Paul and Leela visit Harlem

Harlem. Who wouldn't want to dress like this ? We walked down 125th St. and looped back to Grant's Tomb. The benches around that area were funtastical. We then hopped over to Riverside church and got caught up in the stained glass. We took a ride up to the 20th floor of the tower only to be kicked out by a security guard as Paul was trying to open a window so I could get a better photo. We didn't know it was a nesting perch for a redtail hawk.

Swung by Columbia University before grabbing a pastry at Silver Moon Bakery. I'm in love with their chocolate croissants. L&P are great walkers so we headed downtown via Central Park past the reservoir and Tavern on the Green. Sad that Tavern it will soon be closing.

Battery Park City

There's this guy who sets up Green Tours in lower Manhattan. I got a group of folks together so we could take a look at the green, sustainable building happening down near Battery Park.

We started from Bowling Green and walked towards the Hudson. Post 9/11, there was a lot of destruction and need for rebuilding. This gave a few the opportunity to require by city code that new

construction meet greener design standards. There aren't many out there except 'voluntary' programs like the LEED standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. It's a good start but I don't feel it truly reflects the life-cycle of building, from construction to deconstruction. LEED does set some good low-bar goals for building with energy efficiency in mind.

So off we went. Our tour guide digressed considerably off the topic of green building and into the sadder history of 9/11 and, strangely, his daughter's housing luck in the area.

Ah well, guess it adds to the character of the tour. We stopped to look at the Visionaire and a few other 'green' buildings under construction. There is a lot of construction going on in that section of Battery Park and most of it looks residential. There is the WTC 7 building which I've been in since the NYAS is located there - it's a cool building. Goldman Sachs is also completing a building, too, again out of glass. Damn, there is a lot of glass. Our main stop was at Riverhouse.

Riverhouse is one of many sleek and cool residential towers in the Battery Park area. There are lots of things to like about Riverhouse like the really smart window designs, heat pumps, use of vertical space, and green roof use. I really enjoyed checking out the solar arrays on the roof; they pivot! But LEED, as I mentioned, has some whacky criteria that leans buildings to materials like low VOC paints and carpets (good) and bamboo (not so good when imported from overseas). I'd prefer to have more points give to local that FSC overseas products which add air pollution via long-haul transportation, etc. and this goes unaccounted for in LEED. Sometimes only the large, corporate conglomerates can get those fancy labels like FSC or organic when it really is worse for the environment than using a little local mom-and-pop provider in the 100 mile radius area.

Everything in Riverhouse, and no doubt the other residential buildings in Battery Park, have all the glitz and regality of upper-class living. Marble, large panoramic-view windows, high-tech kitchens. Sadly all the buildings sort of look alike. I felt trapped in a glass and red brick model city - even the picture above looks like and architect's model rendering and it is the real thing! While I commend the planners for giving up some of the ground retail space to non-profits and community use like the library and a bakery, you know it's a new level of rich when interior canyon parks have their own mirrors installed to bring in sunlight for the hipster families and their kids!

Glad to get the tour but sad to see it still seems to be residential focused and only for the ultra-wealthy upper-six-figures sort of folks. One day I'm hoping the masses will get green, healthy buildings.

Art Deco Cruising

This is Architecture?
Lowe goes overboard

In this second lecture on the art deco architectural movement, Lowe proselytized on the wonderful years of luxury travel. Nostalgically, I can understand this viewpoint. But the early 1930s were a tough time for Americans given the stock crash and resulting depression. Yet the wealthy continued to enjoy a leisurely lifestyle, regal in execution. And I guess art and architecture benefited even if the majority of the world never saw such splendor. And I guess that is why I was rather disappointed in this lecture. Unlike buildings, the art deco of cruise liners was not evident via exterior views. And interior design is often lost to time and, more importantly, not appreciated by the public or even the masses. So Lowe went on and on about the fabulous art and interiors of the ships but pictures are scare and it is hard for me to relate to the significance of this work. Gone are the elements of this movement - not even a remnant remains in the current cruise industry. Perhaps this is why I would never want to buy a ticket on a typical cruise ship, but more likely it has to do with my public health concerns being trapped on such floating incubators. I signed up for this lecture hoping for discussions on such great New York art deco buildings like the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center. Instead I was stuck in Lowe's boat to nowhere.

Green-Wood Cemetery by Flashlight

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Full Moon Frolic
... and ghosts?

