Ugly Buildings?

October is Architecture Month, and we’re putting a panel discussion for it on ugly architecture. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, but it’s widely thought that Béton brut, or brutalist architecture is one of the less attractive styles. There’s a building here in Baltimore of that style, which the Baltimore Architecture Foundation has nominated for listing on the Endangered Buildings list in Maryland. Part of the discussion will be centered around whether it’s fair game to dislike a building just because it’s ugly!

Right as I was working on putting the panel and other details together, I noticed an article in the Guardian about the building that they touted as Architecture’s Epic Fails!

2 Columbus Center in NYC. Um… where are the windows?

Tour Montparnasse in Paris. It just looms above everything, looking dark and foreboding.

The FBI Building in Washington, DC. For a city with so many gorgeous monuments, it’s got a lot of hideous 1970’s buildings.

Boston Government Service Center. Designed by Paul Rudolph, the Dean of the YALE School of Architecture. Maybe he hated Harvard!

EMP Museum in Seattle. Two huge egos involved in this: Frank Gehry and Microsoft zillionaire Paul Allen. Neither one’s best work.

Portland Building, Portland Oregon. Michael Graves’ 1980’s building with many structural flaws. Now scheduled to be torn down.

Another Paul Rudolph design: The Orange County (NY) Municipal Building, complete with leaks and black mould. Looks a bit tippy, too!

Is there a building where you live that you’d like to nominate? If so, put the link in a comment and I will add pictures tomorrow!

JBKO@85

When I was a child, I thought that the Carolinas were named after Caroline Kennedy and I was jealous. But it was really her mother who I always kept my eye on. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was always a serene figure in the background of images of Caroline, and it wasn’t until later that I became interested in her. I started collecting books about her, mostly from my beloved Book Thing.

JBKO was from an era when your actions spoke louder than your words. When you went out, you looked like a lady with a hat and gloves, regardless… That you took great pride in being a mother, and then being a friend to your children. Her clothes have a timeless quality, and with small tweaks, much of what she wore would be perfectly appropriate today.

I thought I’d share some of my favourite books with you and I will add links, in case you’re interested in acquiring them for your own library.

The John F. Kennedys: A Family Album by Mark Shaw. I have the original 1964 version (bottom) and a re-issued 2000 version.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy by Mary van Rensselaer Thayer

What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

Mrs. Kennedy Goes Abroadby Jacqueline Duhême

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life by Donald Spoto

A Woman Named Jackie: An Intimate Biography of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis

All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy

Remembering Jackie: A Life in Pictures

Jacqueline Kennedy : The White House Years: Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum by Hamish Bowles. This is one of the best books on JBKO’s fashion and style when she was in the White House.

Jackie

Kennedy Weddings: A Family Album

I have even more, and I am lucky that I find them with relative frequency at the Book Thing. While there’s probably not a lot of new information about JBKO, there are always new images.

Happy Birthday to JBKO!

I’ll Take This: Church with London Views!

I don’t read the sports pages, I read the real estate pages, especially the ones in some of the UK papers. When I was browsing recently, I found this amazing place for rent in south-east London. Before I show you, a little aside: I was looking for a flat in London, and came across a sweet one, but it was small, and since I didn’t have any furniture (yet), that didn’t matter. I checked the price and saw that it was about £600. What a deal! Until I read a little closer and realized that was the price per week, and not per month! It was quite a shock and soon I realized that the rents in London were just too much if I wanted to live close in to where I was working.

But I digress… This place is on the market for a bit over £960 a month, or £4,110 per calendar month. But I’d say it was worth it, because this is the view from the terrace!

And this is what you’re renting!

It’s a four-bedroom house in an old church in the Crystal Palace section of south-east London. As the listing says:

This church tower comprises four good sized bedrooms, two large reception rooms, a cellar and a plant room along with a fully functioning clock. The tower further benefits from a lift, off street parking an a beautiful roof terrace with breathtaking views over London and some major landmarks.

The church was originally built in the 1860’s and converted to a family home in the late 1990’s. The building still retains many of its original features,

including its clock, clock mechanism and clock tower!

And there’s an amazing terrace at the top of the clock tower!

It is accessed by a winding staircase,

but before you reach the top, the church’s tower is there for you to enjoy with the light streaming in from all four sides.

All in all, a very well-done conversion!

It’s available for short- or long-term lease, and with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a weekly price of about $1600, you could divide that between a group and have a pretty reasonable price and an incredible place for a week’s holiday in London. More of the listing here.

#ThisIsBaltimore: July Edition

In early June, I posted a series of images which I have hash-tagged #ThisIsBaltimore. As you know, one raison d’etre of  this blog is to present the side of Baltimore that’s generally not seen by those who do not live here. Here’s a funny piece on Yahoo on what NOT to say to someone from Baltimore. Here.

The always amazing and fascinating American Visionary Art Museum.

The secret Buddha, a project of a student at Maryland Institute College of Art.

A flag-holder at the University of Baltimore.

Secret art installation for Artscape 2014, the largest free art festival in the USA.

The Homeland Lakes, a series of urban lakes.

The Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens in Druid Hill.

An unusual roof-line and great windows – don’t they look like an artist’s garret?

The Patterson Park Pagoda

An art installation made with old cast iron columns and stained glass.

And what would Baltimore be without some of our local blue crabs?

I’d like to continue this series once a month. It’s important to me to show people the city that I love and where my family has lived for more than 12 generations.