National Geographic flies a small version of the UP! house across a California desert by attaching 300 weather balloons 8 ft in diameter and filled with 1 tank of helium each. The house flew up to 10,000ft in the air with 2 pilots. Pretty awesome.
Thanks moi for sending me the find!
(images from National Graphic Channel. Original article here)
Old Japanese army headquarters turned boutique hotel in Shanghai by NHDRO. Corten steel + exposed concrete…love.
(images from Dezeen)
Loving the way the greens, oranges, and reds are climbing up the facade. Whimsical…
(image by: vivien chin)
Passed by this at the intersection of John St. & Water St. (?) in Wall Street area. What’s it counting up to? First inclination is to say it’s a clock, but not sure how to read it considering it was taken at 9am one day. Mystery….I should just google it 
(image by: vivien chin)
Global Sand Architekten….
Dave, Hannah, Justin & myself designed this entry for this year’s Sukkah City Competition. The Competition was to design a “Sukkah”–a temporary structure built during the Jewish Harvest Festival of Sukkot. The basic parameters are that they: be temporary, have at least two and a half walls, be big enough to contain a table, and have a roof made of shade-providing organic materials through which one can see the stars. 12 were picked and built in Union Square here in NY. They stood for the last 2 days and the People’s Choice will be the one that remains standing for the rest of the festival.
Design basics: lace cube providing the veil between you and the outside while still having a connection to it, a small grove of trees that float above you within metal sleeves, all atop brick ruins.
Our entry wasn’t picked, but I still think it’s an awesome design and had a great time designing it! The best brainstorming happening over dim sum of course . You can check out the rest of the entries and winners at www.sukkahcity.com
Found a random stealth shot I took of the underside of the Armani stair on 5th Ave. by Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas (above)
Here’s one from the top found on Arch Daily online. (above)
Vitrahaus by architects Herzog and de Mueron. Located in at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Designed to house Vitra’s Home Collection of furniture. Exterior covered in charcoal stucco.
Love this project. Very playful. Herzog and de Mueron–always love their stuff.
(images from dezeen)
Elegant design for a school that bridges the 2 sides of a creek in Fujian Province, China. Designed by Li Xiaodong, the school is called Bridge at Pinghe. Suspended from the underside of the school is a secondary narrow walkway that can also be used to cross the creek. The school has 2 classrooms that can also be used as theaters. The building also doubles as a spiritual center for the villagers. I really enjoy the simplicity of the design, the attention to detail with the wood slats, steel work, and wood panels. Very nice.
(images from dezeen)
Love the Lad Musician Nagoya clothing store by General Design. Located in Nagoya, Japan. The building interior only uses 3 materials: concrete, oak, and galvanized steel. I really enjoy the simplicity of the design. The materials and light qualities are stunning.
(images from dezeen)
Really liked this random building in San Francisco on Market Street. Just noticed the center pivot windows. Pretty cool feature.
(image by: vivien chin)
Had a chance to check out the San Francisco Federal Building by Morphosis recently when I was in SF. Interesting to see it in it’s completed state because the last time I saw it was about 4 years ago (give or take) with Fowler’s class at Poly. There weren’t more than 20 floors of the building finished then, but we were allowed to climb up to the top of what was completed at that time. Pretty cool to see what took shape since then. Some detail shots of the building below.
(images by: vivien chin)
A glimpse of the outside of the Contemporary Jewish museum by Daniel Liebskind in San Francisco. Also located nearby is Yerba Buena Park and the SFMOMA by Mario Botta which you can see in the reflection of the glass door in the last image. There’s a tasty mexican restaurant, Tropisueno, that I met up with Chris, Melissa, Rachel, Oana, and Justin at for lunch. Sooo good to see you guys!
(images by: vivien chin
2 of my loves in one: Dunny’s & Architecture/Art
Danish firm, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), created a piece for a Dunny Show Exhibition in Copenhagen. Very cool. I’d live in a Dunny-shaped building. Awesome.
(images from http://www.big.dk/)
The Cloisters are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are located in Fort Tyron park and overlook the Hudson River. The Cloisters house a large collection of Medieval European Art intermingled with gardens and the architecture of French Cloisters. To get there you take the A,C,E subway to the 190th street stop and follow the signs towards the Cloisters. It’s about a 10 min walk from the subway. I really liked the walk up to the Cloisters as well as the descent (yes there’s a descent, the Cloisters are located on a pretty high hill relative to the street level below). It was a peaceful and nice park area. Also got a glimpse of the density of the Northern tip of Manhattan which was pretty incredible.
Density!
The river.
The Cloisters in the distance.
Almost there…going around the side
(images by: vivien chin)
Headed up to 190th street station in Manahattan to check out the Cloisters last weekend. Pretty cool station. Nice park land to walk through if you make the trek up there.
(images by vivien chin)
Passed by the new Cooper Union building by Morphosis today during my walk through the rain in the lower east side. Cool.
(images by: vivien chin)
Passed by Juilliard and the Alice Tully Hall the other night. Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s addition and outdoor seating area was very nice. It was chilly and windy the day I passed by so I didn’t take advantage of the outdoor space. I’m sure the outdoor seating area is much more enjoyable during the day. Thumbs up for public spaces!
(image by: vivien chin)
Redhook–one of my favorite parts of Brooklyn. Riding along its water’s edge was something I haven’t done before ’til yesterday. Great views of this what still remains of industrial times.
