Another Great Idea From The French

The French were right about Mickey Rourke. They were right about the Iraq War. And now, their President wants to lend government money to the country's ailing newspapers. As newspapers continue to shutter their offices around the country, I can't think of a better bailout idea we could steal from the French than this. 

Via The Guardian

Can I Amend My Year-End 2008 Best Of?

Because I, unfortunately, didn't hear these two gems until 2009...

David Byrne and Brian Eno

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

(Todomundo)

Q-Tip

The Renassaince

(Universal/Motown)

Architectural Dialogue

In the Spring of 2007, M and I spent a Saturday night walking through South Lake Union. When we moved to Seattle six years ago, SLU was an industrial neighborhood and there was little reason to explore it. By the time we made our way there for our weekend stroll, however, it was in the awkward stages of its drastic urban facelift, which is being bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. 

The whole effect was chilling, not because the warehouses had been demolished to make place for slick mixed-use residential buildings, but because we were walking through an bustling urban village that had yet to be occupied. The trolley (the SLUT, as Seattleites charmingly referred to it) was fully operational. Coffeehouses were open for business. We stopped into a boutique where the owner told us business had been lean since few people were actually living in the neighborhood yet. But she was hopeful, and had every right to be. Construction cranes loomed overhead and the sidewalks were cluttered with scaffolding. 

For all the buildings that had been completed, however, few were architecturally interesting. Simply put, they were boxes built to house people and sell things. The developer's SLU "Discovery Center" (translate: sales & marketing) was probably the most stimulating as it was akin to a woodshed via Modernism. But it was, as the Seattle P-I's Larry Cheek pointed out, "designed to eventually be unbolted and tucked away". Why the developer--the same man who commissioned a jarring design out of Frank Gehry for the EMP--wasn't encouraging more architectural daringness seemed contraindicated. Of course, the spec commercial and mass-market housing buildings rarely take risks, so it wasn't that surprising. But still...

But over the last few months, I've noticed a couple of trends that lead me to think SLU is, in fact, encouraging innovative design. It's not so much found in the buildings themselves as it is in the spaces between buildings and how those buildings relate to the neighborhood. For example, take a look at the renderings for Tom Kundig's Art Stable (pictured above). At first blush, the building has a sort of warehouse-chic aesthetic that embraces SLU's history. But more important is how Kundig's design encourages a sort of dialogue between the tenants/artists and the people on the street. Obviously there are plenty of windows, but it's the large operable wall panels (which are akin to door hinges) that are key. 

Here, pieces of the building literally open up like outstretched hands. And though they are being marketed as a utilitarian element intended for moving large pieces of art in and out, I'm more interested in the relationship they allow the artists to have with the public. Who, walking past the building, wouldn't be interested in what the artist is working on? 

Of course, this isn't the only innovative design idea in SLU. The whole neighborhood is rife with walkways and sidewalk canopies and landscaped alleyways. And in keeping with the Europeanness of the urban planning, there's even a woonerf. So, though there is still room for criticism in the lack of originality among buildings, I think the subtleties in the relationship between architecture and pedestrian make up the difference. After all, architecture is the one form of art humans are forced to interact with daily. Might as well encourage it, right?