Faux Rome

This is not the Pantheon but the Ritz-Carlton.



And this is not a Baroque church in Roma but the Cathedral.



We won't get to Little Italy this trip, but judging by the food we've been eating, it's the next best thing to being there!

The 30th Street Station

Two years and 97 pages after my honors thesis on trains and wayfinding can't keep me away from exploring a new station.

The 30th Street Station is a relatively new station, built in the Thirties during the "Monumental" period, as Meeks puts it. It is hard to tell stations built during this time from other public buildings. Indeed, there's not much difference between this building and the one across the street from it, which I suspect is the Post Office.

The architects, however, did keep the clock. You know, without it, you might just miss that train!



The inside is pretty significant because of the roof span. In fact, I think I read somewhere that the roof was built to support a helipad.



Below is a monument to its railroad employees who were killed in World War II.



The station has some really nice details.

Below are some stiles that support a stair railing.



Isn't this a charming handrail support?



Bill suspects that the perforations in the light fixture are for heating and ventilation.



This is the arcade. I'd prefer to see umbrella-ed tables in Roma, but at least the building is being used as it was intended.



By the way, because the station is codeshared with Continental Airline's service at Newark International Airport, it has its own airport call letters, ZFV. (Thank you, Wikipedia, for that tidbit!)

Cinquecento or 18th century Americana?

The other night after dinner, Joe took us on a walking tour of this lovely district that is just a few blocks from our hotel. It reminded me of Williamsburg, but with the added intimacy of our Via Giulia neighborhood in Roma last year.



When I look at a staircase as beautiful as this, I know why I like things neoclassical. Even this window is very pretty, although I can't for the life of me figure why the owners stuck that Victorian-style bouquet on the window. Even if they liked the stained glass, the scale is all wrong. But I digress.



So until Roma, I was strickly 18th century--British or American.



But then I lived in Roma, and the Cinquecento started to rub off on me, leaving me terribly conflicted.

Officially, I like both, I guess. And now, I even like Italian modern.

By the way, Philadelphia's answer to the Fayetteville Square at Christmas is Rittenhouse Square. There aren't as many lights, but with skyscrapers lit at night as a backdrop, you just don't need as many.

How I didn't buy an emerald ring and bought a sweater instead

When it comes to jewelry, I need no prompting. However, Bill told me not once but twice to check out an estate jewelry store near our hotel. So I did.

My engagement ring is a square cut diamond set at a 45 degree angle. Simple, yet unique. You can imagine my surprise when I found a square-cut emerald set at a 45 degree angle in the window! Actually, the guards above and below the ring have nothing to do with the ring in question. So I went inside and tried on the ring. It's from the 1950s (as am I), but it looked a little tired (who's not). Ah, that's a good reason to walk away from a ring, don't you think!



Frankly, if it had been a diamond for the same price it would have been a little harder to leave behind. After all, diamonds go with everything whereas emeralds don't.

When you pass up a $4600 ring, you don't feel quite so bad buying an Ann Taylor sweater at 40% off. So I did, and I don't feel too guilty about it either!



You have to admit, this is a very pretty sweater. It will look nice with pearls. Hmmm, maybe I need to head back to the jewelry store!

When it comes to jewelry, I don't really need Bill to tell me to look at it. I do. I like sparkly things. I guess I get it from both sides of the family--Grandma Reed on my father's side and Aunt Anna on my mother's. Anyway, Bill told me not once but twice to look at an estate jewelry

My own Revit skyscraper

Generally, Interior Design students don't design skyscrapers in class because we don't mess with weight bearing walls. I'm lucky though because not once but twice have I had the opportunity to design a multi-story building. Here are a few shots of my skyscraper on Times Square--hey, if you're going to dream, dream big!

The first view is a rendered version of my conceptual massing. My building is in the center. How about those pilotis? You can see why the Comcast Building with its recessed area reminds me of my own building.



The following picture is a bit-more fleshed out. Here you can see the floors--19 of them to be exact!




My final project had many more views, but I failed to print them as PDFs before I transferred my Creative Suite with Photoshop and InDesign to my new computer. Revit is still on my old computer. But you get the general idea. Because of the camera angle, the perspective is a little distorted.



This is the entrance to my building, Quinn Towers. We were limited to 15'-high ceilings. Here you can see the reception area for the small gallery beyond the glass double doors inside. I designed both the desk and the painting on the wall in Revit, too.



And here is my piece of sculpture. This took over 4 days and 2 hours to render! The assignment was to use a variety of extrusions, sweeps, etc., as well as a variety of materials. I love the reflections on the display table, although I wish that the canted key didn't reflect the lights above quite so brilliantly.

Thank you, Ethel, Davide, and Allen

Ethel Goodstein-Murphree taught me about modern architecture. Davide Vitali taught me about the urban context. Allen Hart taught me how I could design my own skyscrapers using Revit. Visiting the City of Brotherly Love, I am reminded of just how grateful I am to my teachers.

