cover photo



blog archive

main site

artwork

bio






Schwarz



View current page
...more recent posts

Investigators have found what may be a design flaw in the bridge that collapsed here a week ago, in the steel parts that connect girders, raising safety concerns for other bridges around the country, federal officials said on Wednesday.

The Federal Highway Administration swiftly responded by urging all states to take extra care with how much weight they place on bridges of any design when sending construction crews to work on them. Crews were doing work on the deck of the Interstate 35W bridge here when it gave way, hurling rush-hour traffic into the Mississippi River and killing at least five people.

[link] [add a comment]

According to Pearl Jam's website, portions of the band's Sunday night set at Lollapalooza were missing from the AT&T Blue Room live webcast. Fans alerted the band to the missing material after the show. Reportedly absent from the webcast were segments of the band's performance of "Daughter," including the sung lines "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home."

[link] [2 comments]

At the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the view from the wooden Giant Dipper roller coaster is sea and sand. More than 50 million people have ridden the coaster since it opened in 1924. Along with the 1911 Looff Carousel, the Giant Dipper is one of two National Historic Landmarks at the Beach Boardwalk, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this summer—a significant milestone, since the Boardwalk is one of the few remaining seaside amusement parks in the United States.

Several old oceanfront parks have closed in recent years, including the Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City Beach, Fla., which closed three years ago, and South Carolina's Myrtle Beach Pavilion, which was shuttered in 2006. Coney Island's Astroland amusement park was sold to developers last year, and its fate is uncertain. And in Ocean City, Md., the Trimper family has said that this summer may be the last for Trimper's Rides, the boardwalk amusement park that opened in 1890 and is one of the oldest operating amusement parks in the world.

[link] [1 comment]

brutal truth

The yellowed, poured-concrete 1,614-seat theater--with its sharp, asymmetric angles, hidden walkways, and in-your-face functionalism--was for decades Baltimore's only professional theater and is credited with reigniting Baltimore's cultural scene in the late 1960s and early '70s. But the theater has been empty now for three years, since the Hippodrome Theatre became home to Baltimore's touring Broadway productions. A few ground-level shops and offices and a subway entrance are all that remain of what once was a cornerstone of Baltimore's downtown revival. On the outside of the theater, facing Charles Street, hangs a large banner announcing the advent of a new developer: David S. Brown Enterprises Ltd.

David S. Brown doesn't have definite plans for the structure. But when it became clear that the developer was considering converting the Mechanic into a "big box" store with a 10-story residential project, the city's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) recommended the theater for historical landmark status. On Aug. 14, the commission holds a public hearing at the city Department of Planning. If the recommendation is approved by the commission, and later by the Planning Board and City Council, the Mechanic will be granted landmark status. After that, any developer who wants to change the building structurally will have to adhere to the guidelines of that landmark designation, which mandates that changes respect the Mechanic's architectural integrity.

[link] [add a comment]

The Prefab Fad - Prefabrication is everywhere in American home-building. But that doesn't mean your next house is going to be a stylish, Modernist box. (Slate)

Architects have been fascinated by prefabrication for a long time. I once saw a school in Costa Rica that had been designed by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century. The two-story metal building had been entirely fabricated in France, shipped to San Jose, and assembled in place. The cast-iron and pressed-metal structure was Classical in style, with decorative pilasters—and hundreds of bolt heads. (The Eiffel company still makes prefab buildings, bridges, and offshore drilling rigs.) The first house I ever designed, a summer cottage for my parents in Vermont, was a prefab, made out of interlocking tongue-and-groove cedar logs. The Pan-Abode Company precut the logs and, together with all the lumber for the floor and roof, shipped them from British Columbia in a boxcar. It took a friend and me two weeks to put it all together. It was like playing with oversized Lincoln Logs. Solid western red cedar is a durable material, as evidenced by this current photo, taken almost 35 years after the house was built.t

[link] [add a comment]

The design of Re-Reads Bookstore was donated by Alpine Tx. architect Tom Greenwood. Linked are his comments on the project.


[link] [1 comment]

our future: earthships


[link] [add a comment]