Closest Exit

Silly SEASON

2009-08-29T06:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings race fans,

We are about to enter the silly season at my place of work. Before we do, I have been trying to take it easy. None the less, with a name like this, I do travel from time to time.

Two trips of note recently have been one to NYC and one to Toronto. NYC is one of my favorite small towns in America. Toronto is not one of my favorite towns North of the border... I'm more a Victoria, BC, Montreal, and Banff type of guy...

At any rate, the last two trips to NYC have witnessed the closing of a portion of Times Square to vehicles. And, of course, most have now taken a peek at the TKTS booth and bleachers on 47th (I believe)... Duffy Square. This icon in the making is the creation of Mr. Leahy and his coworkers at Perkins Eastmen (http://www.perkinseastman.com/). This creation proves once again that people are more interested in watching people than almost anything else. Collective narcissistic behavior in a fun and crazy sort of way.

The trip to Toronto was very brief. A stop over on the way to the Peg. Google: Portage and Main... supposedly one of the most windy corners in Canada. Toronto has some great architecture, and another trip is planned at some nebulous point to take a closer look. Uncle Frank G has played there. Other famous architects abound. And, of course, one can find ZINC (Bonus) all over the city. In addition, the summer time dining in downtown Toronto is almost Euro-like. And the people watching here is also... well, something to see.

Until next time, Race Fans, do yourself a favor and spend a late summer weekend in NYC or Toronto.

-G

small LAKE city

2009-07-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings race fans,

It has been quite some time. Sorry about that. I have been on the road over the last couple of months but the destinations have blurred in the rearview mirror of one rental or another, or in the contrails of the various planes. I have also been in the office a little more than usual.

At any rate, yesterday I flew back home to Raleigh after a few days in Salt Lake City. Or, as an architectural rep in the area calls it, "Small Lake City." In the architectural and art world and even some of the cooler restaurants -everyone seems to know everyone.

We spent some time with an old classmate from the architecture program at silo-tech (NDSU) and took her out to din-din at Eva's. She does custom residential work for some executives that work at a certain software firm. (Seattle to Salt Lake and back again? Don't ask.) The rep knew five of the people walking in after we were seated and the classmate knew the server and others. This wasn't an isolated event. Speaking of Eva's -pretty cool and recommended. Small plates and very good prices. Also, for lunch, I can give NICHE a four and a half Lilliputian score out of a possible five on the Gulliver scale. Great prices, good sandwhiches and a fairly hip/urban vibe.

One of the nice things about Salt Lake is that you can truly get anywhere in about ten to twenty minutes. The rep told me that there are about a million people in the Salt Lake metroplex, and yet, the city is incredibly easy to get around in when compared to other million person areas and suburbs. I drove to Sandy, Utah to look at a store I did years ago when I was still living and working in Fargo. I had a very narrow window of opportunity between the last appointment of the day and the designated "pick-up-coworker-rep-possible-customers-and-go-eat" time. I drove to Sandy in about twenty minutes, looked at the store, snapped some pics, and drove back within another twenty-five to thirty minutes. Those times would have been considerably less, however...

July 24th is a state holiday in Utah. Don't ask and I won't tell. Enough said.

Concerning architecture, the one must see building in SLC is the Public Library by Moshe Safdie. The library opend in 2003 and still looks great. Everyone will talk about "the Temple," but for my money, on a limited time budget, I would spend every moment at the Library -at least it is a building I can get into. And believe me, it is a building that you want to get into. Moshe is Moshe because he kicks major tail in the twin worlds of concepts and detail. Five Lilliputians out of Five, fo' sure.

So, let's recap:

Niche for Lunch. 4 1/2 Lilliputians on our Gulliver Scale.

Eva's for a small plate, laid back evening meal. 3 Lilliputians on a scale of five.

Spend the hours in between at the Public Library -5 Lilliputians.

Until next time,

Travel Safe.

KOLN

2009-05-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have some prints -etchings actually, done by a local (not well known) North Dakota artist. I bought them years and years and years ago before I moved to Portland. One of these pieces of art is an etching of Koln's cathedral. So, when a March trip gave me the chance to take a day-trip from Brussels to Koln... well, race fans, I jumped on the train and said, "Ich bin ein Koln-er-type-er-don't-speak-much-German-er..." Here are the snaps.

The trip to Belgium is below this post and the trip to AIA San Francisco -actually the most current post is below that.

Thanks for playing.

-G

March on Brussels

2009-05-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

How do, Race Fans?

These are from my March trip to Brussels. Totally forgot to enter them into the mix. The past week to San Fran (post below) is much more current. Sorry. Busy G, these days.

Possible text to come, but for now...

Trip to Spa -outside of Belgium.

Then a night or two in Belgium -one at the beautiful Hilton Conrad... near the orange bunnies. (Lots of public art in Brussels.)

Then a day trip to Koln, which will actually be entered above this post.

Thanks for playing... talk to you soon.

-G

PS: The QuickBurger franchise is the Belgium Burger King, Mc D's, etc. Quick and cheap. Note that it was across the street from the Versace store.

AIA around the Bay

2009-05-03T07:24:00.001-07:00

What follows is an early morning rhapsodic rambling of a man that could really use sleep. Please read with caution...

There are certain cities that have such a richly woven texture that they become famous. In their continuum of being built, redefined, built and rebuilt some more, they almost automatically rise to the top of the "must see" list. San Francisco is one such city.

Forget all the jokes that may or may not fly in this current world of diversity, this town is worth seeing and every time I come back to San Francisco I count myself as one of the lucky ones that are able to travel throughout this country and see places such as this.

Most of this trip was working the floor at the convention. Meals and conversations with people I enjoy, respect and work with was the norm, and yet, of course, the person sitting at the table or standing at the booth was not really me at all but rather a facsimile of myself. A social representation -not always good -of who I am. The smile was real at times. The interest was feigned only partly, but the individual standing in my shoes and saying things I would never say, was not me. The real me was thinking of a current design project. The real me was wondering about loved ones both old, new, present and departed.

As I walked the floor of the convention on breaks, I found moments where my real personality came out. Suddenly I was seven years old again and I wanted to (needed to) know how something worked, how it was made or just awed by the look and/or feel of a product. In the AIA bookstore in the West Hall of the Moscone Center, I found a steep discount on the 2007 version of Ramsey and Sleeper's Architectural Graphic Standards. Impulse shopping kicked into overdrive. On a walk to the convention yesterday -Saturday -I detoured with a coworker and looked at Daniel Liebeskind's Jewish Museum. This building is a force to behold. And, shortly thereafter, we stopped in a pocket park above the Moscone to catch a snapshot or two of the park waterfall and Botta's Museum of Modern Art in the background. Say what you want about Mario; the man can play -hard!

Phone calls may have gone unanswered at times, emails piled up and any thoughts of racing all over this city to, oh I don't know, say, visit the De Young again, or check out Renzo's new contribution were held in check. However, this is a good thing. Gifts should sometimes -not always -be opened slowly. At the end of it all, the fake me now hidden in the recesses and lurking around dark corners in case I meet someone I know or someone who knows me, I reiterate: "I count myself one of the lucky ones... (to) see places such as this."

This is one city that lives up to the hype and is highly recommended, race fans.

-G

san DIEGO, DORA and the MAP

2009-04-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Ohio recently. Just outside or over the border from Kentucky. I went specifically to interview a past representative about coming back to the "company" and picking up where he left off. While I was there (with a coworker) we stopped by the U of Cinci to look at some of our handiwork. Of course, I made the coworker stop the car to look at one of Eisenman's projects and one of Gehry's.

Eisenman's building is a case study in using the paint or color schemes of the day. There are two ways to look at this (and probably a couple of hundred more that are not going to be listed here.) The first is that by using the color schemes of the day, one automatically dates the building and turns it into something out of sync with the present day -from the moment the grand opening ribbon is cut. This is generally viewed as bad. The other view is that dating a building is necessary and automatically adds to the historical continuum that we are all beholden to at one level or another. Kind of like a time-date stamp and a frozen moment in history. I won't give you my view except to say that I talked with our new/old rep's spouse, a woman who is well-read and educated on myriad levels. She is involved with the University at some levels and tells me without malice that the Eisenman building is falling apart. Enough said.

The Gehry building is a study in restraint for Uncle Frank. Enough said.

The zinc on the campus is fantastic -due in no small part to the installers doing a fantastic job. There are multiple buildings on campus with zinc.

I recommend that if you are in Cinci, that you check out the campus and all the great buildings that the U owns.

Tonight finds me in San Diego. Tomorrow I will be doing a show for the National School Board Association. Fun. The Gas Lamp District, The Midway, the high rises are all great. I dig the convention center. It is unrestrained in a Ed Niles sort of way. (http://www.ednilesarchitect.com/ ) Ed has a nice studio on the second floor of a building around the Malibu area. Malibu is nice and has a somewhat exclusive feel. So does La Jolla... near San Diego. Today was overcast. The perfect San Diego climate looked more like Seattle than San Diego and I find myself in a laconic state -jet lagged and tired; soaking it in and yet barely seeing. The trick to seeing is being there -fully into it. I would like to say that I am, but I am not. I am gray and muted in my own ways today. This quietness... I can tell you that there are some incredibly quiet moments rife with beauty on the drive (pick one) in this part of California. The drive from La Jolla to San Diego along back streets will eventually lead to Mission Point. Turn off the GPS and just drive if it is after hours and you are on your own. From Mission Point, you wind back to cross the bay and then wind your way back into San Diego. On this drive you should see surfers and hear the waves. On an overcast day like today, you may even find yourself feeling reflective of the Pacific Northwest. The wetsuits are rampant and the whole thing has a Carmel By the Sea sort of vibe. (Still California, but more Pacific Northwest than, say, Hermosa Beach.) I love the water. I know, it is true ...this is not an exclusive group -most people do. I can recommend this particular water and the winding side streets of La Jolla and San Diego highly. If you're lucky it will be overcast.

I go to sleep tonight thinking about the architecture of views... what does that imply? Do views need architecture? Or does architecture need views. (that is almost a given... almost) Either way, I will give that some thought. That and surfing lessons in North Carolina for my children.

Until next time, goodnight,

-G

Sorry about the camera phone being so blurry... a new one is on order. No promises of nicer pictures, though.

PDX finishLINE

2009-03-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings Race Fans,

Sorry for the delay.

SO, when we last left off, I was singing the praises of Portland and The Monaco hotel in Portland.

Portland is a cool place with some cool architecture. Of course, we can start with Halprin and his fountains. Of course, when I was there, there was zero water in the fountains. What a shame. This was and is a very powerful civic space. When I lived in Portland in the late '80's and early '90's, the fountain was going quite a bit and it was absolutely stunning.

Then there is the Portland building. Michael Graves' single-handed tour de force in Post Modern Architecture.
It doesn't matter if you are a fan or not... this thing redefined

an entire generation of architects and architecture. Personally, I can appreciate the formal qualities as well as the oh-so-'80's cliche color scheme... even if the base of the building doesn't work.

Then there is the Koin Tower.

Truthfully, it has seen better days. I remember talking to another architectural guy in the late '80's who told me that the building was designed for a top lifespan of 50 to 75 years. (Who knows what the intent truly was towards lifespan.) It blew me away. It sounds silly now, but it was the first moment that I realized that architecture (without judgement towards intent or "good" or "bad") is mortal. I had never spent any serious time other than in a cursory sort of way thinking about a building as having a terminal point in a nebulous and undefined future. At best, there was an awareness of a crumbling building or decay -surely not a distinct yet undefined moment of rigor mortis. Thank you Koin Tower.

And then there is Pietro Bulleschi. Pietro did the Central Lutheran Church in Portland and the Equitable Building. Here is some commentary from Great Buildings Online concerning the Equitable building...

Equitable Building Commentary
"An ethereal tower of sea green glass and aluminum, is this building of the Equitable Savings and Loan Association. The skeleton outline is predominant and stresses neither the horizontal nor the vertical. The rigid window pattern allows for more interior flexibility than is apparent as result of arrangement of utilities and modular subdivision..."
— Jo Stubblebine, ed. The Northwest Architecture of Pietro Belluschi. New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation, 1953. p41.
"This trim, compact office building originally 12 stories high and later 13, set styles for hundreds that came after. It was the first to be sheathed in aluminum, the first to employ double-glazed window panels, and the first to be completely sealed and fully air-conditioned."
— from Sylvia Hart Wright. Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture: From Postwar to Postmodern. p11.

Pietro also did a fantastic church in Duluth, MN. If you get the chance, Google, or, better yet, check these buildings out. Sorry no photos this time around.

At any rate, I roamed around PDX looking at some of my favorite things. However, much like the Lakeshore Inn (http://www.thelakeshoreinn.com/) and my refusal to stay there so I will not ruin some perfectly good memories, looking at some of this stuff was slightly bitter-sweet and more than slightly stupid.

You really can not go back. You can revisit and make new memories, but you can't spend too much time thinking of the really good memories from the past ...or the present becomes pale in comparison. I realized recently that we even do that with the crappy memories. "Hey, remember that blizzard and how you lost a glove while trying to go to the bathroom outside of the car in whiteout conditions?" "Yeah, that was wild... that was so great." At the time you were probably hoping that at the most you would get frostbite on non-private parts. Oh well... I went back and received frostbite on the part of my mind that controls memories.

From PDX we flew to San Francisco to see a couple of our reps and then off to LA. Finally, we flew home.

There may have been a trip or two in between the PDX-SF-LA junket, but I do not recall at 12:05 AM in some hotel in yet another town. What I can tell you is that a couple of weeks later found me under the knife in the hospital and a week after that, on my way to Belgium.

Stay tuned race fans, there is more to tell.

-G

Back on Track

2009-02-08T05:43:00.000-08:00

It has been crazy busy at work. I realize that we are in a recession and at times, (thanks to the media pouring its daily ration of gasoline on to the wide reaching and fear causing fire), it seems like we may be on the verge of something much, much worse. However, like my grandfather used to say, "You do the best that you can, and if that isn't good enough, the heck with it." -In other words, if we are on the verge of something worse, then, one, we aren't going to be able to control most of that and, two, the company I work for hasn't seemed to notice at the day to day, nose to the grindstone, sort of level. That's a good thing. (Count your blessings large or small.)

Today, this week (since Friday the 6th of February anyway) I have felt like the old G: Back on the road, celebrating architecture and life, hopefully promoting our company's products to an eventful and profitable outcome, and thinking... for the first time in a long time. What's that you ask, "You've been on autopilot, G?" Yeah, sort of. You know how it is. You get so busy that you stop thinking and just react. I call it the "Fire Dance," because all you are doing is putting out fires instead of putting in the time on the long term, more critical issues -like doing the right things business-wise in order to generate even more business when the Big Recession reverses and life is the Big Easy once again. (Please allow the cross reference to NO, LA. Thanks.)

I have also been thinking about some of my first loves: the art and architecture around the world, travel and the richly woven blanket of diversity that not only separates us into individual fibers and strands, but also brings us together, and you. Yeah, you. I imagine some of you quite clearly because you are my friends and family. Others I imagine as the merely curious and bored. At any rate, I have been thinking about what this blog was intended for and what you may like to know about what I have been up to, where to stay, good places to eat, etc. So, back on track. Here we go...

Friday I and a coworker drove up to Washington, DC for the AIA Gala presented by the AIA and the AAF. This annual pilgrimage comes courtesy of the fact that the leadership in our company has had the kind of long term vision to make us Cornerstone Partners with the AIA -the American Institute of Architects. Along with that partnership comes two tickets every year to this event. My understanding is that they do not bestow the AIA Gold medal every year, but they have at the last few I have attended. This year the Gold (AIA's highest honor) went to a plucky Australian by the name of Glen Murcutt. I wish you could have been there to witness this.

Forget all the jokes about an Aussie getting an American Institute of Architects award. Ignore all the snarky comments coming from half drunk women falling out of their evening gowns at the nearby table. (The same women and their companions who would only shut their mouths long enough to swallow the food or wine that they were cramming into it.) Don't dwell on the fact that last year the table you were assigned to was ten feet from the podium and this year the assigned table was in the nether regions of the hall next to drunk women, falling out of their tops, making snarky comments about Tom Kundig or Glen Murcutt. And please try not to dwell on the fact that last year's event, at the table ten feet from the podium that, for a moment, that podium was occupied by none other than Renzo Piano, while someone you know, like and call a friend, was getting hammered and making snarky comments to the lovely head of marketing for a local DC firm. (No, not I.) Forget all of that. Why relive it or be bitter or even slightly amused? This year's event, like the one before it, was about passion. Not the, "Hey-look!-Half-drunk-women-in-evening-wear-falling-out-of-their-dresses-and-making-snarky-comments" type of passion. (That would be lust.) No, the type of passion that makes a difference in any field where it can be witnessed, felt and, above all, thought about.

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen received the AIA firm of the year award. It's easy to see why. Some of their work approaches the sublime. Take Chicken Point cabin for example: http://www.oskaarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin Unreal! Well executed and well thought out design. If you are impressed, there is a really nice book out about their work. It is not an inexpensive book. It is inspirational, though. http://www.amazon.com/Olson-Sundberg-Kundig-Allen-Architects/dp/1580930824/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234102621&sr=8-2 If you do not want to shell out that kind of quid for a book, then check out Tom Kundig's book instead. http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Kundig-Houses-Dung-Ngo/dp/156898605X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234102621&sr=8-1

When you see work like this, you know that the practioner is passionate and fully engaged in their work. "IT" goes beyond work to almost this, dare I say it, Zen-like quality of caring deeply about the outcome while maintaining a focus that is so laser like focused that the rest of the world fades away. In a word; Passion. I realize that this is a quality that can be found in any field of endeavor. When it is found, it is breathtaking.

