floor plans for some of the houses, and one person remarked to me that he started to glaze over at first, when the first plan drawing flashed onto the screen, but that when I started pointing out specific features of the house in plan and linking them to the photos too, that it really came alive for him. Also, he observed that others in the audience were having a similar experience. I had many comments afterward that a) my enthusiasm was infectious; and b) that people in general had no idea that modern architecture could be so interesting!
I can't express how happy it makes me that I took a bunch of people who were pretty much ambivalent at best with regard to modern architecture and showed them a beautiful and interesting side to it that they didn't know existed previously. It just doesn't get much better than that.
That afternoon I had 2 more seminars: "The History and Science of Five Classic Cocktails" with Trey Peden and Tori Press; and "Maintaining Rational Optimism" with Paul Hsieh. That evening was the big party at the Casey House, where I had a great time mingling, meeting new people, and talking about the events of the weekend. It was great to unwind and relax with a great group of folks, once my presentation was out of the way.
Sunday morning I headed to downtown Atlanta to check out the Peachtree Center and its hotels by John Portman. Portman pioneered the big open atrium lobby style of hotel (with glass elevators going up and down in the big atrium lobby). This model is somewhat common today, but never existed at all prior to his 1967 Hyatt Regency, which is one of the three hotels by him in downtown Atlanta that I got to see on this trip. They were doing work on the roof and skylight but it still looked pretty great:
The rest of my Sunday afternoon included the OHomos panel discussion with myself, Tom, and Trey; and "Exploring Ayn Rand's Theory of Concepts" presented by Stephen Bourque. The panel discussion was lively and consisted largely of coming out stories and questions from parents or future-parents about gayness and kids. Stephen's talk was just getting interesting when he unfortunately ran out of time, but he had some interesting observations on the topic.
It's hard to decide which aspect of the conference I enjoyed most, between seeing old friends, giving my talk, and seeing the Portman buildings. Let's just call it a trifecta weekend of awesomeness.
Big shout out to Jenn, Kelly, Miranda, and the ATLOS-folk who put together such a great and fun conference!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Little Pre-Summer Interlude
Ok, so I've been totally neglectful of the blog for months. And now it's almost Memorial Day, which means Summer is nearly upon us, and I have a huge backlog of stuff I've been doing, all the while thinking, "this would be good to put on the blog..."
And then I'm onto the next thing without taking any time out to stop and reflect and think about anything. And then the next thing, and the next thing and the next thing.
Meanwhile there the blog sits in a big old months-long silent streak.
Going to try and break that streak right here and now with a fun little interlude that will hopefully help lead us into a fun summer of adventures and blogging about them.
Here (below) is an interactive panoramic photo I shot last summer, when I was in Chicago playing Uncle Nanny to my sister's kids and hanging around photographing buildings in the Loop in my spare time. You can click anywhere on the image (once it loads its 5 mb - sorry about the size) and pan around almost a full 360 degrees.
And then I'm onto the next thing without taking any time out to stop and reflect and think about anything. And then the next thing, and the next thing and the next thing.
Meanwhile there the blog sits in a big old months-long silent streak.
Going to try and break that streak right here and now with a fun little interlude that will hopefully help lead us into a fun summer of adventures and blogging about them.
Here (below) is an interactive panoramic photo I shot last summer, when I was in Chicago playing Uncle Nanny to my sister's kids and hanging around photographing buildings in the Loop in my spare time. You can click anywhere on the image (once it loads its 5 mb - sorry about the size) and pan around almost a full 360 degrees.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Creatures of Prometheus 2nd Blogiversary
Today we are celebrating our 2nd Blogiversary here at Creatures of Prometheus! Hooray!
If you haven't ever read my first post, which explains why I named the blog Creatures of Prometheus, now's your chance. Here's a handy link to make it easy. I just reread it and have to say, it is a fine little piece of writing. Two years later, it really holds up. Beethoven, ancient mythology, and Ayn Rand, all wrapped up in a tidy little package, tied with a bow.
Last year I didn't do anything to mark the occasion, as I was thrown pretty suddenly into hand surgery in early February, and thus never got to it. This time around, I want to mention some of the things I've written about, of which I'm especially proud, and in no particular order.
My series on John Lautner still gets tons of hits from Google image searches. I toured some of his houses last summer and wrote about 2 of them. I'm going to revive this series and add to it, because next Friday I'm going to Palm Springs with my friend LouAnne to tour the Elrod House, which ought to be pretty spectacular. I really really really really really hope they let us take pictures!
Back in 2010 I went on an epic 10-week road trip and helped build my greatest residential commission to date: the Tennessee House. Many of those posts are labeled under both categories, but not all of them are. I'm so happy that I made the effort that I did to document both the trip and project. I will always look back upon that experience as one (of what will hopefully be many) of the highlights of my career.
I'm getting back into a lot more welding and making things here in the shop these days, so I'm looking forward to adding a lot of new stuff to those categories this year.
Studying Objectivism and contemplating its application to my life, and using the blog to work through my ideas and discoveries, gives me a certain type of fuel that is both intellectual and emotional. There are some really good insights in that category, and I hope to continue with more of those in the coming blog-year.
Along with Ayn Rand's work, I really enjoy digging into the writings and work of Louis Sullivan. He was such a profound thinker, it's really hard to overstate the importance of his writings. I just discovered that all his posts aren't labeled, so I'll have to go in and fix that behind the scenes. My pictures of the Auditorium Building also get tons of hits from Google image searches, which is pretty neat, I think.
