Esoteric Survey

Alisa Walker wrote an excellent piece on the impending destruction of Horton Plaza for Curbed. I took the photos. 
Will this PoMo wonderland in San Diego be saved? An urban mall designed to revive downtown San Diego is set to be destroyed

Eames PKW-1, Luther Conover table and Isamu Kenmochi stools
Fancy books

Leon C. Meyer (1924–2003) was an architect known for designing round houses in the 1960s and 1970s. They are primarily found in the Bay Area. Leon's firms were Meyer Round Structures and Meyer and Taylor Modern Structures. In addition to round houses, he designed apartments and even a preschool.
Meyer and his family lived in this round house, located in the Oakland hills. It was built in 1967. I did a drive by this weekend to check it out.
In a 1967 Oakland Tribune article, Meyer said "We work in boxes so why should we live in them?" He studied architecture at Cal Poly.
He also designed a triangular apartment building and an M-frame house, both in Oakland. 
Source: Oakland Tribune, 1965
Source: Oakland Tribune
Source: LA Times
As of 1971, Leon's company had sold 26 round houses. 
Source: LA Times

The firm went into prefabrication of the components, which could then be assembled onsite.
Source: Oakland Tribune
Another Leon Meyer round house in Oakland.  Apparently it…

Robert J Ellenberger for Calfab Furniture Company. Los Angeles, 1950
F Carlton Ball and Tatsuzō Shimaoka  Two more for the cup collection.

William Chappelow at his Tryyn Gallery in Guatay, CA. 
Bill is an amazing craftsman who specializes in wood kitchen implements. He's been at it since the early 1970s and his work is included in the Smithsonian permanent collection. Tryyn is a medieval term meaning "coming from the tree". The gallery is located in the mountains just 30 minutes east of San Diego in the tiny town of Guatay, which is on Historic Highway 80.
The form and grain of the wood guides what the final piece will become. 




Each piece is designed for a very particular use. I spent a lot of time reading the tags before selecting mine. Cream of wheat is one of my favorites. 
Bill in his workshop, which is located behind the gallery.
Bill's prefered machines are Walker-Turner band saws from the 1930s.

He uses more than 250 types of wood in his work.
As an avid environmentalist, he uses every scrap. At one point he was even using the sawdust in a ceramic wood fire kiln. As a side note, he studied cerami…

Horton Plaza by Jon Jerde opened in 1985. It was a big deal. Downtown San Diego was dead and this postmodern mall was an attempt to revitalize the heart of the city. It's considered a postmodern architectural icon, as well as redevelopment success story.
Jerde referred to the style as "Festival Marketplace".  His design for the shopping center was based on Ray Bradbury's essay "The Aesthetics of Lostness". Anyone who has been there, knows what this is all about. There are curved walkways, mismatched levels, one-way ramps, sudden drop-offs, colonnades and cul-de-sacs, all around a central courtyard. 
Six buildings that were were on the National Register of Historic Places were demolished to make way for the 6 block shopping center.  In true San Diego style, many of the demolished buildings were recreated as stucco renditions. The Knights of Pythias Castle was one of the victims.
Image: San Diego History Center (via SD Reader)
The design of the windows was m…