Book Series of the Moment

I just discovered Continuum's Thirty-Three and a Third Series "of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the past 40 years." Sounds like a GREAT idea. Not only does it have my favorite album of all time, but a whole slew of other favorites:

:: Clash's London Calling
:: DJ Shadow's Endtroducing
:: Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland
:: Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures
:: Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV
:: R.E.M.'s Murmur
:: Radiohead's OK Computer
:: Ramones' Ramones
:: Replacements' Let It Be
:: Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street
:: Smiths' Meat is Murder
:: Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico
:: Neil Young's Harvest

Homes Endangered

As part of Christopher Hawthorne's story in the LA Times on the architecture of New Orleans and the possibility of rebuilding, the following helpful graphic is provided, among many other images. For those unfamiliar with New Orleans, like me, it's a valuable illustration mainly of the various housing types -- the buildings most affected by Katrina -- in different parts of the city. Click for the original PDF file, a more legible and printable document that also illustrates the effects of water on a house's construction.

Update: Check out this amazing image gallery of somebody (Alvaro?) who stayed in New Orleans during the storm and took nearly 200 before and after photos. (via Metroblogging)

Benz Blob Pics

Europaconcorsi has a slew of construction pics of UN Studio's Mercedes Benz Museum, rising in Stuttgart, Germany. Check it out.

Half Dose #14: homecouture

A lot of marketing today strives to create a clear image for a company across a variety of scales and media, what is known as Branding. This extends from a company's logo to its merchandise, its advertising (print, TV, radio, billboards), even its architecture. For Raab Karcher's flagship store in Frankfurt Berlin, Germany, homecouture -- a tile and bathroom fittings showroom -- Franken Architekten's solution is a mix of clarity and distortion that nevertheless helps the client "brand" themselves.


Interior

The interior is clean lines, smooth surfaces, and off-white colors that help the colors of the store's logo and products jump.


Plan with Lounge and Consultation areas highlighted

The angles of the plan follow the irregular corner condition of the site. The architects took advantage of the corner by wrapping the storefront facade along the whole perimeter.


View inside

The architects approached the design by thinking of the store as having two facades: the exterior storefront and the interior wall. But instead of using typical clear glass for the former, the architects created what they call a Liquid Wall, where views into the space and the interior wall are distorted.

Links:

:: Franken Architekten
:: Raab Karcher
:: homecouture
:: Europaconcorsi feature with additional -- and much larger -- images

Flight 93 Memorial

The competition winner for the latest, and last major memorial remembering the events of September 11 was announced yesterday, almost four years since flight 93 crashed into a reclaimed strip mine in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. "Crescent of Embrace" by Paul Murdoch Architects with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects is the winner of the Flight 93 National Memorial, which received more than 1,000 entries in the first round and was narrowed to five finalists for the last round of judging.

The winning design consists of five major components:


1:: Gateway (Tower of Voices)


2:: Approach/Return


3:: Bowl (Crescent of Embrace)


4:: Sacred Ground

5:: Perimeter/Viewshed, where "existing tree coverage along the Park perimeter is preserved to maintain views to and from the Memorial Expressions and to help decrease disturbance from outside the Park."

Given the rural site and its size, its natural for the landscape to be used for meaning more than architecture. Interventions in the winning design, as well as the other finalists, are minimal, in favor of approaches that create spaces, paths, etc. via landscape elements. Regardless, we still see the impact of Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, but in this case that's not bad, as the landscape will slowly evolve into something richer than any of the minimalist designs portend. In the case of the winner, the strongest "element" appears to be its namesake, the Crescent of Embrace, though hopefully the idea will not be lost due to the huge size of the space, a similar danger for the WTC Memorial.

Good Grief Update: "Flight 93 memorial decried as Islam symbol" (link via Archinect)

Only in America

Make that "Only in Texas". Dallas-based IntelliCool, "a culmination of companies and individuals sharing over 60 years of expertise in the outdoor pump and cooling equipment industries...committed to being the leading outdoor cooling provider in North America," designs outdoor air conditioners.



These beauties pictured are designed to "cool specific areas including lounging, eating, recreation, poolside, and deck areas...by circulating evaporative cooled air." The design is supposed to be appealing, though it resembles a collision of an old-timey lamppost and some sort of railroad equipment or an over-sized meat grinder. Regardless of their looks, they are utterly wasteful, extravagant and anthropocentric, a fitting addition to the suburban landscape.

(via HGTV, via Things)

Strapping CTA

When I read about the TranStrap (over at Gothamist), I initially thought it was a good idea for dealing with the out-of-reach bars and poles on Chicago's trains. But then I thought some more.

The TranStrap is a portable device made of nylon, neoprene and formed aluminum that hooks onto the aforementioned poles or bars, though really they're more accustomed to the latter. They start at ten bucks and accessories are available for storing and carrying the thing with you. But are they a solution for poor train-car design, or just an accessory for "germophobes"?

After my first inclination to think they'd work in Chicago, I recalled the design of the various train cars and realized they're pretty much worthless here. I ride the Brown and Red Lines, the former using mainly 3200-series cars and the latter using mainly 2600-series cars.

The 3200-series cars have an abundance of poles that are easily within reach, as well as placing seats in groups of one and two to increase standing room. These cars are usually and enjoyable ride. Given the plethora of poles and lack of bars, the TranStrap doesn't really come in handy here.



Then there's the 2600-series cars on the Red Line, probably the busiest line on the system. These cars (seen in the dolled-up holiday picture above - click for larger view) have many problems: 1. Seats are grouped in twos, restricting the area for standing, 2. The center area doesn't have any poles, a la the 3200s, but only raised handles on the seats (and when a train slams to a halt, these don't provide any aid in balance, believe me!), and 3. There aren't any bars, so the TranStrap is again useless.

So, what's my point? To me, the TranStrap seems to be addressing two things: the deficiency of subway car designs and germs. I'm more interested in the first, so I believe the product can't make up for what is some pretty bad train car design. It seems that so many entrepreneurial ideas are responses to other people's problems. I guess my point is that we should fix the original problem rather than embrace little fixes that might not really work at all. But that's costly, un-American, yadda yadda yadda. So maybe TranStrap needs to develop a Chicago line that features magnetic grips for the Red Line's typically abandoned center area. Now, there's an idea!

But wait! Fishing through the great Chicago-L.org site for images of car interiors, I came across this gallery, a test retrofit of 3200-series cars for longitudinal seating to create more room for standing. Closer to NYC cars, you can see these retrofits have poles, bars, and - yes - straps. Looks like it's time for a change.