Xpressionz of an Architect

The Art Gallery of Ontario is redesigned by Frank Gehry and the pictures look amazing. What can I say hats off to the Master Architect. I am a great fan of this architect and just love his projects. Had been to his EMP project in Seattle which is just one of his masterpieces. Time and again can’t stress how modern or rather more in tune with the era his structures are. Most of his projects are aweinspiring not only to architects but to a layman too. The forms he uses and plays with are so different and defying any typecast and still so true to its function. The AGO has a rear wall out of glass which is the building’s unique balance. Here is the official Architectural record link to the pics
http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/080903gehry/1.asp

The skywalk is amidst all the canyon landscape situated on the west rim of Grand Canyon. There was a stretch of 20 mile of unpaved road on the route at its approach of the west rim. I would advise to wait for a year and then visit as the road will be paved by then. The skywalk is surrounded by desert landscape overlooking 4000 ft. of canyon below. It’s an experience you should have once in your life.

I would say its an adventure in itself to stand over the glass floor and see 4000 ft below of raw canyon. I can’t describe what a feeling it is to know that there is only one glass piece between you and all that rocky valley below. It makes u believe in the forces and power of nature and Man is only but a part of it. One thing I appreciated is the skywalk blends into its surrounding very well. Its not any pyrotechnic structure flopped onto the site but a well thought out design which blends into the valley giving people that modern skywalk experience. Here is the link to its official webpage for more info http://grandcanyonskywalk

I visited Miami last week of December ‘06. Miami was full of surprises. It’s one of the fast growing fashion hubs with its diverse cultural influence. The feeling I got here was similar to European places like Paris, Milan. The Lincoln road mall is a series of shops lined along couple of city blocks which has world renowned brands from apparel to accessories mixed with restaurants, European style seating outside on the side walks. This was all at a walking distance from the beaches. South beach has incredible clear deep blue water.

To my amazement I found out that the area marked between 5^th and 15^th street at Miami Beach houses art deco style architecture. The structures here are unique examples of good preservation. Lot of use of cast in place concrete to achieve the art deco style. This was reminiscent of Bombay, India where I grew up, there is an evident influence of art deco style throughout. Another interesting thing I thought would share with you is the hotel which we were staying in, The Royal Palms hotel was initially built in 1939. When they had to renovate and rebuild it in the late 90’s, the building codes were so laid that they had to build the new hotel from the original plans and elevations of the 30’s. It’s so unbelievable that this hotel is built in the 90’s, doing perfect justice to the art deco architecture. The original stone front desk is still preserved and used in combination with glass. The hotel lobby gives a good example of mixing the art deco style with modernist ideas.

This is a competition where all local architectural firms unite and serve the cause of giving back to the community. We create sculptures or structures out of food cans and raise money thru the exhibitions. Every year there is a new theme for this canstruction. This is a good cause to support; it feeds the homeless thru the food bank. We are a part of this from the past two years. This is our second time. This year the theme was “wonders of the world”. We decided to create the Spiral Minaret of Samarra. It’s an age old wonder of the Middle East. We created the top spiral part of it. The challenge was creating the arches and spiralness of the tower. There is a lot of work which goes around for months before the actual competition. We raise money so that we can buy food cans. The more we raise the better structure we make. We get the cans in a month ago and start mocking up our structure. The whole process is so interesting. At the final build-out day all the cans are delivered on site where we build our structure. You wonder how they must have created at the olden times without the technology of today. We started facing problems as we started getting higher more than 5′-0″. Our cans started toppling due to the weight from the layers above. Gosh that was so shocking to see our cans topple especially when you have spent 5 hours stacking them. We had to come up with something. We started putting our heads together and trying bunch of different things. We didn’t excel at the first shot but did at the third attempt. I saw the human spirit likes to soar and conquer difficulties when it’s challenged. We also got an award this year; all that effort was worth it. Our structure received the “Best Use of Labels”. Here is the link to the official website for construction (www.canstruction.org).

 

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