Esoteric Survey

Crossroads Motel on Central Ave  (formerly Route 66)  in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1966 Postcard with the Route 66 sign in the median. The route was decommissioned in 1985. Central Avenue is a pretty great time capsule of roadside businesses that serviced the historic highway.  The motel was known as the "The Crystal Palace"  in Breaking Bad .  The reviews of the hotel are interesting. It seems like if you're not a Breaking bad fan, it's a dump.  The pool looks a little sketchy. Central Avenue had been under construction for quite some time. They were working on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit ( ART ) bus line. People were up in arms about about the project when I was there last year. It's done now and it looks like a lot of new investment is going into the area. Albuquerque Boys Club (1954). A pretty interesting triple quonset. Albuquerque is a little rough around the edges, but I like it. Pho...

Ben Goo, baby weed pot and a cane-wrapped stone Ben Goo, taking a rest before departing Arizona Tapestry by Santa Fe artist Eve Rabinowe,  Martz table, Evelyn Ackerman and iron bits Jens Quistgaard It's included in Sori Yanagi's Philospy of Design book. The casserole is also in the design collection at The MET . In fact, Quistgaard has 14 items in The Met collection. There are only have two Yanagi pieces, which are a pair of butterfly stools from the 80s. I'm surprised.  

Pioneering Women of American Architecture is a collection of profiles of women who have made important contributions to American architecture. All of these women were born before 1940. The list was edited by Mary McLeod and Victoria Rosner and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation . Mary Jane Colter, Interior, Hopi House, Grand Canyon, 1905.  Photo:  National Park Service  via  Pioneering Women   Natalie de Blois (Senior Designer)  Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , Pepsi-Cola Headquarters, 1960, New York City. Photo: Ezra Stoller via Pioneering Women Genia Averbuch, Elsa Gidoni, and Schomo Ginsburg, Café-Restaurant at the Levant Fair, Tel Aviv, Palestine, 1934.  Her first job was working for Norman Bel Geddes on General Motors’s Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair.  Photo: Library of Congress  via  Pioneering Women   Sadly, I wasn't familiar with a lot of the women profiled. This go...

In 2017, I was able to go to some amazing places, see some great buildings, and picked up some cool things. If it weren't for the country falling apart, it would have been a great year.  Anyway, here are the top nine posts (based on likes) from my  Instagram  account. 

La Gardo Tackett for Architectural Pottery Doyle Lane beads There's something sweet about this painting Tripod pot It's the tough picking time of the year.  So much so, I even forgot to post "stuff" last week.

I used to half-jokingly refer to Paolo Soleri as "Saint Soleri." I have even spent Christmas at Arcosanti  a couple times. His work is some of my favorite; whether it's the sculptures I live with, his architecture I visit over and over again, or the bells which have become my personal litmus test of whether someone is truly "in the know"  of good design and architecture. It turns out he was far from a saint.  Image: The Guardian Daniela Soleri, Paolo's daughter shared her story of abuse on  Medium : I used to dream the same thing over and over. I am a child at home, and there in our living room is my father, Paolo Soleri, in a large cage, fuming. We, my mother and sister and I, quietly hand paper, pencils, crayons and charcoal to him through the bars, or we hand in clay, or Styrofoam and a woodburning tool, or large flat trays of moist, densely packed silt with knives to carve it, powders and washes to color it. He draws, forms, carves, s...

The oldest operating McDonald's is located in Downey, CA. It was the 3rd McDonald’s built, and opened in 1953. It was the second restaurant franchised by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. The first McDonald's was in San Bernardino.  In the early 1950s, Richard and Maurice McDonald hired commercial architect Stanley Clark Meston to design a drive-in (as opposed to drive thru) hamburger stand. Meston and his draftsman, Charles Fish, came up with the prototype franchise design in 1953.  Fish ended up moving to San Diego and teaming up with James Bird and Walter Fujimoto. See their profile at Modern San Diego .  Source: (Charles Fish collection) via Alan Hess  - Which also includes a more in depth post about the Downey McDonalds. Roger Williams and Bud Landon purchased franchise rights for the Downey stand from the McDonald brothers in 1953, prior to Ray Kroc's buying the chain in 1961. Therefore, they were not required to adhere to standard McD...