design slinger
The Rape of Europa
That question was asked of hundreds of people during the Second World War and their
stories were told in the compelling documentary on PBS, The Rape of Europa. The movie was absolutely spellbinding and kept us glued to our seats - even if it was the living room sofa.
The film detailed the organized, systematic plunder of art under Hitler's Nazi machine, the
journey of 1/5 of all the artwork in Europe to Germany, and their recovery and loss. Here is an excerpt from the PBS synopsis of the film:
For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history.
THE RAPE OF EUROPA tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction
and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and World War II.
In a journey through seven countries, the film takes viewers into the violent whirlwind of
fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe.
Basilica, jonanamary via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Napoleon (someone Adolf Hitler admired by the way) performed his own systematic
plunder of art as his armies moved across Europe. The bronze horses, which stand above the entrance to St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, were one of the Little General's "acquisitions". Originally the sculptures came from the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and ironically ended up at St. Mark's after the Venetians stole them from the Byzantine empire in the 13th century. Napoleon took them to Paris where he installed them at the top of his Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. Unlike a lot of the art stolen by the Germans and never returned, when Napoleon fell from power, the horses were returned to Venice and replicas were placed at the top of the arch.
If you haven't seen The Rape of Europa, check your PBS listings online and see if an air
date is coming up. Or, contact your local library, or DVD outlet, and see if they have a copy. I guess you could just buy it - just make sure you see it.
500 Palladian Years
via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday was Andrea Palladio's 500th birthday. Well, I guess I should say it was the 500th
anniversary of Palladio's birth. If you've never heard of him, he was a 16th century Italian architect/builder. He is one of the most influential designers that ever built a building - anywhere. And he wrote one of the bibles of architecture, I Quattro libri dell'architecttura (Four Books on Architecture) which was published in 1570. It was an instant success; influencing designers, architects and builders from the time it was printed through the 17th and 18th centuries, right on to today.
Here's a great example. Take a look at the picture on the left, Palladio's Villa Cornaro,
and notice the similarities between the north portico of the White House and the upper portico of the Villa.
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Thomas Jefferson was such a fan of the Italian master, that the 3rd President of the United
States used Palladio's Villa Almerico (aka Villa Rotonda), as the inspiration for his home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
window, Posh Living via flickr /Artwork: desginslinger]
When Andrea Palladio built his first arch with rectangular side openings, he never could
have imagined that the shape would become an iconic window pattern. The center photo is a Palladio original, and the other photos are examples of the "Palladian window" that you see in buildings all over the world.
and Athenaeum, Newport Rhode Island, wallyg via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The image on the left is an illustration from Palladio's Four Books. The picture on the right
is a small library in Newport, Rhode Island which was constructed with a Palladian portico in 1748. I lived in Providence, RI. for a few months, and visited the Redwood Library and Athenaeum as a side trip on the way to tour the big mansions on Bellevue Avenue. I discovered that the front facade of the building is considered to be the first public structure built in the U.S. with a design inspired by Andrea Palladio. I was really surprised when I found the illustration and saw just how much architect Peter Harrison "borrowed" from the I Quattro etching.
We've picked just a microscopic sampling of the number of buildings whose architects
turned to Palladio for inspiration. So the next time you see that cluster of three windows, or a formal porch, the building may not be 450 years old, but the design may have come from the architect born 500 years ago.
Holiday Windows With A Dose of Nostalgia
I saw some pictures on the Gothamist page yesterday that gave me those warm fuzzy
feelings you get every once in a while around this time of the year. Lord & Taylor debuted their holiday windows, just as they have for over 80 years, at the start of the Christmas shopping season. The pictures brought back fond memories of strolling up Fifth Avenue on the Friday after Thanksgiving, joining thousands of other New Yorkers in an annual tradition.
Congress @ loc.gov; /Artwork: designslinger]
Strolling down Fifth to 34th Street, Macy's puts on a display that rivals the Lord & Taylor
windows. Like all the major big city department stores, the windows were originally static with no moving parts, but they captured children's attention with the same whimsy and imagination that we still see today. The time and labor put into the design and execution of these fantasy worlds is apparent the moment you step up to the large glass openings.
