Akron Museum of Art

This last weekend a friend of mine, Nick Hill and myself took a little architectural weekend trip (I will probably have to blog about it more later). From this trip we happened up to Akron, Oh and saw the new Museum addition by Coop Himmelblau. This project is their first public building in the US. Coop is known for their avant guard design over in Europe and they didn't pull any punches with this one.

What was great was that we took lots of pictures. From that I have had two sources use some of the images for their websites/blogs. The first is a blog called Archidose (see the blurb HERE with my pic). Archidose basically does daily updates on different and new architecture being built. It has brief info. on modern designed buildings and is a great resource for Google Earth placemarks.

The other website that has used my images from my Akron visit is www.architectureweek.com, an online weekly architecture magazine. I was approached earlier in the week for permission to use some of my images for an article they were writing. I might be one of the few, so far, that has any images up on the web for this building, as it just opened on the 17th. Anyhow, you can check out the article, which gives some good information on the building, and check out some of my images they used.

If you want direct access to my photo set of the Akron Museum of Art check out my Flickr photo set.

Cool Views & More

Just recently I switched places of employment (you can read about it HERE). My new office of this new job is in Midtown Atlanta. Fortunately we are afforded with a great view of the city and can see right down Peachtree Street. With the view I have become more and more conscience of what is happening with Atlanta's development.

One great resource I came across a while back is the Atlanta Metroscapes forum. The forum was started by an enthusiastic high schooler; and soon to be in his first year of college. What is fantastic about the site is its wealth of information about what is happening in the South and specifically Atlanta. So if you have a spare minute or two check it out, and I promise you will see so much of what is happening with Atlanta's growth right now you'll lose an hour before you know it :) .

The image I wanted to post is from our office at night. Below in the image to the bottum left is the 1010 Midtown project (which I am taking pics of weekly). This will be a big first step in the realization of the Midtown Mile (a million square feet of retail space along the Peachtree corridor from North Ave. to 17th Street.

SMyrna's Market Village

Just recently I had made comments to another blog on "lifestyle centers" by C. B. Whittemore (see blog here). In this commentary, and after she asked me for images related to my comments on Smyrna's Market Village, I realised I hadn't been down there to take any pictures. This seemed odd, as I was involved in the master planning of the project, and that I live just over a mile from it. So, I decided yesterday afternoon that I would go down, once the sun started to set, and take some pictures.

What I thought was funny was that I thought I wouldn't have much to shoot. I am much more into modern design and modern architecture. I don't hate traditional, but I just see too much of it done very very poorly. Anyhow, I was pleasantly suprised that I really enjoyed shooting the village and its traditional architecture. You can view my Flickr photo set of the Village HERE.

Now, if your not familiar with the Village and you live in the Atlanta area you need to give it a visit. there are shops, restaurants, and they are always having festivals and stuff there. It has become a really great place. The city of Smyrna's municuple facilities can be found here too (planned and design by Sizemore Group). City Hall, the main library, the cities community center, and the police station, all within walking distance of each other. This development has won some urban planning national awards and is a fine example of how a small town or community can recapture a city center.

MAP - Graves Building

So, I have had some time to kill this weekend and decided to build another model for my Modeling Atlanta Project. This building is in Midtown Atlanta and is just south of Tenth Street along West Peachtree. The building was designed by Michael Graves and was completed in 1989. It stands as a "post-modern" landmark in Atlanta and is one of only two projects designed by Graves. There is a sense of permanence about this building and it has held up very well in its 17 year existence. Find out a bit more about the building HERE. Also, you can see some pictures of the building on my Flickr page HERE.

the 3D Warehouse link:
Ten Peachtree Place

My first "guest blog" article

Recently I had a message from C. B. Whittemore (mentioned in an earlier post)that I had one of my images being used for a blog article discussing Atlantic Station. I made some comments (you can see these at the end of CB's article on Atlantic Station I linked to) in regard to her article about my opinions on the new development here in the Atlanta area. CB seemed intrigued with my ideas on planning and urban design and asked me to elaborate on some of my comments. After doing this she asked if she could publish the comments as a "guest poster" on her blog site. I agreed and she has made that post "live" as of Monday the 13th of November. You can check out the article HERE.

This interaction with CB and the whole Blogging thing has really been interesting. I have had some other contacts regarding my opinions in the article and other possible discussions on city planning and development. We will see if that goes anywhere. I have definetly caught the bug...