A gallery of midcentury homes in Long Beach by Cliff May... and a guy who can help you buy one
We love midcentury... mm mm mmmmm. Especially here in Southern California where architects such as Cliff May explored the concept of indoor outdoor space with wonderful results.
Realtor Doug Kramer of Long Beach, California bills himself as a specialist in midcentry modern properties... and, what the heck... he's got some good stuff on his website including a gallery of some restored/remodeled homes, as well as some decent history and general info.
Link: The Long Beach Cliff May Ranchos (from Doug Kramer's Ranchostyle.com)
Via: Archinect (nice find, Alan)
Also: Amazon - Western Ranch Houses by Cliff May
Related:
The World of Eichler Design (Land+Living)
Originally posted 1/25/2005
UPDATE: Doug Kramer strikes again! And this time with a nicely designed and updated website with even more midcentury design... Cliff May and beyond!
Link: SoCal Modern [Thanks, Raena!]
Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space
Ever since I picked up a copy of the Slesin book Japanese Style back in the early 90s, I have been a huge fan of Japanese design. Japanese homes are the epitome of compact and efficient design and in Azby Brown's forthcoming book, The Very Small Home, he explores the attitude in Japan towards efficient and functional design. Needless to say, you won't find any McMansions here. Projects in the book range from traditional and handmade to futuristic.
Urban living space in the west is becoming increasingnly crowded; conditions that the Japanese have coped with, and their architects have gained much experience dealing with, for quite some time. Japanese design patterns are bound to be adopted by Western architects and this book makes a point to showcase some of the finest small home design that Japan has to offer.
Release Date: May 2005
Link: Amazon
Author: Azby Brown
Publisher: Kodansha International
Virtually located - "brings the Yellow Pages to life"
This is an interesting concept, a web-based directory where you can actually see the block where a business is located, and browse the surrounding neighborhood. You got to wonder if this will actually work (especially fiscally). But I really like the idea of being able to find what else is located in the surrounding neighborhood, and seeing it is pretty cool too.
Link: A9.com
Via: Urban Cartography - Hotlinking the Yellow Pages
A garden and bridge linking two halves of a mall
More from my trip to Orange County, this time at the throne of consumersim *gasp* a mall. They have the Gap and Hot Dog on a Stick, and hey look! They have good design too!
This is a pedestrian bridge built in 2000 connecting two parts of a large shopping mall designed by a collaborative team of Kathryn Gustafson (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol), Ellerbe Becket and Anderson & Ray.
It is an interesting solution to a utilitarian need; a pedestrian connection across a parking lot and busy street, and the mediation of a change in elevation. The bridge is called the "Bridge of Gardens," a ridiculous name probably dreamed up by the mall, but that name does at least hint towards the marriage of landscape, engineering and architecture.
I have seen this published before, but never with more than a couple small images... so check it out... I went overboard on the pics just for you.
Firm: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol - Landscape Architecture / Art
Firm: Ellerbe Becket - Architecture
Firm: Charles Anderson (formerly of Anderson & Ray) - Landscape Architecture
Firm: HNTB - Structural Engineering
Link: South Coast Plaza
Noguchi landscape in Costa Mesa, California
Designed by the famed American sculptor Isamu Noguchi with landscape architect Ken Kammeyer in 1980, this is a remarkable work tucked between office two towers and a parking garage.
I was in Orange County yesterday and I made a point to seek out this famous garden which I have overlooked many times before. I knew that it was hidden away somewhere amongst the office towers and car-oriented avenues, and the discovery of this calm pedestrian space upon exiting a typical parking garage was at once calming and mind-blowing.
So now, at least ten years after I was made aware of this landscape, I have finally been there... and I took lots of pictures for your perusal. This description of the garden is is far more in depth than our synopsis.
| Visit: | South Coast Plaza Town Center |
| | 611 Anton Blvd |
| | Costa Mesa, California |
| UPDATE 5/5/10: The landscape architect leads tours twice per year; contact Ken Kammeyer for upcomming dates. [Thanks, Ken!] |
Link: Noguchi Museum - California Scenario
Landscape Architect: Kammeyer and Associates
Reference: Isamu Noguchi Stamps (Land+Living)
Reference: The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum (Land+Living)
Textures and colors
I stumbled across the website of Nani Marquina just by chance while doing some random Google searches. Their collection features rugs and cushions (along with a pair of slippers) by several designers. However it was their rugs that caught my eye with their bold geometric shapes and aesthetic lines.
Nani Marquina's rugs are handmade with 100% New Zealand wool. Their rugs are not crafted with child labor and they are a member of Care & Fair, an organization that fights against illegal child labor in the manufacturing sector of handknotted carpets.
Link: Nani Marquina
Link: Care & Fair
Link: Mocoloco
New Ash Green: 60's housing in the U.K.
