the new farewell mills gatsch hyperbolic-paraboloid roofed snack stand at lk tbh.
Its walls are made from concrete block the color of wet cardboard, and the mortar that holds them together seems to have been squeezed straight from a tube. You won't see a single window when you arrive at the Trenton Bath House, never mind a conventional front door.
The New Jersey summer camp that commissioned this little pool house from Philadelphia's Louis Kahn didn't think much of the results. Kahn finished the building in the scorching summer of 1955, and was immediately fired from the project. Then, the European and Japanese tourists started showing up.
The spartan pool building that Kahn created for the Trenton Jewish Community Center isn't the sort of architecture you fall in love with at first sight. It's too plain and too cerebral, especially in an age when judgments are often made from photographic eye candy. The Trenton Bath House is a building that hides its wisdom in cool, shadowy corners, and is best experienced in person.
the bathhouse was featured at its most dilapidated state in the L Kahn 2003 documentary my architect made by kahns son. its a corker! glad the reno is finally complete.
this is a little disconcerting: "The architects also contributed one of the missing pieces that Kahn didn't get to design properly: a snack bar. Similarly modest, its walls are built from concrete block, but of a newer vintage. Its cedar roof flutters up like a butterfly wing, in contrast to Kahn's downward pitch."
video tour
the bath house homepage
the other bath house homepage
Ouch, the snackbar. "Let's do something the opposite of Kahn's design, so we can stand out as artistes" (except the snackbar looks like generic '50s/'60s ranch style)
The rest of the building looks great.
i also dont care for the casual mention (last paragraph) of the new barnes collection building which is a loaded topic.
I was visiting an old friend in Delaware and met a journalist for the Philadelphia paper. I asked if he was in the Barnes movie and he laughed and said no but he is 100% pro moving the collection to Philly. Not sure I have an opinion but I probably lean to "let it rot" over shameless civic boosterism.
the film is a gem. it cites the lack of msm attention and support.
the philly news paper ran this: The film erroneously implies that there was a $107 million state appropriation already available to the foundation before it filed its petition - and that this information was intentionally withheld from the court. In fact, the "appropriation" was only part of a publicly available wish list of projects in the Capital Assistance Budget. The dollar amount of this wish list represented almost 10 times what the commonwealth was authorized to spend. Of this wish list, $100 million was to be designated for a new building in Philadelphia and was not to help the foundation's chronic operating deficits in Merion. Nor does it change the fundamental reasons the Barnes went to court in the hopes of furthering its mission on a more stable and sustainable footing.
friends of the barnes and their version of the above refd 100m appropriation issue.
i havent been following the bath house story. so the snack bar structure caught me by surprise. but i do like cinder block and i like hp roofs so im not really too thrown by it so far. it doesnt seem to interfere with the bath house. i await more pictures, or perhaps a quick road trip to the site is in order!
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the bathhouse was featured at its most dilapidated state in the L Kahn 2003 documentary my architect made by kahns son. its a corker! glad the reno is finally complete.
this is a little disconcerting: "The architects also contributed one of the missing pieces that Kahn didn't get to design properly: a snack bar. Similarly modest, its walls are built from concrete block, but of a newer vintage. Its cedar roof flutters up like a butterfly wing, in contrast to Kahn's downward pitch."
video tour
the bath house homepage
the other bath house homepage
- bill 8-06-2010 7:12 pm
Ouch, the snackbar. "Let's do something the opposite of Kahn's design, so we can stand out as artistes" (except the snackbar looks like generic '50s/'60s ranch style) The rest of the building looks great.
- tom moody 8-06-2010 8:15 pm [add a comment]
i also dont care for the casual mention (last paragraph) of the new barnes collection building which is a loaded topic.
- bill 8-06-2010 8:26 pm [add a comment]
I was visiting an old friend in Delaware and met a journalist for the Philadelphia paper. I asked if he was in the Barnes movie and he laughed and said no but he is 100% pro moving the collection to Philly. Not sure I have an opinion but I probably lean to "let it rot" over shameless civic boosterism.
- tom moody 8-06-2010 8:38 pm [add a comment]
the film is a gem. it cites the lack of msm attention and support.
friends of the barnes and their version of the above refd 100m appropriation issue.the philly news paper ran this:
- bill 8-06-2010 9:06 pm [add a comment]
i havent been following the bath house story. so the snack bar structure caught me by surprise. but i do like cinder block and i like hp roofs so im not really too thrown by it so far. it doesnt seem to interfere with the bath house. i await more pictures, or perhaps a quick road trip to the site is in order!
- bill 8-07-2010 3:52 am [add a comment]