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Aug 28

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A Classic

What Mr. Gehry is saying, then, is that there can be beauty in such harsh elements when they are carefully wrought and precisely put together, that they can create a new kind of order which can yield as much physical ease and comfort as a conventional house. – Paul Goldberger

I just got back from LA where I went to the Gehry House for the first time in almost fifteen years. If you don’t know, the existing house was bought in Los Angeles the 1970s and then remodeled by Gehry. It is iconic modernism and deconstructivism. It has won the 25-year AIA 2012 Building award.

Frank Gehry’s architecture comes with a slew of descriptors: innovative, sensuous, modern. But the Gehry House in Los Angeles is a classic. And I know it’s hard to believe that one could ever call a Frank Gehry house a classic. But there is something so bold and yet so right about this remodel. Nothing fussy, nothing dated, even 25 years later.

I like it even better now than I did when I was a young architect because now I can actually understand just what real courage and vision it took to complete a project like this.

When Gehry purchased the property, the original house was not torn down. Instead, he skillfully wove his architecture around and against the original building. The old and new are now in a dialogue with each other, loudly but also joyfully and whimsically. Gehry had the brains, balls and restraint (an undervalued trait in architecture) to make something this good.

What a relief to see no fake historicism! No egomaniac modernism! And not even a hint of Dwell modernism (you know the kind: flat roof with extended overhangs and lots of Ipe siding! Gehry looked to innovate, to create, and not to replicate.

And despite what you may think, money was an object for Gehry. The chain-link fence or corrugated metal were inelegant, inexpensive materials for an elegant design. Cheap doesn’t always mean bad and besides, Frank Gehry still lives in the house. The project has clearly served his family well.

I will not bore you with anymore “archibabble,” considering the fact that many architectural critics have written much more insightful articles than I could about this project.

I just want you all to remember the next time you go to LA go check it out;  it will knock your socks—or flip flops (it is LA after all)–off.

For more information and quotes, keep reading after the jump.

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Aug 20

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Guest post: The Children of Architecture

This guest post was written by my daughter, who really needed a good use of all her post-college free time.

I used the title to make this blog post seem deceivingly deep, as if I’m ruminating on the status of architecture in the twenty-first century or if the progeny masters programs produce are really up to snuff.

No, no. I’m talking about the children of architects. Really, I’m talking about myself and the ways which my mother’s career choice has made my life unpleasant.

1. Dinner conversations are boring

Look, yes, architects have friends who aren’t also architects. My mother’s social circles include interior designers, landscapers, furniture designers, contractors, engineers and artists! But architects like to hang out with each other and when you get architects together, all they can ever do is talk about architecture. Sometimes, I just want to interrupt conversations with  “WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ISRAEL”  so I can stop hearing the word “urbanization.”

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Aug 7

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Failed First

I learned the hard way that buildings, especially the ones you don’t like, don’t go away.

The good news is, you can bury the incriminating evidence. Before starting my firm in 1986, I worked for and with other architects. And while my name and signature are somewhere on those drawings, drafts and contracts, I’ve been assured that they are deeply hidden in a storage area of pre-electronic files.

One of my very first moonlight projects was with my good friend Kent Macdonald and it was as a remodel. The project included a revamped façade.  I’d like to think that the project’s final appearance was a result of naiveté (I was paralyzed by excitement and fear) and some stubborn clients.

It has an unfortunate composition that includes two different materials that step, something we would never do today. A clumsy balcony hovers overhead. It has been repainted in the ugliest cold color that emphasize the clumsy composition.

Luckily, for a period of time, the evidence was located on a sleepy San Francisco street. Unfortunately, a popular store opened half a block away and now my abomination is passed by thousands. Worse yet, by the time I opened my own firm five years later, I was living within walking distance to the project.

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Jul 18

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How to spend less than $75,000 and completely change your home.

I promise this is no infomercial!

Last summer, I purchased a property with my partner, Mark English, that straddled Sonoma and Napa. The inside and outside were the product of a 1970s over zealous homeowner with a tighter budget than he wanted to admit. Parts were completed, others not and most of the style choices were an abomination in my strict modernist handbook.