Then there was and is the Aussie himself. Here is a guy who is so passionate about the ecology of architecture that when he was asked by Architectural Record's Bob Ivy about the work, (photo above of the two sitting beneath the big screen), he slipped into overdrive and started getting down to the minutia of what he does, why he does and it, and even how he does it. "I unbolted the whole thing... and moved it..." All of which is predicate upon a passion that was noticable -even in the back of the room. If you thought that OSKAs book was expensive, wait until you take a gander at some of the Murcutt books. Go to Amazon and do a search on Glen Murcutt. The about.com site has some nice stuff about Glen, albeit a little outdated. http://architecture.about.com/od/greatarchitects/p/murcutt.htm

I remember seeing a book about his work floating around the library at North Dakota State University. Even then people were talking about this guy and his ecologically sensitive work. He was green before there was a green. Interesting side note: He mentioned in his talk at the Gala that "greenwashing" by various industries and interests would eventually destroy the Green movement. I am not one hundred percent convinced that he is right, but I think that he may be close to the mark. None-the-less...

Both firms... Passion. Look for it, find it, and above all embody it.

Speaking of Passion... I am in Portland, Oregon today. Talk about a passionate place. This town is jam packed with creative types. I love this town. I almost have grown to hate it (more on that another time) but, at the end of the day, I still love this town.

When I was a younger man, I moved to Portland. Think Prodigal Son meeting a severe case of wanderlust. I had spent some time at the aforementioned NDSU and found, at the end of three years, that I had absolutely no inclination to study or sit in a classroom. Long story short, I left my heart in North Dakota (sorry San Francisco) and went, like all young men in the cliche, West.

I lived in Portland and surrounding suburbs for a little over three years. Prior to this, I had lived for a summer in Boston, spent a summer North of the Windy City with my good friend, the Navy, and had spent a summer North of Los Angeles in the coastal community of Oxnard. I like all those towns, but I flipped over Portland. I moved during November (the rainy season) and drove my little Datsun 280Z through the night into the Rose City. Some people hate the rain, but I am not one of them. I stayed at the Lakeshore Inn in Lake Oswego -on the lake... and dare not go back in the event that reality ruins one of my favorite moments in time and one of my favorite memories. The more it storms and rains, the more I like it. Portland's mild tempatures and constant gray was like a warm blanket to me and my twisted little mind. The greeness of the city amazed me. I fell asleep in the middle of my first rainy day with the sliding door open to the lake (it was a warm 45 degrees -warm for November to a kid from North Dakota) and knew that I had made a good decision.

When spring arrived I was blown away by the color and livlihood of the city. I was even more amazed by the budding scene in the industrial section and Northwest area of Portland's downtown. This was long before the Pearl district became the Pearl. At that time, people were just starting to convert warehouses into lofts. Oh that 20-20 hindsight, thing. But that's another story. Art was, and still is, rampant. I met architects who would go on to become famous in their own ways... like the guy who has his work splashed across the cover of this month's (Feb) Architectural Record magazine. People partied through the night when they weren't working through it. And I, well I was just too dumb -too null and void -to realize how young and energetic I was. At any rate...

This morning finds me in The Monaco Hotel ( a Kimpton property: http://www.kimptonhotels.com/) in downtown Portland. I came in early due to the crazy AIA gig on Friday and a heavy week of travel this week. (San Fran and LA to follow.) If you like things that are a little bit off the beaten path, the kind of places that are a little quirky, than some of the Kimpton propertis are for you. If you time it right, it will cost you about the same amount of money as a Hilton second tier hotel like the Hilton Garden Inn. Be careful though, it can be quite expensive if you are not getting a deal. In the case of The Monaco, you may take the light rail (MAX) from the airport to Pioneer Court House Square. Walk two blocks to the North and Voila! You have arrived. This is awesome. I have stayed at the HGI in or near Lake Oswego. Albeit nice, and a fan of Hilton chains, I did have to rent a car. The car rental was $300 or so for three days once I put fuel into it, etc. Not the case at the Monaco. Even in light of the recently dropped rates (based on occupancy) by the Hilton chains, the Monaco in PDX is a better deal. You can end up saving money by making your desicions based on mass tranisit. IF you are a pet person, dogs, I believe are welcome. I am not a dog person. I have not noticed any pet smells in my room. Also, the Kimpton reward program (In Touch) is nice. Like the Hilton chains, there will be a letter waiting in your room with a bottle of water and a snack. Smart.

The two drawbacks to the Kimpton properties are that there is a preponderance of buy this and buy that. Want a candybar out of the snack tray? $3.50. Like the stuffed animal on the bed? How much cash do you have? They even sell socks, and, get this, unmentionables. This gets a little cheesy and not my cup of tea at all. However, I did buy the $10 toothbrush and Toms of Maine toothpaste... somethings I forget when I am packing. My bad. At 11:00 PM, I am willing to spend that kind of money... no Target, Duane Reeds or CVS in sight. More importantly, after walking the three blocks from the light rail, I was in no mood to go looking for something to brush my teeth with. This is drawback number one: the "everything is for sale" thingy. Drawback number two is not a drawback in my mind, but it may be in yours: All of these hotels are different. If you are a McDonalds person -you want it the same way everytime, this isn't going to be your gig. I, however, dig this. Be warned that some of there other properties are too expensive -even without a rental car. But join their rewards program, look for deals, and you too can bask in the Kimpton sunshine. Kimpton, by the way, was just listed on Fortune's 2009 list of best companies to work for. I like staying someplace that treats their people right.

A quick note... if you are a Relais and Chateau person, the Kimpton properties may be beneath your standards. Especially considering the first problem outlined above. However, the Kimpton properties DO have some of that same charm without that R and C price point. (What other chain offers you a $50,000 Gift Card -32,000 + Euros? http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/gift-shop/newyork/5/gift-certificates-50,000-usd/18/)And, there isn't a R and C nearby that I am aware of... I may be wrong. http://www.relaischateaux.com/.

Last time I was here, I stayed at the Kimpton sister property: The Hotel Vintage Plaza. It was also nice and a little bit quirky. If you are headed to Portland, or PDX as I call it (based on the luggage tag at the airport), check it out. I like the Monaco a little bit more. Both are nice and I believe that the Hotel Vintage Plaza is a little bit closer to Powells- The bricks and mortar Amazon of the Pacific Northwest. Ah, to wax rhapsodic about long, long afternoons years ago wandering the seemingly endless aisles of Powells. "Holy crap! They have more than The Ginger Man by good old J.P.D. And look, a real row or two of architecture books instead of the four foot wide by 9 foot tall section you see in some national chains." Love Powells. (http://www.powells.com/) Definitely worth the drive from the wine country near Newberg -where I last lived, and even more so, the walk from either the Hotel Vintage Plaza or The Monaco.

This has been a very long post... and, daylight is burning. I will continue this tale in the next post... until then, race fans..

Take care and travel safe,

-G

And Now for Something Completely Different...

2009-02-05T07:21:00.001-08:00

Personal view here, however, this is a personal site...

The problem with spoon feeding people is that at the end of the day all they know is the contour of the spoon. Giving government bail out money in the form of directly produced government jobs (like roads and bridges) is not a terrible idea, however it makes me reflect back to the idea of simultaneously preparing for and preventing war. More on this later.

The Gulliver Economic Stimulus Plan would forego giving money to those who have proven by past performance that they not only are adept at mismanaging those funds, but are also completely inept in the fine art of learning a lesson. If my kid is given a nice grand (ten bens, as it were) and he blows it on candy and Star Wars trading cards, I am surely not going to give him another grand to blow. And yet, this is exactly what our government has done with the automakers. Have you ever looked at a Pontiac Aztek? In addition, we are talking about people who do not want to make wage concessions or cut their hours –in reference to the original discussions with the unions. Instead, they would rather suck on the hind teat of John Q. Public. Well, enough. My nipples are sore.

From another viewpoint, isn’t it time we stop and ask “Who” exactly is handing out the bailouts? Yeah, very good. You’re right. It is the same miscreants who deregulated banking –opening the sub-prime door, the people who actually lived through the late ‘80s banking mess and learned nothing, the fools that comprise the largest group of working stiffs that have never held a real job, and the people who are now getting ready to lay down another trillion or so bucks on the debt ridden back of the public. Ladies and Gentlemen I give to you your ELECTED OFFICIALS. Shouldn’t we hold them to a similar standard like the one that we hold up for ourselves? Can you ignore your checkbook balance for oh, say a year of five and then ask for a “bailout?” Perhaps if the elected people of this nation were receiving the same retirement that the rest of us will receive from social insecurity, they may be a little more down with getting this crap right.

So, what is the Gulliver Economic Stimulus Plan? Or GESP or, if you prefer, G –ESP? Simple.

Give a tax moratorium for three years to small businesses… say under 10 million in revenues. Continue to tax the larger corporations and use the tax year BEFORE the stimulus tax break as the benchmark. In other words, don’t let people come in and say, “Hey! I’m a company under ten million dollars in revenue, too. Even though, granted, I was brining in 22 mil in revenue per year as of a week ago. You see, I restructured my business into three smaller businesses…” Sound familiar Mr. or Mrs. Banker? (The Bank of G announcements will follow this rant.)

Give a tax moratorium to the working and middle class for three years. I don’t necessarily need a new pretty bridge. I would like to keep more of what I earn, though. I promise, with all these flippin’ kids running around the Gulliver ranch and hacienda (five at last count), I will be spending that extra money. Enough said.

Keep the personal taxes on the wealthy and the “better-off” where they are at. Afterall, Mr. and Mrs. No Real Job Elected Official, these are the people that create jobs and WHOA!, pay the majority of the taxes. They are not going to be creating jobs when you tax the ever loving living piss out of them. They can go to Canada if they want that kind of a gig. They are going to be buying gold with whatever money they have left and hedging their bets against you driving this country deeper into bankruptcy, though. I promise you that. (Can I deposit bullion in a foreign safety deposit box?) Again, how much is the currently debated economic stimulus plan worth? Are we taking in a trillion dollars a year in taxes?

After three years gently start to phase in the tax structure and lift the moratoriums. Not a new, higher, brighter, tax structure, but the old one or, even better, a lower one. And, pay attention, tell people up front at Moratorium time that this is coming, what the phase in will be, how long, etc. Nothing pisses people off more than being lied to. I realize that elected officials get elected by living the complete antithesis of this premise, but I think that they can try really, really hard and get it right just once.

How do we pay for it all? Cut the fat.

When I was in the Navy Reserve, the US Government sent me and fifteen of my good buddies by DELTA FRICKIN’ AIRLINES to Japan for two weeks. I dug Japan, but come on, $1500 bucks a pop back then to fly commercial? WTH? When we got there, I was astounded to find a whole battalion of US Navy Seabees (Construction Battalions) on base sitting on, of all things, their thumbs. Yep, that’s right. They had their thumbs up their rectums and had nothing to do. We, my friends and I, spent two weeks making a nice new parking lot on base, cleaning up an old storage building, and touring Japan. (Ground zero at Nagasaki humbled me like nothing else.) We did not like the seating arrangements on base and opted in lieu of the rectal thumb thermometer for some work and sightseeing. The point being, I could have saved the public tax payers twenty-two grand and change in two weeks on airfare alone. And, I wouldn’t have had to try too hard at all on that one. I am going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this isn’t an isolated incident AND things have not changed since the early ‘90’s. I would guess that these types of incidents happen every day and are exponential. Let’s just guess a thousand times per day on the old Navy Seabee scale. That would be $22,500,000 dollars per day.

At any rate or scale, there are millions and billions in waste, corruption and graft going out the windows of various buildings all around Washington, D.C. –not to mention this once great country of ours. I would bet your social security check on it.

Please write, call or email your elected official and ask them to apply both the brakes and their brains. Ask them if they have ever heard of G-ESP. Urge them to spend less time with their conceited egos and more time with their dried and withered minds. After all, the problem with Washington, I think, comes back to the spoon and that old, well worn and very familiar contour. It's time to stop the feeding.

Disclosure: The Bank of G would like a bailout for the funds that I (er, I mean, we) have yet to receive. Thank you.

Rolling Stones

2008-11-18T05:57:00.000-08:00

HEY! Check out the blog of old friend -The K-man.
Rolling Stones everywhere.

http://mnaviator.spaces.live.com/

Architectural Lectures

2008-11-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

Check out the AIA TRIANGLE architecture lecture link. http://aiatriangle.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=34

For those of you from other parts of the globe... AIA TRIANGLE is the local AIA chapter for Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. Or, if you are flying in to the Triangle, RDU.

Happy Viewing,

G

ONE MORE... SEE POST BEFORE

2008-10-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.ecodeephaus.blogspot.com/

Two Great Sites to Check Out

2008-10-31T05:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Brother Rob and Brother Scotty G for the links below. Check them out... if you dig architecture and engineering displays of strength...

http://www.ccmht.org/?utm_content=Design+Notes+October08&utm_campaign=Design+Notes&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email&imm_mid=039c83

http://www.oddee.com/item_96489.aspx

-G

Disclosure: The Closest Exit blog wait staff and executive committee will not pay for tips to great sites. But we do say, "Thanks." Send all such sites to closestexit@gmail.com . Thank you. -The Mgmt.

long long long long

2008-10-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Holy son of a monkey! It's been a long time race fans. The G has been having a crazy, crazy time over the last couple months.

Allow me to give you a rundown of where I have been and what I have been doing.

AFTER Boise (previous post), I went to Philly to see one of our best reps. We cruised all over the place from Philly to Baltimore to Hoboken and then back to Philly. We stopped to see one of our favorite architects and the job he has been working on at his firm's headquarters. The substructure alone was riveting. The rep is as big of fan of architecture as I am. Not to mention other things. He invited me to stay an extra day (Saturday) and promised a couple of very cool things. He was right on the old monkey.

First, on Friday night, we went to see his daughter play at an open air restaurant. I won't tell you that she was fantastic, she wasn't. She was over the top fantastic! I won't tell you her name, but if you ever hear an artist with the first name of Jersey (possibly spelled with a "z"), you will know who I was talking about. The next day we went to the Barnes Foundation which has some of the best art in one of the nicest collections in the country. I can not recommend it high enough for all of you impressionist fans. That night he snagged a couple of tickets to Mark Knopfler -one of my favorite artists of all time. (Think Sultans of Swing more than the infamous MTV song when he fronted Dire Straights.) http://www.markknopfler.com/ It was a cool respite from the road. And I really enjoyed the Mann Center. (Not my photo below-blatant rip-off of the Mann site.) Thanks, MJ.

After Philly, it was off to the great white coast of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach for a regional AIA show with one of the reps. I really dig her and her husband. In spite of being hit by the hard times that have hit the five counties from WPB to Miami, they keep their humor about them and know how to relax. After a beautiful meal at a local restaurant, we headed back to their ocean front condo. We started talking cars. The reps husband (Pete) asked me if I liked older muscle cars. Um... affirmative, 455 CI with a 4-speed Hurst -like the one I used to own -wrapped in the shell of a 1975 Trans Am. Yeah! "Wait here," he said as he left me standing in the condo lobby. The rep retired upstairs as her husband vanished around a corner. The doormen looked at me as if they were looking at the whitest and most pale man they have ever seen. Lucky for them, they were right.

All of a sudden, THROUGH THE GLASS, I heard the loud rumble of a loud car. Bup-Bup-Bup-Bup. I turned to look out the window and saw a beautiful GT Clone Mustang of a 1966 vintage. Pete waved me out. I climbed in and said some sort of expletive. "Yeah," he said, "I bore her out. She's real fast." And with that he dropped the hammer. We flew into WPB. Then he stopped the car at a gas station and said, "Your turn." Well, slap me sideways and wipe the smile off my face. I was all for this piece of news. He yelled over the roar as I broke numerous laws heading back to the beach, "Speed shift it." I pseudo-speed shifted it because I was afraid of pegging the tach into the red line. "No, no, no," he yelled. "Pull over." Yes, sir. I pulled over and we switched sides. "You can't blow this engine," he said. And to prove it he set a new Palm Beach land record down a side street. We rounded a corner and he yelled, "We have to get off the streets now. The cops have surely been called." We rolled into his underground garage and parked across from a rolls. A rolls! I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING WITH MY TIME.
Thanks, Pete and Jean.

From WPB, the following week found me in Phoenix with one of the nicest reps in the business. This, of course, is where things started going sideways. It always does when you are hanging out with super nice people. I did get a great deal at the Hilton Squaw Peak Resort (or something like that) due to the off season (read "HOT!") timing of my trip.

About the second or third morning of the trip, I received a call from Mrs. G. Mrs. G, as I write this, is on modified bed rest with the newest little G still resting in the proverbial oven -he is due any day. So, when I answered the phone, I wasn't ready for the sailor drunk slurring of words that came out of the phone. She was in the hospital. Nobody knew what was wrong at that time, but something was definitely wrong. The rep showed up at this point -I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel swilling coffee. I got off the phone and made hasty excuses for ditching our plans and then ran back to my room for a quick pack and a mad dash to the airport. (Sorry, Dan H.)

