I liked the images of the Henry Miller too. I can understand the ire at what
these 'false' facades represent, as well. Nonetheless, the images (for me at
least) evoke memories of the free standing, screen facades that
Mitchell/Giurgola Architects incorporated into a fair numbers of their
designs mostly during the 1970s (--John, I'm sure you know the M/G building
at Columbia U., got any tales to tell?), and I'll collect what images I have
and publish them at Q soon. I think the immediate precedent for this
practice was Kahn's notion of "wrapping ruins around buildings," which (I
think) was said in regard to the Library at Exeter (1965-72), but it may
have been said in reference to the Meeting House at Salk (1961-62,
unexecuted) or even the US Consulate, Luanda, Angola (1959-62, unexecuted).
This past Sunday afternoon (when this thread started), I was having spot
portions of my home's back facade repointed--lots of little mortar pieces
fell out this past winter due to much moist weather and more than occasional
extreme temperature changes from day to day. On Saturday the workmen were
doing my Haitian neighbor's back wall across the driveway, and I got them to
do mine, so they came back Sunday. These workmen have "day jobs" and they do
these smaller jobs "cheaper" on the weekends. Anyway, after the work, the
guy whose scaffolding it was, another Haitian and friend to my neighbor and
someone I chatted with out back on a hot night this past July, told me about
all the work they're doing around South Street and Bainbridge Street near
Graduate Hospital. He said, "They are buying the homes from the Black
people, then they take all the inside out, make it all new inside, then the
White people buy the homes for $600,000 and $700,000 dollars."
In the summertime, I got a real kick out of telling these three Haitian guys
about all the Philadelphia streets that were first "Indian" trails. These
guys could really relate because they actually know Philadelphia's streets
pretty well--I think they were all taxi drivers when they first came here.
Finally, the "scaffolding" guy asked, "When was all this?" I said, "Like
more than 300 years ago." Then he said, "Oh my God, that's old!" And then
they all laughed, and we kind of shook our heads in wonderment.
these 'false' facades represent, as well. Nonetheless, the images (for me at
least) evoke memories of the free standing, screen facades that
Mitchell/Giurgola Architects incorporated into a fair numbers of their
designs mostly during the 1970s (--John, I'm sure you know the M/G building
at Columbia U., got any tales to tell?), and I'll collect what images I have
and publish them at Q soon. I think the immediate precedent for this
practice was Kahn's notion of "wrapping ruins around buildings," which (I
think) was said in regard to the Library at Exeter (1965-72), but it may
have been said in reference to the Meeting House at Salk (1961-62,
unexecuted) or even the US Consulate, Luanda, Angola (1959-62, unexecuted).
This past Sunday afternoon (when this thread started), I was having spot
portions of my home's back facade repointed--lots of little mortar pieces
fell out this past winter due to much moist weather and more than occasional
extreme temperature changes from day to day. On Saturday the workmen were
doing my Haitian neighbor's back wall across the driveway, and I got them to
do mine, so they came back Sunday. These workmen have "day jobs" and they do
these smaller jobs "cheaper" on the weekends. Anyway, after the work, the
guy whose scaffolding it was, another Haitian and friend to my neighbor and
someone I chatted with out back on a hot night this past July, told me about
all the work they're doing around South Street and Bainbridge Street near
Graduate Hospital. He said, "They are buying the homes from the Black
people, then they take all the inside out, make it all new inside, then the
White people buy the homes for $600,000 and $700,000 dollars."
In the summertime, I got a real kick out of telling these three Haitian guys
about all the Philadelphia streets that were first "Indian" trails. These
guys could really relate because they actually know Philadelphia's streets
pretty well--I think they were all taxi drivers when they first came here.
Finally, the "scaffolding" guy asked, "When was all this?" I said, "Like
more than 300 years ago." Then he said, "Oh my God, that's old!" And then
they all laughed, and we kind of shook our heads in wonderment.