Not all 60's housing experiments/designs were created equal, especially when it comes to large scale developments. But when it's good, it's good. We've previously featured some good stuff in California, and here is a tasty morsel in Great Britain.
This website (with small but enticing images) is a wealth of information about this "unique housing project in Kent, its original developer SPAN and their consultant architect Eric Lyons."
Link: Span Kent, New Ash Green
Via: Things
Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape
Continuing in the vain of landscape architecture and reclaimed sites...
Around the world abandoned industrial sites, landfills, waterfronts and other tainted lands provide opportunities and challenges. Vancouver is seeking to turn an industrial waterfront into a residential district, Sydney transformed polluted wastelands into their Olympic Park, and outside of London Stockley Park reclaimed an ancient manufacturing site.
Manufactured Sites explores the "reclamation of land and the integration of innovative technologies and design strategies in their redevelopment and regeneration" from the perspective of landscape design professionals, including a chapter/project by Peter Latz. Editor Niall Kirkwood is an Associate professor of landscape architecture, Director of the Masters in Landscape Architecture degree programs, and founder and Director of the Center for Technology and Environment at Harvard GSD.
Editor: Niall Kirkwood
Link: Amazon
Related: Westergasfabriek (Land+Living)
Interventions on industrial sites and ill defined open spaces
Landscape architect Peter Latz, based in Kranzberg, Germany, practices what he preaches; defining and reclaiming the landscape with an eye on ecology and social needs.
The practice of Latz + Partner focuses on "the renewal of destroyed and often contaminated sites, - a new balance in the traffic infrastructures and - the spatial and material framework of ecological programmes." Their work tackles gritty urban and industrial sites with attention to expressing the history and character of the land.
The website may be a bit cumbersome to navigate and dense, but it is packed with information and images just waiting to reward the focused browser. Plus, you can take your pick of German, English or French text... In Ordnung; all right; bien.
Link: Latz + Partner
Public art is... apparently... private?
Related to our continuing concern with the privatization of public space, here is an interesting situation featuring Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park.
According to a post at New (sub)Urbanism, photographer Warren Wimmer was prevented from photographing this piece of public art.
Fascinating.
Link: New (sub)Urbanism - Copyrighting of Public Space
Reference: Chicago's Millennium Park (Land+Living)
Reference: It's a Crocker etc. (Land+Living)
A Los Angeles architect who beat me down
Once upon a time at SCI-Arc, I encountered Barbara Bestor sitting on my jury for a crit while pursuing my Masters degree in Architecture. Crits are like defending yourself against a crime that you know you have committed, and I recall that Barbara found me to be particularly guilty. Well, she may not have been enamored of my design that day, but I am quite impressed with the work shown on her website.
In her 30's, Barbara Bestor has established herself in a profession that is hard to break into at a young age, especailly as a woman in a profession (even in 2005) skewed towards men. Based upon my experience with her and what I have seen of her work, I can see how she has done it... she is tough talking and opinionated but refined, talented, knowledgeable, and skilled at producing wonderful results with small budgets.
Link: Bestor Architecture
A rant about one of our favorite rags
Over in the Archinect forums, a member with the moniker Suture has written an interesting little rant about how Dwell is slowly changing from a magazine that once featured hand made coffee tables and stenciled walls to one that now features individuals tooling around in "mid 50's Mercedes" toting "$1000+ worth of luggage" and can afford "$20,000 plus worth of iconic Mies furnishings". I guess it's been a long transition because I never really noticed it, but now that he mentions it, it suddenly stands out so well.
"Where they once documented honest, affordable projects that did not strain to be trendy, they are now profiling unfinished projects (or was that a proposition for a new temporal plywood design) (p96) just so they can stuff crass advertising down peoples throat (back cover and 123), sell branded shoes (see p127), sell not very accessible or ecologically friendly cars (p 27 and they have had H2 ads before)...sadly the list goes on. I wont even touch the out of control and exponentially growing ad section in the back that is busting at the seams."
So, we pose the question: Should Dwell go back to leaning more to the Ready Made side of the fence or should they continue on their current path catering to the Elle Decor crowd? Comment below!
Link: Archinect Forums
Link: Dwell
Link: Fruit Bowl Manifesto (Dwell)
Grab your pruning shears and get ready to party in April 2005
The American Society of Landscape Architects has declared April 2005 as National Landscape Architecture Month. The theme will be Design for Active Living, highlighting ways landscape architecture and community design affect daily activity levels, and, in turn, overall health.
Link: ASLA - Landscape Architecture Month
Cast concrete amenities
Kornegay Design is an Arizona based company that specializes in cast concrete planters, benches, and receptacles. Their products are cast from a proprietary concrete mix which is extremely durable in cold weather environments.
I've been looking for landscape elements for my garden and must say, the Nutshell design and the Mex Bold (featured at right) are two of my favorites.