Turns out that the old female body has a propensity to produce kidney stones when preggers. Or, at least it did in the case of my wife. By the time I arrived she found out what was going on. She told me that she had been crying and ralphing all over the place when this went down and that she would rather deliver babies over a kidney stone any day. I nodded sagely and stroked her hand and told her that everything would be all right.

A week or two later I was out on a pseudo-date with the now free from stone and pain Mrs. G. Suddenly I felt the need to ...um ...use the restroom. We went home because the G man suffers from a strong fear of pooping on rarely cleaned public toilets. (Wow! Good thing I don't travel a lot.) Long story short, I ended up on the floor in our bedroom two hours later writhing in pain from, yep, you guessed it, kidney stones. I didn't know that they were kidney stones at the time, but the next day at the local doc-in-a-box, I found out. The funny part was when they asked for a specimen. I went to the "room" and almost fell over laughing. Why? I looked over at the metal box for the specimen sample. I finished up and decided the only appropriate thing to write on the bottle was "IGOR."

Thanks to the Chi-town rep, Jim for the pre-season Bears game the week that preceded this Friday night discovery that I have been married way too long -my wife and I are suffering the same ailments. What's next. "Congrats, Mr. G! You're the first cowboy to get knocked up. You will be famous."

I really dig Chicago, even though it took me a long, long time to get over the summer of 1986 that I spent at Great Mistakes Naval Boot Camp North of the great city. For years, I would get a sinking feeling in my gut whenever I got near the Windy City. All this time I thought it was a visceral thing revolting against dark images of the longest summer of my life. Turns out it was kidney stones. "Your left, your left, your left, right, left kidney. Your left, your left, your right..." I told my wife, when we finally went in to the doctor, "At least I didn't puke and cry like a pussy." She laughed. She laughed harder a week later when I disgorged all over the grass of the old employer's North American HQ. "Baby come get me! One of the colony residents is trying to escape!" At least I didn't cry ...yet.

The saga isn't over. I have stones much worse than my wife did. She had one. And I indeed have a flippin' colony. Multiple visits and mucho quid to the old doc and it is still not over. FUN! But hey, race fans! You didn't come here to hear me bitch and moan about stones or the fact that I have renamed my manhood "Frightened Turtle, Hidden Stent."

Let's move on, shall we?

Two weeks later, I went to Boston and the Big Apple with the boss. Nothing like a road show with the man. WoW! I was heavily medicated, so I am sure that his overall opinion of me skyrocketed through the roof. I was in this gig due to the fact that my old East German boss split -flew the coop and went into the rep business. His boss is now my boss. Overall, though, it was a pretty pleasant gig. We took the train from Bean Town to the Big Apple. Nice way to fly. Then we ended up taking trains to the valley above the city. We called upon architects and installers. COOL! I dig trains. Not in the plywood-sheet-in-the-basement-pretending-like-I-am-three way, but in the kick-back-and-drink-a-drink-as-the-world-goes-by way. My favorite train ride is the Empire Builder from Fargo, North Dakota to Portland, Oregon. Beautiful ride. The trip was fine even though I was prone to the old 30,000 mile stare and slight drooling from time to time thanks to the Endocet and other meds for the stones. Thanks, Bill, Warren and Norbert for not nudging one another and saying things like, "Hey, hey! Check it out. He's going to drool again."

After a good three weeks or so after the Boston/NYC trip, I ended up in Birmingham, Alabama. IF you go... and I think you should ... check out the Hot and Hot Fish Club. Great food. Although the drunk middle aged woman who hit on me while I dined outside with our rep and his lovely wife, provided a little too much entertainment. I highly suggest you check out this restaurant. Birmingham is cool. Check out one of my first posts way back when.

After din-din, the rep's wife took off in her car (she met us there) and we headed back towards the Hampton Inn I was staying at. The rep suggested that I get a skyline type of view of the city and took me up near Vulcan park. (again, see the earlier post). I told him that I was going to put the drive in the old blog. "We had a nice meal and then our rep took me for a romantic drive." Just as a quick note... I don't play for that team, pal. Neither does he. Thanks, Randy.

I am going to stop here... it's getting late in Denver... where I am now and tomorrow is coming early. We can pick this up in a day, or week or a couple of months. However, I do promise... More later.

Thanks for hanging in there...

(Sorry. No disclosure tonight. The old melon is fried from this mile high air.)

Rhapsodic Graffiti

2008-07-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

They have a full body scanner at the airport in L.A. They have a Moxie Java coffee shop in the airport at Boise. Boise is where I am today and yesterday and part of the day before yesterday.
It would be easy to discount Boise if you have never been here or if you have spent your entire life in someplace like the Upper West Side, or Miami or, dare I say it, even L.A. Discounting Boise would be a mistake. Let's just leave it at that for now.

Since Seattle (the last post) I have been to Georgia, Alabama, yes, L.A., and Seattle again. In between all of that I went to France and Belgium. I will do a special post on Euro-G, advertisements for the rock band KISS, and all that superior attitude-thingy that seems to saturate the air over there. But, of course, I will do that later.

I am growing a little weary of the road. And, in truth, it is not the road that is making me weary, it is the lack of companionship on the road -namely the wife and chitlens. So, I am brainstorming ways that I can travel, get paid and have the wife and the traveling circus join me. A good friend said to me when I took this job, ..."you will eat some of the nicest meals you will ever have in your life, however you will either be eating alone or with complete strangers. It will start to seem", he said, "hollow." Very, very true.

I console myself with the fact that this job really IS a blessing. That I get to meet and shake hands with some of the best architects in the country -if not the world. I get to indulge my passion and this overwhelming curiosity to see new buildings, new art, new restaurants and to meet new people. I get paid to do this. I am blessed.

And then, on some mornings, I wake up and know that I am traveling to a place like Boise. The reps in Boise are eerily quiet. They don't talk much and one gets the sense that they feel like they don't have to. After the first day, long into yet another car ride to yet another architect's office on the second day, you find out that the kid (in a father-son team) had lived in Washington, DC for ten years. He doesn't look old enough to have done this. He looks like he's twenty, maybe twenty-two at the most. "I love DC," you say, "Why did you leave?" The response comes back and all preconceived notions take flight across the arid landscape.

"I was the chief financial analyst for a non-profit. The money was decent and the city rocked, but I made a five year and a ten year plan and I did not want to raise kids in DC."

It turns out that the son attended GW on a golf scholarship. So much for inviting these two guys to the course at some future date. The father has said very little lately and mainly just grins at the son. I feel (and have felt) like a schmuck! I realize that this is because I am guilty of the sin I can not stand in others: A Geographical Slur. I have assumed that Boise was a fly-over city... much like people assume North Dakota is a fly-over state. And golf scholarships or not, Boise is composed of people with amazing stories and history and predilections towards art and architecture and music and good food. Suddenly it feels a lot like home, just like 5th Avenue in New York can seem like home as you walk along on a brisk day, sipping coffee, and talking architecture with a rep who should have been an architect. Or how Miami can feel like home when you walk on the beach and realize that life is really good in the small moments and occasionally grand in the large.
I walk through the local mall, knowing, feeling, sensing and remembering that I designed a store for this place a few years ago -back in Fargo, working as a project architect for a small and good firm alongside my friends: Rich, Tom and Shaun; another lifetime ago. I find the store and the ceramic glass tiles look faded because the light sucks in the location, but the curved walls and circular layout of the dressing rooms still look good. I snap a couple of shots and get some long stares from some college girls. Yeah, that's right, baby, architect -kind of... okay, not really, not anymore. But this is cool. Glory days revisited and then I realize that I am creating new glory days every day.

I flip through the local independent paper and realize that Joe Bonamassa was playing last night at a place called The Knitting Factory here in Boise. I see that Candlebox is coming, as is Ani Difranco. Nugent will be here kicking up the great white buffalo in eleven days. Coffee shops populate the nearby streets. The Capitol building catches the eye as does the terrain of surrounding hills and mountains. The locals refer to the Treasure Valley. People are friendly and smile.

I am blessed.

-G

Disclosure: It would still rock to share this with Mrs. G and the little G's on a daily basis. If you would like to be a patron of a traveling fun show and daily mini-drama, let me know. Of course, we have to wait until our 16 year old daughter graduates in two years because she "ain't going nowhere." Don't use a double negative, honey.

IPOD FANS

2008-06-24T05:42:00.001-07:00

For all of you Big Apple fans, check out:

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5010

Thanks to Mr. R. Flaherty of Indy fame for the site.

-G

Seattle Slew

2008-06-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Salutations Race Fans,

It is I, the wayward one... it has been a long, long time. Sorry about that.
I have been all over the planet of late and will follow this post up with a couple of more posts.
I went to Seattle to hire a new rep and had a great, great time. I love that city. Only city in the states that I usually enjoy more is Portland. And, of course, the two are very similar in vibe and feel.

Seattle is one of those gigs where you can catch Steven Holl, the public library, and other notable notes. I did not make it back to The Chapel of St. Ignatius -kind of bummed me out. However, I will be returning to Seattle in a few weeks and hope to hit it then. If you get a chance... http://www.seattleu.edu/chapel/ ...check it out. For my money, one of the best by Mr. Holl.

The library has received it's booty in the press, so I won't wax endlessly about the brilliant play of glass and form and light and ... you get the idea.

Of course, you can always check out Uncle Frank's E.M.P. -courtesy of Microsoft Paul.

Fun town... I highly recommend it.

Stay tuned...

-G

Disclosure: I like architecture and I am not afraid to admit it.

Back at Stan and Frans

2008-03-19T13:02:00.001-07:00

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS RACE FANS,

It is I ...the wayward one. Sorry for the long silence. Check out the parking ticket on the seat of the rental car. Yeah... Actually this was a toll violation. So, a word of warning, TAKE CASH when you cross the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate. It's a $25 fine if you do not. "

"Excuse me, do you take Visa or Master Card?"

"No. But I will take your picture and give you a fine. Have a nice day." Fun.

Speaking of speeding and breaking the law, San Fran is the home of nice cars that people actually drive on a daily basis. Check out the Italian exotic cars seen on the streets of San Francisco. Needless to say, I left my envy in San Francisco.

The days were actually sunny. Seems like every time I am there it is overcast, cloudy or, you guessed it, foggy. (Think Scooby Doo meets the Creeper back in the day when you were a carpet crawler.) There were moments, but by and large it was sunny and nice.

We ate at McCormicks at Ghirardelli Square. My favorite wine store is located there in the square... 360 Cellar... Check it out if you go. The Square is undergoing renovations...I have been in San Francisco quite a few times over the last couple of years, but I have not been back to the square since 1992 or 1993... even though I have been to the Wharf almost every time. Wow! What a change.

The other big change is over in Oakland. Check out the "Cathedral of Christ the Light" by SOM... just finishing completition. This is a pretty cool project with an even cooler interior. Almost done... I will be going back. http://www.som.com/content.cfm/cathedral_of_christ_the_light I am sorry that the snaps are so crappy... better photos on the SOM site.

I will be spending more and more time on the West coast as our company brings some new reps on line. As time goes by, I will add to the architecturally superior work photo file. (See the last posting on Stan Fran's Disco from months and months ago.)

Until then,

Take good care.

Disclaimer: (Actually more of a plea.) The author of this blog is Italian car-less. I don't know what I have been doing with my time. If you have any suggestions, I promise to hold you harmless in future litigation. Thanks.

ral-VER

2008-02-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations race fans,

A good friend came to visit the G in his adopted town of Raleigh. One snap in this montage is of a Raleigh construction site. Wooo-whooo! I can sense your excitement. However, he is also of the architecture bent or ilk or illness, so... this is the kind of thing we did. "Hey Leap (no kidding... his real name), want to go check out some construction sites?" "Why yes, that sounds wonderful. I flew 1,500 miles to look at construction sites, which, let's be honest, is a nice break from watching how fast your four year old can disrobe after being dressed yet again. Where to?" So, we went to look at some of the cranes and construction elevators and construction in and around Raleigh. The day before we went to a couple of the famed North Carolina beaches where Leap, much to TSA's delight, snagged a crap load of dead crustaceans on the beach for his own little chitlens. (I hope I spelled that correctly... sometimes the old blogger spell check sucks. "Sucks," of course is a technical term. Of course, my own spelling prowess also "sucks!")

Anywho, Leap left soon thereafter for the lovely midwestern plains and subzero temps that all midwesterners know and love. Said something about neck strain from the fast Mustang we rented to see how quickly two middle aged children actually can get to a beach. Wow! What a fun car. But I digress, pony boy.

Soon after Leap flew the G coop and bid farewell to my unruly kids, I took the now familiar trip to the RDU Airport. Destination: The Big D. The Mile High Miracle of arts and life. Yes, race fans, I speak of course of that mythical land known as Duluth. Just kidding... though Duluth is equally as cool. (Take the drive from Duluth northwards along the lake. A good place to end is Swen and Ole's pizza joint. I will not tell you which city Swen and O's is in... make it a travel adventure and see if you can find it.) No, you silly snow goose, I went to Denver. Last time I was in the Mile High it was nice and temps were warm. This time, in the middle of February, the temps were warm and the atmosphere was nice. I stayed at ________ hotel and disco on Zuni. Nice hotel with probably the grossest hot tub I have ever been in sober. Just a caution note for those of you on line saying, "Well the _________ looks cool." (sorry. deleted on the advice of an _______ lawyer.) (Sorry. I had to delete the word "OVERPAID" from the last sentence.)

The next day I drove to Vail in the earth friendly Ford Expedition for a big meeting with a big group of big developers doing a big project for big bucks in a town known for big coin. I had a modest hotel room booked on one of the modest travel discount sites. However, alas, a night in Vail hob-knobbing with the rich and richer was not in the cards. Rumor had it that a big snow storm was coming in. Now I am a midwest boy. I love snow. And although I don't mind steering with my knees while driving over a mountain and snapping a picture of the Good Lord's creation, I do mind doing so when the mountain roads are loaded with ice and the chances of meeting the Good Lord face to face are, excuse the pun, elevated. So, after the meeting, I bailed. I crusied back to Denver and snagged a room at the Embassy Suites between Denver and the Airport. Speaking of the airport, if you want to know what it is like to be under the big white burkas, check out the crappy photo above. Thankfully, the hot tub in this Hilton Family Brand hotel looked and felt clean. Or was that the Koi pond? Darn high altitudes and thin air. It was a nice hotel -no kidding, and it was very reasonable in cost.

The day after that we had a nice little continuing ed thing with some architects in North Denver near, you guessed it, Zuni street and the petri dish hot tub. North Denver is really cool and coming around quickly. Think of the Pearl in Portland before it was the Pearl. Or, any quaint and cool neighborhood first populated by the locals, then the artistic types and then by the snobs. I personally am waiting to make the transition from the artistic class to the snob class. Hasn't happened yet.

Finally, it was back to the burkas and a quick flight on an oversold US Airways flight. Ah, fun!

Today, back in the South, I drove to Charleston, SC. Stay tuned.

-G

Disclaimer: Hot tubs sometimes only look dirty.

MUST SEE SITE

2008-02-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Race Fans,

Like architecture?

Like pithy humor?

Like monkeys?

If you have answered "yes" to any of the above except the monkey question, then you MUST check out this site:

http://designguide.com/Moviehouse.aspx

The rest of the site rocks equally as hard.

This site has just moved to the top of the old Gulliver song and dance road show favorite list. As those pesky kids from Greenland say, "Sa-weet!"

You can thank me later.

Later,

Disclaimer: Money is always appreciated more than "thank you." At least in this circus. Send in the Benjamin Franklin clowns.

Mixed Holiday Bag

2008-01-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS, race fans.

It is I. Who else would it be. Sorry for the long-time-no-see-G-thing, but as the photos attest, I have been a little bit active.

These photos are all out of order. See if you can match them up to the list of events.

I took my oldest son (Mini-G) to a Panthers-Seahawks game. (GO HAWKS!) We lost. (we lost recently to Green Bay, too, but it's okay. You know when you are a fan of the greatest team in the world without regard to wins and losses.) I then left the game and jumped on a plane for Beantown. I always enjoy Boston because I lived there in the summer of 1985. It still feels kind of like home even though a lot has changed.

For you non-architect types, architects are required to do continuing education -like many professions. I was in Boston visiting architects and doing a lunch and learn with our esteemed representatives. The "lunch and learn" was the education gig. On the walk over to the architect's office I snapped a couple of nice snaps. I will give you this one -see the second row of photos above. During the lunch and learn I looked out the architect's upper story window and noticed the snow starting to fall. Suffice to say it took us over four hours to drive twenty miles after the lunch and learn due to a rather quick and heavy snow fall. The reps office in nearby Sudbury seemed like it was world's away. The reps were tense. As we neared the end of the ordeal, or should I say, as they neared the end of their ordeal -I still had to drive five miles to my hotel, they suddenly lightened up and started cracking jokes. The jokes, of course, were aimed at yours truly and my beloved home state of North Dakota. These jokes went on for a while until we passed an actual road sign for an Otter crossing.

"Let me get this straight. You are going to slam a state you have never set foot into, and yet your home turf has a warning sign for an otter crossing?"

That dampered them for a moment or two.

