GOODBYE, CRUEL
WORLD.- or – THERE IS LIFE AFTER
FACEBOOK
I don’t know
how I got sucked into Facebook in the first place, but Joy is assisting me to
extricate myself out of this mess. I don’t have time or the interest to know what everyone is doing! However, I will stay in touch with the
cyber-world via e-Mail. No, I do not Text either! I have let go of FAXing, unless my scanner is
down.
LES HALLES
Or better known as ”Le Catastrophe!”. An area
in central Paris where all fresh food was handled that consisted of several
huge, steel structures that were built in early 1800’s. How such a great
project was built in the first place is a miracle in itself, but the
destruction of it in the 1970.s is even a greater enigma. Understandably, by the early 1900’s it was
too much activity to contain it so it was moved to another outer place in
Paris. The food scene was taken care of elsewhere but then the Parisians didn’t
know what to do with these huge Le Halles. So they demolished them. But not
before an American businessman was able to buy one and have it moved to another
area in Paris. Now, as everyone looks
back, they concur that “Golley, these
would make really cool market area for all kinds of shops, etc.” I would like
to see some of the controversy, pros and cons, regarding the destruction of
them. This is a good lesson for all of us. But let’s not get hung up on saving
structures that are only old, but not great.
YOU’VE HEARD OF THE SANDANISTAS?
AUGUSTO
SANDINO 1895-1934 Now here was a real revolutionary kind of
guy. He declared war on the United States when his army probably consisted of
no more than about 600 malcontents. To Castro, Che, and other later leaders, he
was a real role model. He led a
rebellion in Nicaragua against the U.S occupation until 1933, when General Samoza seized power in a coup d’etat. Samoza killed Sandino then ruled as a dictatorship for 40 years, with
the help of the
United States (Why do we always do that?). Sandino is still a national hero in Nicaragua.
I guess the U.S. doesn’t really think of him in that light. The Sandinistas
(FSLN) overthrew the Samoza regime in 1979. Other South American rebels still
use the term “Sandinista”.
TIME
FOR FUN
In my early days of architecting in
California, I frequented the first Coffeehouse in the West, Portofino in
Malibu. This was in the ‘60’s and a
coffeehouse was a far cry from Starbucks as it was a funky building where the
customers generally provided the entertainment . Poetry, (Ginsburg was there),
reading of plays by the Avant Guarde & Shakespeare, etc. Then, as
I have done for all my professional days, I traded part of my fee for food
& drink. The owners wanted to add an outdoor area with a stage and some
protection from the elements. I came up with a tensile structure that was
efficient, minimal and inexpensive. It was never built and I have lost the
drawings.
Although I’ve renovated several small auditoriums
(The Cinnabar Theatre being one, Polly Klass Theater also) only recently have I
had the opportunity to design a major auditorium , and this one for several
thousand people. Instead of doing the
project for food & Drink, I am trading for a few points in a future lifetime.
(This is taking the long view).
Anyway,
the program is fairly involved as the first phase will be designed for about a thousand seats, while a second
phase will add another 1500 seats, and with an ultimate build-out of about 7000
seats, the later to be on sloped lawns with a canvas cover to ward off the rain
and sun of the Wisconsin summers. I
began with a floor plan of a 90 degree angle with the apex at the speakers
small platform, but soon realized that expanding the arc to 120 degrees we
could add another one fourth of audience (Several thousand). Of course, the
problem becomes that some people will be 250 to 300 feet from the speaker, (That’s
the length of a football field) so Auditory and Visual augmentation will have
to be installed every 50 feet or so. I built a crude model as the roof was
getting a little complex You will notice the red roof is the roof of the
building, while the tent structures are the tan color.
There
are other smaller aspects of this project (for ISHA, The Institute for Human
Awareness), and one is a small domed
structure for about 400 seat auditorium. I initially began with a Lamella type
structure but it developed into a modified Fuller Type of roof, using wood
timbers and steel connectors . This dome will be fabricated in Portland, Oregon,
and delivered to our site in central Wisconsin for final assembly. This dome project is about a million dollar
project, while the cost of the large
auditorium will be around three million
dollars, built in stages. Currently, I’m
looking at various roof framing systems (Steel, Glu-Lam, etc.) I’m using
fold-up walls for moveable walls similar to airplane hanger doors due to 40
foot spans..
Of
course, there are other aspects of such a project that we have to consider such
as: Dining Halls & kitchen, toilet pavilions, parking and maybe some
housing.
Thus
endeth todays’ talk on Architecture.
