|
Post by jdredd on May 12, 2017 16:33:38 GMT -5
So they have discovered a fault line under the site of Seaport Village (where in San Diego ISN'T there a fault line?), which may hold up the replacement of the charming one-story existing wooden buildings with soulless steel-and-glass highrises. Oh, I'm sure it will get built anyway. Why? Money, of course. But I did notice in today's UT article that one of the many obnoxious features of the proposed development is "a new mega yacht marina" to attract the ultra-wealthy. And this is only about 10 miles from where they are making the prototypes for the Great Wall of Trump to keep out the Mexican riff-raff. Tell me this isn't about class. But I have to admit some coastal hellhole like Mobile, Alabama would sell their Evilgelical souls for this development.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Aug 8, 2017 14:37:04 GMT -5
Being that this thread is about architecture, certainly The Wall should be included. I guess funding has been approved for the next step in construction. I'm dying to see the final design.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Sept 7, 2017 1:32:51 GMT -5
The big ass hurricane that hit Houston (named after the terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Mexicans) has brought some interest in how land is being used for growth. Paving over a swamp so it can't drain? Not such a good idea after all. Not that new developments won't still be popping up in the Houston area. Why? Because in Texas, property rights trump all else, and if you can get good bucks selling your farm to a developer for one more housing development, only a tyrannical government could stop you. Meanwhile here in California, we have a different problem. A tyrannical government DOES stop development, so housing prices are going through the roof, leaving the less wealthy in the cold. I've heard some people say we should increase density, but isn't traffic already insanely bad? No easy solutions from where I sit.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Sept 10, 2017 23:47:38 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/arts/frank-gehry-architecture-museum-north-adams-massasetts.html"Frank Gehry has signed on to design a new museum in North Adams, Mass., that will feature models of trains running around famous buildings from the last 150 years — including six of his own. The proposed project, called the Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum, will be a few blocks away from Mass MoCA, which recently completed its third phase of expansion, with large-scale exhibits by Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson and Robert Rauschenberg. It will cost an estimated $65 million and cover 83,000 square feet. The whole exhibit will be on one scale, with the roof of the building at least 40 feet high to allow room for skyscrapers; the Empire State Building replica, for example, will stand 35 feet tall. The work of 71 prominent architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, from around the world will be featured."
It's hard enough keeping up with the crap that is being built in San Diego without worrying about North Adams, but this project is so wacky I couldn't ignore it. 83,000 square feet of architectural dioramas including model trains? I love model trains! Who knew Gehry did to?
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Oct 11, 2017 21:30:13 GMT -5
Well, some 'burbs in former wildlands in Northern California have burned up, with more threatened. What did they expect? From what I see, the attraction of the 'burbs in the first place was the illusion that you could live in a faux farmhouse (without the annoying actual farmland), and with a car still work in the city. Plus, people living in faux farm houses way out of town are less susceptible to radical lefty (but not righty) politics than city dwellers, so two birds with one stone. Alas, though, they are more liable to be victims of wildfires.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Oct 14, 2017 13:25:34 GMT -5
So the Great Wall of Trump, his contemptible attempt to divide the North American continent into white and brown parts, continues apace. With no protests visible from the Hispanic community. Which either adds evidence that Mexicans are the ultimate sheep, or the other theory which I read that Mexicans find "personal solutions to collective problems". In other words, they will find a way around the idiotic wall, to hell with bigger issues. Whatever. But as I've said before, it's a great public works project, as tearing it down will be. Jobs, jobs, jobs!
