architecture

more greed architecture

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The small cylindrical building in the lower left was a PATH train entrance that stood alone in a vacant lot for years. Then, the awkward parabuilding on the right was added, using the cylinder as a support for a multi-story hotel (Marriott Residence Inn). "Parabuilding" was New York Times architecture critic's Herbert Muschamp's euphemism for what could also be called "the architecture of greed," where squeezing every last nickel of rent takes precedence over style. Note how the sleek futuristic columns attempt to distract from the silliness of the design.

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The hotel exploits monetizable floor area on the opposite side, too -- its wraparound floors nudge into the space of the adjacent building, a la the infamous shot of George Bush trying to squeeze past Bill Clinton in a public doorway:

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Here's an image that a tourist bureau might like, where everything appears neat and symmetrical. Photos can lie.

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utopia and dystopia in architecture (a capsule)

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Louise Belcourt, Mound #28, 2015, oil on canvas, 66 x 85 inches

Will likely not make it to Locks Gallery in Philadelphia for Louise Belcourt's show so this is a "jpeg review."

The recent film Midnight Special, a leaner, meaner version of John Carpenter's Starman [caution: spoilers], imagines a race of perfected humans in a dimension "above" ours, who "have watched us for years." At the end of the movie we're given a glimpse of their architecture, very tech-y, CAD-designed, eco-friendly structures twisting and soaring above the landscape. Belcourt's urban vision above, for me, better approximates what an evolved humanity might build. Kinder, gentler, more integrated and integral than the film's Eiffel-meets-Saarinen machine confections.

On the other side of the design-wheel, opposite Belcourt's mound cities of neopolitan ice cream but not that far off from some of Midnight Special's skyscraper para-buildings, we have this clanking artifact from the real world, spotted by James Howard Kunstler (fortunately not yet built -- this is only a rendering -- but awaiting city approvals -- in Los Angeles -- near the airport):

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Friendly aliens, if you are watching us, please intervene now.

brutalism defaced

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The pristine integrity of the building's concrete expanse has been marred by this sign announcing... red label something. It's almost as if the owners of the structure don't respect the architects or their vision of functional materialism.

brutalist duane reade

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First-time visitors to NYC sometimes ask the astute question, "Who's Duane Reade?" These pharmacies can be found on every corner and even wedged into Brutalist buildings.
There was never a good answer but it's moot since Walgreens bought the chain. Shortly after that happened (but not before), slick signs appeared in every Duane Reade plugging the chain as a "New York institution." (Walgreens is based in Chicago.)

Update: By word of mouth I learned that the company that became Duane Reade was founded near, and took its name from, a block bounded by Duane and Reade streets in what is now Tribeca.