Informing the Design
I explored non-architecture precedents in Powell’s Pearl Room last night (http://www.powells.com/) for several hours and came up with nothing substantial. I searched through books about theatre, film, installation art, performance art, set design, photography, and west coast contemporary art. These are the folks whose work I found interesting and potentially pertinent (some I was familiar with and some are new to me): Michael Brophy, Trisha Donnely, Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July, Chris Johnson, Matt McCormick, Gus Van Sant, Todd Hayes, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Rachel Rosenthal, Heidi Landesman, Hugh Landwehr, Adrianne Lobel, and Tony Straiesges. I also found a group called “Office for soft Architecture” (http://jacketmagazine.com/14/robertson-lisa.html) worth checking out.
What I really want is an image in my head, a vision if you will, after all this is supposed to be “visionary west coast urban architecture.” In the past I have been able to find inspiration in the work of contemporary artists, something that suggests a character idea to me that I can turn into something architectural. I want something I can connect with, understand, and respond to, a context for dialogue: that is how I work but I haven’t found that thing yet. Therefore I am tense and my work is underdeveloped right now, but I think with a little time something will happen. …
What does one do when this is the case? Build a model.
a diagram of how the new portion of the building could exist above the old without seeming to bear down upon it, one way to approach the question of how to integrate with the old exchange building. Here the circulation for visitors through the gallery is the supporting structure, represented by the dark line and arrows.
an idea about the geometry of the new and old building portions, and how they relate to one another. Perhaps this will inform the volume of the new trading floor space. The new floor will exist above the old, and the old will be used as the public interface for the complex as a whole.
some sketches by Alexander as he was helping me to decide a configuration for the trading floor pits. Since the idea that I have been carrying in my head about the exterior of the building is that it is "asymmetrical, yet balanced" (in contrast to the symmertry of the neoclassical pacific exchange facade), he wanted me to start thinkning about the floor in this manner as well. We also discussed the sectional condition of the trading pits. However, I am not sure that I have enough to work with at this point to make these kinds of decisions, so I am keeping these design issues in the exploratory phasse for the time being.
What I really want is an image in my head, a vision if you will, after all this is supposed to be “visionary west coast urban architecture.” In the past I have been able to find inspiration in the work of contemporary artists, something that suggests a character idea to me that I can turn into something architectural. I want something I can connect with, understand, and respond to, a context for dialogue: that is how I work but I haven’t found that thing yet. Therefore I am tense and my work is underdeveloped right now, but I think with a little time something will happen. …
What does one do when this is the case? Build a model.
a diagram of how the new portion of the building could exist above the old without seeming to bear down upon it, one way to approach the question of how to integrate with the old exchange building. Here the circulation for visitors through the gallery is the supporting structure, represented by the dark line and arrows.
an idea about the geometry of the new and old building portions, and how they relate to one another. Perhaps this will inform the volume of the new trading floor space. The new floor will exist above the old, and the old will be used as the public interface for the complex as a whole.
some sketches by Alexander as he was helping me to decide a configuration for the trading floor pits. Since the idea that I have been carrying in my head about the exterior of the building is that it is "asymmetrical, yet balanced" (in contrast to the symmertry of the neoclassical pacific exchange facade), he wanted me to start thinkning about the floor in this manner as well. We also discussed the sectional condition of the trading pits. However, I am not sure that I have enough to work with at this point to make these kinds of decisions, so I am keeping these design issues in the exploratory phasse for the time being.
posted by MSR at 1:20 PM
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