Twist

Twist restaurant in the Mandarin Hotel - design at it's best in Vegas!

Even captured with an iPhone, the images are able to showcase the beauty of this restaurant.

Circular Escalators

With it's excessive number of flashing lights, neon signage and overdone themes, I expected everything about Vegas to reek of tackiness and cheese. So I am pleasantly surprised to see several restaurants showcasing stunning interior design, and the Wynn hotel, an innovative circular escalators leading to their gardens.

Mass MOCA

Opened in 1999, Mass MoCA is a visual and performing arts center located in North Adams, Massachusets. The center's site sits on 13 acres and includes twenty-six 19th century factory brick buildings. From the late 1700's until 1985, the these brick yards occupied various manufacturers from a saw mill, to forgers and cabinet makers, to Arnold Printworks and finally the Sprague Electric Company. Today, a large percentage of the buildings have been beautifully restored, retaining their original textures and character, and charting a new life and territory for the contemporary visual and performing arts.

I had the opportunity to visit Mass MoCa a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed by the restoration and re-design of the gallery spaces, and specifically the installation of Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, which occupy nearly an acre of specially built interior walls. Here are some images from that visit.

Walkway to building #7 and the Sol LeWitt exhibition

 

 

Skatepark, Rotterdam

One of the more interesting sites in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is the Skatepark occupying the midsection of Westblaak, a main thoroughfare in the city centre. The public skate facility opened in 2000 and includes 6700m2 comprising of 11 stainless steel obstacles for inline skating, skateboarding and BMX stunts. There is also a green area for relaxing and an on site restaurant.

The most important element of this park is the fact that it was the young skaters of the city who came up with the idea of the park. They also played a key role in the planning and design process of the facility by providing input and knowledge of their needs in such a space.

For more information about the park, please visit their website.

Amsterdam Docklands I

Apartments Batavia (Cruquius site) by Architect Frits van Dongen of Architekten Cie.

The harbour basins of the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam have been laid out some 100 years ago. In the second half of the 20th century, the functioning harbour gradually moved to the west of Amsterdam and the area became available for housing. Although much of the harbour structure was preserved, some old buildings got assigned new functions and some new buildings were created. Towards the end of the century the city asked urban designers with an open view for new, unusual possibilities, to plan a new residential district.

Entrepotbrug (Cruquius site)

In 1987, the Cruquius site was the first part of the Docklands to be redeveloped. The city started to develop the district where in the past, you found the cattle market, the slaughterhouse and the municipal customs depot. Other areas developed include the KNSM Island, Java island, Borneo-Sporenbrug, Rietlanden, Ijburg,and Oostelijke Handelskade and Veemkade.

I first visited Ijburg last June. Blog postings then included:

canal living and canal housing

and the Nesciobrug.

More photos portraying the architecture of this area to follow..

To read more about the history and architecture of the Amsterdam Docklands, click here for a very comprehensive and interesting website.

Big and Empty

According to Wikipedia, the definition of a shopping mall is a building or set of buildings that contain a variety of retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit. However, the concept of the fully-enclosed shopping mall did not appear until the 1950s with the development of some of the most major malls in the United States.

An evening spent helping a friend shop for a bed lead us to a stop-over at the Villa Arena Furniture Mall, just outside of Amsterdam.

With a central structure that housed a restaurant and escalators that moved only once they are stepped upon, the furniture mall was a place of innovative design and architecture.

Although I was amazed with the interior design, I was equally disgusted. I could not help but make some observations and question the mentality behind the construction of such a building:

How can this large a space be designed using mostly high cost materials and finishes, to be occupied only by high end furniture stores?

Where are all the shoppers on that Thursday night, the only evening the mall is opened until 21h00?

How does a place like this manage to survive?

How Amsterdam, a city as small as it is, can afford and justify such a wasted use of space purely for consumerism?

Has the Netherlands adopted the concept of the American Shopping Mall in an esthetically pleasing but yet unsuccessful manner?

Bumping Tumble

Intervention#5, Bumping Tumble Installation by Karin van Dam, Museum Boijmans [Website]

Walk down designer lane

Museum Boijman