Discovered by Jesuit missionaries from Spain in the late 1600s, St. Xavier Mission was first established as an outpost. The Jesuits were later kicked out and the Franciscans took their place.
The mission is a wonderful relic of old Spanish Arizona. The site almost looks as I would imagine… Read more…
Arcosonti is the desert encampment of Italian architect Paulo Soleri. Located about an hour outside of Phoenix, I have visited there just about every year for the past 2o years. Over that time, I’m sad to say I’ve seen very little progress on the vision that Soleri had for his… Read more…
Taliesin West is the Arizona branch of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s school based in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright came to Arizona in 1937–while in his 60s–to establish this experiment in the desert to teach students about architecture.
Wright’s students built Taliesin West. He wanted them to live in the open air… Read more…
Keeping your eyes open can result in seeing the world afresh. It can allow you to see the subtle colors and textures present in the places you live or visits. In Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, if you look at the ground, you can see a series of paving that evolved… Read more…
Seoul is filled with modern structures and some very finely detailed buildings. Visiting a design district, we came upon the Hermes Museum, located appropriately in the basement of the Hermes building.
At the entrance to the museum, one feels they are in a surreal forest, a la Alice in Wonderland.… Read more…
The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center opened a couple years ago at a cost of over $700 million to construct the entire sub-terranean space. It is an amazing space akin to the reception of the Louvre in Paris. It uses the same materials as the Old Capitol, which is constructed of… Read more…
The Washington D.C. Metro stations were designed by Harry Weiss of Chicago with suburb graphics by Massimo Vignelli. Together, they are a powerful civic statement in the nation’s capital.
They created a series of great civic spaces that owe their design to the ancient bath vaults of Ancient Rome. That… Read more…
The original Library of Congress was just that: a library for Congress. In 1814 the British used the small number of books in this library to begin the fire at the Capitol, which destroyed it largely. Later, when Thomas Jefferson was having major financial problems, he offered his large library… Read more…
The old Pension Building has long been the National Building Museum. It has a freize along the entire façade that portrays the Union soldiers for whom it was made. They’re classically-inspired, and have been maintained well.
Many great exhibits are inside, and SEGD–an organization to which I belong–used to… Read more…
I must have missed this each time i have been to D.C. It reminded me of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center, in fact it features some of the same artists, making me wonder if someone transferred to D.C. and had an easy job to make this… Read more…