DC

Yes DC, not Greece - although maybe not from the above view point. The sky is the same everywhere :-p

 ~.~

DC was so pretty from the beginning, from the airplane view. I was just too lazy to take my camera out but the streets looked painted and the houses like little doll ones. There is a lot of vegetation everywhere and it doesn't feel like continental America.

Although the traffic does feel like continental America and I thought the drivers were pretty aggressive, too.

Nonetheless, I managed to get to the Mall and experience the monuments. Here are some representative ones (My favorite is Lincoln looking down at everyone)

And the white house! There was a tour going on inside, tons of people taking pictures on the outside (from where this picture is), and someone told me you have to stand in line from 6am to actually get in. So I never went closer than this.

At the mall, there was also the National Portrait Gallery with the Foster roof - nothing too impressive on the inside and I thought there was no good air circulation, but here it is.

DC had really cool train stations - that I have to admit. The concrete was just gorgeous and it was well lit. Way to go!

Was Foster trying to copy these ceiling forms in his museum roof?

And finally the real reason why I flew into Dulles. I love this airport. And Saarinen.

 Why don't they make them like this anymore?
By the way, last note, the metro map for DC was amazing - very clear and understandable which is hard for something with that many lines (and a fact that I can not say was true for Miami - blog entry to follow). This one is a little dirty cause it was one from the street - but I think you can still see the great design.

LA baby!

I have taken forever to update this blog but tonight is the night! ***Note my Macgyver skills with the GPS hanging.***

Probably one of the most exiting things about the LA trip is that I got a free upgrade to a convertible!!! It was really cool and it had a sweet sound system in the back. I feel that I truly experienced LA just because of that.
And of course Hollywood - which by the way I did not get to see the whole thing and I am going back - but so far it was kind of disappointing. I did not really find any stars with famous names on them and kind of had to run away as we were chased by this weird guy that wanted to make a portrait of me?!?!?!

In any case, it was generally dirty - even the star names! and so much pollution you could see it in the air. Sad :-(  On the bright side, my job took me to Corona Del Mar which is probably one of the nicest places I have been to: Cool houses, sunshine, marinas - the life!

That's right - solar panel facade. LA is one of the places where this can work...Chicago not so much... I really liked this building though.
So in search of architecture I went and even thought I didn't have much luck with the case study houses, I did find Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright and Schindler.

The Eames house was really tiny on a huge property and closed to the public except for one day a year which of course wasn't when I was there. It had a nice overview of a big beach.

This FLW home was for sale for $5 million! It was huge and definitely very cheap for one of his designs. I think I heard that it went even lower. Oh economy!! The cubical concrete block with perforated and not decorations was amazing and allowed for flexibility in design. I really liked the concept. Same with the one below that was actually inhabited.

And yes - this one above here is the Schindler house or whatever you can see of it. Apparently whatever society is preserving it decided to grow prairie grass around it - which I am convinced served the purpose of not letting me take pictures of the outside. Below is as close as I could get.

Above is the dining room with Schindler's furniture, the best idea for sink/shower design I have ever seen, and this stupid sign they had put outside the house. It looks like it should be able to rotate and spin - but no - it does not move at all. I tried.

On the modern side, I visited the Getty center up on a hill. The views were beautiful and the center was interesting. As always, I took the tour of the outside building and did not even get to the inside exhibit. I am an architecture student after all.

I am now realizing that I don't have a picture of the entire place but it was huge and probably impossible for my little canon. Last comment for this entry - the bottom picture is of what is called fossil limestone that covers pretty much the entire enormous Getty Center. According to the tour-guide, the stone came directly from Rome from the same quarry as the stones that built the Colosseum. I don't remember the exact amount of stone brought to the top of the hill for the center but it took them about 6 years to bring all of it. However, according to the guide and the big round sign on the entrance doors, the building has a silver LEED rating. Anyone see any conflicts here? Just wondering...