The intersection of the Decumanus and Cardo (as Davide would say), Broad and Market Streets to the locals, marks the center of Philadelphia. This is City Hall. Originally, it would have been the tallest structure in the world, but Eiffel decided that his Tower would be higher.



Next is the Masonic Temple. On our last trip to Philly, Bill and I toured this building. It is really a hoot, architecturally, that is. It contains seven lodges--and each one is "decorated" accordingly in that post-romantic sentimentality of the 19th century. The seven decors corresponding to each of the seven lodges are: Corinthian, Ionic, Italian Renaissance, Norman, Gothic, Oriental, and Egyptian.



And now for some modern architecture. Below is the Comcast Building. I really like the lines and the recessed area reminds me of my own Revit skyscraper this semester. The Comcast is better, though. In a blog or two I'll show you some of my Revit stuff.



I don't know the name of this building but thought that the cornice at the top was nicely finished.



Below is the Cira Centre; I think it a little pretentious that a building in America is named as if it were still part of the British Empire. Cesar Pelli was the architect; he also designed the Petronus Twin Towers in Malaysia.



Here is the Cira Centre juxtaposed against the 30th Street Station. It nearly disappears into the sky.



When I was a student in Roma, I designed a 6-story building that bore a striking resemblance in shape to the building below. Now that I can do conceptual massing with Revit, last week I downloaded the Roman floor plan into Revit and may tackle the project again. As an interior design student, I really didn't focus on the outside of the building, but now I think I'd like to give it a try in my free time.



We can see these two buildings below from our hotel room. Despite the bad press, post-Modernism is fun.

I guess these buildings are One Liberty Place (on the left) and Two Liberty Place (on the right).



Life is good!

Going first class

Sometimes it pays to book a flight through Chicago...in winter. You see, Bill and Joe Candido, below, are in Philadelphia to interview job candidates at the MLA Convention. However, due to fowl weather up north, the gate agent at XNA recommended we fly to Philly via Dallas. It just so happened that there were no economy seats left. We had to fly first class.

Here is Joe demonstrating the proper way to sit in one of the airport lounge chairs at the Dallas airport.



I was sitting two seats away from him and had this fantastic view of the silhouettes of people as they took the escalator up to the next floor.



Here I am in first class. We sat on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting for the go-ahead for departure from the Philadelphia airport. I was handed a glass of wine by the flight attendant, but I must admit that I was a little disappointed she served it to me in a plastic cup.



Once we were in flight, however, we got the real first class treatment, beginning with a real glass and warmed nuts. Aside from chestnuts in Roma, I had never had warmed nuts; I like them and had two servings.



When the pilots realized that our arrival would be delayed, they graciously allowed the passengers to disembark long enough to grab some dinner. Our first class tickets enabled us to have our dinner served to us: shrimp cocktail, tortellini, salad, a roll, and a chocolate/raspberry/cheesecake cube parfait for dessert. And of course, all the wine we wanted.



Bill noticed at the end of the meal that the napkins had a buttonhole so that one could affix the napkin to a shirt. Not a bad idea.



Our flight was fine. I learned from our first trip after our honeymoon, 32 years ago, that one should always request a room as far away from both the elevator and vending machine, as possible. Sadly, the hotel gave away our room and we were left to share a floor with some wedding revelers in a room by the elevator. Well, I guess we can't always be lucky!

White Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas when Catherine, Daisy, and I decided to snuggle up and watch a chic flick. Well, Daisy wasn't doing much watching.



We awoke the next morning to a White Christmas.




Here is Catherine with Daisy. Daisy's now 16 1/2 and cannot get down to the yard without Catherine's help. Daisy loves her "nuggie" from Catherine.




Another snuggle moment with Catherine and Daisy. Billy patiently awaits the go-ahead to begin to look at what Santa has left him in his stocking.




The kids took forever to get up Christmas morning. So much time elapsed that I had an opportunity to write to one of our friends in Roma. I think they finally got up about 9:30 am which explains why they look so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.




Here is Billy with his train set under the family room Christmas tree. Incidentally, I made the little origami ornaments myself.




This year we set up one of the three Nordic trees in Bill's study. I'm particularly found of the little brown bird with the brown ribbon on top and the brown velvet skirt below.




I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. We sure did.

Love Actually

David Sanders, this is not what you think!

Once a year, the Adamses, the Billingsleys, and the Quinns gather at the Adams' home for Chuck's Shepherd's Pie, homemade bread, and Rhonda's sticky toffee cake. There is plenty of wine, and then we get all snuggly and watch Love Actually. It is an annual Christmas ritual, one we look forward to every year. And here's the group from left to right: Roy, Maxine, Rhonda, Chuck, Roberta, Robbie, me, and Bill.



Here I am testing the timer on the camera. Note the festive jacket.



Here's Roberta opening one of her presents.



The holiday season actually started about a week ago. The next three pictures were taken at Gwen and David's house.

The next cake was essentially chocolate ganache. Yummm...

Here is Roberta dancing to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." Rhonda's on the keyboards, and the chorus is comprised of Chuck, Bill, and Robbie.

A good time was had by all, actually.