At any rate, there was a quick trip to NYC for a seminar on Memory Retention or something like that -I forget. I found the famous church crouching under the Citigroup/Citibank/Official Usury Card Company and snapped some shots that absolutely did not come out. I also roamed past Lever House and the statue in the center courtyard and all the crazy Christmas types around Macys, et al. My favorite piece of architecture or public art, though was this cool little side park with a waterfall. Sorry, name is completely gone. If you know the name of the park, let me know.

From NYC it was back to the sun drenched RDU airport in Raleigh and then off to Florida for Christmas with the in-laws. Let us imagine for a moment that I am in charge of hell and I have a new torture device. What is it? I place all occupants on a boat and play that Small World Afterall tune from the Disney exhibit of the same name... over and over and over. MAN!

Now let us imagine that I am in charge of Purgatory. Okay, here are your free tickets to the Magic Kingdom at Christmas. What a zoo! The lines made the lines in communist countries look like a walk in the park. And the people. Geez! Is it a rule that if you go to Florida at Christmas you have to look at blue veins popping out of white legs on every street corner? It wasn't all bad, though.

The kids had a great time and, let's be honest, that is what it is all about. My wife had the opportunity to see her family which was very cool, too. We stayed at a nice resort and had a wonderful room with a wonderful hot tub and pool very close by. That was all cool. And, at times, fun and even funny. One of the more, can we say, semi-humorous parts was when my four year old (pictured above) had a little accident and head-butted one of the Disney characters right in the old south-of-his-personal-disney-main-street-anatomy. I actually heard the guy moan softly under the plastic face he was sporting. I felt bad for the guy, but then wondered how often that happened before a new hire sought protection. Maybe Disney can market their own line of Disney character protective cups for the actual Disney Characters. They market everything else. Tinkerbell purse, Buzz Lightyear ball, Mickey flashlight, etc. The Donald Duck Jock Stap and Protective Cup should be an easy sell.

Well, until next time, kids...

take good, good care.

-Gulliver

Disclaimer: The posting party of this particular blog sincerely regrets any bodily harm that his offspring may have inflicted upon guys dressed in heavy costumes in 80 degree heat.

NEW INDY TURKEY CALIFORNIA

2007-12-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations, race fans.

It's been a while, eh? Sorry about that.

Here is a little grab-bag for you.

Went to Indy again to further the training of our new rep there. Cool town. This was right before Turkey Day.

On Turkey Day, the better half and I loaded up three of the four carpet crawlers and headed for Kingston Plantation at Myrtle Beach, SC. The fourth carpet crawler, by the way, was in North Dakota to visit her father -a man I like to refer to as "the _____ _______." Alas, I digress. At any rate, none of us are real big fans of Turkey. We like ham. We like the beach even better. Speaking of ham -here are the three that we took down to the beach. They had a great time. (Sorry about the more than usual personal slant to this post. But then again... )

After T-day, it was back to NYC for a quick closing on a fairly big job. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard on East 92nd to mix it up a bit. I did two photos from this "BIG WINDOW" room. I call one NYC Night. See if you can pick it out of the line up above. The other is a day time shot from the same window. Uh-huh---uh-huh--uh-huh... we closed the deal with a company that could become a big partner for our company down the road. It was great to deal with pros like the people from this company that we worked with. Unfortunately, all this business stuff got in the way of my usual camera phone happy ways. SO, not a lot of snaps from the apple. But, good news for you apple fans, this worm is returning to the core next week for three fun filled days of seminar. YEE-HA! (A cowboy in the city.) Sparks restaurant is worth the time to hunt down in the city. MAKE A RESERVATION, though.

Last week we went to Pasadena for the California Green Schools show. I think this was the first Green School Show in California. Hey man, God bless you if you are a birkenstock wearing (spelling?), tree hugging, earth muffin. I dig the fact that people suddenly want a greener, softer, and perhaps fuzzier earth. That's cool. And, I know it is here to stay. But it kind of reminds me of a sign in our office building that asks all who see it to conserve water due to the drought in NC. The mandate is to use paper cups and plates VS the dishwasher. So, the embodied energy in a paper cup and plate (not to mention the plastic ware that goes with that paper plate) VS the dishwasher or, better yet, a quick hand washing of the dishes is what exactly? It's that super-idiot thinking that kind of kills me.

Another example is LEED being the end-all, be-all of green. SO, if that is true, why do you get more LEED points for a petro-based rubber roof that is white and lasts 17.5 years on average VS one that has a life span of 100 years on average and will go into the recycling bin vs the landfill? "But you don't understand, G. The white EPDM reflects the sun and requires less cooling load." Oh. Thanks, Einstein. How much of the United States has a heating load that is bigger than the cooling load on a yearly basis? 20 % or 30% or 40% or more? Whatever it is, the answer to this little math problem is: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. LEED is cool because it, at least, is facing the problems. But, like a Washington politician, it may be a wee bit myopic. Then again, I may be, too. But, again, this isn't the USGBC website. It's the Closest Exit Blog. So, nah-nah-a-boo-boo. (Adult like, huh?)

At any rate, the show was cool, but there was a small lack of congruency in people that insist on wool carpeting while carrying around plastic give-away bottles from their favorite building product booth. One company, I won't mention any names, (DISNEY), was handing out rubic cubes with stickers that had earth friendly cartoon characters on all sides. The message was and is that Disney is very considerate of the earth. They also had a CD, "The Sacred Earth." This beautiful CD came packaged in a plastic container with full color graphics. Next to the Tree-Huggin' Plastic Rube Cube, this was pretty neat.

I am not saying that I am any better than these kids. Not at all. I love my Diet Coke in the kid friendly-drop-proof plastic bottle. I dig hitting the gas pedal and feeling the rental Malibu get up and scoot as the dinos at the Indy Children Museum (above) scream in three-part harmony from beyond the tar pit. I love the look of exotic woods as well as the look of the less than exotic woods and clients that can afford them. No doubt in my mind, there is some two-faced bastard hanging out in the G-man's body at times. I will not deny it. And, we do need to do something. Our forefathers and those hash-hitting freaks from the industrial age made a mess of things. (So did we, by the way.) We need to start and I salute the start. But hey, it's just you and me here, right? Please don't take a leak on my back and tell me that it is raining. Don't tell me that you hate people who aren't green while you eat your porterhouse-bovine-with-methane-based-by-product cooked over an open flamed charcoal fire. It lacks merit, but perhaps not more comments.

Man! THIS was going to be a short little post. Instead I climbed half-way up a soap box and made some half-baked statements about the half-fact that the Green movement may be more about money than it is about heartfelt beliefs. Or, that it may be more about getting on the old "hip train" instead of a deep-seated concern for the longevity of mama-san earth, kyoto. Wait, I made no such statements. I just said that the green thing is cool because it is a start, but may lack some congruency... like us...all of us.

Again, I digress. Californication is always fun. One of those places you can look at beautiful things while breathing in some of the cleanest air on the planet. I jest, of course. California is cool, though. A lot of very creative people. A lot of energy like NYC -in a laid back sort of way. If you go, log yourself a table at Dal Rae in Pico Rivera. No kidding. Rough neighborhood (kind of) but GREAT food.

This week I am in Boston. Love this town. It's very Americana. Hopefully I will get some good snaps and send them on to all of you. You, my Spotted-Owl saving, Randy Moss loving and hating, Porsche-drooling, Bovine-eating friends. I hear you. You're a little bit country, and a heck of a lot of ROCK AND ROLL! Yeah, party-on, Wayne. We're all a little incongruent. Like my bud Scott says, "Republicrat." That, my friend, is the US of A, and I love it.

Until next time, get out and live life and, oh yeah, hug the baby bamboo full color graphics on your corn-maize eco-friendly plastic-like bottle for me.

-G

Disclosure: The term "tree hugger" is not meant as a slam against those who feel that they have the right to hug the trees that I am trying to cut down for my next architectural project. We can work it out. Just hold the gas can for me while we talk about it. Thank you. -The MGMT.

RAIMUND DID NEW YORK

2007-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Salutations, Race Fans.

I was in New York in October. I spend a good deal of time there due to the fact that it is an easy flight from Raleigh and that it is one of those markets that requires frequent trips. (someday soon we should talk about the "80-20-80" rule... a twist on the 80-20 rule).

Now I know that I am way, way behind on the posts. My apologies. As I write this I am in Charlotte, NC for a group of meetings with our new rep scheduled for tomorrow. I am listening to a tribute to Billy Crystal on the TV in my hotel room and the sounds of tribal drums on the TV in the room below me. The people next door are obviously on a honeymoon and the tribal drums are adding to their, let's say, "time together." I debated in getting caught up on all the posts I owe you OR listening to the various sounds surrounding me in this poorly built, excuse of a hotel room. (HEY HILTON! What is the STC rating on the floors? How about the walls?) At any rate, I decided that instead of posting a ton of posts, I would post just this one from October.

Like the North Dakota post below, this post is a kind of tribute-slash-love-song to one of my favorite buildings of all time. This building is the Austrian Cultural Center in New York City by Raimund Abraham The photos above do not do it justice. The construction photos and drawings are from an Arc Record article. Quite simply, it is an amazing building.

This building combines my favorite form (the triangle or, in 3-D, the pyramid -especially the asymmetrical kind) and my favorite architectural problem: a narrow lot. Mr. Abraham does more in a tiny limited sized lot than most architects do with twelve times the lot. The lot is 25 feet wide and 81 feet deep. The facade is ZINC. Not our zinc (SON OF A MONKEY!), but zinc none-the-less. It has begun to develop a beautiful soft gray patina... all zinc does this. It is stunning.

Look hard and check out the cube lit up in the early evening sky.

I usually DO NOT wax rhapsodic about my favorite architects. I feel that there is way too much hero worship in architecture and too few real ones to be had. I will visit the famous. Look at their work. Appreciate their genius. However, it is rare for me to say that so-and-so is one of my favorites. Mr. Abraham and his very limited portfollio of work is. He makes up for quantity with quality.

I had looked and looked for this building every time I traveled to New York. Somehow I got the address wrong each time or ran out of time. In fading early October evening light, persistance came through and I stumbled upon Raimund's masterpiece. This project, the Austrian Cultural Center, was a competition winner. Mr. Abraham, by the way, is more versed in the academic world than he is in one of private practice. Which makes this building even more remarkable.

If you would like to know more about the building, check out the virtual tour on www.acfny.org

It is fantastic! And do yourself a favor next time you are in NYC. Go to a great restaurant near Times Square and then, as the sun is just starting to get low, go for a walk and find 11 EAST 52nd Street... you will be glad that you did.

Until next time, I hope that you enjoyed this brief introduction to Mr. Abraham and the Austrian Cultural Center.

-G

SoCar

2007-10-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings and belated salutations race fans,

I am way behind on the old posting. SOrry about that.

After my INDY trip (see below) I had the good fortune to drive down to South Carolina from the home office in Raleigh. Unfortunately, I did not have the kind of time one hopes for to really explore the Charleston area, however,
my gracious host did give me . . .

the opportunity to take a peek at some of the nicer areas in town.

For you new urbanists, check out Ion -the NU sub in Charleston. It is typical NU and fairly well done. The big "minimal car" aspect of NU, by the way, does not work too well in places like Minot, North Dakota where the winter temps can dip well below the zero line fairly often.

I am hoping for another trip to Charleston soon. The architecture is cool and old. The people are very nice and the town has an art-edge-type-feel-thing that is pretty cool. In addition to the history, if you go, check out...

PAWLEY Island. I had the good fortune to be invited out to our representative's home to meet his wife and share a meal. They live on Pawley and it is a quick drive from downtown Charleston. Definitely a beach feel, but a little bit more quiet and peaceful than a lot of tourist driven spots. Check it out if you go.

I stayed at the Hampton Inn in historical downtown Charleston. It was pretty cool, however the parking is so-so and the bums are nearby. The cool thing is that if you hang a left and walk down about three blocks from the front door-parking entrance, you will find yourself in the heart of a pretty cool little shopping district. The college is nearby, so expect a lot of college kids. I took a left on this street -the name of which escapes me right now at 12:06 AM (the posting times on the blog are not correct, BTW). I ate fairly cheaply at MOES (the chain of taco and Southwest fare -"Welcome to Moes!") Before my fare of Charleston Moes, I walked down in the direction of the waterfront pausing to glance into the shops -one or two of which were gallaries with some nice work in the windows.

Overall, I would highly recommend a trip to this area of SC if the opportunity arises in your future.

Until next time...
-G

BRICKYARD

2007-10-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Race Fans!

It has been a long, long time and I have been a bad boy. Sorry for the delay.

After North Dakota (see below) I went to the home of the Indy 500. Of course, I am talking about Indianapolis. Now here is the crazy part...

Years and years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, yours truly was attending a little university that the locals were calling "Silo Tech" or "Moo U." I called it, "North Dakota State University." I did my thesis for my B. of Arch degree on mixed used development. I decided to look at Indianapolis at that time. I knew a few people there and knew that the city was going through transformation. My whole premise was that the White river in Indy was under-utilized and should be developed and taken advantage of much like numerous other cities have done so all over the country. Well, low and behold, he river is now developed. A Gulliver before his time.

I didn't get much of a chance to look around Indy again, but I can recommend the downtown area to you. It is vibrant and the local AIA chapter has a great office and small bookstore down there. The other cool place to check out is Carmel -a nice little suburb of Indy. If you dig arts and that sort of thing, the place is pretty cool

I had a good friend in Indy at one time. The above keg picture is what his backyard looked like back then and probably looks like now. And thus ends the personal interest side of this rather personal blog post.

I will be in INDY again soon and will try to get a few more snaps of some good architecture, etc.

Until next time, please drink in moderation.

-G

A BRIEF LOVE SONG

2007-09-26T03:43:00.000-07:00

When the movie "Fargo" came out, people automatically associated the quaint, hickish, backwoods accent and personality traits of the movies stars with North Dakota. If you watch the extras on the DVD or the special edition DVD (I do not remember which), you discover that the movie was based partly on memories of "Minnesota Nice" and that the Coen brothers were originally going to name the movie "Brainerd" -after a small Minnesota town. However, at the end of the day, they felt that the name "Fargo" had more substance with the added benefit of fascination for the movie going public. As I used to like to tell people, "Only the killers were from Fargo. And they didn't sound like back-woods hicks."

I recently posted about Fargo. I obviously am going to post about it again. I was there three weeks ago or so for the AIA North Dakota annual event and, in fact, had the honor of giving a little breakfast speech about our companies products to the architects attending. This room full of women and men were and are past friends, foes and colleagues.

Fargo, as some of you know, is about the flattest area or territory in North Dakota. The "Valley" is the result of a glacier flow from a bygone era. The rich, dark black soil is a result of the same event. The people, on the other hand, are the real event.

I don't mean to wax rhapsodic often, but I fully intend to do so now. I am behind on two or three posts, so if this kind of sing-song praise bothers a person of your constitution, perhaps you may want to skip ahead, Sparky.

I drove by the house I once lived in behind a pizza joint. The small apartment was the low point of my existence so far. The neighbor in the apartment next door subsidized his food with wild edible berries and plants that grew by the nearby railroad tracks. He would go on daily summer and early fall journeys to see what he could salvage from the plants. He built small wooden crosses and decorated them with flowers. We shared a bathroom at the end of the hall and the water came out of the shower head in fitful spurts, a thin pencil like stream, or not at all. I lived off of either Ramen noodles or potatoes -depending on my affluence by the day or week. I slept on the floor in an old sleeping bag that my father had bought for me while I was an active member of Boy Scout Troop 32 years before. Life pretty much sucked and, for the longest time, I associated my lack of funds, lack of food and lack of a decent living standard with North Dakota in general and Fargo in particular. Many years later I learned that I should have been associating those life polemics with me and not with location.

Shortly after the pizza house living experience, my life turned around and I moved to Portland, Oregon. I lived there for a few years and then returned to North Dakota to pursue an architecture degree. When I arrived back in North Dakota, as now, I would drive by that house and feel a sense of dread and foreboding -I didn't want to return to that place called Scarcity. (Thank the good Lord above, I haven't as of this posting.) I tell you all of this because it is never easy for me to return to North Dakota due to some of those dark and brooding memories. And yet...

North Dakota is one of the most underrated states in the union. As you fly in or out of eastern ND, the lakes of Minnesota start to give way to the prairie-quilt of farmland. And like the visual warmth one can take from a quilt, the people are, for the most part, warm and friendly. I tell people that the people in the South are more polite than those that live in North Dakota, but the North Dakota people are more friendly and accepting of outsiders.

The land ranges from the stark, at first blush, to the dynamic shapes and forms of the badlands in the West. The rolling prairie on I-94 will lull you to sleep, like a baby carriage, if you let someone else drive and relax. Sleeping, however, would be a mistake. For even in the flat East side of the state, there is a great exuberance and diversity of life in those fields, rivers and shelter belts. The deer and raccoon and ducks and geese and fox and the occasional moose (I saw one in North Dakota) will be in those fields in greater numbers than you may imagine. The fields will go from greens and browns to golds, silvers and rust colors. Purple will dance among the gold like some sort of royal procession and everywhere you turn, at every stop, you will find the people.

