You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2010.
Canada has 3 syllables, 3 “a”s, 3 Oceans, 3 languages (2 official), 3 major political parties, and 3 natural wonders of the world (Niagara falls, the Canadian Rockies, and the place where you met the one you love). We seem to be a country of 3’s, which means we are not polarized, not Black and White, not Have and Have-Not.
And we have had at least 3 great painters show us and the world our great land: Tom Thompson, David Milne, Otto Rogers (still alive)
At least 3 great (i.e. affected the world beyond Canada, words and ideas live beyond them) men.
Mavis Gallant, Agnes Martin JONI Mitchell, and below, Sheila Fraser godblesser
And countless great women, way more than 3, way more than 30000, way more.
So Happy Canada Day, everyone. Have some fun, eh?
These shots are of a grand beach house at Punta Misterio in Peru, designed by Longhi-Architects, seen here
Another Peruvian beauty and the beach. This smallish beach house in Las Arenas, 100 km south of Lima,designed by Javier Artadi Arquitecto
Above 2 are photos of a beach house in New Zealand, near Tatapouri Point. Designed by Pete Bossley , seen here
A nifty beach house at good old Malibu Beach, Cal. Designed by Craig Ellwood, 1955. Here
Nice house, and beach it’s beside is Miami. See here.
Two above are photos of the Kerr Residence, Melbourne Beach, FL, 1950-1951 by the remarkable Paul Rudolph (with Ralph Twitchell). See here and here
OK summer is long gone in this photo and maybe the beach is a pretty long walk, but that’s a sweet little cabin suitable for a spot near any stretch of sand. Or snow. Or grass. Design by Oska Architects, this is in Mazama Washington USA.
Good black nordic beachside stuff, by the firm: Fantastic Norway. They got that right. The two above from here
A unique site on the Danish Coast of 10m wide by a 100m long, inspired the architects to make an unusually long house, above. Architects are here.
Sommarnojen of Sweden hired trio of well-respected Swedish architects—Sandell Sandberg Architect, Kjellander + Sjober Architect Office, and Tham & Videgard Hansson Architects—to design 15-meter square cabins that can be used as guesthouses, saunas, offices, or studios. Website here
Sommarnojen shows a gallery of their cabins here. (it’s nice)
I wonder if they ship?
In the Spring of 2009, some people in want of a beach house bought one in New Jersey and moved it to a beach they liked better, in Long Island. Designed by the famous architect couple Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown,seen at this site
Don’t know who designed this, but hey, it is RIGHT ON THE BEACH, at Capistrano CA. Lots more beach houses here. I’m off now, with my pail and my big towel
If I could choose anywhere to have a cup of coffee, a perfect cup of smoldering black coffee, I might choose the garden above at the Noguchi Museum in New York (Long Island City, Queens. due east of Central Park, across the river). Everything looks right, particularly that table. Lots of designers have had a shot at making a coffee table, mostly for indoors.
This is pretty swell, called Salontafel 20. It has a lot of Apple in it, I think.
And this is pure Apple: the itable is a big ipod where you can store analog old school printed paper material inside and rest your coffee cup, and sunglasses, on top. The two above are from here.
The inspiration for the above table is a bit older than Apple with a capital A. It is as old as paper because as long as there has been paper, there has been somebody folding it and seeing if it will fly.
Someone named Hoon Roh modified (very nicely) an ironing board into a coffee table.
The musicians in your circle of friends may like to set their coffee mug on this number. Rock on. (no strings, no fretting). Above 3 seen here.
Hey, Jason Taylor made a Brush Table (shine your shoes while you sit and gab). Seen here
OK, this is nice to look at and it’s more than just pretty: it’s a trolley, movable to where you want it. Called the ego, found here.
This is just cute as a button. Introduced at the Milan Furniture Fair 2010, designed by Luca Nichetto for Gallotti & Radice, and seen here.
If you look underneath this table, you will see an endless, very modern, mineshaft. It’s called Vertigo designed by Eero Koivisto. Seen here
No gimmicks here, perfect for no frills coffee, straight from the pot, in a beautiful cup. Design by Alain Gilles, seen at dezeen.
