"In our contemporary world in which railway stations become museums and churches are turned into night-clubs, the old, stable coordinates cease to apply.  And, in this world in which airports incorporate amusement arcades, cinemas, churches, business centers and so on, the "city," as a complex and interactive web of events, becomes the relevant ( Read more... )

"Each experience derives from the interaction between the staged event and the individual's prior state of mind and being." - pg 12

"While the work of the experience stager perishes upon its performance (precisely the right word), the value of the experience lingers in the memory of any individual who was engaged by the event." + footnote stating ( Read more... )

I'm not sure I've been entirely clear about this yet...the first step in my design process is to reduce the building to it's necessary components, i.e. the historically significant building skin and structural skeleton. 

So I'm thinking about strategies for re-inhabiting the Old Post Office.  My scale studies have shown that the building is really much more conducive to large/generous spaces than to smaller, more partitioned uses (eg. housing or office).  So, alright, that's one thing decided.  But what functions should I look to accommodate?  I mean, big can be ( Read more... )

Through discussion, it’s become fairly clear that I need to approach this project from an overall systems/conditions point of view, before delving too heavily into the specificities of program. It’s been noted that “anything will fit,” and that’s true…physically, almost any programmatic piece will fit into the original envelope of the building ( ( Read more... )

"Neither by the public, nor by those who have the care of public monuments, is the true meaning of the word restoration understood. It means the most total destruction which a building can suffer: a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered: a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed...[It] is impossible, as ( Read more... )

So, I'm trying this out as a way to keep tabs on my thought process as I go through thesis. I've found it pretty difficult to keep all my thoughts straight, and I'm not disciplined enough to do a free-form log just in a word file on my laptop. Maybe forcing myself to make discreet entries will do the trick.

That's the Old Chicago Post Office. ( Read more... )