At first the people may appear simple or naive to you. This too would be a mistake on your part. Like the hard cold January winds that blow through this part of the country, these people are strong and hearty to the core. They will think nothing of shoveling feet of snow, going to work all day, coming home and shoveling some more. Many of these people will have two or three jobs at a time while managing their homes, their families and the elements of nature. At one time, when I was a kid, North Dakota had more millionaires per population than any other place in the country. This was due in part to the low population of the state and also due to the fact that when a farmer gets done paying off millions of dollars worth of equipment and land, he is in fact a millionaire -if not only on paper. The East Germans have a cliche about being smart like a dumb potato farmer... a lot of well fed farmers out there. Some may say, "Millionaires and farmers aside, why would you live there? Why would you want to shovel snow twice in one day?" The residents will say that it comes down to a standard of living. More often than not, what they mean is that it comes down to a very low crime rate and outstanding people. As far as the snow is concerned, they will say only half joking, "It keeps the riff-raff out."

Speaking of riff-raff, when crime appears in North Dakota the people stop and stare and talk about it. When crime happens in the big city, people change the channel. If I had power beyond imagination I would do two things: I would transport the entire state of North Dakota to the freeways of California, New Jersey and a few other places and teach them how to drive. I would also transport the entire United States (in small handfuls) to North Dakota and teach them how to be real, honest and humane.

Suffice to say that this is one exit that is very close to me and one that I highly recommend that you take. You can multiply that statement by ten if you are talking about central and western North Dakota. Next time you are driving through North Dakota -don't. Drive into North Dakota and stay a while.

PHOTOS TO BE POSTED SOON

Disclaimer: The North Dakota Department of Tourism is not paying me for these kinds words. These words are lofted out there for the world to see based on a deep-seated love for the state. However, if you are with the NDDoTourism, my mailing address is...

DICE BIRD REDEUX

2007-09-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

GREETINGS and salutations, race fans. It's been a long, long, long time and I have been remiss in my duties of keeping you posted. Just when you started thinking, Gee, what happened to that guy? OR Gee, I'm glad that guy isn't "updating" me every flippin' week. VOILA! Here I am. Nice to see you again, OR sorry about all this.

The week before the week I did my two-fer to Vegas and Phoenix, I went to Charlotte to see a man about a horse. Or about a job with our company as our North Carolina representative. I had some good photos of Charlotte, as well as some stellar snaps of a nice industrial plant south of Raleigh, but, for some inexplicable reason, I can not find the photo file right now. If I find them, I will post them. All I can say right now is: North Carolina is cool. Poetic, huh?

At any rate, two weeks ago I did a double header to Las Vegas and Phoenix. I slipped the Phoenix trip into the Vegas trip because it is cheaper for me to fly to Phoenix from Vegas than it is from North Carolina. Vegas is what it is. I think I have already mentioned my opinion of Craptacular Lost Wages. However, allow me to say that there seems to be a nicer and easier feel to the Wynn than pretty much any other place in the town with the possible exception of "The Hotel" which is directly behind Mandalay Bay. The Wynn has this fairly jaw dropping water wall off it's main casino area. The bar between the slots and the water wall is expensive but nice. Like everything else in Las Vegas, you are on display when you drink there. Our Vegas rep and I had a drink while waiting for our reservation at one of the Wynn's restaurants... I forget the name. The surprising thing was that the price was actually very decent for the quality of the food. We were not approached by any prostitutes either, which can be a little bit uncomfortable without a salad fork in your hand and much more so with one.

When I left the Wynn, I went to the valet area where I dropped IT off. Wynn was busy like most places and there was a wait for the ride. As I stood there under the oversized lamps that look a lot like the thing my dad had on our cabinet TV back in the '70s, I could hear the tires screaching in the parking garage beneath us. You would hear this screaching and then count to four or five before seeing the headlight patterns on the wall of the up ramp. The valets were reving the living urine out of these Hummers, BMWs, Escalades, etc. And yet, not one of the patrons failed to tip the kid who had just tested the handling on their very exensive vehicle. While waiting I saw the same tall, sunglassed prostitute that I had seen earlier in the night. Her date this time around fit the same demographic as her earlier date: Short, balding and on the cusp of senior citizenship. Busy night all the way around at the Wynn. I waited for the squealing of my rental car, but the squealing never arrived. I guess that you can rod the living piss out of a Toyota Corrola and still not squeal the tires. I laughed. And no, I am not sure how to spell "Corrola." I laughed again as all the people waiting for the Italian, German, British and American luxury cars looked at me like an interloper in their midst. I walked fast but not too fast, as if to say, "That's right, baby. The really, really smart money." I tipped the kid and took my time playing with the GPS system while the window was still down. DESTINATION... pause... "CITY OR STREET ADDRESS"... Then I rolled up the window and drove slowly away. Of course, like everything in that town, it was all an act. Why? Because earlier that evening, when we finished din-din and said our goodbyes, I strolled over to the sports book section of the casino and gave Mr. Wynn $10 through one of his minions. What for, you ask? That my beloved and somewhat cursed Seahawks will make it to the SuperBowl. "Smart money," my butt. Oh well. I can frame the ticket and say at iffy cocktail parties with iffy conversation, "I placed a bet with my bookie on the Hawks." Imagine the stares one would get?

The next day I flew to Phoenix and back to Vegas in the same day. My sole purpose was to find a rep for Arizona for us and I had some hot leads. I ended up on Camelback and not too far from Scottsdale. I actually enjoyed it much, much more than the last time I was there. And, I have always dug Scottsdale due to the Frankster's establishing Taliesin West out there. I won't tell you my deep seated beliefs about Frank's personal side, I wouldn't want to offend you too much in one sitting, but suffice to say that even the most insane egomaniacs (not to be confused with those crased breakfast fans -Eggo-maniacs) can do some amazing things.

Anywho, the trip was a bust for finding the rep, but successful for determining who not to hire. And, a nice and kind soul gave me a heads up about one potential hire who couldn't make it and that individual looks promising. So, I will probably be in Phoenix again soon.

I drove past what I think was a gas station. My favorite form in the formal world of architecture, the three side pyrmidal form, was self-evident in all of it's past and neglected present glory. I only had five seconds to get two crappy shots off. I post them here for you anyway. This started me thinking about the house addition I just designed for a friend. Not a three sided form in sight. Same could be said for the drawing and painting studios I am designing for my own little utopia outside of Raleigh. The three sided form must be used with discernment, I thought. You shouldn't just pull it out willy nilly like some museum designers seem to be doing lately. Or mess with it's formal characterizations, like a lot of goof balls have. No, dang it! It needs to be handled with care and made into something important. Like a 1950s gas station type of building. I was just thinking this thought and one about getting back into the architectural game on the original side of the pencil when I rolled up behind the van that is photographed above. DESIGNER/DRIVER... And a third career contender raises it's monotone white head! Hmm.... For now, I think I will stick with the gig I have. It's a great gig. And besides, without it, who would send you email telling you the blog has been updated?

I flew back to Vegas. The next morning, flying out on my way home to NC, I snapped the photo in negative above. The stools in front of the slots look like tombstones. Another "deep thoughts" moment.

Until next time, keep your design intent pure and your van's tire pressure checked.

-Gulliver

Disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with Eggos. You don't have to be crazy or insane or even stupid to enjoy them. They may even be healthy -if you use organic syrup and have been wasting away at some base camp in the mountains for a few weeks.

Camera Phone Crazy in ATL and DEN

2007-08-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings and blurry Monday morning salutations, Race Fans.

I had the good fortune to do a wee bit of traveling over the last couple of weeks. Last week from Wednesday on I was in the office trying to dig my backside out of the landslide of paperwork that awaited me upon my return from the open road. So, this post is a little bit tardy -sorry about that.

First stop: ATLANTA-G-A. 18 wheels and trucking. We're going to do what they say can't be done. I stayed at the Stone Mountain Hampton Inn. Not bad. Not great. But definitely not bad and better than the one right near the airport. I said it before in a previous post and I will say it again... if you can avoid Atlanta's airport and especially the Habi-Trail thing they have going on at security (upon your return), do so. Security lines here, suck. This place, you may remember, is the gig where they have two display cases near the scanner-metal-detect thingy. They have one display case on one side of the multiple lines (mostly closed) and one on the other side of the multiple lines (mostly closed). Inside said display cases are items you should not carry on board the aircraft or even try to get through security. Included in this round up of "no dice" items are: a two gallon gas can and a CHAINSAW! Look, if you can get a chainsaw past security or if you even think you can get a chainsaw past security, give me a call. Drop a line. I want to talk to you because you are either incredibly fascinating or incredibly stupid. Either way, I would like to talk to you because I enjoy extremes.

At any rate, Atlanta is divided into the downtown, midtown and Buckhead areas. (I think that's what they call them.) The downtown and midtown are cool -especially all of the John Portman buildings. The Buckhead area smells of money. Very nice with a slightly criminal feel. Our man on the street in ATL, GA tells me that a shooting or some other kind of violence took place in Buckhead with a major sports star in the not too distant past. Still cool. I suggest you take a peek when down Smokey and the Bandit way.

The other thing to check out is SEAR -good food for a chain and a good price. The added bonus is that you get to check out one of Portman's best works. The hotel looks like the inner rib cage of a giant in need of some serious chiro care. Which would put the observer in either the gut or the intestine of the building. Draw what metaphors you will, however I am one who digs Portman. Back in the early days, I thought Big John was very cool because he was the original architect as developer. John is also the master of the catch and release... or compress and release... he shoots you through Habi-Trail tubes (there's that analogy again) and then releases you into these phenom type of spaces. "Whoa, Nelly!" Our man on the street says that more than one person has either been pushed, jumped or fell off of the upper terraces.

Before SEAR, we went over to the Sundial and took some nice snaps of the skyline. This is one of the original rotating bar/din-din joints. Jump on, order an over priced Bombay Saphire and Tonic, and enjoy the view. Make sure you go on a clear day, though. It was fairly hot and hazy when we were there. I did manage to grap a few interesting context and texture shots.

Overall, I dig Atlanta. Nice town. Higher in elevation than you may think. And surrounded by nice areas. Check it out.

I then went home, bought a house, moved and on Sunday morning I jumped a big bird for Denver. On the way in I saw crop circles from the window and thought, "Oh man, it's New Mexico Dos." When we touched down I could not see the big white pup tents. Bummer. Then, after jumping the Atlanta-esque train to the main terminal, I popped off of the train and VOILA! Pup tent city. I know that it is an architectural reference to the mountains. And the interior space is very fun. However, from the outside, driving up to it on my way back, it reminded me of a bunch of mishappened women in white burkas. Google BURKA and look at some of the images... no kidding. Burkaville.

I then jumped into the trusty MALIBU by Hertz and headed for Vail, Edwards and Glenwood Springs. I always wanted a photo of a cheeseburger in paradise (ode to Jimmy B.) and thought that only way to top this was to have a cheeseburger in paradise while driving over the mountains and taking a photo -all at 55+ MPH. Foolhardy? Yes. Fun? Not really. Cool picture? That's debatable. Done? Yes. Now I can sleep at night.

After the big important meetings in Edwards, I drove back to Denver and was lucky enough to see some of the city. Check out the big blue bear bare butt at the convention center. And don't forget the flip side of the performing arts center. And of course Danny L's masterpiece (think zinc), and 16th street marketplace and... what a cool town. Somewhere I got the notion that one percent of all construction costs go to art in Denver. This could definitely be true judging by all the cool sculpture, art and architecture in this town. DENVER ROCKS!

I took a few snaps and have to say that the construction photos and the underpass photo are my favorites. No kidding. I used to do the triangular forms ad nauseum in arch school. Still do. And Dan's place is definitely cool (DENVER ART MUSEUM -DAM). But there is something about formwork or the bare shell of columns and floors or the texture in the underpass that get's to me. I know, I know. "Shut your pie hole, traveling man." Sorry. Take a look, though, next time you pass a construction site. The colors, the texture and the activity will grab your attention if you let it.

Anywho, I had a very limited window of time and did not get to see and do all that I would have liked to in this city. Of course, that could take a lifetime in a place like Denver. I definitely recommend that you check it out. And check out Glenwood Springs and Vail and ... you get the idea.

Until next time....

Disclaimer: Bare Butts in public are not cool. They could be cool, but if your butt is blue or looks like cottage cheese, please do not do as our friend the blue bear in Denver does. Thank you for your attention during this important public welfare and safety notice.

A STRANGE PLACE

2007-07-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

GREETINGS and salutations, race fans!

The week before last I was in Boston. But, once again, due to time constraints and some business out Sudbury way, I had no time to snap, crackle or pop any photos of consequence. (Albeit one that I sent to my good friend the Leap Star of the Green Monster from the freeway -"Go Sox," he says. "Go Seattle," I say.)

At any rate, I had the opportunity to travel to Albuquerque as a part of a larger contingency. Call it a "Traveling Road Show" Or TRSH or TRASH for short. We went, we saw, we power pointed, we went home. Getting to New Mexico was a study in the events beyond one's control. Getting home was an even stranger tale.

The first thing I noticed on the plane from Phoenix to Albuquerque (ABQ) was that there were outdated screens in front of my seat. These, I was told, were from an era that thought first class passengers would like to play Pong on their way to high powered businees meetings. (What the...) The screens were still intact, but the phones and the video games were gone. (A way too early version of Jet Blue.) My screen had this strange, almost druggie looking, hodge podge of strange swirls and, in the lower left corner, either a deadly fish from somewhere South of the border or, as I liked to think of it, the bastard love child of a hash smoking hippie and an out of this world alien that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.

Shortly after flipping the whole UFO gig over in the melon, the pilot came on and said, "We are going to go to El Paso due to Microbursts happening at the Alburquerque airport. We will wait there until these storms pass and then return to Alburquerque." Microbursts, my lower extremities! These are part of the whole UFO coverup thing. Probably some gray or blue creature buzzing the tower and the gov boys were trying to squash the amount of eyewitnesses. To prove this to myself, I looked out the window and, sure enough, I saw ominous dark clouds on the horizon and then a zip of bright light. AH HA! You can call it lightening, but I know the truth.

At any rate, we finally made the Phoenix, El Paso, ABQ love circuit and arrived in ABQ three hours late. I was tired and frustrated and finally got my car and rolled into downtown ABQ. I stayed at a hotel, I can't tell you the name (HAMPTON INN MIDTOWN) and was not pleased to discover a wardrobe for the closet that must have been designed by the pygmies of central Africa. This thing couldn't even hold the ironing board in the fully locked and upright position. Wow! This is great for hanging up pants! (Picture above.)

The next morning I awoke to a much better mood and absolutely no illusions about UFOs or any of that nonsense. I went and did the gig with the others and then stayed around to talk to some architects. After that, I was told, it behooved me to check out a cool little zinc cone that is part of a project on the U of NM campus. I did. It was cool. I then rolled back towards Antoine Predock's studio. If the address I received was correct, then the photo of the white building with the black van is Predock's studio. No sign. Nothing. This seemed a little odd to me that the AIA GOLD winner would be so nondescript in his building. But then again, maybe not... (http://www.predock.com/) You absolutely must like a dude who likes Vincent Black Shadows. I am more of a British guy -though Antoine does have a Norton on his site. I prefer the late 60's and the early 70's. Anything BSA, Norton, Triumph. I also dig the old military bikes. Like the Dnepr (http://www.dneprworld.com/)... though I hear so-so things about the newer Dneprs with the retro look. But I digress.

After swinging by Antoine's place I took a side street (I think it was Carlisle or something like that) up to Bart Prince's original home and studio. On the way I watched a lady get arrested outside of a laundromat while stopped at a light. Then I rounded a couple of corners and... HOLY UFO! Just kidding. Bart's studio and neighboring cantilevered project are really cool. Bart is buddies with a guy I worked for briefly in Oregon. Bart now lives at the base of the Sandia mountains. The distant shot is as close as I could get to his new house. Think windy roads, watercolor skies, and pissed off locals. "Who the heck is that guy with the phone driving slowly back and forth from one cul-de-sac to the next, Marge?" Bart Prince is one of those architects a lot of people either hate or love. But love him or hate him, the guy knows how to build. (I think this is very cool... anyone can draw... can you build?) A very good friend of mine worships the ground Bart builds on. Now, to give you an idea of how cool Mr. Prince is... I asked my friend in Oregon if he thought that Bart would be open to a request for an autograph. My friend told me, "Yes." So I wrote Mr. Prince on behalf of my other friend in Minnesota and low and behold Mr. Prince emailed me back AND sent a nice package of material to my buddy in Minnesota. Compare this to some other famous architects and the difference is night and day, or sun and moon, or UFO and Microburst. (http://www.bartprince.com/) If you like Bart, check out Bob Oshatz at http://www.oshatz.com/.

The next morning, I pulled off of the freeway to get gas and drove by a graveyard in the shadow of the interstate. Freaky. I stopped and bought gas and watched some rough looking dudes sell a CD player replete with dangling wires to a girl in a low rider Honda. I left ABQ impressed by the beauty but uneasy about the strange things that seem to take place on the way there, while there and on the way back. I arrived in Phoenix just in time to see a cop on a bike in the airport take into custody a drunk at the Martini Bar. He left his bike and marched the guy down the hall. Photo above. I think, but can not prove, that the drunk was, perhaps, another life form.

Until next time, Mork and Mindy, have a great ride on the spaceship earth.

Disclaimer: Aliens are going to take over the world and turn us all into mindless robots. Aliens are going to take over the world and turn...

IF I CAN LOSE WEIGHT THERE, I CAN...

2007-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations race fans,

Well, as stated in the last post on the old blog, I spent some time this past week in NYC. Since I was just here a little while ago, I won't go too overboard. Or at least not as much as I did on the last go around on So Cal with the cool Mini Cooper Driving Steve B and Pasadena.

