Esoteric Survey

The second part of the Eames Institute Collector's Circle was a trip to Novato to see the future home of the museum. John Savage Bolles was the  architect of record on the project. He also designed Candlestick Park, an IBM campus in San Jose, and Embarcadero Plaza. It was built in 1964 as the McGraw-Hill Publishing Western distribution center. They left in 1991 and Birkenstock moved in the same year. In 2007 the German sandal maker moved out of the building, only to return in 2012, although they only used the offices. Birkenstock left for good in 2020 and it has remained empty. Although rumors were circulating for several years about it, in 2025 that the Eames Institute announced they purchased the property.  John Cary, President and CEO of the Eames Institute, led this part of the day. He shared the institute's vision for the property. First and foremost, it will be a design museum, with a focus on Eames. However, it's going to much more than that. The warehouse building...

Félix Candela: High Life Textile Factory, Coyoacan, Mexico City 1955 The facility made suits for a retail men's store called High Life. The store is still in existence but the building was later Cavalier Fashion and now appears to be vacant. The building made the cover of Arts & Architecture in May 1956. There is an article on Candela but this building isn't discussed. During construction. I was able to poke my phone through one of the few sections of window that wasn't covered by a board.  It's very nondescript from the exterior.  It's located near Frida's Casa Azul.

 Iglesia de la Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa by Félix Candela (1955) in Mexico City The modernist gothic structure is a showcase of Candela's use of thin-shelled concrete construction.   The thickness of  the hyperbolic paraboloid shells in the main building is 1.5 inches or less. Candela worked with fellow architects, Arturo Sanz de la Calzada and Pedro Fernandez Miret. Source: Candela, the shell builder, 1963 I believe this is the patron saint of the hyperbolic paraboloid Source: Candela, the shell builder, 1963 For the souls Cue up Led Zeppelin