And, last but not least, the recipes posted under Paleo Food Intake Strategy also get tons of hits! Hopefully I'll be able to do more writing on food in the coming year also.
It's good to spend a minute going through the blog archives, because it makes me realize how much I've covered on the blog, and how much I still want to do!
Time to get busy!
Cheers!
If you haven't ever read my first post, which explains why I named the blog Creatures of Prometheus, now's your chance. Here's a handy link to make it easy. I just reread it and have to say, it is a fine little piece of writing. Two years later, it really holds up. Beethoven, ancient mythology, and Ayn Rand, all wrapped up in a tidy little package, tied with a bow.
Last year I didn't do anything to mark the occasion, as I was thrown pretty suddenly into hand surgery in early February, and thus never got to it. This time around, I want to mention some of the things I've written about, of which I'm especially proud, and in no particular order.
My series on John Lautner still gets tons of hits from Google image searches. I toured some of his houses last summer and wrote about 2 of them. I'm going to revive this series and add to it, because next Friday I'm going to Palm Springs with my friend LouAnne to tour the Elrod House, which ought to be pretty spectacular. I really really really really really hope they let us take pictures!
Back in 2010 I went on an epic 10-week road trip and helped build my greatest residential commission to date: the Tennessee House. Many of those posts are labeled under both categories, but not all of them are. I'm so happy that I made the effort that I did to document both the trip and project. I will always look back upon that experience as one (of what will hopefully be many) of the highlights of my career.
I'm getting back into a lot more welding and making things here in the shop these days, so I'm looking forward to adding a lot of new stuff to those categories this year.
Studying Objectivism and contemplating its application to my life, and using the blog to work through my ideas and discoveries, gives me a certain type of fuel that is both intellectual and emotional. There are some really good insights in that category, and I hope to continue with more of those in the coming blog-year.
Along with Ayn Rand's work, I really enjoy digging into the writings and work of Louis Sullivan. He was such a profound thinker, it's really hard to overstate the importance of his writings. I just discovered that all his posts aren't labeled, so I'll have to go in and fix that behind the scenes. My pictures of the Auditorium Building also get tons of hits from Google image searches, which is pretty neat, I think.
And, last but not least, the recipes posted under Paleo Food Intake Strategy also get tons of hits! Hopefully I'll be able to do more writing on food in the coming year also.
It's good to spend a minute going through the blog archives, because it makes me realize how much I've covered on the blog, and how much I still want to do!
Time to get busy!
Cheers!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Puppy Love: Valentine's Daisy Edition
Here it is, Valentine's Day, and I am completely remiss for not posting sooner about the new pup, Daisy. She came home to live with Paul and me (and Roomie) on New Year's Eve, making it 6 weeks that she has been part of our little household. I mentioned her in my 2011 Year In Review post, but that's been about it.
When I first saw Daisy at the pound, I pretty much knew she'd end up coming home with us. This was her mug shot, and a few pictures of her from the pound:
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Reflections on Randsday
Today we're celebrating Ayn Rand's birthday, here at Creatures of Prometheus. Harry Binswanger has come up with a really great way of marking the occasion: the creation of a new holiday, Randsday.
Randsday is about pursuing your happiness. It's about recognizing that your life belongs to you, and only to you, and that you only get one, and it's short, and so you better get busy, because if you don't pursue your own happiness it's not like someone is just going to come around and hand you some. You have to earn it.
So when you treat yourself to that special Randsday present (which, for me, is that Kindle Touch I've been wanting for weeks now), remember these words:
To celebrate Randsday, you do something not done on any other holiday: you give yourself a present. Randsday is for getting that longed-for luxury you ordinarily would not buy for yourself. Or for doing that long-postponed, self-pampering activity you cannot seem to fit into your chore-packed schedule...On Randsday, if you do something that you ordinarily would think of as “fun,” you do it on a different premise and with a deeper meaning: that you need pleasure, you are entitled to it, and that the purpose and justification of your existence is: getting what you want—what you really want, with full consciousness and dedication.Getting what you want, with full consciousness and dedication. Getting what you really want, not just as a whim or an impulse, but, rather, getting what you really want out of your life.
Randsday is about pursuing your happiness. It's about recognizing that your life belongs to you, and only to you, and that you only get one, and it's short, and so you better get busy, because if you don't pursue your own happiness it's not like someone is just going to come around and hand you some. You have to earn it.
So when you treat yourself to that special Randsday present (which, for me, is that Kindle Touch I've been wanting for weeks now), remember these words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.Your life belongs to you. Go live it.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sam Maloof Exhibit at the Huntington
A nice collection of the work of iconic Southern California furniture maker Sam Maloof, along with many other artists and craftsmen in his circle, has been on exhibit at the Huntington since September; Roomie and I finally made it over there last Sunday to have a look and get inspired.
Maloof started out in the early 1950s, and this show presented examples of his work from private collections through 1985. Below are my favorite pieces from the show, presented in roughly chronological order, which is the order in which they were displayed in the exhibit.
Maloof started out in the early 1950s, and this show presented examples of his work from private collections through 1985. Below are my favorite pieces from the show, presented in roughly chronological order, which is the order in which they were displayed in the exhibit.
String Chair
I like this chair for its simplicity, low proportions, and the unexpected, fun shape of the rear legs. It makes me want to do something similar in steel as a study piece.
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