Link: Kornegay Design [Thanks, Paula!]
Home decor and accessories from Rios Clementi Hale Studios
notNeutral is... well... not neutral. And not ashamed of it. A division of Los Angeles multi-disciplinary design firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios, notNeutral offers "confident, hip and streetwise products that express individuality and choice." It's kind of like the anti-Pottery Barn.
Their products offer a broad range of dinnerware, pillows, vases, children’s furniture, and home accessories of all kinds. It's funky groovy stuff, as if four decades of design and style have collided... and it works.
They have their own retail store on Melrose in Los Angeles, a web store, and are carried by specialty retailers.
Link: notNeutral
An courtyard garden space for a Boston condominium complex
This garden occupies the inner court space of an old printing house in Boston that has been converted into residential condominium units. The design solution, by Salem, Massachusetts based Landworks Studio, creates usable communal space while at the same time providing privacy and varied views for the inner condo units.
In contrast to the regularity of the existing structure, the landscape architects employed a concept of fragmentation; in the plantings, pathways, materials, topographic undulation, etc. Groovy lighting elements transform the space at night with a yellow green glow emanating from the benches and a fiber optic web amongst the bamboo. The design provides an stylish contemporary foil to the historic building.
Link: Landworks Studio
Land+Living in the New York Times
We've hit the big time now. Will you still love us when we're in our "carbohydrate, sequined-jumpsuit, young-girls-in-white-cotton-panties, waking-up-in-a-pool-of-your-own-vomit, bloated-purple-dead-on-a-toilet phase?" Because, you know, it's all just a matter of time now.
Land+Living gets a quick mention in an article by Lockhart Steele about design blogs in the New York Times Home & Garden section. And it has already gone to our heads. So, what are you waiting for? Go read it already!
EDIT - Oh, and we should mention, while the article implies that our focus is landscape design, you can see that we cover a wide range of topics. That said, we are dedicated to covering landscape design, objects and ideas.
Article: NY Times - Hot Off the Web: Gossip and Guidance (alternate link)
Constructing the Contemporary Landscape
Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City running February 25 through May 16, 2005.
Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape presents twenty-three landscape-design projects that reveal the surge of creativity and critical debate in the design of public spaces, from small urban plazas to large parks for post-industrial sites to long-range plans for entire urban sectors. In the last twenty years, the most significant new landscapes have been designed for sites that were reclaimed from conflict, degradation, or abandonment. The projects, located throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, were selected for their outstanding design and to show a variety of scales, contexts, materials, and types of spaces found in the contemporary landscape.
Link: MoMA - Groundswell
Up to our ankles in brown stuff and white stuff
Sorry for the unannounced sabbatical. So, we have some catching up to do here at L+L... and one of us has some plumbing to replace. Ah, the joys of home ownership.
The other of us has no such excuse... just snow blind from snowboarding in the Eastern Sierra... and now drawn to Snow Design and all things frozen and icy. Hmmm... Julie Snow Architects...
Well, at least one excuse makes for better images than the other.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon... after we shake the brown and white stuff.
Modern design meets New Urbanist living
While I appreciate the concept of the tower in the park, the reality of many modernist urban developments can be quite dismal. And while I agree with the principles of the New Urbanism, I feel that many New Urbanists are too hung up on the "white picket fence" trappings of traditional style.
But even Andres Duany provides a retort to this perception, and has designed a project that (at least partially) proves it. "Aqua breaks the mold of what many people perceive TND to be, but that’s a misconception. New Urbanism is not style-based. Aqua makes that clear."
Aqua is mid-sized infill project (8.5 acres) on Allison Island in Miami Beach. It is the site of a former hospital and the project reuses an existing parking garage/office building.
Orginally posted 1/17/2005
New article: Slatin Report - Chilly Design, Hot Aqua
Link: Aqua | Allison Island - hehe... aqua.net ;-)
Article: The Next American City - New Urban Meets Modern in South Florida
Article: HousingZone.com - Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk: Home/Work (2002)
Firm: Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
Via: Planetizen
Australian landscape firm
Staying Down Under for the moment, we move from lamps to landscapes.
We ran across this site for landscape designer Kristen Martin of Erskineville, New South Wales some time back. Unfortunately there is not much on the website... but we keep coming back to it.
Though the website may not be very informative or well designed and the images are few and mostly small, something in those little images speaks to us. It doesn't blow your socks off, there is just some nice understated, yet high quality design work shining through.
So please, pay a visit, won't you?
Link: Kristen Martin Landscape Architects
A lamp from Down Under
Lamp shades are often kind of an afterthought. Well, what we mean is that they just sort of hover there with out any attention to the connection between the shade and the rest of the fixture. There is the kind where you screw on the little decorative doohickey to hold the shade on the bracket, and then there is the kind that clips directly on to the light bulb. These are just simple, yet not interesting, solutions to a "problem."