Perfect fall weather and a full moon converged to bring over 150 people to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for a tour of the nearby grounds and the catacombs. I joined a few friends from work and many, many, many other folks to enjoy the grounds, the graves, and the celebration that I'm not six feet under. Isabella Stewart is entombed in a nice vault complete with Saint-Gaudens' sculptures. There is a plethora of symbolic stones - draped urns, shells, anchors, and many, many obelisks. Cemetery Historian Jeff Richman runs the show. He carried a microphone and a gal with a speaker followed him about with a speaker. Given the HUGE crowd, it was still a challenge to keep up and hear what he was saying. Lots of famous folks are buried at Green-Wood such as Leonard Berstein, F.A.O. Schwartz, Steinway, and Tiffany. I love the Gothic revival architecture throughout the grounds, specifically at the main gate and The Chapel which now serves as a theater and rental hall. You can even arrange to have your wedding ceremony on the grounds! How cool is that! So here are a few pictures I took ....

Texas Twang

You Can Go Home

I was in San Antonio for the weekend of October 21. My younger sister, her husband and their two young children were also going to be in town so I figured it would be like a mini family reunion. There are many things I don't miss about Texas - mosquitos, rednecks, trailer-trash, and the humidity in the summer. But I really miss tons of things, even the strange things like flash flooding, duallies, and cidadas. Then there are the fun things like Fiesta, NIOSA, birthday parties in the park with piñatas, cascarones, and Dios de Los Muertos. I got my Tex-Mex food fix passified with trips to Panchitos for breakfast soft tacos and Adelante's for puffy tacos. My family always makes eatting out a priority. Brunch at The Guenther turned a bit nasty when I irked my sister so badly she snapped at me. I was getting surly with my mom because she was getting frustrated with the wait. I just don't handle waiting well. The sticky sweet rolls are great there.

The funniest place we went was the Bass Pro Shop which had just opened. Picture a bunch of DubbaYa suporters in their cowboy boots, baseball caps, and denim-dressed wives dragging mini-me kids into the strange but engaging mix of taxidermied animals and country-boy stuff for sale. They had everything imaginable that a Billy Bob or Ida Mae could ever dream of. The kids were eager to climb aboard the HUGE selection of boats, ATVs, and every other testosterone-filled big boy toy imaginable. Passing through Tammy Bahama shirts and fishing rods, we found our ways to the elevator that goes up behind the waterfall. Javelinas, diamondbacks, armadillos, bald eagles, and every creature that might have been on Noah's Arc was creepily stuffed and put on display to sell guns, bows, and gear used to take out any relatives they may have left alive in nature. The one glaring pose I had a probelm with was the pride of over five lions. The male lion had taken down the zebra, its throat clenched in his jaws. Excuse me! Wild Kingdom taught me one important thing about lionesses - they do the majority of the kills! Taxidermy chauvenism? First for me.

Well, I really enjoyed Brackenridge Park, the little train, and the Japanese Sunken Gardens despite the later's neglected state. It was fun to drive over the waterfall bridge just like when I was a kid. Went to El Mercado to pick up some glass light fixtures for my new home. All the alters and Dios de Los Muertos stuff was out like the sugar skulls. More great meals. My favorite meal was at The Lodge in Castle Hills. It is in a beautiful old home that reminds me so much of San Antonio with its limestone walls surrounded by Spanish oak trees.

I also enjoyed seeing the rennovations friends were making to their O'Neil Ford home near the Trinity campus. The lines and windows of the place are gorgeous. A&K are doing a fantastic job keeping the clean and modern look of the home with very stylish, modern updates that make it look fabulous and glamorous. I think their work should be in Architecture Digest once complete. They have a great sense of balance and aesthetic design. The pool and stairwell are my favorites. The pool is designed to pattern the horizontal lines of the home with a centered uplifted square for a heated jacuzzi that flows water over and into the main pool. The lifted square has iridescent blue small tiles that reminded me of paua shell from New Zealand. It nicely added color to the sandstone texture surrounding it. I can't wait to see the finished home.