I will tell you this, though: if you are going to go to Carnegie Deli at 854 Seventh Avenue (corner of 55th) (http://www.carnegiedeli.com/index.html) take two things, no, three things, with you: A big empty tummy, a wad of cash, and a better camera. Something happened and I got a blurry shot. All you see are some of the cheap (3 for ten bucks) ties and the girl with the boyfriend in the pink t-shirt. The deli awning is in the background -blurry.

I ate at two delis on this trip. One was the Carnegie where I had a pastrami on rye, potato salad and Dr. Brown's Cel Rey Soda. The last item was the recommendation of one of the two reps in the NYC area and, as always, he was right on the money. It was a great combo. (http://store.drsoda.com/drbrcelreyso.html ) The price, with tip, was a little north of 25 quid. It's hard to complain about that considering that I, yes I, could not finish the sandwich. I had two older English ladies next to me giggling at my attempts to open my pastrami hole wide enough to cram the sandwich into the abyss. (They seat you school cafeteria style.) I had a nice Spanish couple sitting next to me on the other side. I, of course, was the monkey in the middle. I left the old tip on the table and went up front to pay the cashier. At the till was an angry individual from yet another country saying over and over, "You don't take credit? No credit? The credit card, you no take?" His wife and kids looked frightened -so much so that the kids hung on to their mother like she was some form of life raft in this sea of strangers and strange smells. Finally the old man left them there while he went to search for an ATM. The cashier looked like he was about to fall asleep -evidently this happens a lot at the old Carnegie. I got up to the till, slid my cash across the counter with a little bit of oomph as if to say with contempt to the cashier, "Flippin' tourists!" I then collected my change, turned around and gave the wife and chitlens the old Everything is going to be Alright one-tourist-to-another-smile. The food, my friends, was worth the greenbacks. Unbelievably good. The other deli, which I will not name, sucked. Expensive sandwiches, piled high like the Carnegie, but bad, bad service and bad food in comparison. Go to the Carnegie if you are into this kind of fare.

Believe it or not, I actually lost weight on this trip -even with the potato salad and the pastrami. This was due to two things: One, I walked and walked and walked during the evenings. When I was tired, I used my Metro card and jumped on a bus or subway. But for the most part I walked because walking is where the action was at. The people and the humidity and the colors are all more palpable on the street. I went looking for Tiggy and his cool little paintings and prints in front of the Metro Museum of Art one evening, but no dice -no Tiggy. This adventure involved walking up from Times Square and then along Central Park South. Between you and me, the handsome cabs aren't so handsome when they are six feet away and smell like wild yedi mixed with more than a powerful hint of horse crap. I cut through the park at one point and came upon some kind of fund raising event for the Central Park Zoo. Very festive and cool. I recommend this walk if you are stuffed up from a cold or if you forget your Breathe Right strips. Anywho, I digress. These walks helped to shed a few pounds. The walking and heat during the day clinched the deal, though.

I am going to start the New York Diet (NYD for short) and charge people 500 clams a piece for a one month self-guided weight loss tour through the streets of NYC. I am not going to give too many specifics here for obvious reasons, but suffice to say that it involves business attire, the NYC summer, and back to back appointments all over Manhattan. This is a great cardio program that combines subway steps, turnstiles, oppressive heat, bags filled with heavy samples, small and creaky elevators without fans, and a perpetual behind schedule pressure. Food will be sparse and liquids will be doled out at two hour intervals. (Not too specific, am I?) For all of you, I will cut the enrollment fees in half. Just email me at closestexit@gmail.com and I will send you the particulars. Like the Carnegie Deli, though -cash only.

One other quick note; if you are going to see Wicked, you could do a lot worse than the Hampton Inn at 851 8th Avenue for accommodations. You will literally be within walking distance of the Gershwin Theater.

Well, kids, until next time, enjoy a Cel Rey soda and keep your powder dry.

-Gulliver (Which, by the way, has nothing to do with a bird's inner workings)

Disclaimer: Weight loss results may vary. Closest Exit and it's owner neither claim nor warranty similar results. The diet only works in the summer times with temperature ranges of 75 degrees F and above. The $250 to $500 sign up fee is not refundable and can not be claimed on your taxes. Prices vary upon the blogger knowing you or not, and then liking you or not. Write closestexit@gmail.com for NYD payment instructions. Please allow sixty to ninety days for delivery. Please drink Dr Brown's Cel Rey soda in reasonable amounts -no one wants to hear you belch on the corners of 7th and 56th, at a stop light, in a crowed of people, like some people may or may not have done on a recent visit to NYC.

mosquito COAST

2007-07-11T19:24:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Salutations, Race Fans.

It is I, yes I, yet again. Like normal, it is the end of a busy day in NYC and I am back in the hotel room listening to the crazy honking of at least 13,000 cabbies outside my hotel window here in the Big Apple. New York: Home of 10,000,000 People and at least as many smells. I "HEART" NY. However, cardiac arrest aside, I thought that I would give you part two of the MN-CA saga. We can call it mosquito COAST redeux if you prefer.

LA is just as large as NYC in terms of population. I heard some blowhard at LAX state to a traveling companion that Southern California is home to ten percent of the new auto sales in America (on average). I can believe it. If they want to increase the cash in the state coffers, they should charge hourly parking rates on the 405 or I-5. The traffic is almost on par with the crap I have been experiencing here in NYC today. I have had procto exams that seem to go faster than some of this traffic.

At any rate, one of the better reps that our company has a relationship with, took me to see __________ in the famous Bradbury (spelling?) Building. If you are a BladeRunner fan (and let's face it, have you ever met an architect that isn't?) this is the building where Daryl Hannah's Character waits for the toy maker dude. His apartment is in this building. When we walked in, they were giving a tour of the building. The attrium like interior shots are The Bradbury. The Bradbury is also in close proximity to a certain store that may or may not have sold a certain knife to someone who then used that knife to possibly murder the ex-wife and boyfriend of a once famous person. Or so goes the rumor that I heard. I don't know if the rumor is true, but tomorrow at breakfast I am going to have toast, coffee, eggs and OJ. Of course, I will go to my favorite breakfast spot (for those that have read the earlier post) at the Westway Diner.

_____________'s people were very cool. The two firms are working on a high profile job that really rocks. It's very cool to sit down with guys like this and talk about their projects. This is about as close as a guy like me can get to fan/hero type of stuff. I love associating -even vicariously- with people who are taking chances, thinking outside of the box, and being rewarded for it. This is doubled in architecture. So, along these lines...

I stalked Frank O. Gehry. Not really, but it felt that way. I used down time one evening to cruise by Frank's place in Santa Monica. This is something I do every time I am in the area. I don't know why. I am either psychotic (a very real possibility) and this is like those people who have to turn on and off the light exactly 12 times before they are "ok" -I need to go by Frank's house every time I am in Santa Monica. Or, or, OR... just kidding. Or, it could be that Frank reminds me that there is one good outcome of a potential three outcomes that I count if you hang your cheese way out in the wind. This time I stopped the car. Got out, crossed the street, snapped a snap and then quickly jumped back into the rented Toyota and cruised towards Venice beach. It reminded me of May Day when I was seven years old in Dickinson, ND and I left a washed out pint milk carton full of dandelions on Heather G's doorstep. I pushed the button, waited until I saw her face on the other side of the door, and then ran as slow as I possibly could while hopefully looking like I was running full bore. (She caught me and then, oh giddy joy, kissed me fully on the mouth. When I finally opened my eyes, she was a full twenty feet away from me.) But I digress.

A very similar silver Mercedes to the one he drives in the movie Sketches of Frank Gehry, was parked out front of the old chain link abode. I drove by and then went by the old FOG shop. (He has since moved the store.) It's cool to think about him with an office full of people and the big developer client and him coming to a conclusion one night that he should give up the commercial pursuit in the commercial sense and follow his heart. Which, in case you hadn't guessed, he did. The rest, as they say, is history. I wrapped up the F. Owen G. worship tour with a stop by one of my favorite projects of his: The lifeguard's house on Venice beach. Take the back roads and try to get on the one that takes you right down to the garage door (or back side) of this house.

Listen, let's take a short little break and talk about something that is important to our relationship. This is my blog and I love architecture. If you think this is silly, you may want to Google "Potato Love" or "New Trends in Knee High Socks". I won't say that I am sorry for this kind of blatant salivating over architects and their work. I know that in the end, like all of us, everything we make will turn to dust, but I also realize that architecture can and does inspire, motivate and even nauseate people. That's pretty cool... considering that we are talking about buildings. And, if you have ever lost yourself in the task of creating, or in reading a book, or in listening to music, then you know how cool that is. So, I want to encourage you to give into that little demon on your shoulder. You know the one; the one with the bow tie and the Le Corbusier thick round black glasses as he holds a pitchfork between his thumb and the first two fingers only. Give in to him and indulge your love for architecture. It won't hurt, I promise.

In the words of Ron Ramsay at North Dakota State University, "The editorial light is off." (But not really -this is a blog. Duh!) Anyway, I am getting a little long winded... better wrap this up soon.

I stayed in Pasadena while in SoCal. My first time. Let me say this to you: IF you are thinking about moving to SoCal AND you have a little more than a little cash, you could do a whole lot worse than Pasadena. I dig this town! Very nice with nice shops and available Mass Transit. This is saying a lot. This is LA. The words "Mass Transit" are almost akin to swearing in church. People in SoCal like to drive their own cars. However, you can take the metro from Union Station in LA right into Pasadena. I think that the stop is Del Mar, or something like that. The LA subway/light rail is some of the cleanest mass transit I have been on in the country. I don't know if this is due to newness or due to the fact that everyone is parked out on I-5.

Anywho, Pasadena is home to more than one G and G home... including the Gamble house. (http://www.gamblehouse.org/architects/index.html) Chuck and bro did some nice stuff. Although (and in spite of the fact that) Chuck Greene looked kind of like Groucho Marx. When in Pasadena, check it out. And, oh yeah, the Rose Bowl. And the nice neighborhoods. There is some serious cash in Pasadena. Some of these neighborhoods are so far beyond tract shacks and the dead-worm road plan that it makes you feel like retching. I wish the clients were all clients like Pasadena clients. (I wish they all were California clients, David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen. Sorry 1980's remake-slash-cover reference.) A thanks to Steve B for the tour of Pasadena and Greene and Greene.

The next day I jumped aboard Amtrack for San Diego where I was slated to meet another rep in the same rep firm. We had a gig with another firm down San Diego way. There was not a lot of time to see the sights in San Diego, but the ride down on the train was fantastic. Highly recommended. Go early in the A.M. and avoid the crowds. The trip back to LA was less fantastic because the train was loaded with people including children that were under the impression that everyone in the train car wanted to hear their stories... a lot like some bloggers you might know, huh? . .. GULP.

Ok. Thanks for reading this. Until next time -I appreciate it.

-G

Disclaimer: Mass Transit should never be mistaken for Mass... although both may contain Catholics. ALSO, The dead worm plan comment is not an endorsement of New Urbanism. Nor is it a condemnation. ISMs in general are not condoned or condemned. If I were to condemn dead-worm street plans it would be a condemnation followed closely by a condemnation of those that think New Urbanism holds all the answers. Of course, this would be followed by a self condemnation for being such a know-it-all.

MOSQUITO coast

2007-07-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Salutations Race Fans,

I had the good opportunity to do a "two-fer" recently. The first part, this part, took me to the old stomping grounds of Minneapolis and then on to Fargo to do lunch and learns and representative trainings. Lunch and learns, for those who are not into the architect scene, are the de facto way of presenting your goods to the pros. They get free lunch and mandatory credit, you get some of their attention -depending on how good the meal is.

Speaking of meals; I had the good fortune to make it over to St Paul for a change and have a meal at FOREPAUGH'S... which is on the flip side of the street from the original MN Gov mansion. Sweet chiba, panama red! This place is pretty cool. The food was great and the dining can take place in a number of different rooms depending on size of the party, reservation, time of arrival, disposition of host, etc. They took us (a big MSP architect and a city inspector) upstairs and deposited us in front of a screen door leading to a balcony. The breezes were cool and relaxing. Half way through din-din the sky darkened. Just as we finished the meal, thunder was heard and the two drunk older women, who had been pleasantly getting ripped on expensive wine and what seemed to be at least a pack of Camel smokes, made a crooked (drunk) bee-line for the door. I of course, being the guy that had a divorced father that said, "Treat a lady like a lady always," popped up and opend the screen door. (My father's advice always seemed sound to me, albeit with a tainted scorecard to back it up.) The drunker one of the two ladies flirted harmlessly for a moment or two as they stumbled in . Then they tumbled their way into an adjoining room to sit by the fireside and drink. My dining companions were all smiles. The cathedral and Excel Energy Center are also St Paul products. When in MSP, boogey on over to SP and check out FOREPAUGH'S.

The thing I was looking forward to the most, in addition to seeing the MN reps, there, you know -ya, you betcha, was to stop at St. Johns on the way to the Fargo gig and take another peek at the Breur masterpiece (http://www.marcelbreuer.org/). It's an amazing church, abbey, structure. Well worth the price of taking five minutes off of the interstate. Look for the signs. If coming from MSP, you will pass under the foot bridge that expands over I-94 before hitting the exit. The photos above do not do it justice. Stop, drop and roll with this unbelievable concrete symphony -you will be glad you did.

From there I went on to Fargo. The wierd stucco apartment building above is where I met the better half. Yep, yep, yep... ten years of wedded bliss this August.

Anywho, I digress, the Fargo scene is always cool. Good art, good rural venacular, good architects to present products to over lunch. I found out recently that we quoted about 100SF of fascia or something like that in Fargo. Whew! Glad to see that paid off. Um...

Seriously though, I love the industrial plants and the grain silos and the strong primary and platonic forms of ND's rural setting. But don't be fooled...

Head on down to the Fargo Theater on Broadway and check out the interior... it's fantastic. Walk a few blocks south to the Hotel Donaldson. The locals call it the "HoDo." Like J-Lo, only slightly less populated. Check out the art, the food, or, better yet, spend a night. The sleep will definitely leave your eyes when you see that the hip has been hidden from those eyes and all you had to do was wander inside.

While you are up in that neck of the woods, check out some of the local talent: EAPC, Phil Stahl, David Schultz, Terry Stroh, Rich Burns, Unrelated architect-Mike Burns, etc. Mike did a great job in transporting an old school supply warehouse into an actual school. (I will get photos next time.) Terry has redone a lot of downtown... check out the law offices on NP right down the street from his office, Rich has done some beautiful lake homes over the border in MN lake country, David has done some nice downtown rehab as well as work in nearby MN, Phil has won an AIA North Dakota award for his artist house behind one of the senior homes off of University Drive south... it was also in Dwell, and EAPC is the largest regional firm in the Dakotas and is headed up by one of the better design talents to come down the pike -although he gets very little design time in due to management duties. Check out the website at www.aianorthdakota.org The photographer on the home page is Leo Kim. His photographs can give you a brief overview of the beauty that is in North Dakota. http://leokim.com/index2.htm

Another great site is http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/ for you hardcore prairie and ghost town people. Again, don't be fooled. North Dakota is vibrant. The ghost towns increase the vibrant nature of the state.

When you wake up the following day (in Fargo), pop into the Old Broadway Diner. Cheap and tasty with a nice atmosphere. I am a breakfast guy and this is my second most favorite place to eat at. You will have to guess on the first.

The second half of this post will appear shortly (three to three hundred days) and will concentrate on the COAST in Mosquito Coast. Thank you Paul Theroux.

Disclaimer: No Disclaimer... just enjoy life for once. Gee, come on! Life is for the living. You are going to have to let go off this obsessive need to always cover your backside.

Big Easy Bird

2007-06-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations race fans,

It is another blog posting from yours truly for what will hopefully be our mutual enjoyment.

I am in Mesa, AZ tonight. Let me ask you something, OK? Is it still considered a "dry heat" when sweat is rolling off various private parts? Not to be too crass or anything, but this seems like a gross misnomer if ever there was one.

At any rate, I am not posting snaps of the AZ leg due to the fact that I just did this trip a couple of months or so back and, quite frankly, I am too heat fatigued to give a rip about snapping of shots of the Arizona scene.

Instead, I thought that I would post a few pics of the trip to the Big Easy last week. Are you with me people? Big Easy -yes please. The big bird of Phoenix -no thanks, pal. All in favor say, "I." Did you actually say it? Cool.

I didn't have an overabundance of time in New Orleans, but did get a chance to visit the Garden District, the French Quarter (Bourbon Street, etc.), and stay in the Warehouse District. I got some shots, but not a lot.

The Garden District was cool and seemed pretty untouched by Katrina. Stately homes and a real Southern charm.

The Warehouse district was very cool. Emeril (did I spell that right?) has one of his three New Orleans restaurants by the Embassy Suites off of Julia Street, I believe. I know this because I stayed at the E. Suites and paid around THIRTY BUCKS!!!!!!!! for parking every night. The hotel people were cool, though. .. Even though and in spite of the fact that the fifth floor seems to have this yellow habitrail thing going on were you wind around and find your room if you're lucky. "Where's the flippin' cheese already? Man! At least throw me one of those green food pellets so I know that I am on the right leg of this thing."

