MOST COMMENTED
October 6th, San Francisco
The ASLA meeting in San Francisco is coming up quick, which means it is almost time for Cultivated, the event where landscape meets art... and Landscape Architects meet artists on October 6th at 9:00 pm at the Mars Bar.
Link: Cultivated
Previously: Cultivated (L+L)
Related: Laura Bauer (L+L)
Related: Metagardens (L+L)
Paintings inspired by modern design
Michigan based painter Michael Pfleghaar is well known for his interior subjects depicting animated mid-century furniture and accessories, bringing such things as an Eames lounge chair to life. Pfleghaar's new body of work depicts modern landmarks in Palm Springs, California. Pfleghaar skillfully captures the optimistic spirit of his architectural subjects as well as the magical quality of the light and landscape of their environment.
These paintings will be exhibited in a group show at Dezart One Gallery in Palm Springs, October 11-November 11, 2007.
Link: Michael Pfleghaar
Link: Dezart One Gallery.com
Also: Michael Pfleghaar's Online Sketchblog
(ABOVE: "Neutra House" 2007, oil on canvas, 24" x 30"
CA Boom 2008
Okey dokey, very quiet around here for CA Boom time of year... yes we are usually buzzing with activity. Alas, not this time. We will have some stuff to share with y'all later, buy you'll just have to wait. In the mean time, here are some links to tide you over:
LA Times was there, and they were snapping pictures:
LAist was there... first timers? Dunno, but they put together a nice photo essay from the Hangar:
And the NY Times was there too... no comment:
Props to the Curbed LA peeps for stepping it up this year with some nice coverage of the home tours:
In case you thought we forgot...
Woah... that was fast...
In fact, Day 3 went by so fast that we missed one of the houses on the tour... Oy vey! We did walk through the other four examples of nouveau LA living, and there is plenty to observe and say about these abodes.
Here's the breakdown (with the skinny after the jump):
No gallery: Mi-Ca Residence
Jesse Bornstein Architecture
Gallery: Ocean Park Housing
Michael Folonis and Associates
Gallery: Santa Monica Prefab
Office of Mobile Design
Gallery: House of Sand
Lee + Mundwiler Architects
No Gallery: Our House
du Architects
How to restore your vintage fiberglass shell furniture. The right way.
I have six original Eames shell chairs which I picked up at a garage sale four years ago. Ever since (with much procrastination in between, of course) I have been trying to figure out how to restore the fiberglass which has lost its luster... and let me tell you, there is a lot of bad advice out there on the 'innerwebs' (ahem, AT). So I was very glad to find Chairfag. As of today, this is the one and only post on Chairfag. We hope that there will be more in the future! Because... yeah, I'll admit it... I'm a little bit gay for chairs.
The first half of the article doesn't apply for my chairs though it is educational. The basic shell restoration info towards the end is pure gold. And the best part is: it's easy! Get to work!
Link: Chairfag: Shell Chair Restoration
This ain't your grandma's floral paper
Perfect for Valentine's Day, Atelier Blink's 2006 wallpaper, Rendezvous, draws on inspiration from grandma's wallpaper of days past, but with a Kamasutra twist.
Link: Atelier Blink
Link: Vlaemsch()
Wall displayed airplants at the Bardessono Hotel
A very nice indoor vertical garden designed for a space without irrigation or drainage at the platinum LEED certified Bardessono hotel in Yountville, California.
The simple solution uses airplants (Tillandsia, members of the Bromeliad family) attached to metal rods which protrude from the wall. The visual effect of hundreds of Tillandsia "floating" within these alcoves is striking. And while some of the plants will need to be changed out occasionally, it is a much more sustainable solution than the typical hotel lobby floral display.
Link: Thigmotropism
Link: Bardessono Hotel
Article: NYT
Location: L+L Maps - Bardessono Hotel
2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
Peter Zumthor of Switzerland has been chosen as the 2009
Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The Zumthor choice marks the second time in three decades of the Pritzker
Architecture Prize that Switzerland has provided the laureate. In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were the honorees.
In Zumthor’s own words as expressed in his book, Thinking Architecture:
I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own. Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. In a society that celebrates the inessential, architecture can put up a resistance, counteract the waste of forms and meanings, and speak its own language. I believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can.
The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be held on May 29 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After the jump is a sampling of Zumthor's work.
Exhibition by Adriean Koleric
HERD is the first solo outing by Edmonton-based designer and L+L friend Adriean Koleric (aka ITEM). The exhibit is the first in a series that will be focusing on early 80's Western Pop Culture and it's enduring influence on today's Designers and Artists.
The installation features the original Star Wars AT-AT (Imperial Walker) designs from The Empire Strikes Back in numerous mediums. The main component is a series of twelve customized AT-AT models. Koleric is interested in architecture and industrial design and how both are influenced by popular culture and nostalgia.
The exhibit opens, April 17th, at Latitude 53 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and runs through May 16th. Congrats, Adriean!
