John Galliano has designed a minimalist blue tree for Claridge’s in London. The tree, which takes it’s inspiration from icy snow scenes, mixed with a tropical twist, dominates the hotel’s lobby. It is painted in white and metallic blue and perched among its branches are a handmade leopard, several parrots and a dragonfly. As...
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Last night at the AIA Minnesota Convention, “Citizen Architect” was launched. Local WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha, pictured above talking to AIA Minneapolis President Chuck Liddy, was on hand to introduce partictants and organizations. Citizen Architect aims to connect architects to their community through encouraging and recognizing volunteer efforts and raising awareness among volunteer organizations...
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The theme of the 75th AIA Minnesota Convention is Converge | Emerge. This year’s convention sets the framework for architectural professionals to converge around the issues that matter to us most and find ways to communicate them to others. The hope is that as architects we can reach beyond our own practice and profession...
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Come to the Minnesota Modern Module tonight from 6-9pm if you can. It is being held at Minnesota’s First Modern National Landmark, Christ Church Lutheran. To find out more about the Saarinen designed church, see my earlier post on the topic.
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Barack Obama’s very successful 2008 Presidential campaign received a lot of attention for reinventing the way campaigns are organized. Everything from collecting volunteers at a grassroots level to using social network sites in groundbreaking ways, the Obama campaign was doing things differently.
The most reconizable symbol of the campaign was the Obama “O” logo. It...
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The New York Times is reporting that Irving Penn has died.
“Photographing a cake can be art,” Irving Penn was famously quoted as saying when he opened his studio in 1953. He soon backed up that statement by doing a series of photographs for advertising that created a new high standard for the field.
Penn’s work...
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The French are outraged at the thought of the iconic Mona Lisa sharing a home with the iconic golden arches of McDonalds. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that The Louvre has agreed to open a “quality” McCafé and have a McDonald’s in place by the end of the year, which it said was “is in...
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Preserving modern architectural resources is often a tough idea for people swallow. As an architectural preservationist myself I know the most difficult task is working to preserve work from the recent past.
Los Angeles hit it’s architectural stride in the 1960’s and now as 2010 approaches the buildings from that era are reaching 50 years...
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This may be the first time art has been used to sell condoms. The UK Guardian reports that the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid is going to be selling condoms decorated with a sleeping David Beckham on them. The image of Beckham was part of artist Sam Taylor’s Woods “Sleeping David” video first shown at...
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Yesterday Christ Church Lutheran was made Minnesota’s 23rd National Landmark. The site was named a Landmark because it possesses national significance as a master work by father and son Architects Eliel and Eero Saarinen. It is rare for a building or site from the recent past to be named a National Landmark...
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