Update // Happy New Year!

Yes, the blog was left fallow through the end-of-semester madness and various holiday adventures. Apologies to all. But now it's time to pull up the weeds and get it crankin' once again! I have made it part of my resolutions to write more regularly - or at least as regularly as I used to - but it remains to be seen whether I have the fortitude to make it stick. I usually fail when it comes to resolutions, though I am a bit more optimistic about this year. The economy seems to be turning around, say the crackpot number doctors on Capitol Hill, which should make anyone in the architecture business smile a little (though it is unclear if this improvement will lead to more design jobs). And at long last, one of four semesters of M. Arch is in the books, and I have grown accustomed to the grind. 

Other resolutions: explore more of California and the Southwest. Trips hopefully in store: San Diego / Salk, Santa Barbara, Pacific Coast Highway, San Francisco, Vegas, Phoenix. At least one of these is sure to happen in the next month or so...updates on that later. Also, better health and more romance. Can't promise any (detailed) updates on that.

Visited the new LA Holocaust Museum this afternoon. Interesting building by LA firm Belzberg Architects...Mr. Belzberg was a visiting professor for the undergrads this fall. The surfaces and lines are soft and sinuous and the interior volumes are terraced, sunken into the ground and covered with grassy vegetation, creating a seamless transition to the undulating hills of Park La Brea on whose north end the museum sits. Shot-crete construction facilitated these formal gestures, and the hard nature of the material contrasts with the smooth curves. Philosophically, this is a vastly different approach than, for example, the obvious symbolism of Libeskind's jagged, violent forms in Berlin. Yet while it's a perfectly fine building in and of itself, it does leave me wanting a little bit more visible emotional content.

[Sunken entry.]

[The park...very nice landscaping in the heart of LA.]

[Memorial wall.]

[Lobby and exhibition space.]

[Green...er, brown...roof]

[Interactive displays. Or as I call it, the jewPad.]

Also got a chance to check out The Grove after catching some positive vibes about it...it's very similar to Atlantic Station in the ATL, a developer-driven outdoor urban mall that is both commercially successful and attractive to pedestrian shoppers but lacks any of the authenticity that develops in traditional neighborhoods over time. Much to the detriment of the surrounding environs, the buildings show their backs to busy Beverly Blvd, 3rd St and Park La Brea, forming an unpleasant and uninspiring periphery for passers-by. Inside, though, it's as pretty, glitzy, and glamorous as you might expect in LA; essentially, it's a mall without the mall. It does connect well to the LA Farmers Market, though, and is a shift in design strategy and aesthetic for LA, which is starting to embrace concepts of New Urbanism and SmartGrowth, albeit uncomfortably. LA's identity is tied to the very chaotic, disperate and divided character of the various neighborhoods, suburbs, and elements of infrastructure that new developments like The Grove and LA Live are trying to repel. This makes for some interesting studies in contrasts, which probably should command a lot more attention than I'm currently willing to provide at the moment...again, more to look forward to!

[The Grove.]

Next up: summary of last semester's project and final reviews. It's good to be back!