Library of Congress @ loc.gov; (Inset) Marshall Field & Co. sign on the State Street flagship store, meghannmarco.com
Artwork: designslinger]
I grew up in Chicago, so the highlight of every Christmas season was taking a trip
downtown to the Marshall Field department store on State Street. Back then, the holiday windows weren't revealed until right before Thanksgiving, just in time for the hoards of shoppers who descended on the store in the annual day-after shopping spree. Ironically, Macy's now owns Marshall Field & Co., and I read the other day in the Huffington Post that the new owners have really skimped on the Chicago store's holiday windows this year. It's really a shame; the Christmas window displays have been a store tradition since it's founding by Marshall Field and partners, in 1852.
As our world continues to change and reminders of our past continue to disappear, I hope
that budget cuts don't wipe out the few remaining Christmas fantasies set up annually in the windows of these grand old stores. They are a wonderful sight to behold, that children of all ages should have the opportunity to experience. They are also so much fun to design, mold, shape and create. I know, because once upon a time long, long ago, while I was studying architecture, I earned extra cash as a window dresser.
From Thonet To MUJI
It Thinks Its People via flickr; MUJI/Thonet Chair, muji.net /Artwork: designslinger]
I'm sure these chairs look familiar to you. They've been in restaurants, cafés, and even
around residential dining room tables for generations. They are the Thonet chair No.18 which appeared on the market in 1876, and the No.14 manufactured in 1859. The No.14 is the inspiration for a chair created by the Japanese design powerhouse MUJI, for the Thonet organization, that will hit the retail market in February of 2009. (The MUJI model is the chair on the far right) The classic Thonet bentwood chair is a marvel of engineering and design, comprised of only 6 components held together by a few screws and nuts. The 150 year old chair is still manufactured by the Gebruder Thonet company, in what could be considered the most successful chair line ever created.
(Inset) Mies van der Rohe, steel tube chair, timus.jp; Marcel Breuer, steel tube chair, timus.jp /Artwork: designslinger]
MUJI will also sell a version of another classic, the Bauhaus steel tube chair of the late
1920s. The Bauhaus school was at the forefront of a modern design aesthetic that didn't separate one discipline from another. Walter Gropius and his team of architects, painters, photographers, sculptors, graphic and industrial designers, believed that all the arts were inter-related and were not mutually exclusive functioning in a vacuum. The steel tube chair was one component of their furniture program that was embraced by several of the architects associated with the school. A few of the more famous are pictured above by Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, which gave MUJI the inspiration for their 2008 Steel Pipe Chair.
They say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Central Park Comes to Hollywood
With much fanfare, a plan has been formally unveiled that would cover a portion of the
101 Freeway in LA with parkland. The 92-page report outlines a proposal for a one mile stretch of the freeway to be covered with a lid of green as it winds through the Hollywood area. Formally titled the "Hollywood Freeway Central Park," the project would cost $950 million, with construction set to begin in 2012. The design would provide 44 acres of green space in one of the city's most park deprived neighborhoods. It would also put a lid on the visual blight created by the below grade freeway. Of course motorists traversing through the one mile tunnel may have issues with the plan, but advocates say they've taken those concerns into consideration by raising the ceiling to 17 feet and providing bright lights, filtered air and closed-circuit TV surveillance. I guess it would be no different than traveling into Manhattan through the Midtown or Holland Tunnels.
Completed section of "Big Dig" park, HelveticaFanatic via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
A lot of the press coverage mentioned other tunnel/highway/greenbelt projects, including
Boston's infamous Big Dig. Completed in 2003, it was a gigantic undertaking removing an incredibly ugly, elevated highway superstructure that ripped downtown Boston into two parts. (If you're from San Francisco, you may remember when the Embarcadero had that hideous monstrosity of a highway running in front of the Ferry Building not to long ago). Once Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy got the federal government to cough-up the funding, the unsightly steel decking was demolished and the Interstate was put below ground. Then a greenbelt was created that united downtown Boston with it's historic waterfront and Old North End neighborhood. If you had ever visited the city prior to the Central Artery's demise, you had to walk under the rusting, elevated steel structure that supported a stream of traffic roaring overhead, on your way to the harbor or Paul Revere's house in the North End. Although the Hollywood Freeway is already below grade, the concept is very similar.
in the park created above NY Central track line, streetblogs.org; Park Avenue today, David Reeves via flickr /Artwork:
designslinger]
When the old Grand Central Station building needed replacing in the early 1900s, part of
the overall plan called for creating a park that would cover the New York Central's track bed which ran down the middle of Park Avenue. The enterprise transformed a multi-block residential community into one of the most sought after addresses in New York. When the park portion of Park Avenue was completed, New Yorkers could stroll up the Avenue on a meandering path and relax on benches along the way. A single lane was set aside for auto traffic which eventually grew to multiple lanes, and the park portion of the avenue has shrunk to the size you see today.