Link: ITEM - HERD by Adriean Koleric
Gallery: Latitude 53
Abstracted Victoriana
A tired San Francisco Victorian duplex is transformed by Oakland firm Envelope Architecture + Design in collaboration with owner and interior designer Claire Bigbie and landscape designer Flora Grubb.
Claire, a RISD trained designer, purchased this Noe Valley duplex in 2005 with her partner Jay Shapiro after returning to the US from London (where she worked for the hip interior design studio Precious McBane) to take a position as the style editor for ReadyMade Magazine. The house was in need of serious renovation, and the resulting project transformed the typical series of dark, cellular rooms into contemporary live/work spaces which respects the existing historic fabric while re-imagining the altered structure. Three days after Claire and Jay moved in, Claire began consulting on projects with Envelope A+D where she now leads the interiors component of the collaborative design process.
Architecture Firm: Envelope A+D
Landscape: Flora Grubb
Article: NY Times - When Skaters Grow Up by Penelope Green
Photo Gallery: NY Times
Photography: Todd Hido
The elevated railway turned park opened today
Section 1 of the High Line (from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street) opened today: Tuesday, June 9, 2009.
This fact is nearly a miracle when you consider not only the idea of turning an abandoned New York City elevated railway into a public park and all of the hurdles involved to make it possible, but it is especially amazing that the project was built to such a high quality of design and execution.
The design, inspired by the melancholic, found beauty of this postindustrial ruin which was reclaimed by nature, is led by landscape architect James Corner Field Operations, with Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects. The landscape is designed by Field Operations with the consultation of the master Dutch planting designer Piet Oudolf. The reinterpretation of this urban relic imagined by James Corner Field Operations and the design team is a brilliant blend of preservation, innovation, conservation, restoration, and orignal modern design.
Lead designer/landscape architects: James Corner Field Operations
Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects
Planting specialist: Piet Oudolf
Lighting: L’Observatoire International
Link: The High Line
Article: NY Times - Renovated High Line Now Open for Strolling
[photos, video, interactive]
Book: Designing the High Line: Gansevoort Street to 30th Street
Related: The Standard NYC (L+L 4/9/2009)
Related: "Down-to-Earth Masterpieces of Public Landscape Design" (L+L 5/5/2005)
Location: L+L Maps - The High Line
The world is ours!
Officially announcing Land+Living Maps; the world as we see it.
It is a work in progress with many more place marks to come... yup, there are lots of holes in our map. But eventually no matter where you find yourself in the world, L+L will have your back. A lofty goal perhaps, but that's how we roll. Oh yeah, and you'll see embedded maps accompanying many of our posts from here on out--not to mention the maps we've added to archived posts as well--so you can see where stuff is located, and what's around it.
Happy exploring!
Link: Land+Living Maps
Water Sports Center in Zahara de la Sierra, Cádiz, Spain
Spanish architect Julio Barreno Gutiérrez designed this boathouse just outside the small town of Zahara de la Sierra on the shore of the man-made lake, El Embalse de Zahara. The small structure serves as a boat storage facility and also houses changing rooms and restrooms for boaters, and is meant to be part of a larger recreation area in development.
While small and utilitarian, the structure responds elegantly to the native landscape, the high waterline of the resevoir, and the local vernacular of the "pueblo blanco" hillside town. The design was awared the 2008 Torres Key Prize by the College of Architects of Cádiz given every two years to honor the best new buildings in Cádiz. The architect describes the town "as a dense liquid falling down along the slope" and the small parcels and buildings along the shore as "small white pieces" scattered below; a green and white pixelated landscape.
Architect Julio Barreno Gutiérrez is an Associate Professor for the School of Architecture at the University of Seville.
Location: L+L Maps - Paisaje de Canoas
Photographer Xavier Nuez
Photographer Xavier Nuez ventures late at night to places you are warned not to go, drawn to document bleak urban spaces. However, his photographs transcend the gloom and uncover the sublime; while some photos display an aura of foreboding, many reveal an uncanny sense of calm seemingly at odds with reality. Nuez offers a glimpse of his forays into these forbidding realms in the Alley Stories section of his website.
I've been chased by violent street gangs, accosted by crazed addicts and drug dealers, and have been held at gun point. If the police see me lurking in a dark alley, often I am questioned and searched. And yet under these trying conditions, and within the filth and stench of the city's gutters, I find inspiration. With a family history of homelessness and with a belief that I was next, I found the need to create monuments out of these shunned places.
Nuez uses three Hasselblad film cameras, two of which are more than 50-years old. To capture the vivid colors in his images, he shoots with battery-powered lights and colored gels that are combined with long exposures.
Xavier Nuez's photographs have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in Canada
A selection of Nuez's photographs will be on exhibition August 24 through September 27, 2009, at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, Florida.
Link: Xavier Nuez
Slideshow: Alleys