Beaux Art Complete

Beaux Arts delicious

In the third and last lecture on Beaux Arts by David Garrard Lowe at the Metropolitan, he unleashed his acrid criticism of Moorish interiors and the Nut family home while lavishing compliments on the lushish beauty of Beaux Arts. Lowe shifts his focus from the architects and the patrons that funded them and squarely showcased the buildings themselves. He leashed his sardonic wit on cities like Chicago noting it only became important with the important buildings added for the World's Fair in 1893. He bounced to Washington, D.C., praising planners for saving the mall space from intrusion by a rail station. He bounced around to other cities as well and it is notable that most every state capitol owes its existence to the Beaux Arts movement. But he soon returned to the beloved epicenter of the movement, New York. We got the whirlwind tour of some of our city's best landmarks - Grand Central Terminal, The Public Library, The New York Yacht Club, The Flatiron Building, The Met Life Building, and The Plaza Hotel on Central Park South. Some architectural tight-butts might dispute classifying all these building as Beaux Arts but I didn't mind listening to stories about all the grand buildings that surround me as I walk the streets of Manhattan. Lowe lamented the transition of many places switching to condominiums (Flatiron, Met Life, Plaza) but in my opinion, this at least saves them from being razed for some Trump Project XXVII. And reflecting back on the lecture, how different is "going condo" to wealthy patrons building and residing in hotels? They did so to shed the European class system of having an estate with servants in favor of having their cleaning done by hotel maids. A few commercial buildings will now be residential but I personally would love, love, love to live in on of the northern triangle apartments in the Flatiron overlooking Madison Square Park if I could afford it. I could walk to work and enjoy custard at the Shake Shack most every day. Lowe lobbied to keep The Oak Room and other historic public spaces saved which I find admirable. What I find more distressing is when glorious public spaces like Penn Station are torn down in favor of soulless buildings that such the life out of travelers. Overall I think Lowe is a bit overly nostalgic and credits the Beaux Arts architects with too much altruism when professing their dedication for designing public spaces like The Public Library. Most likely their dedication was in building things, any things, and wealthy patrons love building BIG as do governments. Personally I love the smaller buildings not mentioned in the lecture, like the Engine House No. 33 which I tripped across with a friend as we wandered the streets in the Lower Eastside.

Beaux goes White

Beaux Arts and Stanford White

Back to the Metropolitan tonight to get another glimpse into the Beaux Arts movement and my potential future when I'm 80. Will I be a grey-haired old spinster waxing on nostalgically over days long-gone? This is what the audience seemed to be portraying. Unfortunately one such lady went into a coughing fit worth of a Monty Python skit, phlegm and snot noises completely drowning out the lecture for several minutes. Ick!

After leaving Hunt and the posh palaces he built for Alva Vanberbilt and others, David Garrard Lowe shifts his attention to the man who gave him his greatest writing glory, Stanford White. Both Hunt and White would change forever the look and style of New York City, Buffalo, Newport, and many other Northeastern cities. The late 1800's architecture was very English and some would say dull, with rows of brownstones and too much intrusion of nature. Hunt and others wished to suppress the disorderly influence of trees, mud, and hills and use architecture to bring order to the wilds of Manhattan. Hunt was no fan of the Central Park and Olmestead. Hunt, White, and others in the Beax Arts movement strove to change the muddy browns and neutrals into whites, yellows, and pinks. They imported styles from the Grand Canal in Venice, Versailles, the Arc de Triumph, and many other influences from Europe.

Unlike Hunt, who studied at the Ecole in Paris, White came from a poor family who could not afford to send him to college or Europe. Not sure if this is the cause of his enormous mustache. He used pictures of great buildings to inspire his designs. He was a skilled draughtsman and this made him invaluable and successful. At 19, he was running the Boston office of Gambrill and Richardson, his most famous work being the Trinity Church in Copley Square.

During my days living in Boston, I loved walking the streets around Beacon Hill, through Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, onto Commonwealth Ave. or Newbury and ending up in Copley Square. I enjoy McKim's Public Library, Trinity Church, and the old feel of Boston but I'm probably in the minority for loving I.M. Pei's Hancock building. I love how the windows reflect the old (Trinity) into the new with a blend of the sky and surroundings. It is a lovely reflection of the inclusiveness of our ideal Boston where all live in stylish harmony. Unfortunately wealth has always been very powerful in Boston, and elsewhere, but in the early 1800s this power and wealth was prominently displayed by churches and individuals most rigorously in architecture. I enjoy looking at it but enjoy the new just as much, for its attempt to bring in a bit of the commoner into the planning and appreciation of lines. While I've lived in many cities where it is clear, through architecture, who the haves and have-nots are, I would claim that Boston still clings to segregation the strongest, both along economic lines and racial/religious lines. New York is a close second but mass transit and the huge population requires NYCers to mingle much more than Bostonians. Does architecture influence this segregation? Possibly.

