Postcards from the edge

Browsing through the Graham Foundations' press section yet again, I found this really nice set of photos from Las Vegas Studio: Images from the Archives of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

of course it is the studio which led 

to the book Learning from Las Vegas, 

which we all know

  I had not seen the entire set of photos, so I decided to study them a bit more.

 (of course this famous image is not from Vegas but from New Jersey) somehow I always understood this book to be talking about a contemporary moment in architecture, instead of Las Vegas in the 60's

Thats because I always confuse car dashboards with computer screens

surfing through a landscape of logos

 surrounded by lit surfaces and animated information

 

 finding corners of peculiarity hidden behind software facades

 google-earthing places I have been to only to notice patterns anew

where reality becomes as abstract as desktop background

 confusing real people for avatars and vice versa

 chatting behing facades of un-updated websites, 

 looking back at the landscape of the screen 

from the desert of the real

The Collage Career of Stanley Tigerman

(Pensacola Place shopping mall, 1980s)

So I got a nice email from the Graham Foundation about their upcoming Stanley Tigerman tribute. I guess there's been quite a few of those Tigerman tributes recently, though I am always trying to position the work. Post-Modern folly, Avant Garde polemic, early Deconstructivist but also Metabolist, and some curious Architoons (that I almost cant bear to post) and some serious cuteness and some plain weirdness. 

I guess it's a long career but is that too many styles for one person? Or is he the original copy paste tumblerist, the lady gaga of his generation, furiously jumping from reference to quotation, flipping through architectural movements as one really should. 

Eisenmannish grid from the Matrix series

Pre-Sejima minimal cuteness with Daisy House

I mistakenly thought that the facade on the left was the Tigerman one, but in fact it's the one on the left.

The interesting one on the left is Studio Grau, obvs from Strada Novissima Venice

Hans Hollein-ish sinking Mies collage

 Virilioesque and Claude Parent-ish Fonction Oblique from Urban Matrix

upside-down pyramids from the Urban Matrix too, 1960s

  and downright fantastic weirdness 

from his Black Barn renovation

Perhaps this drawing explains everything, 

entitled "Career Collage", includes perhaps all his work,

though perhaps it should have been called Collage Career instead

(images for this post from the Graham Foundation's press section, from rndrd and Arqueologia del Futuro

Pyramid hunting at Biblioteca Alexandrina

Taking a break from all the teleporting, we skipped over to the Biblioteca Alexandrina, 

which I guess is meant to resemble a papyrus forest (just about the biggest Egyptian cliche). 

Why not go all the way and make it a big Pyramid, why stop at Papyrus?

Well actually the library by Snohetta is super nice, and full of young hipsterish Egyptians, so it was the second positive place after Tahrir that we were visiting. And while we were there, why not have a look at the art and architecture section? I almost felt obliged to look for stuff related to Egypt, maybe some unknown Pyramidometabolist curiosity from the 60s or some shopping mall aberration from the 80s?

of course the first book that catches my eye 

(I never use the search engine on libraries, I always drift in the corridors)

was of course an Isozaki monograph

 Isozaki is of course a major Pyramid lover, starting with his double pyramids from "Cities in the Air"

 to the Pharaonic robots at Osaka expo 1970

 to the super cool Egypt-unrelated projects from the 70s where I guess he was testing early rendering techniques? or maybe these were made later? (and might have this 1973 Country Clubhouse been an inspiration for  Toyo Ito's 1976 U-house?

 a house in Venice Beach, 

 Isozaki was never one to shy away from Cute Architecture

 further down the aisle, Ambasz? relation to Egypt?

 if this fukuoka (or somewhere) city hall is not Pharaonic, I dont know what is

 CCTV before REM? by Emilio Ambasz?

 interesting public building (this is just a detail) that looks eerily like Sou Fujimoto's house NA

further down, Peter Cook

  not sure how to explain the relation to Cook's heaps, mountains and ruins to Egypt but I always liked them so they have to be part of the group. We will worry about conceptual consistency later on, if ever.

  and by the way, here is a half, upside down pyramid by Peter Cook

 Temples and Pyramids ahoy over at Michael Graves, whose work I am always trying to like

great Antony and Cleopatra fabric showroom

 very curious performance space

 Luxor for the people, with ancient billboard sculptures and medieval music playing all over the place

 Legionaire

 Pyramid +

 and my favorite, Cleopatra worthy entrance, Swan Hotel, somewhere in Disneydystopia

 I picked this up not expecting any pyramids, but out of sheer curiosity, because I always want to know more about Charles Moore, 

 the closest thing to a pyramid is Xanadune resort (yes Xanadu and Dune, not Xanax and Dune)

 back entrance to the great Piazza Italia, and I love how out of sync the car are with the architecture. Lets face it, car design just has always sucked.

ok this was the obvious book to pick up, I really tried to find something to like and post, but boredom prevailed and also I could not wait to go through the book next on my stack, 

(and closing time was approaching)

 James Wines and SITE greatness, and even some projects I had never seen in depth,

(and by the way, I just noticed that most of the books were from Rizzoli? did the Biblioteca have a deal? shady? or some donation?)

 maybe we could say that Floating McDonalds is somehow metaphysically EgyptoAlien? StartGate-ish? but in a Kevin Smith way?

 or this Molino Stucky sinking  facade, surely from the Hans Hollein curated Venice Biennial?

 or this absurdly fabulous faux Archaeological office chair showroom entrance? this might as well be the most absurd corporate lobby installation ever

 petrified office chairs and file cabinets sinking in the sand?

 this was unrelated to Egypt obviously, but I had to pick it up

 maybe Persian Gulf is close enough?

a pyramid is always where you least expect it