But for all the fun and freshness of these variations on the caffeine slab, it’s hard to beat what Isamu Noguchi designed over 60 years ago, and which has been produced continuously by Herman Miller since 1948. This is a table that could help mend a friendship, as long as the coffee was good.
Posters are the most condensed, clear, and arresting form of communication. At their best, they are beautiful and unforgettable. Above is Bob Dylan, by the great Milton Glaser. Seen here, for e.g.
Who could give us Aretha Franklin on paper? Milton Glaser.
One of Mr Glaser’s gifts is to make music and the creative energy of musicians visible
But he has also shown us new ways of seeing visual artists.
Magritte + Vincent+ Milton
This above made him famous, as famous as the people he had postered.
But like the best of the famous musicians, he just gets up and goes to work every day. Above here
There are other fine poster makers around too. Keep an eye out
Above two found here
And some prefer to go to have their posters worn by people, moving through the streets:
Above image called world famous waitress lindholm’s diner seen here
When you’re on the road, close to home or far away, there is nothing so inviting as a roadside coffee shop. It promises refreshment of the body, a chance to relax, and maybe the warmth and wisdom of a great waitress. Or at least it used to.
This is known as the wichstand, one of the coolest little sandwich and coffee places ever made. Image from Space Age City.
It’s in the LA area, which gave birth to an exuberant, goofy, space-age style of architecture for coffee shops (as well as motels. gas stations, etc) that has come to be known as GOOGIE, after a 1949 restaurant called Googie’s on Sunset Boulevard (designed by John Lautner), which seems to be long gone. But lots of GOOGIES survive.
Chips is another LA coffeeshop/diner. I would go there now, if I could. Image from here
A recent daytime shot of the wichstand, now known as Simply Wholesome, also from you are here.
Pann’s another terrific Googie, still around, in LA.
Pann’s above,outside and in, both pics from here. Article from 2008 on LA Googies in the LA Times in found here.
But the hay day of the space age, coffee shop wise, was the 1950’s and early 1960’s
A photo from the ’50’s of Hody’s in LA , image from Space Age City
Inside at Lendy’s (before the coffee was brewed and the doors opened), also Space Age City
The Parasol, pretty in pink (I’ll bet they have great strawberry milkshakes), yes at Space Age City
Judging from the cars, Herberts seems to go back further than the Fifties, but maybe it was “my Dad’s first car” night. From Atomic Ranch
Rendering by the architects Armet and Davis, and copyright 2003 the firm of Amret, Davis and Newlove, AIA found at Googie Art.
Blount’s, specializing in good old Chicken Steaks. From Space Age City
Space Age City, source of most images above, tells us: The elements of Googie are up-swept roofs, large concrete domes, exposed steel beams and starburst, amoebae or boomerang shapes. This futuristic architecture was associated with the Southern Californian car culture, the space age and the optimistic views of the post-war generation. Googie went out of fashion in the mid-Sixties. Visit Space Age City, for more
A man named Alan Hess has produced 2 nice books about the Googies.
Some have noted that the Googie style is pretty much what author William Gibson meant by the term Raygun Gothic. Mr Gibson, who we proudly call a Canadian no matter where he was born, pretty much always gets it right.
But much as we love our coffee (and pie) when you are on the road, you need other things too, like gasoline.
This would be the place to gas up your gas guzzler all right, especially if it had big tail fins and a strato-flow transmission. Located in Beverly Hills, it was intended, originally, for a spot near LA Airport.
Orbit Gas Station. Probably offers rocket fuel. Above two seen here
Mountain googie offerring mountain gas. Once upon a time. Her
But before there was a Googie’s on Sunset Boulevard, North America already had lots of roadside eateries with eye appeal. Consider these:
Published in Popular Mechanics and posted at Modern Mechanix
And all the way back in 1930, there was Big Duck Store in Flanders, New York:
So the Googies aren’t really all that wild after all. If you’ve got good coffee and pie (or chicken feed and barbed wire) you need to get your customer’s attention so they’ll stop and come in and try your wares. What better than a big duck ( above found here) or a sign shaped like a satellite?
Maybe a hand-made, see through version of the Tower of Pisa on TOP of your little family restaurant. This is Frankie Tomatto’s Italian Restaurant Markham, ON, from here
More unusual Roadside architecture and other attractions from here
the republic of less 