These were my rules (or guidelines or trips) for how to spend under $75,000 and still get a fab new interior.

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May 2

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Part 2 of Procrastination in the City: Les Halles

The Quartier des Halles, an area near the Louvre, is being completely torn down and rebuilt for the second time in 30 years. For many centuries it housed merchant markets but in the modern era visitors were only attracted by the nearby great museums of the city. Les Halles itself was not very useful or inspiring.

But Paris knew that Les Halles needed not only an “upgrade” but a complete reenvisioning. But it didn’t start off so well, the first plan, completed in 1979 would make most architects cringe. The buildings closed themselves off from the street and existing urban fabric of the neighborhood and the construction was terrible. The buildings quickly fell into disrepair and tourism in that area certainly didn’t blossom.

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Apr 23

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8 Jobs that are harder

Now all this talk about Anne Romney and how being a mom is the hardest job in the world has me thinking “What is the second hardest job?” I encourage all readers to chime in here!

1. Being Newt Gingrich’s wife

2. Actually, maybe being Calista Gingrich’s hairdresser. Imagine if every one comes into your shop and wants that do. The environmental impact alone is terrifying – think of all those hair-dye fumes!

3. Being Anne’s Romney sons. Imagine the daily reminders of the sacrifices made by your mother.

4. Being Clarence Thomas. I think it should take incredible self control and willpower to be that quiet and un-participatory when serving on the most eloquent judicial body in the world. Way to go Clarence! You totally learned your lesson after that last hair comment…

6. Being Newt’s Super PAC endorser, Sheldon Adelson. I could have done a lot better with that $ 16 million. Thank goodness Adelson doesn’t pay more than 15% in taxes.

7. Being a scientist and biologist and believing in creationism.

8. And finally, being the architect for the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky – as though being an architect was not hard enough. I think 7 and 8 may be a tie, actually.

Apr 12

Image provided by David Baker + Partners Architects
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In memory of Peter Mackenzie

About two weeks ago, the architect Peter MacKenzie died. There’s not much more that I can say that has not already been more eloquently been said about Peter, across many media but I just felt the need to express my loss.

I met Peter years back although I won’t say how many, it feels like betraying a secret! He was a fellow architect in town who was also balancing designing housing for profit and designing affordable housing. In his memory, there are over 2,000 affordable homes in San Francisco bearing his mark.

Peter was a rare human being whose amazing characteristics shone in the competitive field of architecture. He was sharp, fun to be around and humble despite his many accomplishments. He was also always willing to help, I knew I could call him (and I did, on many occasions), to ask a question, to bemoan the latest “board of whatever” trying to block our work or commiserate about the latest crazy regulation that was making it harder to do good and affordable work.

I wish the best to his family and to David and his office.

He will be truly missed.

Apr 2

Procrastination in the City (part 1)

(Upon completing this entry, my daughter informed me that 900 words was far too long for one blog post. She then informed me she was “unaware that my mother was a woman of so many words.”)

If there’s one thing I love best about the Internet – it’s that there is no off switch. During bouts of insomnia, caused by stress or jetlag or that second Martini during dinner, I can access the whole world. There’s a different aesthetic to the kind of learning I do at 3am. More recently, I’ve become entrenched in the world of digressionary architecture research. I find myself reading blogs on Victorian architecture or tracking new projects in Australia.

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Mar 27

Preface to my Monograph

This is a long overdue post and also a means of motivating myself back into blog writing (I’ve been travelling a lot in the last couple months).

Below, I’ve pasted the preface to my monograph which was released late in 2011 and was a labor of love and also, perhaps, a bit of crazy.

Image

Preface

Simplicity is complexity resolved. —Constantin Brâncusi

First, a confession: I’m obsessed with architecture. I can’t imagine my life without buildings. And although this fixation can strain my health, finances, and stress level, I just can’t give it up.

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Mar 14

Brooklyn Museum Panel

If you enjoyed my interview with the Architect’s Take on women in architecture, I’d like to invite you to the Brooklyn Museum this Friday. I’ll be on a panel discussing the role of women in the male-dominated field of architecture. 

For more information, check out the NYMag event listing.

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