Mario Botta: Architecture and Memory

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art opened in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2009 in a four-story building designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta. It's no surprise then that the museum is celebrating the architect with the major exhibition Mario Botta: Architecture and Memory.


[Photo: Gary O’Brien, via Wikimedia Commons]

The career-spanning exhibition features "30 of his museums, theaters, libraries and religious spaces" documented through "sketches, original wood models and photographs exemplifying Botta’s use of geometric shapes that juxtapose lightness and weight," per the museum's website. The below video gives a peek at the exhibition in the museum's top floor, which extends over the plaza and is propped up by the bowed column.



Mario Botta: Architecture and Memory runs until July 25, 2014.

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Today's archidose #748

Here are some photos of SEB Bank and Pension Headquarters (2011) in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, photographed by Ximo Michavila.















To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

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Today's archidose #747

Here are two chapels this Sunday one week before Easter.

The Bishop Edward King Chapel (2013) at Ripon Theological College, Oxfordshire, UK, by Niall McLaughlin Architects, photographed by Iqbal Aalam:








The MIT Chapel (1955) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Eero Saarinen, photographed by Hassan Bagheri:








To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

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The Sci-Fi Drawings of Lebbeus Woods

On Thursday Lebbeus Woods, Architect is opening at the Drawing Center. I'll post about the show next week, but in anticipation of the exhibition I pulled out a book from 1983 that features illustrations by Woods:



The book collects a number of Arthur C. Clarke's short stories that are accompanied by Woods's illustrations. A number of the drawings, including the cover, are clearly the Woods most architects know and love:




Yet some of the drawings are more firmly rooted in the sci-fi narratives and therefore eschew the settings in favor of the characters:




The book was published well before Woods became a household name both for his illustrations and  the environments he imagined. To the same effect, this biography at the back of The Sentinel is much different than ones that might accompany The New City (1992), War and Architecture (1993), and later books:



While the last sentence indicates he might have done more illustrations for sci-fi books, I think this was the only one. If I'm wrong, please comment. I'd be curious about how Woods lent his hand to other stories.

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Allan Wexler: Breaking Ground

If you haven't been to Ronald Feldman Fine Arts (31 Mercer Street) to see Allan Wexler: Breaking Ground, you have until May 3 to do so. I stopped by on the way to work this morning and can't recommend it enough.


[All photos by John Hill]

The works, which I'd posted about in March, are much larger than I anticipated.



Accompanied by a couple sculptures, the "hand-worked inkjet prints on panels" work really well in the two galleries.





Up close the assemblage of the images really comes across, with some faint grids apparent at first...



And then the make up of the rectangular panels from smaller rectangular prints on closer inspection...



And then the marked intersections seen up close reveal the images were in fact "hand-worked."

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2014 Boat Tours

Yesterday evening I hitched a ride on the AIANY/Classic Harbor Line cruise as they were celebrating their fifth year of offering architectural boat tours. In addition to the Around Manhattan Architecture Tour that I wrote about previously, the AIANY and Classic Harbor Line are holding other tours:

• Lower Manhattan Tour
• Around Manhattan Bridge and Infrastructure Tour
• Featured Guide Series (Adam Yarinsky on June 15, Signe Nielsen on June 22, Eric Sanderson in the fall, with more TBA)

More information can be found via the Classic Harbor Line link above and on the AIANY website.

Below are some photos from the tour yesterday, which made its way from the boat's slip at Chelsea Piers, south down the Hudson River and around the tip of Manhattan, up the East River to Roosevelt Island, and then back again in a large U-shaped sweep of the island.



Many of the tours depart around 5pm in the evening, meaning that the city is seen in the daylight and as the sun goes down. Seeing the city bathed in the orange glow of the sunset made it easier to brave the strong and chilly winds yesterday. In past tours the boat heads out to the Statue of Liberty first, but yesterday that waited until near the end. Therefore the congestion of Lower Manhattan (above) was particularly palpable as the boat motored by relatively close to shore.



It must be said that being on a boat tour means sensing the sky (above) so much more than one typically does while navigating about the city.



It also means that juxtapositions of one building or structure against another happens frequently...and quickly. Witness the 1-2-3 of the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bride, and Statue of Liberty below; it was there one moment (thanks to a tip of the tour guide) but gone a few moments later.



The same can be said of the Brooklyn Bridge fitting (almost in my photo below) between 8 Spruce Street and 4WTC as the sun sets in the same spot.



Yesterday's cruise was different than the others I had been on before (one of which I served as a featured tour guide) due to being in the bay when the sun went down.



This made for some great picture postcard views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. Too bad I didn't bring a good camera instead of just my phone.

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LEGO House in LEGO Form

In what might be best described as "LEGO imitating architecture imitating LEGO," BIG's design for the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, is for sale as a special edition kit:


[Photo: Hamid/Flickr]


[Photo: Hamid/Flickr]

I'm not sure how much the limited-edition set goes for, or where it's even available, but somebody on ebay wants to get $109 for the "RARE" set with "exclusive minifigure."

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