Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Pre-Versailles




Building: Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
Architect/Landscape/Designer: Louis Le Vau, Andre le Notre, Charles Le Brun 
Location: Maincy, France
Dates: 1658 - 1661
Use: Residence (originally)

One day long ago, there lived a man named Nicolas Fouquet. He was the financial advisor (or superintendent of finances) to King Louis XIV and had saved a bit of money. Having such incredible vision and taste, he hired Le Vau, le Notre and Le Brun to collaborate on a giant scheme to "renovate" his home. Wiping out a couple of nearby villages, the grand Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte and gardens was born, and was it!

The Chateau was lavish and grand and the "gardens" went on forever (but with some tricks, visually did not look as large)... supposedly it is about a mile and a half walk from the chateau to the Hercules statue at the far end of the sloping "lawn". Nowadays they use golf carts to get there, but back then... 

But back to Fouquet. He held really lovely parties there and one day the King thought, how on earth could my financial advisor have a place so grand... so much grander than my own residence? He must be embezzling from me! Arrest him! And get his design group to build me something bigger and better! At Versailles!... or something like that, I imagine.

So here we are, fabulous chateau and gardens, in fact I believe this is where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker had their wedding reception. I guess I would too, if I was able to roll like that.

Chateau,  the foyer (or maybe it's the ballroom), the backyard, over the river and through the woods, and... finally made it to the Hercules statue!

Marie Antoinette's Playground

Buildings: L'Hameau de la Reine
Location: Adjacent to Chateau de Versailles
Dates: 1783 - 1787

Way back in the day of Louis XVI, supposedly the cool thing for really rich people to do was to pretend to be not rich... but in an expensive way. Directly adjacent to the  Palace of Versailles and it's "garden" (if you can call about 250 acres of land a "garden"), the Hameau was created for their Queen, Marie Antoinette. It was a large area of land with little buildings constructed (supposedly at a Disneyland-esque 3/4 actual size... so it seemed perfect to me) so that the Queen and her ladies could escape the rigors of palace life and play milkmaid, pretending they were peasants living a peasant life... but without the sweat and dirt. Although, didn't they only shower once a month back then?

Cute place... I'd want this as a playground too. With a train.

(and yes, I don't normally do color, but since it was a "garden tour", we were forced to... we were graded on it)




Wednesday, December 23, 2009

A Night at the Monastery

Building:  Sainte Marie de La Tourette
Architect: Le Courbusier
Location:  near Lyon, France
Dates:       1956 - 1960
Use:           Dominican Monastery
Style:         Late Modernist

(sketch view from inside the courtyard area)

Traveling south along the Swiss border from Ronchamp, we made one last Le Corbusier stop before heading back home (as we would call it "home" for the next four months) at the Dominican Monastery called La Tourette.

It was a nice, crisp early autumn day (actually it was technically still summer) and after driving through small town after small town, we turned onto a long tree-lined driveway that seemed to lead to nowhere... and suddenly there the concrete monastery appeared.

We attended a lecture (about something... the building probably), and then was treated to a nice vegetarian dinner of... something... in the cafeteria. Most of the items we were able to figure out, but the last one... that one stumped us all - was it tofu? Was it cheese? Was it egg whites (don't know if that is considered "meat" or not)? Nevertheless, we ended the night retiring to each of our own little Le Corbusier concrete sleeping rooms (even our professor and his wife had to split into two separate rooms - it is a monastery after all). 

Let's talk about these sleeping rooms... there is no comfort whatsoever. Of course, there isn't supposed to be. It is a narrow long cell - all concrete, mind you - that (from memory) seemed about 5' wide and perhaps 20' long, lit by one single light bulb (maybe the light bulb part is an exaggeration). Once inside the door, there is a little cubby shelf against the wall, and a small sink right next to that. Next up is a small single-mattress metal-framed bed with a small wooden writing desk taking the end of the line. At the other end of the room is a small balcony, of which I did not dare to venture out onto (I admit it, the whole place kind of gave me the willies). 
(this is the outside view from the driveway of the sleeping room and balconies)

Down the concrete hall, in near darkness, is the concrete community bathroom... the unisex community bathroom, where only a couple of us dared to take a shower. I was one of those who dared, and I prayed the entire time.

All in all, I was glad I got to experience a visit and a stay at a Le Corbusier building. I may have been creeped out when darkness fell, but in daylight, it felt quite spiritual. If I was a monk, I'd totally seek this place out.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

A moment of silence.

Building:  Notre Dame du Haut
Architect: Le Corbusier
Location:  Ronchamp, France
Date:          1955
Use:           Church
Material:  Concrete 4'-12' thick



 I still remember the day quite vividly. It was Tuesday morning, and we were all gathered for the last bit of visiting buildings in Paris as a class. At noon, we were all let loose in the City of Lights to research and investigate our assigned building to study and present upon in a week's time. I headed over to the Cluny Museum (or aka Musee National du Moyen Age), a part Roman Bath/Medieval/Gothic mansion housing Unicorn Tapestries, to photograph the entrance, the window details, the doorways, the roof, the gardens. After sometime, I decided it was enough Cluny for me, and headed back to the Louvre for another wing to explore but was surprised to learn it was closed. Maybe I have my days mixed up? I thought to myself, and opted instead to sit in the Jardin de Tuileries and sketch, but suddenly didn't feel right, and had a desire to head back to the hotel. Heading towards the metro, I was stopped by a vendor asking if I was American. Eyeing his bags full of Eiffel Tower keychains, I simply smiled and waved 'bye' as if I didn't understand him. 