Now, we like simple solutions, and here's one by Melbourne designers Marcel Sigel and Alana di Giacomo. The blown glass shade is formed to the shape of the light bulb, and it simply sits on the bulb... it traces the bulb... and it also seems to poke a little bit of fun at the traditional lamp shade. The base of the lamp is nice as well, but in our opinion, the shade is quite elegant and is really the ticket here.
Designer: Zuii
Contemporary public spaces; innovative architecture, landscape, and urban design
Exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC running January 15 through May 15, 2005.
If a democracy is defined by the character of its discourse and public debate, the success of that democracy must be measured by the quantity and quality of its public spaces, the venues where citizens gather for cultural and civic interaction... a range of projects from memorials to new types of urban plazas and parks, from Macon, Georgia, to Melbourne, Australia, to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Featured designers include: Will Alsop, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Craig Dykers, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Walter Hood, Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, Peter Walker, Michael Van Valkenburgh, Rafael Viñoly and Norman Foster.
Originally posted 1/9/2005
Link: National Building Museum
An efficient bathroom remodel
Red glass tile wraps from floor to wall to ceiling in this efficient bathroom by husband and wife design team Adam and Lisa Christie of Portland, Oregon based Prototype Architects. The side walls are covered in waterproof cement plaster, and the fourth wall features a floor to ceiling mirror.
The entire bathroom is conceived as one continuous space, rather than little compartments. The floor surface is open and uninterrupted thanks to the wall mounted sink and toilet. Custom designed stainless steel fixtures include towel bars and shelves, and the large trough sink which is hung in front of the mirror wall and features two double-jointed kitchen faucets.
A stunningly clean and efficient space.
Firm: Prototype Architecture
"Not a mall, it's a lifestyle center"
In twenty years they won't want you to say "lifestyle center." Anyway, more about the lifestyle center trend in the news.
The number of lifestyle centers has quickly accelerated, from just 30 in 2002 to 120 at the end of 2004. Between 10 to 20 new centers are slated to open each year for the next two years. By contrast, only eight new regional malls are expected to open by 2006, according to ICSC.
Link: CNNmoney - Not a mall, it's a lifestyle center
Reference: It's a Crocker (L+L)
Reference: "Lunching With the Caruso of Retail" (L+L)
Off-the-shelf glass and aluminum structure kit house
We've had a little dryspell in our prefab news, but the drought is over... more prefab for you junkies.
Designed by Los Angeles area architects Linda Taalman and Alan Koch, the concept is a high design, customized (with funky outFiTs) 1000 square foot kit house that takes only 8 weeks to construct. "The iT house is made up of a series of off-the-shelf parts which are internationally distributed by industry partners or locally available as typical standard construction." Two houses have been commissioned and will be build this year.
Link: iT House
Firm: TK Architecture
Could "sustainability planning" actually harm long term sustainability?
A paper by Peter Gordon of the University of Southern California takes an interesting look at sustainable planning and policy and suggests that long term sustainability may be hampered by some current "solutions."
Perhaps a bit academic for L+L? Nah... it pays to be informed. Take a break from the eye candy and read up.
Link: Sustainability Planning: First, Do No Harm (500k PDF file)
Link: USC Urban Initiative
Via: Planetizen
Go on, put your feet up
We've picked up a bit of a Scandanavian theme in 5 out of our last 8 blogs... hmmm... what's up with that?
Anyway, who says built in footrests are only for recliners? And who says a modern chair can't be comfortable? I don't know, did somebody say that? Why are we asking so many questions?
This comfy yet modern armchair by Swedish designer Thomas Bernstrand (who has incidentally designed items for the big stupid blue place too) features a nifty slide out foot stool and head rest. Also available in a three seater sofa model. Pretty cool, huh?
Designer: Thomas Bernstrand
Manufacturer: Söderbergs Möbler AB
A modern wood cabin in the forest
This "young firm" based is Bergen, Norway is producing some interesting work that is both experimental and ecologically responsible.
For this summer house, the architects have conceived a wood structure defined by a continuous, folded plane forming interior and exterior spaces.
Firm: Saunders & Wilhelmsen Architecture
UPDATE: Mr. Saunders and Mr. Wilhelmsen have now moved on to individual practices.
Link: Saunders Architecture
Link: Wilhelmsen Arkitektur
A balanced and self-renewing environment
"With a distinct emphasis on human cooperation and biological partnership in design, the author explores the relationship between the built environment and nature to illustrate how both can be used to their full potential without being detrimental or destructive to each other. Provides a combination of scientific insight and constructive design, and shows how to employ what nature offers to the fullest extent without imposing limitations or design constraints to create a balanced and self-renewing environment."
Author: Ian L. McHarg
Link: Amazon