(images by: vivien chin)
Who else has noticed this building in alot of movies? Maybe I’m just more aware of it being that I’m from California and have visited this building on a trip to LA, but the Caltrans District 7 building by Morphosis has seriously had a lot of screen appearances in movies and tv. I just watched “The Island” tonight and saw it pop up on the screen in the background and it reminded me of how often the exterior of this building shows up in things I’ve watched.
Where I’ve seen it:
_Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie)
_The Island (Scarlett Johanssen, Ewan Mcgregor)
_Fun With Dick & Jane (Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni)
_Mission Impossible 3 (Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman)
_Because I Said So (Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore)
_Alias (Jennifer Garner)
_Usher music video
_Maroon 5 music video
_and the many other appearances in movies, tv, & commercial that I’ve never personally seen)
Beautiful sky behind the railing
Edge of the railing. Fond of its simplicity
More blue sky…
Building overhead…just cutting through…
hmmm….how is that plant growing??
I really liked this building for some reason!
(images by: vivien chin)
Some examples of the various flowers and vegetation you can see up on the Highline. And along the way you will see these little signs asking you to “Keep It Wild. Keep On the Path”, which is ever so slightly sad because one of my favorite things about parks is being able to sit on the grass and you can’t really do that here, but that’s ok. Still a really great place to be!!
A little ladybug that landed on my sunglasses and decided to migrate to my skirt. Very cute.
(images by: vivien chin)
Hovering over 10th ave is a portion of the Highline with wood, stepped seating where you can lounge and watch the cars passing from under you. It’s a pretty nice little seating area where you can sit and car/people watch those below on the street level.
(images by: vivien chin)
The many options you have to take a rest on and sit awhile…
The wood and concrete bench that seems to come up from the paving. These are the 2 most common benches at the Highline to sit on.
The all wood bench. This is my favorite. Love the all wood aspect of it and how it comes out from the floor boards.
Thick, all wood, loungers.
Wood bench with corten steel details.
Yellow picnic tables at ground level
Fire pit??
Water fountain. So this isn’t really for sitting, but I do like how the water falls over the edge and down to the drain
(images by: vivien chin)
The more open spaces of the Highline.
(images by: vivien chin)
Went to the Highline today on this beautiful day. Location: the Meatpacking District. The Highline was orginally an elevated set of railroad tracks running along the West Side of Manhattan through a few buildings. After the trains on them stopped being used 30 years ago, they were left abandoned and overgrown with wild vegetation. Now it has been converted into an elevated park that opened up within the last couple weeks. The design of the park is by firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The entire length park is not open yet, but a portion of it going up to about 20th st. is open to the public. The remaining length of the elevated park with open up in phases as they are completed. The main entry (and currently the only entry open) is pictured above and located at the intersection of Gansevoort St. and Washington St. The Highline is about 1.5 miles long and is really a great outdoor space to stroll along and just relax. I really enjoyed my outing there today.
Exit stairs of the park lined with corten steel.
(images by: vivien chin)
Congratulations to Peter Zumthor for winning the Pritzker Prize this year! Therme Vals is my favorite of his projects and I hope to go there one day. It is a hotel/spa complex in Vals, Switzerland and is built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton in Switzerland. The building is constructed from locally quarried Valser quarzite slabs.
dining area and bar
reception desk
old post office boxes (images from http://www.public-nyc.com/)
Had an amazing and delicious birthday dinner last night at PUBLIC located near the New Museum (I included the address below). The restaurant is designed and operated by design firm AvroKO whose office is located right above the restaurant. AvroKO designed and operates a few other pretty cool restaurants that I want to check out someday.
The space at PUBLIC has very industrial yet elegant feel through their use of materials, fixtures, and lighting. It was a really beautiful space to be in and the lighting is much darker than it appears in the pictures so it sets a great mood for dinner at night. The restaurant and bar filled up fast so it seems like a pretty popular place. The food is a mix of Austrailian, Asian, and Mid-Eastern cuisine.
The items off the menu I tried were all delicious and I would highly recommend:
[Starters] Grilled scallops with sweet chili sauce, crème fraiche and green plantain crisps (the scallops were sooo tenderly cooked and go really well with the sweet chili sauce); Artichoke salad with mixed Spring greens and vinaigrette
[Main] Snail and oxtail ravioli with pickled shiitake mushrooms, oven dried tomatoes, peashoots and smoked paprika oil (this is very very delicious if you are willing to give it a try); Crispy skinned barramundi with a wild mushroom broth, fingerling potatoes, pickled ginger and pea leaf salad
[Dessert] Cheesecake flan, blood orange caramel, citrus salad and pistachio brittle (highly recommend! This was sooo good and I want to learn to make my own); the dessert wine paired with it was – Lilly Pilly “Noble Blend”, 2002 (Riverina, Australia) – (Loved the name Lilly Pilly and it had a great taste as well)
PUBLIC
210 Elizabeth St. (Between Prince St. & Spring St.)
New York, NY 10012
(212) 343-7011
(images from: http://www.hermanyung.com/red-hook-grain/)
Found these awesome pics of the Red Hook Grain factory that this guy Herman Yung took. He snuck in and took some amazing shots that you can check out here.
There is also a description on his blog describing the day that he went there and background on the Factory.
Times Square 1961
Times Square 2009
There’s this pretty awesome photo blog site I found called NYC Grid. It’s a photo blog dedicated to exploring New York block by block. They have tons of galleries with photos of MANY different blocks in NYC. This gallery I like in particular because it compares differnt areas and landmarks of NYC during 1961 vs 2009. Check it out by clicking here.
5th Ave 1961
5th Ave 2009
