Esoteric Survey

I stayed at a geodesic dome home in Santa Fe.
The architect built the dome in 1979 for his parents. It is constructed of two thin layers of concrete over a steel frame. The passive solar design with what seems like incredible insulation made for a toasty stay. That's coming from a thin-skinned San Diegan who is not used to 30 degree temperatures. 
Dome door

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.

Photo: Ernst Haas, 1969

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 goes to show how important the project is. I'm looking forward to seeing who else gets added. I'm surpr…

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, shoving the beautiful resul…