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Louis Kahn to Taj Mahal
Last week I discussed Louis Kahn’s sophisticated manipulation of light in the Kimbell Art Museum in Dallas/Fortworth, Texas. That reminded me of how Mughal architects were conscious of the setting of their buildings and controlled the way the buildings would be viewed. Mughal rulers of India (1526-1857), descendants of Mongol and Turkish nomads grew into great patrons of art and especially architecture. They loved to build…
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Sorta Secret Subway
Growing up in the vicinity of Washington, DC was much like living in New York, you tend to take certain things for granted: I have still never been to see the White House or the Statue of Liberty. However, my extreme dislike of waiting in line does not mean that I am immune to…
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The Kimbell Art Museum celeberates 40 year anniversary
I was in Dallas over the Christmas vacation and visited Kimbell Art Museum. Louis Kahn’s building just celebrated its 40th anniversary and is in the process of constructing an extension designed by Renzo Piano. The new addition is under construction and we would not know how it will measure up to Louis Kahn’s master piece. I had been to…
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The Ethics of Visualization
Columbia University Libraries held this event recently, and while I missed the event, I was really happy they posted the video of it. Planners can often be creators of visualizations, but the ethics of visualizations is something not often discussed formally or academically, so I found this pretty interesting. Chris Alen Sula who presents…
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Happy New Year!
In celebration of nascent 2013, below are some photographs of Times Square (or Longacre Square as it was known before 1904), from New York Public Library and the New York Historical Society, two organizations with some lovely photographic collections. Note that in these early images one can actually see the Times building! [Note that…
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Nativity Scenes: from the largest to the smallest.
The first Nativity scene is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi in 1223. He hired Giovanni Vellita to build a manger scene out of straw in a cave in Greccio, Italy. In the seventeenth century, the baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini created an elaborate nativity scene for the Barberini family of Pope Urban VIII. By the beginning of the eighteenth…
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Happy Holidays!
Since Buckyballs are no longer for sale, and in keeping with the festive consumerism that annually wraps our country into a frenzy, here are a couple of [last-minute] gift ideas for the urban enthusiast who enjoys games (in no particular order)… Urban Sprawl: Our own Alex recommends this one. It is a city building…
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Oscar Niemeyer
On December 5, 2012, the pre-eminent Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer died at the age of 104. He was the creator of some of the most iconic architectural buildings and monuments built in the 20th century and was one of the last masters of this craft practiced by the likes of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. His…
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Planning Dogmata: Affordable Housing
It occurred to me recently that “affordable housing” qualifies as dogma, since I have yet to meet a planner who does not accept it unquestioningly. I am assuming this has a lot to do with how well we are paid, and possibly living conditions in grad school when we are being indoctrinated. This came…
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