It's hard to imagine that the Hollywood Central Park will find funding in this day and age,
but with the incoming president's announcement on Saturday of a major public works program, LA may get it's freeway-topped park after all.
Ch-ch-ch -changes in China
via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
I read an amazing article this week in Business Week by Dexter Roberts, about China and
the gigantic population shift that will occur in the next few decades. It's not the first time I've heard, or read about people leaving the Chinese countryside for the city. I'd just never seen so many figures compiled in one article and found the numbers incredible. It means construction will continue to boom, especially since the government is implementing a $586 billion stimulus program.
Beijing, kevindooley via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The Chinese are moving in droves to established urban areas, as well as new communities
that look like suburban Orange County, California. In the next decade or so, 350 million rural residents will leave rural areas to live in cities; that's the entire population of the United States. By 2025, according to the article, 220 Chinese cities will likely have populations of more than 1 million people, which means today's urban population of 600 million will grow to 1 billion. It is the largest urbanization of a country, culture or society in human history. The consequences could be dire.
The amount of construction required to house all these people, and supply the basic
infrastructure needed to support all these new residences, is mind boggling. The challenge will be in how the government decides to deal with the issue. They can call on architects, engineers and city planners to produce one of the most modern and sustainable living environments in history. Or, government officials will do what politicians have done for years and go for the cheap, quick and easy (like the monolithic public housing projects constructed in the U.S. and Europe in the 60s and 70s) and deal with the consequences later. Whichever path they choose, the face of China is going to change and it will be fascinating to watch.
Celebrating the Crapper
public toilet, 2005, Rivard via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday was World Toilet Day, and in recognition of the individuals who took the time
to design and engineer human waste removal contraptions, we thought we'd take a quick look at some of the designs created throughout history.
Most people assume that the Romans were the first great toilet designers but there is
evidence that the Minoans may have created the first flush toilet on Crete around 1700 B.C. Roman latrines have survived the ravages of time and indicate that the average citizen had no problem sharing their daily constitutional with their neighbors. The center photo in the panel is of the King's Privy in Finland's 15th century Turku Castle. It looks like the King desired a little privacy and the castle architects provided him with a corner closet. The Chinese are moving quickly into the 21st century, but the outdoor public toilet, designed for very utilitarian and practical use, is still in operation as seen in the far right photo.
of the Plumbing and Sanitary Department of J.L. Mott Iron Works, NYPL Digital Gallery; (Insert) Krapp toilet paper rolls, christophe mallet via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The beginning of modern toilet design starts with Sir John Harington who created a device
for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth sat on a "throne" with a valve at the bottom of the water tank that included a wash-down system. By the mid-1800s, the British were at the forefront of toilet design. At London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1852, J.G. Jennings exhibited a flush toilet to the general public and 827,000 people paid a penny to use it. And, in 1857 Joseph Cayetti invented toilet paper. In 1862, Thomas Crapper began his plumbing business, and along with a few other enterprising Victorians, produced flush toilets by the thousands. G.I's returning to the U.S. from fighting in WWI, brought the "Crapper" euphemism back to our shores after seeing Crapper's name stamped in the bottom of the porcelain bowls.
the Universal Toilet, ethendesign via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The look of the toilet has become pretty standard in this day and age, though companies
like Kohler are pushing the envelope a bit, as you can see in the center photo. The folks at the Universal Toilet project have come up with a design that can be used by people with disabilities as well as the general population. Ecologically sensitive toilets are at the forefront of lavatory design, and NASA has come up with a system that distills, filters, ionizes and oxidizes waste water - including urine - into fresh drinking water. If scientists figure out a new way to get rid of the solid waste we produce, we may be saying bye-bye to the "crapper" as we know it.
