Harry Potter and the Flaming Wok

The design hive of the Sam Fox school of design and art is an interlocking collection of buildings with numerous studios, auditoriums, workshops, classrooms, and computer labs. However, if you just want a nice place to read or study, you find yourself a bit hard pressed. The coffee shop/snack bar which one would think might have some nice spaces to sit and read while you sip your coffee has the misfortune of being located in Steinberg hall. Japanese Metabolist Fumihiko Maki's first commission, the spaces are cold, angular, pristine white circulation spaces full of light and uncompromising hard planar forms. Even the coffee bar is white. The scattering of a few standing height tables in the corner of the large terrazzo covered space has the feeling of an international airport. It's a very cosmopolitain space, but it is just to transitory for focused study.

The architecture library is the other possibility, and is actually Saori's preferred place of study. There is apparently two chairs along a wall near the stacks that she is fond of. I'm not a huge fan of that library for studying - I don't like sitting and reading in subterranean large spaces. Sitting in the main reading room feels like being in the bottom of a large square white pit. There is daylight provided by large high windows, but the scale makes me feel small, and exposed. There's no wood, no color, and a bare minimum of texture. I like reading spaces to be comfortable, and I'm just not comfortable in those spaces.

Yesterday, I discovered the the East Asian library in January hall, which was the former law school. This is less than a five minute walk from the architecture building, but completely removed in atmosphere and feel. The building was built in 1922, and like other buildings around the campus, is done in collegiate Gothic style. The interior spaces are primerily offices with a large lecture hall at one end, but on the second floor, there is a double height interior space which houses the library. When I found it, the HongKongese librarian aide welcomed me to the "Harry Potter Library." It does bear a resemblance to the dining hall at Hogwarts actually. Bookshelves line the walls with high windows above them along the sides of the hall, rising up to interior wooden buttresses to a gothic arched ceiling. At the end of the library, there is a huge bay window with two easy chairs. It feels like the place hasn't changed much from the 1920, although it looks like there was some addional work done in the 60's-70's. One of the bookcases had a "No Smoking" sign attached to it. Surreally, this gothic space is full of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese books, but there is still that wonderful "old book" smell to it. This is where I like to read.

meeting days

We had another all day meeting today with all the consultants. Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing, Structural, Civil, Landscaping, and of course the interior designers-cum-architects. The first half the day was really good and we got a lot of stuff resolved since we had the MEP and structural guy working together in person on how to run ducts around structure and ventilate the whole thing. I think we have a good handle on how to run all the ductwork in and around the main spaces, which is really what I've been focusing on in the last week.

I know, really exciting stuff. Ventilation.

Well, its a good excercise for me to learn about ducts, HVAC systems, etc anyway.

The second half the meeting turned into a design charette with the interior designers presenting several schemes and all the other consultants coming up with their own design ideas. In a bitterly funny turn, the interior designers are coming up with designs closer and closer to the original floorplan we had, that they said they could beat but are now realizing that was probably the best solution. Oh well.

Last friday I met mom and tay for dinner at Los Olivos in Scottsdale. She's back in town now, and probably for awhile. Saturday Saori and I drove around to the Desert Broom library in way north Cave Creek, and to check out the architecture of the Arabian library in North Scottsdale. I liked the arabian library much better than the Desert Broom, although they were both by the same architects. The new Arabian actually has a little cafe inside which is pretty cool since the entire building is clad with rusting metal panels. We also hit a yard sale way out in the desert and we had to drive on a dirt road to get to it. They were selling saddle blankets with a bunch of other horse stuff. I actually drove a quarter mile down a private road following another car I thought was heading to the garage sale. That night we played the card game asshole for five hours outside with some of Saori's friends.

Road Trips

Some interesting events from this week: Ahem,

Thursday was the summer solstice and me and a coworker went to see solar noon at the Burton Barr library. The library, which was a collaboration between Will Bruder, DWL, Rick Joy, Wendell Burnette, and many others, has a top floor which is about 30 feet clear to the roof, which is a floating roof, suspended on cables tied to columns. This floating roof means that there is a gap between the roof and the walls on either side. At solar noon, the sunlight washes directly down the concrete walls, all the way to the floor. There was a big crowd. Bruder was there, and gave a speech about the library as a "solar temple", as was as my sketching teacher and a classmate who now works for Bruder. Another Philipino guy who used to work for DWL, and did a lot of the drawings for the library showed us around after the event, and gave us a bunch of stories about its design and construction.

Friday, Chase came to town with his girlfriend, and I picked them up at the airport that evening. I actually stopped in at the "Stage and Go" lot to wait which was kind of fun. Stage and go is a bit like a drive in movie, except you just watch the flights which either say "in range" or "ready for pickup." I thought it was kind of strange, especially since it usually takes about twenty minutes after your plane lands to get you your luggage at sky harbor. Anyway, they were very impressed with the Prius, and I was happy to show it off to them. Chase took us out to Trader Vic's in Scottsdale, a restaurant he's been craving for awhile. We went here the last time he was in town, actually. We had some minor problems finding it as neither one of us could remember where it was exactly, and we ditched the valet service since I'd have to explain how to operate the car. It was a good evening, we hit the Valley Ho lounge for some drinks while we waited, (they didn't know how to make an Aviator, unfortunately for Chase). Food was really good, great appetizers of steak on small skewers which are served rare and can be flamed over sterno to doneness. I had the bbq pork chop, and Chase bought a round of Mai Tais, which were incidentally invented at Trader Vics.

Saturday morning, Saori (pronounced like saudi, but instead of a d, use a slightly rolled r) and I drove up to Sedona to meet some friends. We drove up the long way, by way of Payson, and up through the Rim. I really much prefer to take the longer, more beautiful roads over the straight shot through hell I-17. Our friends had gone camping the night before, and we called when we got up there and planned to meet at Slide Rock park.

When we got to Slide rock, the entrance was blocked by a massive line of cars and police turning new cars away. We finally found a parking spot on the side of the road in a turnout over half a mile away near the campsites. Sedona was packed this weekend. I've seldom seen so many people packed into a single place in Arizona. Slide rock was crammed full of people, families, screaming children, everyone. My experiences and preferences with nature tend to be 1 on 1 or with very small groups. So I was less able to appreciate the cool water and the beauty because it felt infested with people. It was still nice to enjoy the cold water and small waterfalls though.
Saori pointed out that you can't have great natural places like this so easily accessible and NOT have tons of people go there.

Our friends never showed up though, they were turned away in their cars and decided not to try to find parking elsewhere. It was ok. We really enjoyed the drive up. Driving back into town on the I-17, my eyes began to burn a bit, and I absent mindedly rubbed them with my hand. Instantly the burning began to get worse and worse and I began tearing up and blinking. It was a bad time, especially since there was no place to turn off and traffic was intesifiying as we approached the outer limits of Phoenix. It became difficult to keep my eyes open, and finally I pulled out onto an access road and parked in a construction site. We washed my eyes out repeatedly and washed off my hands. My eyes were totally bloodshot, although the water flushed out or diluted whatever was burning them. Saori drove the rest of the way back, although we stopped off at Chino Bandito since we were in the Neighborhood.