Turner chapel photo visit

I have known about this building since way back in school (mid to late 90's) but yet I never made it over to it. As I met a fellow architect I was in school with to find a house by the same architects I decided to stop by on my way home to take a look at this building. To my suprise, as I had only seen a couople of images, the building was realy exciting to see.

I had found the location of the chapel from Google Earth, and so as I turned down the street it is on, I found myself in an apartment complex called Turner Village. as I traveled through this complex of brick and student living I came across the architectural suprise that Turner Chapel is. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Scogin Elam back in the late 80's and is apart of the Turner village which houses theological students from Emory University.

The Chapel is nestled amongst trees and though it has a dynamic shape, as its roofs peak outward towards you, it isn't an overwhelming building at all. Its walls are primarily made of a dark grey brick and has a piercing frosted glass double wall that creates an axis through the building. At the rear of the site you will find a tower element that is of a white steel frame that reaches for the sky. At the base of this tower is a small prayer chapel that is disengaged from the main chapel building but is not lost to the overall site layout and architectural composition of the whole.

You can see my Photoset of my visit here: Turner Chapel photoset

Flickr Photo Sets

If you haven't tried Flickr your really missing out on a great way to store your images and organize them online. I have been using it now for almost a year and I have found it to be invaluable. You can open an account for free with limited sets, or purchase the "pro" account for about 2 bucks a month. Not to be an advertisment for Flickr :) but as I have begun to collect a number of "photo sets" I was trying to figure out a way to make it easier for peopel looking at my Flickr site to find my images. I remember coming across the idea from the discussion groups on Flickr some time ago but finally thought I would give it a try. So check out This LINK and see what you think. I just have one image up in this set but will add others as I get more time to do so.

Columbus, In Weekend Trip

The weekend of the 27th I was given a wonderful suprise by my girlfriend. She had asked me to take both Friday and Monday off the weekend of the 27th of August, and so I did. She said she had a suprise for me but kept the secret from me until the week we left. To my suprise she had planned for us to take a trip to the town of Columbus, In.

You maybe asking yourself, Columbus, In.? what the heck is in columbus, In.?" Well check out this website to get a full understanding and history of the town.

What you should know is that Columbus has been named, by several "sources", the 6th overal city for significant architecture in America (only behind New York, Boston, Chicago, D.C. , and San Fransisco). what is impressive is the town has a population of less than 40,00 people.

I really wasn't sure what to expect from the city and its architecture, but I pleasantly enjoyed the experience of seeing it's architecture and what well designed buildings can do and mean for a city, regardless of its size. Many of the buildings were a bit "dated" modern designs, but many of them still were well done and in no way were "icons" of themselves or the architects that designed them. There was a responsiveness to context and scale that made the architecture work very well. To some extent some of the buildings could have even been a bit more articulate and expressive in there form and presence.

What did bother me about some of the architecture was the lack of care some of the buildings seemed to have. Several of the schools really needed a pressure-washing and some fresh paint to make them shine again (Clifty Creek, by Meier, and the Fodrea Comm School, by Rowlett Scott to to name two). This seemed to strike me as sad and this even jumped out at my girlfriend who doesn't normally notice buildings the way I do.

The people of the town are very friendly and most seemed to really take pride in the heritage they were apart of and lived in. We even got to stay in a "bed & breakfast" that was an old victorian/plantation converted style house built in the 1800's. Did I mentioned we got to use the first working inside bathroom in the State of Indiana? the hosts were a wonderful and the experience was one that I will try again.

And just to drop a few of the names of architects that have worked in Columbus...
Richard Meier, Robert Ventrui, I.M. Pei, Kevin Roche, the Saarinens (Eliel & Eero), Gunner Burkerts, Cesar Pelli, SOM, and others...

Photos shown (from top): City Hall by SOM, Irwin Union Bank & Trust Main Office by Eero Saarinen, & First Christain Church by Eliel Saarinen.