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Dec 29, 2017 1:14:34 GMT -5
A long article and an editorial in the local rag about the past and future of Horton Plaza. They admit that when it was built as one of the first efforts at gentrification in downtown SD, it was designed like a bunker to keep the riff-raff from the streets at arm's length. But now that the whole area is gentrified, it is inaccessible for the new downtown affluent. So now the new French owners are looking at redoing it.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Feb 21, 2018 14:02:03 GMT -5
Speaking of the stupid Olympics (was I?), I read today where the Japanese were going to drop another big stadium into one of Tokyo's few greenbelts for the 2020 Olympics. And this is only a few miles from a previous stadium built for the 1964 Olympics. How many sports stadiums does the world need? I've seen pictures of Olympic stadiums in various countries that are now abandoned.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Apr 2, 2018 16:41:38 GMT -5
Just bought a book on Tustin, California, a suburb south of LA in beautiful Orange County. The whole story of Orange County in the 20th Century is interesting to me for some unknown reason, as it changed from orange groves in the turn of the last century to a suburban paradise/hellhole by the end of the century. And also became the epicenter of California right-wing politics. From what I've read, it pretty much made Ronald Reagan. It actually has almost no industry to speak of, excepting tourism to Disneyland, being almost 100% a bedroom county. It is only now in the 21st Century becoming ethnically diverse, with large Hispanic and Asian communities. But still, as I said elsewhere, the County Board of Supervisors is joining the Trumpites in suing California for it's "Sanctuary State" laws. Change comes slowly.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jun 23, 2018 11:48:33 GMT -5
Architecture and land use being interrelated, I read about another golf course closing yesterday because of the high cost of water. Putting aside the water issue for the moment, hundreds of houses were sold around the golf course, no doubt with being on a golf course as a selling point. I do actually have sympathy for them, if it now means lower property values and living next to dead brown open space. But what is the Libertarian credo? Oh yeah, let the buyer beware.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jul 10, 2018 2:27:59 GMT -5
In these uneventful days (Supreme Court Justice? Who give a crap? They all suck), what gets built is interesting to me. There is a lot of whining going on about the price of real estate in cities like New York and San Francisco, and how the middle class being driven out. Also, that homelessness is a byproduct of lack of affordable housing. Really? The way I see it, the reason that housing is so expensive in coastal cities like NY and SF, and San Diego for that matter, is EVERYBODY WANTS TO LIVE ON THE COASTS, and supply will never keep up with demand. Of course, the solution is supposedly building more housing, like these cities are not already crowded enough. But toady politicians of the construction industry will keep harping for more. Thankfully, I live a reasonable 15 miles from the damn ocean, and crowding and homelessness are not big problems. And frankly I believe homelessness is not a problem of housing but of mental health.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jul 23, 2018 4:24:42 GMT -5
Article in the UT today listing all the new subdivisions being built north and south of San Diego on unincorporated land. Why on unincorporated land? Because the old farts on the all-Republican County Board of Supervisors will rubber stamp anything the developers want to build. Sadly, the North-South freeways here are already bumper-to-bumper on weekdays and even on some weekends.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Aug 13, 2018 0:49:51 GMT -5
Without going into the ins and outs of building an expanded convention center here in San Diego, it looks like it won't be up for a vote until at least 2020, and then even if it's approved it would take a few years to build. It's more likely one more hotel will go up in that location. And once again that witch Donna Frye is deep into blocking a convention center expansion. Oh sorry, I didn't mean to insult witches.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Dec 8, 2018 3:49:41 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/nyregion/pier-55-park-hudson-river.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=New%20York"There is something strange rising in the Hudson River, the likes of which New York City, and the world, has never seen. It’s green. It’s futuristic. It’s expensive. It’s Diller Island, a park and performing arts venue being built on pilings over the Hudson River, along the West Side of Manhattan. Known more formally as Pier 55, it is expected to open in spring 2021, and it will surely steal some of the spotlight from the nearby High Line, which has gained international renown and become one of the top tourist draws in New York City since opening in 2009. Pier 55 has already drawn attention for its astronomical price tag — currently $250 million — that is being footed by the entertainment mogul Barry Diller and his wife, the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg."
So here is what gets built in NYC: Something a billionaire wants. So what else is new? Anyone got a problem with that? So what if it's weird. Nothing wrong with weird.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Feb 16, 2019 14:10:48 GMT -5
So Amazon pulled out of building a facility in the Bronx, (Why should I care what gets built in NYC? No reason.) and the finger pointing among NY politicians is on. Some people balked at the kickbacks, I mean tax breaks, Amazon was demanding. But what else is new? That's the way business is done. There is a hundred other towns that will bend over for Amazon, just like they bend over for the NFL. Meanwhile, Gov Moonbeam's pie in the sky bullet train is being reduced as the costs mount. I admit, I voted for it. I could whine I didn't have all the information, but when do we ever? And here in SD, the remodeling of the plaza in Balboa Park pushed by a local billionaire is also on hold because of money. Dozens of beautiful mature trees are breathing easier. I am enjoying Trump's end run around Congress to get the money for HIS wall. I am wondering what military projects he is stealing money from, but the Pentagon is so over funded it won't be a problem, they will just borrow new money.
|
|