Back at the hotel, I still had that weird feeling and needed to shake it off. I went to the internet cafe across the street to pass time while waiting for some classmates to return. About an hour of responding to emails, I thought maybe a nap would make me feel better, so returned to the hotel. Waiting at the front desk to retrieve my room key, I turned and looked at the tv. I immediately recognized the scene to be the NYC skyline. And then there was smoke.  I don't recognize this movie, I thought, and continued watching. About 5 minutes later, I realized that the scene was on repeat, and that the "movie" was in fact, the news. I turned back to the receptionist, who was staring at the tv in complete horror and shock.

That evening, we dined quietly all together at a small restaurant down the street, unsure of what was going to happen to us, what was going to happen to our country, what was going to happen in the world.

It almost seems fitting that at the time of the world-wide moment of silence that Friday, we were all atop a hill in Ronchamp by the Swiss border at Le Corbusier's chapel, Notre Dame du Haut. It had been raining the night before and was still drizzly that day, but for just a moment, the clouds parted for our moment of silence as we stared down at the lush, green, peaceful valley below.

  

Winged Victory

Sculpture: Winged Victory of Samothrace
Date:        circa 190 BC
Location:   (originally) Samothrace Island, Greece
       (current) Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Discovered: 1863
Material:     Marble
Size:         3.28m (+/- 10'-9")



The Louvre Museum in Paris truly is a magnificent place, no matter what level your interest in art may be. To enter, you descend to the underground entrance a number of ways - there is the more popular entrance through one of I.M. Pei's glass pyramids, or the route I preferred: the lesser used stairs adjacent to the Jardin de Tuileries. There are shops and boutiques lining the path and clustered near the entrance (including an Esprit store, which seemed to have disappeared from the States a couple of years prior and I was pleased to discover they were still around) as well as a food court. There are several wings branching off from the entrance center, and they aren't kidding when they say it will take forever and a day to view each and every piece in the entire museum. I have been back several times afterwards and am nowhere near viewing half of the displays (of course this is because I usually pick a few must sees and then get tired afterwards - those are some really long hallways!). And then some of my must sees are usually repeated. What do I consider a must-see in the Louvre? Obviously, the Mona Lisa (which, surprisingly wasn't as large as I had expected). Venus de Milo also makes it onto my short list as well as the Psyche and Cupid statue (also much smaller than I imagined). I also like walking around the "original" Medieval walls of the Louvre. Among all of these pieces, what I am most impressed by is the statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace (aka Nike of Samothrace). This statue not only is of a size that I would imagine for it to be, but the positioning of it at the end of a gigantic hall at the top of the steps is bound to impress anyone. Oh, and date of sculpture being circa 190 BC is pretty impressive as well. Unfortunately, my hand sketched her stumpier than she really is. Sorry Nike, my bad.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Paris, je t'aime!

Fall semester of my fourth year was when I actually made use of my sketchbook as a sketchbook. I guess I kind of had to - it was going to be part of our grade for our time abroad. It was September 1, 2001, and I had made my way to Paris alone (via 3 planes, 1 bus and 1 taxi ride) to meet up with the rest of my class the following day. One of the first stops we made was to the Pompidou Centre, where upon arriving to the top floor via escalator, I turned, and took in the sweeping view of the Paris skyline. It was so bizarre, so unreal, so completely amazing. I cracked open my new yellow velvet sketchbook (yes, it was yellow velvet), uncapped my new (cheap) fountain pen, shook my rusty hand out a few times, and got ready to be inspired.
  

Friday, December 18, 2009

The Beginning

Once upon a time, I was a college student, eager to learn and expand my horizons. Walking onto the brick-clad urban city block campus of USC, I jumped into the School of Architecture... not really knowing what it was I was jumping into exactly. All I knew was that I liked going to see model homes and that sounded like architecture to me.

Five years later, I graduated with a new appreciation for structure, space, sexy glass and change. I could do something, I could make a difference... I could make a name for myself.
Five years after that, I'm working the 9-6 (or so), reading zoning codes, drawing big-box retailers and striping parking lots. Though I am utilizing the skills and (some) knowledge from school, it's a completely different place than what my 23-year-old self had imagined while standing in cap and gown. Life has become the day-to-day routine that makes one wonder, "Is this it? This is what I worked so hard for?"

It's not so bad. There is some joy that can be found in preparing a new site plan, knowing that you really did it to the best of your ability and then knowing that it was going to work. But then there is always that something, that little nagging thought at the back of your mind. What is it trying to say? What is it trying to get you to do?

That's right. Be inspired.

I'll try... I'll return to the basics. I'll open my eyes. I'll learn again. I'll put the pen to the paper. I'll be inspired for the future. I'll open my sketchbook.