U.S. Embassy Moves to the Other Side of the Tracks
Grosvenor Square, Matthew Armstrong via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Location, location, location, the real estate mantra. The U.S. State Department has
announced that they intend to relocate the Embassy from London's Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, across the Thames to a former industrial site in the Battersea/Vauxhall area. Apparently, the primary reason for the move has to do with security issues.
architecture in Mayfair, Kate Pugh via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The United States has maintained a presence in the Square since the days of John Adams,
who served as our first Ambassador to Great Britain. That's a 200-year legacy. The current Embassy building, opened in 1960, was designed by architect Eero Saarinen in a community with some of the best examples Georgian-style architecture anywhere in the world. In one of those wacky London real estate deals, the building sits on land owned by the Duke of Westminster, which has been under the Grosvenor family's control since 1677. There are more than 930 years left on the Embassy's original 999 year lease agreement, so apparently the Westminster family plans on holding on to the property for a while. Even though the area isn't a good fit for the State Department any longer, time hasn't diminished the social cache of Mayfair which is still considered one of London's poshest neighborhoods. Developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, as an upscale, aristocratic residential community, the area is also home to an exclusive shopping and luxury hotel district, and has the highest residential and commercial rental rates in the city.
Battersea Power Station, Gaetan Lee via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
When the folks in the State Department decided that Mayfair wasn't their cup of tea any
longer, the site they chose for the new Embassy came as quite a surprise. Not only were they leaving Grosvenor Square, but they were leaving the upscale north London area altogether and jumping to the south bank of the Thames. It would be like moving from New York's Upper East Side to the Lower East Side, kind of trendy but still rough around the edges. The intended site is located in the New Elms neighborhood, between the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as "MI6", and the abandoned Battersea Power Station. The 1939 Station is an iconic Art Deco landmark and the MI6 building was built in the late 1980s in some sort of Deco-inspired design. The location is all the more surprising because it has been home to a host of gay clubs for at least a decade. And, as central London has become astronomically expensive, upwardly mobile straight couples have been moving into the area.
So, in the grand old tradition of urban pioneering that has been going on in cities for
generations: first the gays, then the yuppies, and in a new twist, the U.S. State Department.
The Economy Sucks the Life Out of Building
As I was going through our RSS feeds, I saw a pattern emerging as I was scanning headlines.
No money -no building. Or even worse, buildings under construction that were stopped cold in their tracks. In Chicago, architecture critic Blair Kamen has been following the non-progress of several projects. He reports that construction on 111 W. Wacker has stalled at the 26th floor of a proposed 82-story building, and may stay stuck there for a while. The new Trump Tower and Hotel, on the city's river, is still waiting for it's spire to be hoisted into position at the top of the building. The ceremony has been planned and postponed several times. la curbed had a post the other day with the question, "Pondering Preservation: How Will the Economic Downturn Affect Preservation?" Even in Dubai the government has announced that they may have to cut back on some of their building programs until the world economy settles down a bit. Architecture, real estate development, and historic preservation may be in for a rough few years.
ca. 1861, aoc.gov; Capitol Building 2008, Ken Lund via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
It isn't just world-wide, hard economic times that can wreak havoc with your building
venture. War, or even fund raising issues, can spell trouble for a project underway. When Abraham Lincoln was sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in 1861, the dome was unfinished and likely to remain that way for years to come. Construction was halted as relations had grown worse among the House and Senate members representing their northern and southern constituencies. As Lincoln took office the capitol dome project was doomed to failure as the country readied itself for civil war. Lincoln had other ideas and saw the dome as a great marketing tool. If he could keep the construction ongoing during the civil strife, it would send a powerful signal to the entire nation that the federal government of the United States was still in working order. Using the power of the presidency, and his powers of persuasion, he was able get construction on the dome back into operation a little over a year after taking office. The project was completed in 1863, a little behind schedule with a bit of an interruption, but fulfilling Lincoln's mandate to get the job done.
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The Washington Monument didn't have a Lincoln to keep it on track. On July 4, 1848 the
cornerstone was laid for the Monument and it wasn't completed until 1884. Did it really take 36 years to build the marble obelisk? Well, yes and no. It wasn't that complicated to erect, it had financial difficulties and got caught up in a war. Things went smoothly until 1854 when the collection box emptied. The monument was primarily funded through the generosity of the citizenry and the solicitation of subscriptions. The growing anxiety over the potential for war between the States didn't help matters any, and construction was halted at the 150 foot mark of what was to have been a 555 foot tower. And so it sat until 1876, that fine centennial year, when the Federal government finally stepped in and funded the construction. Opened to the public in 1888, it's hard to believe that one of our most recognized national monuments came so close to never being finished.
Hundreds of building projects will probably pile up, collecting dust on drawing boards around
the world in the next few years. The manifestation of the current economic crunch will be evident in abandoned building sites in cities and suburbs around the country. The visual evidence of half-finished columns, rusting steel, rotting wood, are the architectural reminders of the hard times we have seen throughout our history.