porTENT

I would put this essay in the same category as Tom Wolfes', From Bauhaus to Our House.

Article

I walk around Chicago, and look up at buildings of variety and charm. I walk into lobbies of untold beauty. I ascend in elevators fit for the gods. Then I walk outside again and see the street defaced by the cruel storefronts of bank branches and mall chains, scornful of beauty. Here I squat! they declare. I am Chase! I am Citibank! I am Payless Shoe Source! I don't speak to my neighbors. I have no interest in pleasing those who walk by. I occupy square footage at the lowest possible cost. My fixtures can be moved out overnight. I am capital.

This is interesting quote, after reading it I'm almost convinced now that only capital is truly beautiful and that the old adage of "every building as an image of an unseen man" is an outdated theory of identity.

Not a proper representation? I'm sorry what angles do you approve of?

The police intimidate me all the time, it's best to just avoid them at all costs. If you are detained, confronted, or arrested don't do anything that could make it worse. Eventually, if you are in the right, you'll have your day in court.

Here's an idea, rename it Highway 6.

Do you really think that Wal-Mart is only trying to do this in Houston?

Isn't that just plain old vanilla capitalism? We see Home Depot opposite and adjacent to Lowe's locations all the time. I don't understand your argument against Wal-Mart.

Is there a negative connotation to the term Montrose? Why say "Midtown" ?

Lofting in architecture typically refers to the sectional aspect of having double height ceilings and is usually a split level design with a "lofted" space that overlooks the main space. In this case it is one rectangular space in plan (like an efficiency) and sectionally lofted.

I've stayed in an efficiency with standard 9' ceilings in a dingbat complex and it would seem that they are hard to rent and worse (like most dingbats) they are poorly maintained (I think I had a direct hole to the outdoors in my bathroom ceiling where an exhaust fan had once been). I also think the term "efficiency" in modern real estate jargon has a negative connotation too.

These are just efficiency apartments. It's weird that they're talking about these as if they're a new idea.

But efficiency apartments typically are not lofted.

Design fees are generally higher for projects like this.

http://io9.com/55852...-story-debunked

During our recent cruise to the Gulf we observed significantly elevated levels of methane at water depth greater than 2500 feet, in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. While the total quantity of methane and other hydrocarbons is enough to cause problems with the regional ecosystem, there is no plausible scenario by which this event alone will cause global-scale extinctions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25BE42PzZZc&feature=player_embedded

Can you cite any examples of WalMart complying with local interests in such a way? Or will the Heights be the first instance?

If so, lucky us!

link

Several years ago, McDonough was asked to help build a WalMart store in Lawrence, Kan. He declined. His other projects--a high-end men's store in New York City, the Environmental Defense Fund's corporate headquarters, an office building in Warsaw--were for companies who marketed themselves as ecologically aware. He didn't think he could work with a retail giant with a reputation for gobbling up mom-and-pop stores in small towns and driving out competitors. Then he realized that if environmentalists don t win over corporate America, the chasm between them will grow wider, benefiting no one.

So McDonough took on the Wal-Mart project but insisted on doing it his way. His Wal-Mart store was built with wood instead of steel, thus saving thousands of gallons of oil just in the fabrication of the building. His firm used only wood from forests that had been managed sustainably and was constructed with specially engineered beams, which experts estimate saved the equivalent of 87 trees, 120 feet tall and 18 inches in diameter. They also arranged for no CFCs to be used in the store's construction and for the building to be converted into housing when it is no longer used as a retail center.

Walmart has done some pretty interesting things in the past and since this is they're first inner city store it would benefit the community to be aware of what they've experimented with in the past.

DIY

http://www.gandgmodelshop.com/

The “most significant work of architecture created so far in the 21st century” votes:

1. Herzog&deMeuron, Bird's Nest (7 votes)

2. LeCorbu, Saint-Pierre Church (4 votes)

3. OMA, Seattle Central LIbrary (3 votes)

4.OMA, CCTV Beijing (2 votes)

5.Toyo Ito, Mediatheque Bldg (1 vote)

6.OMA, Casa da Musica (1 vote)

7.Jean Nouvel, Cartier Foundation (1 vote)

8.COOP, BMW HQ (1 vote)

9.Foster & Assoc., Millau Viaduct (1 vote)

Never have had a decent experience at Rich's.

AVOID.

Islam needs a Reformation like the Catholic Church went through in the 16th century.

This site has nothing to do with the Astrodome.

This site is only connected to the Astrodome in nostalgic imagination.

What will become of the pedestrian bridge that connects to this site?

The Hardy Yards

Americans' desire to watch idiotic shows like this proves that we are doomed to lose our place as top dog sooner rather than later. Americans care more about celebrity than knowledge. So frustrating.

I think of reality TV as analogous to the rise of game shows in the 1950's. While trivial in content, they are exhibiting real emotions and that's what people wait and watch to get a glimmer of.

I love that dimension of the city. Seeing it from an open balcony 4+ stories. The enclosures of the observation decks in other towers feel too alien to appreciate.

It looks like 3 buildings squished together.

How Lost should have ended

This thread reminds me of this hyper graphic

Who are they a farm club for?

Is hip-hop the music that I hear when I pull up next to an 80s model maroon Buick or Cadillac with gigantic 3 spoke chrome wheels? They usually have their windows down and have it cranked so loud that the windows are vibrating. Also they usually have fake portholes just ahead of the front doors and maybe something to so with "Dub" or "22". I see a lot of this in Westchase.

I'm serious here. I'm not sure if what these guys play is considered hip-hop or not. Are older American family cars with huge wheels and portholes considered part of the hip-hop music culture or is that something else?

Probably hip hop or rap. If there's a lot of "boom" in the bass, it's rap. If there's a lot of "bap" in the bass, it's hip hop.

About their cars, they really like the cushy interiors of domestic luxury and family vehicles of the 1970's and 80's because of their sex appeal and level of cost to maintain indicates wealth.

I guess. I like some old school hip-hop/whatever. Is disco dead? I guess not. Who knows... I'm talking about the stuff here:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=xr1liTPnc0k

It's pretty cool.

That's circuit house or electro-house. Disco-house is more soulful/gospel styled like the Chicago House style, French House of the late 90's, or New Jersey Garage. Your example is very Miami/Ibiza style, you might like Pria Urbana or 77002 events.

So you mean to tell me that Disco is in fact, not dead?

edit:

FYI, disco-house has faster dance tempos and is based upon disco samples. Nu disco or balleric/cosmic disco is based upon vintage synths and has a slower lounge style tempo while hip hop has an even slower tempo.