The French Quarter is what it is. Charming and beautiful by day, a COPS episode waiting to happen by night. One of the ubiquitous coworkers and I ate in the French Quarter the second night (for me) in town. We went to Nola, which is also owned by Emeril. (Pass on the smoked duck -it tasted like Liquid Smoke.) (http://www.emerils.com/restaurants/neworleans_nola/)The restaurant is uber-cool, though and I highly recommend when you are in French Quarter land. The restaurant is either named for the Neuro-Optometric Liability Association or perhaps after his second wife, the city itself, which happens to be named New Orleans, LA. (...wait for it...) You decide. (His real wife's name is Nora, I believe. High on cell phone fumes, I originally stated that we ate at NORA's. I know, I know... cell phones are dangerous.)

Our wait time for NOLAs was about an hour or so out. We went and walked around past the strip joints, hookers, guys carrying massive 64 oz containers of beer while thinking that this somehow qualified them for their "man" card, and, of course, the nice little shops selling "smoking accessories." "Hi. Nice shop. Smoking accessories, huh? Can I get an iron lung to go, please?" We then returned to the restaurant which had been jumping all night with a steady flow of locals and tourists. I walked up to the host who said, "Ah, Mr. ______. You're still about ten minutes early, but I think I have a table open for you." BAM! What a memory. Needless to say, but go to N.O. and have a good time, but leave junior at home with Nana. No use having to explain why a guy named Larry has a club called BARELY LEGAL.

The next day I took off a day and drove up to Pineville to see the father unit. It's a rough gig to watch the parental units get older. On Saturday my father woke me up at 4:00 a.m. so that I could drive back to N.O. in time to catch my flight back to Raleigh. The strange thing is that his normal wake time is around 3:30 a.m. It was a scary early morning drive back to Orleans. I kept altering between doing variations of a stand-up routine and singing bad '80's hair band rock to keep myself awake. "We're not going to take it, no we're not going to take it. We're not going to take it anymore..." "Come on feel the noise. Girls rock your boys. We'll get wild, wild, wild..." Ah the misgivings of youth. When I did finally wake up fully, I road tested the night vision of the camera at seventy miles per hour. The jittery shot was either the car, the road, the camera, or the coffee scalding my privates. Where's my lawyer? Dang fathers and their worthless disposable cups. "I don't recall trying to take a picture while driving in the dark and drinking coffee, your honor. I just remember... the pain, the agony, the screaming at the top of my lungs, 'Why, Daddy? Why?' "

I did make it to the airport just fine and even managed to check the shocks on the old rental vehicle when I missed a turn and decided to jump the curb. After that I flew home to a premature Father's Day din-din with the wife and the chitlens. Pretty cool due to the fact that I had to jump the bird on Sunday for this open oven door they call AIR-A-ZONA. They should call it SWEATY-______-A-ZONE-AHHHHHH!

Anywho, kids, this daddy has been doing inventory in a warehouse all day in Arizona. "Hey, corporate mothership, how about an outside auditor or at least changing the old fiscal year so that we do this gig in April and September. June/July is a brutal, brother. This is why Frank Lloyd Wright lived here in the winter and LEFT here every summer. And what's up with the VP and your national sales guy doing the counting? But I digress. Tired. Must sleep. 64 ounces of beer on the wall, 64 ounces of beer...

Disclaimer: Drinking 64 ounces of beer at one time out of one container in public is stupid and crass. Then again, so is comments about scalding privates and sweaty privates and private parts in general. The author of this blog makes no claims of intelligence. (Did I spell that right?)

Where the Buffalo ROME

2007-05-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Buffalo, Syracuse, Rome...Yes, race fans, I'm talking about the great state of New York. This will be a short post, or a small one, if the word "short" brings nasty connections to your mind or if you are vertically challenged or...

Anyway; I will do a trilogy, I think, in the tradition of the original Star Wars and hopefully of the same epic proportions (although, without the furry little Ewoks) on my stay here in Upper NY.

Got to tell you: LOVE Buffalo. And for all the wrong reasons, too. There are a ton of old, empty industrial buildings all over the city. In addition, you can drive over the Peace Bridge and get crappy Canadian money for every US dollar in good old Canada. (Where do I sign up for that deal?)

Here are some more of the infamous camera phone shots for your amusement. Sorry for the reflections of the Volvo in the windshield (windscreen for you English readers). There is only so much a guy can do when driving 10 miles over the posted speed limit on the freeway while adjusting the radio, drinking soda and taking photos with his phone. Anyway...Like I said in the paragraph above, I love the city and it is 100% due to the old industrial buildings. I am probably the only architect in the world that would rather look at the wasted and aged buildings of monumental scale MORE than I would want to look at the latest, greatest, cover-of-arch-rec buildings that everyone else holds up as art. Not that I don't appreciate them, but there is just something about the composition, decay, age, monumentally awesome proportions, new growth, painterly quality about these buildings that turn my head over and over and over again. Like a beautiful woman who doesn't know that she is beautiful and that everyone else misses because she isn't making an event out of her looks. I know: strange. What can I say?

May the Buffalo be with you.

Disclaimer: Ewoks are annoying, but underneath all that fur there is probably a real living person with a beating heart, so show some respect. I remember seeing the Star Wars with the Ewoks in the Dickinson, North Dakota movie theater that used to be on Villard or Main as a kid. It's gone now, but that is another story all together. I remember thinking If only I had a high powered rifle and a deer scope...

PUT ON YOUR SPURS

2007-05-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

si... howdy, amigos. Greetings from the AIA San Antonio show this past week in, who could have guessed, San Antonio, TX. I know that there is a real architectural road show happening in TX, but I became burried at the show with answering questions like, "Can you tell me where the restrooms are?" and, my personal favorite, "Do you know if Al Gore is speaking today or tomorrow?" I did get a chance to eat some great food, look at some nice stuff and dream about projects with unlimited budgets for all the cool stuff at the show. I arrived back in Raleigh with a strained back and shoulder burn from all the crap I picked up at the show. Oh well.

We are introducing a new line and we ended up taking the new line guy out to Mortons for din-din one night. He was so happy that he purchased steak knives for all of us (nice set of six). Pretty cool until TSA gets into your luggage and says, "What the..." For a moment I thought about trying to get them through security under the pretense that they are doctor's orders for a predisposition to dead cow. I felt fairly confident that I could snow the security "expert" with this type of language, but, in the end, checked them through -much to the delight and entertainment of TSA.

We didn't get a chance to see too much architecture outside of downtown due to the ARCHITECTURE convention, but I did manage to slip on over to the library with the ever present coworker. If you get a chance to rent the SpyKids series, you get a pretty good chance to see the exterior of this building on a great sunny day. Unfortunately, when we were there, it was overcast and muggy and very, very humid. I felt like a Cohiba on patrol in a cigar vault. At any rate, the interior has a great sense of color, light and space and is loaded down with art... including one nice glass sculpture by a PACIFIC NORTHWEST artist.

The nicest level in the place, from my limited perspective, was the children's level. They have a nice ceramic-like art bull under a couple of arched walls and some nice water features outside on the roof terraces. Unfortunately, the terraces and even the interior balconies were all closed. I don't know if this is due to suicidal literary fans who think that a library would be a good place to off oneself (????) or if this is due to things like, "I'll get you, Larry. When you go down the lower level I'm dropping War and Peace on your melon. Hardcover, too, you bastard!" Not sure, but a real bummer for architectural fans.

Now, don't hate me. I do like the work of Ricardo (http://www.e-architect.com/news/aiarchitect/jan00/goldmedal.asp) , but for my money, the cathedral like space with the open stairwell ends of the parking garage rocked. The pictures up top side do not do it justice, due to the muggy, sweat dripping day of discovery at the library. Everything looked and was hazy. But trust me. When you go to the Central library, park in the PAY (!!!!!!!) parking garage and check out the center space. It is pretty cool. I liked it for it's honesty and light and sense of shelter. The library was very cool, but the parking garage got me.

The water features in the city are also very cool as most of you may already know. The riverwalk is a cool place to go to when you want to hang out with your special someone. They have the little tour boats which I mistakenly called "Sewer Tours" to the dismay of one riverboat captain. Those look like fun as long as you are not sitting next to 15 other sweaty convention attendees in May. "Ewww... I can see inside your pores!"

The Skies over America did nothing for me. Big tower. I may feel differently when and if I ever go to the top.

The Henry B G. Convention Center was pretty good. Well laid out. Nice details and great color. I highly recommend it for you and 22,000 of your closest friends.

Until the next rodeo...

take good care,

-G

Mini Apples

2007-05-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Minneapolis a while ago and really did not get the chance to get the photos I would have loved to snagged while there. Nice dash reflection on the Guthrie. Sorry about that. Cool building and cool setting. Julie Snow's work is also worth catching when in town... sorry again... none shown. Google her and check out her work... very clean and good.

Minneapolis St Paul is a cool town. I recommend early summer so that you can hit the lake country as well. My favorite city in MN, though, is Duluth. It helps if you have a buddy that lives there or has lived there to act as a tour guide. The drive up the great lake coast heading Northwards is well worth the effort. As strange as it sounds, the lakeshore up there reminds me of parts of the Oregon Coast... or vice versa.

When in MSP, though, check out the riverfront and all the old industrial areas near downtown. Like most places, wasteland has turned into prime r.e. I went to ORAGAMI (a sushi joint) in MSP and it was FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC, Grasshopper! High marks and a strong suggestion for all you dead raw fish types out there.

More snaps next time... I promise.

-G

TRAINS

2007-04-24T11:31:00.001-07:00

The train station below is of Newark, NJ's Penn Station.

The APPLE

2007-04-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

I went to NYC a couple of weeks ago to take a seminar on Time Management and to visit with some of my favorite reps. I am pressed for time (LOL) right now, but here are some cool snaps of the Metro Museum of Art on Central Park East, Crossing 5th avenue in a Beatles sort of way, F.L. Wright's masterpiece, Times Square, and 321 44th... where John Lennon left his office the night he was shot (speaking of the Beatles) and where both P-Diddy and our reps now have offices. There is also a negative of a Trump building -hate the fake gold crap, and The Westway Diner... where Jerry S. and David L. first met to discuss a pilot for NBC. This is one of my favorite Saturday morning spots for breakfast. Cheap and fast with plenty of people to watch. This is on 9th (I think) between 44th and 45th. Dig the art deco-ish fans and the mondrian tile-like border without all the primary colors. Most of the floor is in dull white and green. The booths are wood laminate. Funky but cool with a certain amount of cache because of the Seinfeld thing. Buy Season One of Jerry, Kramer, et al and look at the bonus features -shows Jerry standing in the diner and talking about the show and meeting David at Westway. Check out Westway's Corten neighbor when you go. Rust sidewalk.

Talk to you soon.

-G

The Fat Man Typos

2007-03-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Any and all typos are the responsibility of the fat man typing this type. Just a FYI for you. You pronounce that, "Fa-why," by the way. Thanks for your understanding. Your patience and manners are only exceeded by your excrutiating good looks. (JP DonLeavy quote.)

Disclaimer: Don't you think that people who notice typos are either authors, editors, English teachers or anal retentive types? There are no editors at closestexit. Every thing is raw and unaltered... except, of course, when I edit the post. Just messing with you.

Raleigh-Philly-DC-Hoboken-Philly-Charlotte-Raleigh-Philly-Boston

2007-03-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings and tired salutations, race fans. This is going to be semi-brief. Long story short: US AIRWAYS is falling down in the customer service department.

As mentioned in an earlier post, a coworker and I went to Philly and the Philly rep took us to DC two days ago ... or was it three days ago, and then to Hoboken yesterday. The idea was to drop us back in Philly in enough time to catch a flight back to Charlotte and then to Raleigh -our home base. The flight out of Philly was for around seven bells in the evening. We arrived at the gate with time to spare. The pilot did not. Repeat, the pilot did not show. Which begs the questions, "Do they have standby people or not?" I mean what happens if Cap'n Bob has some bad sushi? Surely this must happen every now and then. Eventually they flew in a crew from the greater Chicagoland area.

The upshot is that we got to Charlotte around 11:30. Here's a little trivia for you: The second largest banking town in the US of A has an airport that pretty much shuts down at 11:00 at night. Guess which one. We missed our flight and went to get a rental car... may as well drive was the collective thinking. "Sorry, sir, no one way rentals." Why, you may ask, were there no terrific examples of americano engineering and hubris? Because the week before last night took place, US Airways messed up and a lot of people became stranded in Charlotte. Of course, they rented cars and drove the cars one way to their destinations. Thus no one way rentals last night. No airport shuttles either because most hotels were booked. I will skip the rest of the night. Suffice to say, we ended up in Raleigh around 9:00 this AM.

I've had this standing Boston gig creeping up on me for some time. So, I was back at the airport in Raleigh around 10:40 for an 11:40 flight to Bean Town through, you guessed it, Philly.

I arrived in Philly. My luggage did not. The pictures above are poor but demonstrate somewhat clearly the utter chaos taking place at the luggage claim areas for US Airways in Boston. Those people represent approximately, oh, say seven or so different flights. The luggage puppies stopped mushing bags around my half way point of being there. They stood against their respective unclaimed luggage carts and told jokes about thumbs up butts and stuff like that. I can't say I blame them. The unclaimed luggage in front of the unclaimed luggage office was claiming almost all of the previously unclaimed carpet. They would have had to open the doors and stacked luggage on the cabs outside.

This, of course, lead to the the luggage puppies on the "other side" of the wall growing frustrated enough to actually THROW luggage out of their area and into the passenger luggage claim area. That's cool, man. Nice form. Do the Olympics have a luggage heave event? The luggage claim agent, when I finally gave up all hope, suggested that I go out and purchase a suit for my business meeting tomorrow. Wow! That was helpful. Did you have a team of monkeys working around the clock on that one? Unreal.

The other two photos are of the dangerous-tired-man-driving-and-taking-in-motion-pictures-of-the-teddy-williams-tunnel-in-beantown AND a cool zinc project in the great Fly Me To The Moon town of Hoboken, NJ. I'm just trying to keep it real and mix it up a little.

At any rate, I am extremely tired. I am going to bed. More later on all of this, but for now we will just assume that at least one traveler may be looking for alternative air carriers and is a tad bit grumpy.

Disclaimer: US Airways has been pretty good to me in the past. But these two back to back episodes suggest "suckiness" beyond the elastic limit of suck in general. This is only my elastic opinion and should not be misconstrued as gospel, religion, political belief, etc.

OK IN OK-C

2007-03-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations. Here is a brief rundown of my time in OKC: In addition to going to some good firms (like FSB, Rand Elliott and many others) to pitch my goods along with the local reps -great guys by the way. I was fortunate to see some very nice architecture including: The Federal Memorial, the new Federal Building, this great old building while looking for a Goff rich residential neighborhood in Norman, OK(Bruce Goff www.kebyar.com for more info), Rand Elliott's great boathouse as well as Mr. Elliott's office, the Stage Center by John Johansen(http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/John_M._Johansen.html for more information on Mr. Johansen) , this great ramp project at the Oklahoma Bar Association by David Kraszewski ("CRAW-CHEF-SKI"), a nice private house by Brian Fitzsimmons and another Rand Elliott project-slash-monument (Go to http://www.e-a-a.com/ for more info on Mr. Elliott's work). Needless to say, OKC is OK. In all seriousness, OKC is a little bit of a surprise and a whole lot of fun for an architecture junky like me.

I expected oil and pickup trucks and gun toting cowboys. And sure, there is some of that. But, more importantly, there is a ton of culture happening in this cool central America city. I would take it any day of the week over Vegas. But that is just me... a little bit of a prude or prat.

If you have the time, or are passing through, spend some time... there is a lot more there than the few snapshots I am loading up.

I know that this entry isn't glib or even pithy; please forgive me. We were out all day today... first in NJ, then to DC, then to Baltimore and finally, tonight, back to Cherry Hill. When in Cherry Hill, NJ. Check out The Library 2... great food in a bar/restaurant/library-type-of-vibe. Sorry, no pictures...too much driving and talking and not enough looking.

Take care.

plastic city is not OK, but OKC is...

2007-03-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hello from the city of Brotherly love and possible murder. I am in PHILLY tonight after a long day of cruising through the city... actually, I am in Cherry Hill, NJ at the DoubleTree. Fun, fun, fun. It has been a while and I wanted to catch up and where, when and how.

Two weeks ago I was in Crapulous Las Vegas. After flying in on the sardine can known as a plane, we jumped in the rental vehicle and ended up at the Luxor. I think that it is entirely fitting that you pull up under the butt of the Sphinx when arriving at the Luxor. What a crappy place... although, at least it wasn't the Excaliber. If you are a non or reformed smoker, like I am, the Luxor is not the place to be. Even with the door closed and a towel in front of the threshold, my clothing still reeked of smoke and I woke up every morning clogged up. If you are going to Vegas and you are not a big party animal, I would recommend that you stay at The Hotel... just behind Mandalay Bay. There are no slots, heavy smoke, etc. Although the hookers are still plentiful. The Luxor has a huge sign out in front advertising one of their shows -Fantasy. Any idiot that thinks Vegas is for kids is a complete and utter moron. "Gee, Jimmy, look at the panties on the redhead." Of course, Vegas has always been for the adult children and so I guess that it is not too surprising that they have issues with reality.

