Pharmacy in Riga (Office: Substance). A recent trip to Riga, capital of Latvia, was to trace my ancestors and visit many of the sites and residences where my father had lived until he was a young adult. While the history of my family is well documented, I had not to this point visited any of the family properties in Latvia or nearby Lithuania.
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Latvian National Museum of Art (Processoffice), Part 1. Hands down, the stair that I am about to share with you is conceptually one of the most subtle tectonic statements that I have seen in recent years. Not simply because it is both simple and utterly sophisticated in its execution, but it takes its place so eloquently and effortless within the entrance foyer of an existing building, namely the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga, Latvia (LNMM).
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A compass set. For an architecture student in the early 1980s, owning a compass was not a luxury, it was a necessity. This, along with other required mechanical tools (drafting instruments) including a triangular metric scale (which in Europe serves both architects and engineers), various triangles, ruler, T-square (parallel bars were rare and expensive and were seen as an American luxury for a European student), protractor (measured angles), templates known as French curves (to draw complex geometry), eraser shield, and the ubiquitous item that was expensive but lifesaving – Rotring’s famous rapidograph ink pens.
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New York vintage traffic signals. While researching my blog Vintage New York Postcards, my attention was drawn to a specific postcard in my collection. The image featured a 1922 traffic light tower (signal tower) located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
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Interview about architecture. The following interview was conducted over zoom on September 6, 2023, with Berk Oral, a former second-year student, and friend. He is currently studying in Boston as part of his fourth year off-campus semester and will return to campus to complete his year-long thesis during the Academic year 2024-25. The interview is part of a requirement at the CDR Payette OpenLab Boston Studio, where students choose to interview professionals for their Professional Practice course. Other courses during the semester are the integrative studio and fabrication.
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Architecture thesis, Part 2. Throughout countless thesis critiques with architecture students, I always end up somewhere in the discussion asking the same question: What is your thesis? Their answers (yes, plural) are often evasive and timid, and suggestive of their initial unfocused interests as they struggle through numerous topics that are in their own right promising and robust.
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Hong Kong: Bauhaus style Central Market. Previous research on the Central Market in Hong Kong, resulted in a blog describing the genesis of the market through 1850. After 1858, the building—originally called Canton Bazaar, thereafter Middle Bazaar—was rebuilt, and from there on was officially named Central Market. The 1903 map (Image 2, below) suggests the market was a rather large structure.
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National Museum in Singapore, Part 1. Over the past decades, art museums have outgrown their spatial footprint; be it an 18th or 19th century heritage facility or a contemporary addition. I mention these centuries, as during that period major modern museums were founded.
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Hong Kong: a lesson in stairs (Central Market). In a recent blog, I described the origins of Central Market. I’d like to add that more detail of its history can be found at Timeline; at the Central Market website under Our Heritage Conservation; and in the comprehensive documentation Study on Historical and Architectural Context of Central Market.
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Hong Kong: the history of Central Market. Since ancient times, public markets—coined mercatus in Latin, which means trading, dealing or buying, as well as the physical place where those activities occur—have served as the identity and social lifeline for countless cities and towns. Food markets in particular have played a significant role as community-gathering places.
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