"Harvard takes perfectly good plums as students, and turns them into prunes." (FLW)

Sunday, September 24, 2006

I.M. PEI

allied bank tower





this is a cool building and looks different on everyside and brings a flare to the skyline....


morton h. meyerson symphony







another great place, except the inside reminds me of the vancouver public library, in b.c., designed by moshie safdie...interesting...i may post the pics of both side by side if i remember...


dallas museum of art: EDWARD LARRABEE BARNES

(anyone recognize the tall pointy building??? if not...stay tuned to the next blog)




the DMA was greatly dissappointing, especially after visiting the nasher. i had high hopes for this museum. i thought, it has to better on the inside...afterall, it is designed by a harvard guy...soooo not the case. not only did the building have terrible lighting and lack personality, but even the art was bad (aside from the french and italian realist and impressionist paintings--they were really good, and i don't usually like that type of painting.)

they did have a really cool modern silver collection being exhibited...which led me to the portland building--in the form of a teapot collection







---oh that michael graves cracks me up....

nasher sculptural garden: RENZO PIANO









this is a must see building of piano's. not only is it wonderfully designed, but the sculptures are quite amazing. the collection includes works by richard serra, as well as many from pablo picasso. the lighting is ambiant and very pleasing. sadly, i never visited this work of art while i lived in dallas, but i went to de menil, another renzo piano museum, quite often while living in houston.





the kalita humphrey theatre: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT




alright...so my first stop was the dallas theater center, designed by frank lloyd wright, located 10 blocks from my last apartment in dallas (in one of the ritzy parts of dallas, turtle creek.) i have attended film festivals in the space and had no idea that the building was famous, until i began architecture school. the place is a typical FLW building. there are very low ceilings in the main areas (something like (7' or 8') and incorporates the surrounding natural elements (or in this case references the trees and nearby creek). it is a rather dingy building, which may be due to lack of funds (or they spend them to keep the roof from leaking....hahaha...bad joke...well i asked a lady that is on staff there and she told me that she wasn't sure if it leaked, but it probably did and that is more than likely how the fountains stay running...then she directed me to the stairs leading up to the balcony of the theater, and told me that she thought the architect had a sick sense of humor)....so i went to the stairs and quickly realized what she meant. the stairs are steep and reside at an angle of about 33 degrees, is poorly lit, and has black walls and red carpet. i wish i could have gotten a photo to show you all, but it was so dark the i just could not get my camera to shoot a good one.