This is the place where you can catch Manilow, Prince and the fabulous Paris casino -which, if my source is correct, was built pre-wired for demolition from day one. I know that there are many people who dig Vegas, but I found it to be what it has always purported to be; somewhat akin to the sign in front of the Luxor -fantasy. I prefer reality. Here is a freaky reality: The new 6 or 7 BILLION dollar city center (site of Veer Towers, the Mandarin Oriental, and other buildings, is slated for completition in November of 2007. Only in Vegas baby.

The Luxor interior was mildly interesting, but only in the stupid human tricks realm of overdone and overbaked. Overall, I will have to pass on Vegas. It is fake architecture at the most fundamental level... as it should be, granted, but it is not for me. The Vegas trip took place two weeks ago...

Last week I was in OKC. Stay tuned race fans. The next post (above this) will be about OKC. I think you will be surprised if you do not live there. Oklahoma is OK... even better, it is a cool town.

Until then... Cheers.

No Disclaimer -it's my birthday today. Have fun.

YOU GOT A MIGHTY BIG HACK THERE, SON

2007-02-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

HOUSTON. I think I have seen more episodes of cops in Houston than I can shake a stick at. Or perhaps, it just seems that way. Yes sir-ree, Bob. I flew down to Texas for a full day of fun in the sun. It was 4o-some degrees, which now seems cold to me even though I come from the land of Dakota (North) and can remember standing at a bus stop in minus two degree weather one day. Oh well, I am wussified now, I guess. Anywho, pard', I went down Houston way to meet the guy that sells our products and ended up sick. Actually, that is not true. I have always been sick. I was not well bef0re I left for Houston and ended up feeling even less well once I arrived. For some reason, US Airways seems to think that a big jet from Raleigh to Charlotte makes sense and a small monkey-humping puddle jumper from Charlotte to Houston makes even more sense. I can tell you that whoever was sitting in seat 12D needs to buy some Head and Shoulders. Whoa, buddy! Next time I will try one of US Airways competitors... even though I love the US Airways miles program.
Anyway, being "not well" limited my snap taking ability... much as the Phoenix trip was hindered by other things outside of my power.

The first photo is of a construction site -more on this in a moment. The next is the Houston Airport Terminal A. Nice cant, brother. The third is of the project we refer to as RFF. The media called it other things. The construction photo is right across the street from RFF. (RFF has the blue boom lift in the photo.) Google "Texas Med Center Burns Houston" or some combo of that and check it out. Two days after I was there, the thing was on the news on fire. Crazy.

The final three photos are of a project by the firm BNIM. We call it IMM... short for Institute of Molecular Medicine. BNIM's people have a great eye for details. If you have the time, and the opportunity, I highly recommend it. We were running short on time so I didn't get to see too much of it. I plan on going back if the opportunity presents itself.

I also had planned on driving over to Austin, but the not well gig put the kybosh on that idea. I would like to go see some of the work of Lake and Flato. I will be back in TX for the AIA show... or so I plan now. I will try to hit up some of the better projects then. But, as you know, Texas is a mighty big place, hos. A guy could run his body silly looking for architectural masterpieces. That wouldn't be good. He might end up not well.

Y'all take care now, ya here?

Disclaimer: Being sick is not always a bad thing. If you are sick and you know it and your office peers, family, friends and relatives tell you often that you are indeed, SICK, my sympathy and empathy is extended towards you. I, too am often SICK.

winter rising 2

2007-02-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

Here are the Phoenix snaps from the second leg of the STAN FRAN + PHOENIX trip. Can you guess where the majority of the snaps were taken at? Sorry. I didn't take these. The other office employee on this journey took these... the camera on the phone was confused because night was not dark (due to the signs) and day was not light (due to the dark). The coworker has a good eye ...usually. But before I hammer him too badly, check out the first three photos by yours truly. A little shy of the old camera-phone mastercraftsman quality some may see on flicker or other sights.

It really is a pitty that the Bruder project did not turn out better on the old phone. This project rocks! From what I have heard from those who have met the man, he is a great person to talk to and get to know. Unlike a famous Tucson architect that I visited a couple of years ago... "May I take your picture?" "Um... nice try, but no." Speaking of EGO, read the first day on the job story of one Danny L in the office of one Petey E. in the book BREAKING GROUND. That story jives one hundred and ten percent of my recollection of Pete in PDX back in the late 80's or early 90's. He came to the Rose City to give a lecture at Portland State on his work including the Wexner. I found the lecture interesting and visually a blast... some of my friends couldn't enjoy the show at all because the man seemed to be a gynormous __________. You know you may have a problem with the old ego if people can't even look at your slides without calling you names because of the drivel spouting out of your pie hole. (Although I have been there to, so...)

Speaking of names; the photo at the top is called "Tuscon: Cars, Poles and Mountains" I was visiting my mother after the Phoenix leg of the trip. I almost killed her in the rented Infinity FX on a lonely Tucson road. Needless to say, I am stocked up on guilt for the next six months. A little word of advice for you: if your madre is talking non-stop about any subject you can think of, and you have a fast car, and you are looking at the colors coming alive in the mountains due to the morning sun, you may want to keep your eyes on the road and not on the mountains. AND you may want to zip your lip instead of saying to your mother, "You were talking non-stop. Of course I didn't see the small red car." Just a heads up for all of you with mommies.

Disclaimer: I love my mother. No, really, mom, I do. This blog is intended to entertain as well as satisfy my desire to have people look at me and listen to me. Maybe if you would have spent more time affirming my worth as a child... just kidding. Mom, your sense of humor is what I love the most about you. And no, this is not a Cover Your _____ statement.

continuing winter + winter sun rising

2007-02-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more snaps from the sights in San Francisco and then the second leg of the trip... PHOENIX.

This first group of photos is mostly of the de young museum in SF. I found the back side of the museum with it's loading docks and retaining walls to be extremely interesting. The sculpture on top of the building is near the SFMOMA. Being a guy now intimately involved in metals, I also appreciated the perf patterns that are in play on de young. But check out the sculpture close up...

Also are some misc SFMOMA shots for you. ENJOY

DISCLAIMER: You can use these photos at will. Please be advised that using camera phone images says something about either the quality of other photos out there for the picking, or your work ethic.

Hazy Shade of Winter

2007-01-29T06:41:00.000-08:00

HAZY SHADE OF WINTER IN SAN FRANCISCO (or, as Ron Ramsey at North Dakota State University, used to say, "STAN FRAN'S DISCO")
Welcome to C loset Exit's whirlwind winter wonderland tour of San Francisco. After being bilked out of 156 quid for seafood and squid at the Franciscan Crab restaurant (another hombre from the office was with me), we decided to track down a couple of Sa-weet projects using the AVIS GPS system and, of course, the AVIS SUV that we rented. WAIT! I move too quick. Stop the Trailblazer and let's back up for a moment. If you are ever flying US AIR into San Francisco, be aware that for the time being, parts of the airport are under construction and some of the signage for BART (light rail to the rental car joint) are misleading. Of course, what do you expect from a city with a light rail named after Homer Simpson's kid. (Just kidding.)
Anywho, we jumped into the Chevrolet Trailblazer and proceeded to scare the crap out of the locals on the street until we found Saint Mary's. Man! What a church. This big beauty was done by Pietro B. with Nervi. Or, if you like, by Nervi with help from former Portland, Oregon resident, that crazy Italian himself, Pietro B. (If you ever get a chance to see his dance up near Duluth, do so. Another really nice church.) They were wrapping up services and had a sign posted that said NO TOURS. The ballsy kid from the office (also an architect buff) walked right in and snapped off a couple of nice shots. If he emails them to me, I will post them. Think Marcel at St Johns in Minnesota or Oscar in Brazil. This place has some brutal qualities and some cantilevered corners that are truly Awesome. The interior footings of the massive concrete ribs and the interior itself are worth the price of admission... or in this case, the guilty little twinge i felt due to the people in the church looking at us while my coworker snapped some shots. "Sorry -architecture types." The metal work was, to quote some guy in the mission district, "Simply Fabulous."
We then went to the VC Moris shop... now called Xanadu. (Olivia Newton John comes to mind when I see that word right now-strange.) At any rate, parking was a real bear. All these shoppers downtown at Macy's and Neiman Marcus... if only they knew that they can get three t-shirts for ten bucks down by the wharf... At any rate, we finally found a parking spot on a small alley like side street very similar to Maiden Lane... the street that VC...er, Xanadu Newton John is on. Three kids were smoking pot in a doorway down from the backdoor of Barbizon Modeling. They pissed themselves and ran when they saw us. Evidently two guys over 6'-3" in an all white 2007 Chevy Trailblazer with a GPS Unit stuck to the windshield evokes this response. Who knew? We left the rig parked half on the curb and made our way quickly through the throngs in thongs and leather and fur and jeans... and made our way to Frank's San Francisco love child. She's a sweet baby and I wish the interior shots would have turned out. I am surprized the exterior shots did because this is a PHONE CAMERA with night mode on... it was dark out, believe it or not, when I snapped that puppy. But hey, I digress. This one little gem alone is enough to have you mumbling Johnson Wax, Falling Water and other Frank-inventions in your sleep. I mean, I am really, really sick of Frank, but you have to give credit where credit is due... this little shop (now gallery) rocks! Frank was a master -even if he couldn't balance a checkbook or keep his Free Willy in the holding pond.
We then jetted over to the SFMOMA. The night shots of this look like crap. I was going to attempt pithy banter and compare them to chocolate chips on brown suede, but that is just stupid and, let's face it, we all have enough stupidity in our life. SO, the coworker and I slipped into the gift shop (the museum was closed) and admired Mario's handiwork. Of course, we gravitated towards the architecture books and stayed their muttering pseudo-sex noises while fondling titles like "THE NEW MINIMALISTS" until some Ramones-following young lady walked over in her knee high doc martins and said, "The museum shop is closing in two minutes. Take your purchases to the front register." Of course, we were so shocked that our moment of free architectural eye candy was over that we left without buying a thing... not even a postcard. However, we have TWO MORE DAYS in Stan Fran's Disco and we intend to soak up the architectural sun here as much as the clouds, rain and knee-high doc martin types will allow us to. Stay tuned.

Disclaimer: The blogger in control of this site does not hold malice or ill-intent towards anyone including but not limited to: former professors of architectural history, church going folk, thong wearing goddesses on sidewalks, the Ramones, Olivia Newton John or the memory of Frank Lloyd and his long history of shagging other people's spouses. The blogger in control of this site does not necessarily condone such behavior as shagging other people's spouses or appearing in horrible movies such as Xanadu either. Please read these posts at your own risk.

BAD BOY! GA and Birmingham

2006-12-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

I've been such a bad boy. Since the DC trip, I have been all over the country and yet I have not entered anything. The week before last I was in Ft Lauderdale and last week I was in Portland and Seattle. I got out a day before the storms. Yesterday I was in Birmingham, Alabama and tonight I am at the Hilton (downtown) on Courtland in Georgia. I just finished a late evening meal in "Le Bistro" on the ground floor of the hotel. I should have gone for Trader Vic's on the lower level or the place at the top with the French cuisine. The waitress was cool until I heard her say, at the end of the meal, from the kitchen, "He wants cake and espresso?" (Giggle, giggle, snort.) Hey, pal, I like strong coffee at the end of the night. More importantly, if there is only one person in the joint, watch your tongue. The steak was overpriced and mostly fat. The veggies were undercooked and a total waste of space and time. This is one place where you want to hit the closest exit as soon as possible. Better yet, look for some other place to dine. The Hilton is (overall) pretty cool. The furnishings are nice... typical Hilton. The views from the executive levels are good.

I am kind of bummed because I did not have time to check out Portman's Hyatt. When I was first getting into architecture I was interested in the concept of architect as developer. In addition, Big John has a reputation for mastering the whole compress-and-release gig where he pushes you through a compressed space only to release you into a gigantic and wide open space. Oh well, maybe next time. I think that they are remodeling the space now.

Birmingham was very cool. I was surprised and blown away because I did not expect this city to be so cool and so edgy. The Mountain Brook neighborhood has some of the same vibe as the Lake Oswego, Oregon area. Check out the freaky photo I took there of some statuary in a park. Birmingham is definitely a place I would like to check out some more the next time I'm down here. The Homewood Middle School in Homewood/Birmingham is pretty cool. I had the chance to take a peak at and around the school... I now want to know who designed it. Very well done. Rent a car from Hertz with Neverlost and check it out.

NOTE: I would like to start a feature on the best spots to dine for traveling/single people. Not meat-markets designed around human consumption, mind you, but actually great little (or big) places for a lone traveler to stop in and have a meal. These should be places that are comfortable and perhaps even cater to the lone patron. So, if you have any suggestions, please email them to me at closestexit@gmail.com
Thanks.

Disclaimer: The expressions expressed by the espresso crazed traveler in this blog are opinion only. If you do not like the comments, improve the service. Thanks. Thanks ever so much. Bye, bye now.

Inaugural Address

2006-10-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

It seems only appropriate that I would kick off this blog with a trip to DC. I went to DC to check out a trade show last week for The Company -do we want to exhibit there next year or not. (Probably not.) And, even though I went to NYC, K.C., St. Louis, Minneapolis, L.A. Miami and Tampa recently -within the last eight weeks, an inaugural address to brave souls such as yourself feels right coming from the land of taxation without representation.
I intend to use this blog to cover not only my corporate travels and lame camera-phone photography, but to give you, Mr. or Mrs. Reader a little background insight to different cities and to the life oft lived on the road.
I have lived all over the country. From North Dakota to Oregon, L.A. area, Boston, Chicago and North Carolina. I took this job because it allows me to indulge in two of my many passions: Architecture and Travel. It also allows my wife to stay home without fear that I will come home and say, "Let's move to X." It's a win-win gig; I get to satisfy my wanderlust and she gets to satisfy her nesting and brooding impulses -though the brooding is fairly cyclical if you know what I mean.
Washington, DC, believe it or not, sucks for architecture. I'm sorry, but while I find the monuments intersting, they are not my bag at all. "Wedding cake architecture" designed, for the most part, to look like another time and another place. Not that there isn't interesting work happening in DC or surrounding environs... there is. But the typical "On the Mall" with the exception of a few notables, does little for me. The Hirshhorn is always cool, but for me it is more about what is going on inside and around the building than the building itself. The same can be said for Pei's nice Museum wing. I appreciate the waterfall hitting the glass in the lower level connection-slash-overpriced-eating area. I love the clean, clear precision of the building and the adherence to triangles in all of their glory. But it is the events and work inside of the building that really do it for me.
Their are some architects in DC that are shaking up the status quo. I've seen their work in the local DC AIA mag. However, I will have to save looking up their stuff for another visit -I ran out of time on this trip. I will tell you now that it is usually the industrial and the rural vernacular that catch me off gaurd. The contrived, overblown, and high and mighty usually leave me cold.
Last time I was in DC I stayed at the St Gregory with it's marble encrusted bathrooms replete with Toto toilets. Those are the things I remember now... that and the turn-down service by a maid that was older, but slightly appealing in her fast, no-nonsense way. This time I stayed at the Embassy Suites on 10th... a couple of blocks from the Metro Center (Walk through the Hyatt exit from the Metro.) The food in the restaurant was better than expected. The wine list was overpriced. The Japenese Volcano is a fantastic pre-meal treat. The rooms were neat and clean with a slightly retro look without all of the sixties and seventies rehashing that seems to be in style now -which was a rehashing of earlier modernism. The entertainment (TVs) are not quite up to par in the sense that the one in the living room is flat screen and the one in the bedroom is the boxy old-school version. I expect congruent systems, but evidently the budget wouldn't allow it. The bathroom is fairly well done and the shampoo and conditioner were fantastic... "volume enhancing" for the follicle challenged.
I am a big fan, by the way, of the Hilton chain. I like the Hamptons, Hiltons, Embassy Suites for a fairly good consistency, excellent service and a great bonus system. (Hilton Honors.) With their bonus system you can double dip and receive points for stays, merchandise, etc AND airline mileage. I have been seeing regular contributions to my US Airways Frequent Flyer program thanks to Hilton. I have also cashed in two free nights at a Hampton Inn for my in-laws when they were in town with absolutely no problem or sweat from Hilton. I will tell you frankly, though that the E. Suites in Miami at the airport is in need of an update/remodel and a couple of others have some real issues, but, by and large, they are fairly good at a reasonable rate.
I would like to give you some inside dope on every city that I visit, but I am not sure if I can consistently deliver. This time around I can tell you that in DC the best deal on a golf membership is the little course up at the Soldiers Retirement Home. (A block west of North Capitol Street.) From what I have been told, you can snag a year's membership for about 400 quid. That's pretty cheap if you are an avid golfer and/or a frequent visitor to the other Sin City. Just watch out for the older gents roaming around the home or you are liable to find the business end of a bayonet shoved where the sun should never shine. If you do need to take a little break from chasing your balls around the greens, a good place to relax will be the Lincoln cottage -which is currently undergoing rehab. There you can forget about your crusty old balls and soak up some history with the ghost of the greatest President that ever lived.
Well that is all for this inaugural installment -Hail to the Blog. Until next time, take care.
_G.
Disclaimer: Not all of the information in this blog may be factual. I have been known to get my facts screwed up -especially after a bottle of Cake Bread wine. If you are the kind of anal retentive blowhard that gets bent out of shape by petty little things like facts, why don't you bugger off and go see if the flatscreen in the parlor matches the TV in the bedroom. Thanks so much. _The Mgmt.