A lecture

I suppose I could have doubled up on more of the categories for the Utilitaire, but I wanted to add a bit more variety, so I looked for a lecture I could go to this week, and ultimately settled on a MIT Architecture public lecture about "L.E.F.T." Architects.   This firm, a pair of Lebanese-American architects based in NYC is kind of a classic "ART-chitecture firm.  They teach at places like Yale and Columbia, and they do very theoretical exercises that win a lot of prizes.   The one real project that they've built so far on their own (they've done some collaborations)  is very lovely,  and they have a real gift for form.
However, as an architect immersed in practice instead of academia, I have to wonder, why the creation of beautiful form is only considered legitimate if it has a dense (obtuse) intellectual narrative about politics and identity and conflict to go along with it.  Is beauty alone not enough?  I guess people think that beauty is too subjective in the modern era.   But intellectual narratives are subjective too.  So round and round we go.

I have a lot of thoughts about this, and the ambivalence I feel about academic architecture is why I don't make the effort to go to many lectures.    But I went.  By bike.   I got to ride on the Vassar street cycletracks, which is a pleasure.

I passed the ghost bike of the MIT grad who was killed at the intersection of Mass Ave and Vassar,  apparently waiting at a light to make a left turn when a wide turning semi ran him down. Very sad.

I took photos of some lovely details of the main MIT "rotunda" building. The kind of details that aren't fashionable anymore.  They've been replaced with dense narratives and intellectual determinations.

They sure are lovely though.

And I mostly enjoyed the lecture.  I think I should make more of an effort to go to lectures that might be more of my "thing" instead of lectures that fit into a prescribed time frame.   That realization alone was worth the trip, and I think will inspire me to go to more lectures.

Hard to see that we're adding value

Sorry for the lapse in posting,  we've started our kitchen renovation, and between taking care of last minute details and the entire first floor either being a construction zone or a storage space for all our kitchen stuff,  it's been tough to sit somewhere and blog.
Some vignettes from the week:

I did get to ride every day this week except for Tuesday.  Tuesday was a little nasty- spitting a "wintry mix" of rain and snow, but I mostly didn't ride because they started the demo, and I was doing some last minute packing,  talking to the contractor, and was running so late that I got a ride with the Scientist to the train.
Despite the wintry weather I saw 13!!! bikers between Harvard Sq and Kendall where he dropped me off.   And people say that "no one" bikes in the winter.  I want to take a video of all the people who still ride by my house, despite the bike lane being snow storage- it's not just the hardcore tech geared hardcore folks you might expect - lots of women, people dressed in "normal" clothes,  citizen cyclists getting where they need to go, and going by bike despite it being winter.

I went to a Livable Streets Advocacy Committee meeting on Monday,  and it was so nice to spend time with other people committed to public transit and active transportation.  It's really energizing to brainstorm with other advocates - getting excited about projects to try to make Cambridge and Boston even better places to bike.    A funny note- I rode from work to home, let the dog out and then hopped back on my bike to get to the meeting.  I was halfway there before I realized that I had forgotten my helmet at home.  I was super defensive riding through Central Square without it, but I think it was interesting that I'm so used to having it on, that I didn't really register not having it on.

One of the projects that the committee is working on that I think anyone could contribute to, is collecting information and photos of snow choked roads.  I know that a fair bit has melted already, but if you have photos of snow on bike lanes, pedestrian crossings etc,  you are invited to post them to a special flikr group here.  Although the reduction in facilities is sometimes annoying, it's an interesting experiment in what would happen if 1) lanes were narrower and corners were all necked out, 2) there was less parking.
Maybe if lanes were less than 10' the world wouldn't end- people would just go a bit slower and we would all be a little safer!

I'll close with a photo of the kitchen demo:  I had a client once who was starting a year long gut renovation of a historic house in an expensive neighborhood.  As he walked through the skeleton of the house that he'd recently paid a lot of money for, he said "it's hard to see how we're adding value here."   It's a bit tough to see right now, but hopefully it will all come out OK in the end!

So sad

There was a beautiful house there once,  one whose builder cared enough to give it a lovely patterned slate roof.

Of course that was before vinyl siding and fake stone and glue on brick  (they call it "brickmastah" in these parts)  came along.

Someone to watch over me

I biked to Chinatown to pick up lunch today.  It's not really that far, but it's a prohibitive distance to walk (more than 15 minutes) at lunch.  I was locking up, when I saw this relief bust.  Looks like Shakespeare, but it could be any generic Dead White Male I suppose, as it was unattributed.
Funny how someone was important enough that they put his bust on a building, but now we can only guess who he is.

Crimes against architecture

Although I studied at a primarily modern architecture school,  though the vagaires of fate,  I ended up practicing traditional architecture/ historic preservation.
Except in rare cases, generally involving a lot of money or a person with vision (or both)  they really don't build them like they used to.
Which is why something like this (seen at the post office on Milk Street)  makes me sad. I see that art deco /Corinthian capital and  scrap of a beam with a reeded panel peeking out below the ceiling tiles, and
I just know that there's a graceful and detailed cornice above that dropped ceiling with its fluorescent lights.
There were probably once grand lights which hung from rosettes in the ceiling.  And all of it was probably gilded and painted to accentuate the details, before someone painted it a universal beige which doesn't look right with the stone.  Unfortunately when they dropped the ceiling they probably hacked and beat away at the mouldings.  I've seen it before-  moments with a sawsall can do damage that takes a lot of time and money to fix, but the guys who install dropped ceilings are always on a tight budget, therefore in a big hurry.

I doubt anyone but preservationists notice the scraps of the elegance of this lobby while they're waiting to use the automated postage kisok,  but there used to be a time when coming through those big bronze doors was an experience, instead of just another generic space for transacting business.

Bike parking

I'll preface this by saying that I'm incredibly lucky when it comes to bike parking.
My boss is a cyclocross racer in his free time,  and we have enough space in my office that Robert can hang out in an open space between flat files.   This probably has a lot to do with why nearly 25% of our office ( OK, that's just 3 people)  bike nearly every day.
I also have a great bike shed under my front stairs.  It locks,  it's almost tall enough for me to stand up in, and it's right at the front door.

When out and about however, parking is a bit tough because the giant basket makes it difficult to use a lot of "typical" racks unless there's an end spot.
A couple of interesting spots I found lately:

Covered parking!  I got caught in the rain last week downtown,  and I was trying to decide whether to just keep going, or stop and run my errand.  I tried a new cut- through, and lo and behold- tucked into an alley, covered bike parking!!  And so elegant with those brackets/ seismic buttresses above!

When I take a zipcar,  I often end up at the Charles Hotel garage in Harvard Sq.  The parking there is really pretty lousy,  although there's a lot of it.  The racks are up 3 steps from the plaza (!)  and the antique " front wheel only" type.  They're not even fastened to the ground!  I lock up there anyway, because there are always 5 or 6 bikes locked to each rack at any given time,  and I don't think anyone would get very far with the 12' long rack and 5 bikes.  I did realize an unexpected advantage of them today though.  The flat top is perfect for setting down a cup of coffee!

When out and about I always feel safer locking my bike next to a bike so poorly secured as this one.

No thief is going to bother going after my Ulock and O lock when they could practically cut through the cable on this bike with a pair of scissors.