Interior of the Larkin Administration Building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1904 (demolished in 1950).
Look at this office. Innovative for the time, yes. But do you think anything creative was ever produced in this space? No way!
Fun fact: Wright designed some of the desks so that the chairs were immovable - just screwed right onto the desk. Talk about being chained to your work. Those people could have used access to a yoga dungeon for sure.
For some really great Larkin ephemera click HERE
![Roy LichtensteinEntablature1975Magna, sand, Magna medium, aluminum powder on canvas60 x 90 in.
“The entablature is an architectural element resembling a band or molding lying horizontally above the columns of a building. Originating in the architecture of ancient Greece, the motif was also abundantly represented in America in the early twentieth-century Beaux-Arts and Greco-Roman revival style used for public buildings such as museums and libraries. Lichtenstein’s Entablatures comprised of a first series of paintings from 1971-72, followed by a second series in 1974-76, and the publication of a series of relief prints in 1976.” [source]
At The Paula Cooper Gallery, on view through October 22, 2011.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrvn22M5ne1qzvxbko1_400.jpg)
Roy Lichtenstein
Entablature
1975
Magna, sand, Magna medium, aluminum powder on canvas
60 x 90 in.
“The entablature is an architectural element resembling a band or molding lying horizontally above the columns of a building. Originating in the architecture of ancient Greece, the motif was also abundantly represented in America in the early twentieth-century Beaux-Arts and Greco-Roman revival style used for public buildings such as museums and libraries. Lichtenstein’s Entablatures comprised of a first series of paintings from 1971-72, followed by a second series in 1974-76, and the publication of a series of relief prints in 1976.” [source]
At The Paula Cooper Gallery, on view through October 22, 2011.
(Source: artdaily.org)
Nautilus House by Mexican architecture firm Senosiain Arquitectos
via Curbed.com: “Perhaps You’d Prefer Living in a Bonkers Oversize Conch Shell?”
I would prefer that, yes.
“Check it out: this spinning home was built in 1903 for an exhibition in Paris. Basically it’s just a regular house built on top of a turntable. The idea was that by rotating slowly throughout the day it would provide, “the sunlight needed to create a more healthful and sanitary home.” It’d probably be so fun to live in, until the day when it started spinning out of control, and you and all of your belongings got plastered to the wall — like on one of those carnival rides where the room whirls around and the floors drop away.”
— The Hairpin, Why Won’t The Room Stop Spinning
I’m totally hyped out from Hurricane Irene, and feel like giving myself something to really be scared about. Just thinking about ever having to hole up in one of these shelters while the world ends gives me pause. I suppose I should mention that I happened to catch the movie Panic Room twice this week. Won’t you join me below, as I ascend to the next level of unnecessary and imaginary alarm.
Some of these structures were built to withstand A-bombs, biological warfare and/or zombies, and some of them probably don’t offer protection from anything more than the sunlight. But they’re all constructed of hardcore materials like raw or reinforced concrete and steel, or are completely underground, and they all give me a real sense of impending doom.
So now it’s time to play one of my favorite games, Pick One Or Die. The game is played when viewing several items at once, say on a page from a magazine or catalog, or in a shop window - and you have to pick ONE item or DIE. In this case, it’s any of the fifteen structures below, and you’ve just got word that the world is ending, so you have to pick one to run into for shelter, or die. Go! Go, now! Run for your life!
![Grace Court townhouse in Brooklyn Heights is for sale at $5.9 million from Brown Harris Stevens. This is the living room.
[via NY Observer]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqi2h5Q6bf1qzvxbko1_400.jpg)
Grace Court townhouse in Brooklyn Heights is for sale at $5.9 million from Brown Harris Stevens. This is the living room.
[via NY Observer]
Stanley Tigerman
The Titanic, 1978
Photomontage on paper
Architecture firm Centrala has designed a house to fit between the crack of two buildings in Warsaw, Poland that will be 28.3” wide. Once completed, Keret House, will steal the title of the narrowest building in the world from the one-meter-wide house in Brazil. Talk about thinspiration. I wouldn’t mind seeing a trend of slim houses take on the excess of fatty McMansions, but will not be holding my breath for them to become a thing in the US anytime soon. When will homebuilders wake up and realize that nothing shelters as good as skinny feels?
Image via ArchDaily
Story via Curbed
P.S. Elle Decor has a great slideshow of the 10 narrowest houses in the world (my favorite is Sliver House, in London)
“The Continuous Monument by Superstudio, designed in 1969 as an architectural model for Total Urbanization. It is a gridded superstructure that would wrap around the world and eventually would cover the entire surface of the planet:” (via Manhattan Oneirocritica | Fredrik Hellberg « dpr-barcelona)
From the upcoming sale at Cirkers July 16, 2011 @ 11 am, I am feeling quite fond of the following item:
However, it is estimated at $80-$125, which is too much for me, so I am blogging a photo to remember it by instead.
Also, how could you not find a place in your kitschiest of hearts for this shag carpet bag?
I mean, come on - it was custom made, especially for you, by Carol:
Broken Houses
Tel Aviv-based artist Ofra Lapid creates small scale models based on photographs of abandoned buildings…more here
Conjoined plates by Amsterdam-based artist, Maxime Ansiau.
(Source: ladiesandgentlemenstudio.com)
The Shop and Warehouse of Duncan Phyfe, 168–172 Fulton Street, New York, NY, 1816–20
Unknown Artist
New York City
Watercolor, black ink, and gouache on white laid paper
These three buildings housed the manufactory and wareroom of Duncan Phyfe’s thriving cabinetmaking business. This was the point of origin for some of the most acclaimed furniture of the early nineteenth century, and seen in the center of the image are two elegantly dressed women appraising Phyfe’s wares. To ensure steady control over the daily operation of the company, his home was located directly across the street at 169 Fulton, as was typical of many master craftsmen in this period. Furthermore, Phyfe witnessed the steadily rising value of real estate and actively invested his profits in the accumulation of other properties in the neighborhood.Source: Unknown Artist: The Shop and Warehouse of Duncan Phyfe, 168-172 Fulton Street, New York, NY (22.28.1) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Food Architecture
For his latest series of images photographer Gary Bryan constructed small architectural structures out of wafers…more here
Raise your hand if you know where this room is located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In all the times I’ve taken some special friends on one of my personal-period-rooms-of-the-Met guided tours (I really do those, wanna go?), I have found a lot of people are not aware of this wonderful room by Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s the living room from the Little House, originally in Wayzata, Minnesota, 1912–14. When the house was demolished in 1972, the living room was disassembled and moved here, where it is now on permanent display.
When you step inside, you are completely transported through time and space into a total environment. You are enveloped in quietness, and in FLW himself, as he designed every last element of the room. Possibly even the pottery (I think?). The room feels like a rhythmic, horizontal expanse of warm color, texture and wood, and would have been filled with light, as two sides of the rooms are curtain walls of classic FLW stained glass. It’s an incredibly peaceful space amidst the hum of the museum crowds. It’s not like, a secret or anything, but I’ve never been in there with more than two other people checking it out at the same time. I only wish I could sit on the furniture and relax awhile with a book. As you can see above, the sofa he designed with tabletop arms was pretty much built for that.
P.S. If you want to find this room, it’s on the first floor in the American Wing, near the back of the grand pavilion, toward the far right side.