Back to the lecture - White soon found himself starting the eminent New York architectural firm of Mckim, Mead, & White. Fame, money, and success followed. He loved designing public spaces, homes, clubs, and even furniture, jewelry, and picture frames. One story involves him grabbing a female friend's handbag, taking it home, and returning it to her a few weeks later - he just couldn't stand to look at ugly design. The lecture rightfully focused on the buildings and style White brought to life - the Metropolitan Club, the Washington Square Arch, and the glorious Madison Square Garden (2890 - 1925) where White was murdered while watching a show performed on the rooftop garden. Saint-Gaudens' sculpture of the huntress, Diana, a weather vane placed high atop the Madison Square Gardens, was scandalous for the time. It was a public, outdoor piece showing her nude! How do we shield the children from this? White was very prolific, producing some of the more memorable buildings of the turn of the century. He had no hesitation using very expensive materials - marble from Italy, onyx from Mexico, gold leaf, and sculpted pieces from Saint-Gaudens. One of his more gilded home designs was Rosecliff in Newport, Rhode Island; the massive and luxurious ballroom was used in the film The Great Gatsby. A fun part of Lowe's talk were little notes here and there about how he tried to get into some of the buildings associated with White - impersonating a gas inspector with a French friend in Paris (White did go to Paris later in his career), getting shut out of a building in New York (the business owners are none too happy at his repeat attempts to enter).

What was also interesting was what Lowe ignored, whcih I would have highlighted given my love of movies. White was a notorious lady's man, as fictionalized in the film The Girl On The Red Velvet Swing. Norman Mailer played Stanford White in Ragtime. He had numerous affairs the most famous with Evelyn Nesbit, the "Eternal Question". Lowe defended White's reputation claiming that he was not estranged from his wife, even though he lived in the City and she out on a large estate on Long Island. Lowe briefly closed the lecture ending with a synopsis of the Murder of the Century. Harry K. Thaw walked up to Stanford White during a song in the show Mamzelle Champagne playing at Madison Garden; shot him tree times in the head. End of lecture.

Huh? I was left wondering motive? Who was this Thaw character? It seemed Lowe either didn't care to go into the murderer's details too much or he assumed we all know the story. I had to look up on the internet that Thaw was Evelyn Nesbit's husband. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, the first use of this plea in U.S. courts. He seems to have been a spoiled, rich mamma's boy with some rather violent and masochistic tendencies. Lowe obviously admires and reveres Stanford White; he limited discussion about his personal life and focused on his architecture and style.

Personally, I find the overly ornate decorative style of White, Hunt, and Beaux Arts too excessive and opulent. I'd never want to live with a staircase that seems to be from the set of Dynasty. I'd be too tempted to slap someone down it. And I just can't imagine sitting in one of White's living rooms, enjoying a pint of Häagen-Dazs watching TV. Comfy couches and stylish fabrics can make a home look great and inviting - not like some museum floor where you're scared to sit down on the chairs. I have one more lecture on Beaux Arts. Perhaps I'll change my mind. For right now, however, I think the mansions and interiors look great for movie sets and special events. For living, I'll take my little studio apartment over lavish marble fireplaces and ballrooms. Then again, if I had a car, at least I'd have some place to park it.

New Beaux

Beaux Arts at the Metropolitan

Tonight I skipped the New York Film Festival and attended my first lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I've always wanted to learn more about architecture with a particular interest in the styles that influenced the building of New York. Tonight's lecture focused on Richard Morris Hunt and the Beaux Arts movement. David Garrard Lowe was the speaker and he has a wonderful way of intertwining history, humor, and quotable people of the day into his very accessible talk. Mark Twain quotes, humorous antidotes about the Vandelbilts and Astors, along with archival photos kept the audience engaged and entertained. He even challenged the crowd to meet up with him after the lecture at the obelisque behind the Met to jointly lift the monolithic structure to the front of the museum to give it proper placement like the more prominent version in Paris on the Palace de la Concorde. If ornate, showy architecture was what you wanted, Hunt was your guy. In fact, Mark Twain used Hunt's interior decorating style to coin this time as The Gilded Age. Soon it became a battle of the wealthy elite to build bigger and more ornate homes, first in New York and then in Newport. Personally I find this style garish and rather wasteful, but I sure did enjoy Lowe's commentary. Luckily not many people could afford such style but I'm sure it if it hadn't been for Hunt, I wouldn't have to suffer through Trump's style.

Hunt in a Singer Seargent painting