¡Hip Hip Jorge!

It's sad to see Jorgie go. He came up in 1965 with Captain Jeter, Andy Pettite and Saint Mo, and the Yankees went to the World Series 5 times in the next 6 years, winning 4 of them. Then they went again 2 years later, and finally won again when they beat the Phillies in 2009 with Jorgie catching - so he has 5 rings and 8 appearances.

He's on the cusp of being a Hall of Famer. You might not think so looking at his individual years, but only a handful of catchers have better career numbers. Of course one of those is 3-time MVP Yogi Berra, who won 10 rings playing with the Yankees and 3 more as a coach with the Yankees and the Mets.

This YouTube video shows Jorgie getting the hit that clinched the the AL East at the end of a tough season for him. Watching at the time, you knew it was a hit the second his bat hit the ball.

Modernism is the Old New

pass it on

Blame the Architect, The Video

UPDATE: "Riots always happen when cities consider themselves to be at a high point in terms of their urban development," says Dutch architectural historian Wouter Vanstiphout, speaking to me from his home in Rotterdam. "We've studied riots in every decade since the 1960s, and every time you can see that the officials of the city felt that on a planning level they were doing the most fantastic things." - Kieran Long, "What now for the regeneration of London?," London Evening Standard, August 17, 2011.

Vanstiphout is the Dutch professor who made the video below, as well as the author of the quote here about high-rises and violence. In Lecture 1 part 3, he introduces New Urbanism, 'the true believers.'"

"Somehow there's always been this relationship between high-rises and violence."

“Le Corbusier called houses “machines for living.” France’s housing projects, as we now know, became machines for alienation,”Christopher Caldwell, "Revolting High Rises," New York Times, November 25, 2005.

There are more parts of the lecture here. And the Design As Politics blog is here.

OpenStreetMap, The Video

An open source competitor to Google Maps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Street_Maps

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Watch George Smiley Stare Blankly While Saying Nothing, Over And Over And Over

THAT COULD BE THE TITLE OF Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Remake

Bach Around The Clock

image @ jsbach.net

WKCR, Columbia's radio station, is having their annual Bach Fest, 24/7 for 10 days. You can listen at 89.7 FM or WKCR.org - there are links for live streams in the top right corner.

It's astounding to hear SO MUCH Bach.

It only gets worse: Future BMWs

From Vanity Fair. I really would like to know who thinks these look good. And what other things they find good looking.

360° Panorama of Grand Central Terminal (Safari only)

CLICK HERE Works on Safari on the iPhone or iPad too

Words to live by, from Woody Allen

"The only thing standing between greatness and me is me," Woody Allen

From the PBS American Masters series, Woody Allen: A Documentary Part 2. There's more at the end of the documentary:

When I look back on my life I've been very lucky that I've lived out all these childhood dreams. I wanted to be a movie actor and I became one. I wanted to be a movie director, and a comedian, and I became one. I wanted to play jazz in New Orleans and I played in street parades and joints in New Orleans and played in opera houses concerts all over the world. There was nothing in my life that I aspired toward that hasn't come through for me. But despite all these lucky breaks, why do I still feel like I got screwed somehow?

Iconic Architecture Quote of the Day

"Maybe that’s what a city is: confrontation and complication. In New York, the name of the game is to have one’s own envelope." - More...

Iconic Architecture Quote of the Day

"Like other kinds of art, great buildings contradict everything else." - More...

My Comment on Curbed & Northattan

Sugar Hill Housing

IN THE ARCHITECTURAL CIRCLES David Adjaye* travels in, context and fitting in are much less important than creating an iconic, "unprecedented" object. That's in contrast with traditional architecture and urbanism, where the architect's first job was to contribute to a greater whole - the street, the neighborhood and the city.

In a recent article in New York magazine, a partner at one of the most fashionable New York offices, SHoP, talked about contemporary architecture and said, "Like other kinds of art, great buildings contradict everything else." His former Dean at Columbia, Bernard Tschumi, said in response, "Maybe that’s what a city is: confrontation and complication. In New York, the name of the game is to have one’s own envelope."

I said more about this on my blog.

BTW, it's one thing to screw up the city for tenants or buyers who choose to pay outrageous sums to live in these places. But this is social housing, and Pruitt Igoe was supposed to teach us to stop experimenting on the poor, who have to take what they are given.

* The designer of Sugar Hill Housing.

Curbed: Neighbor Beefs
Northattan: Sugar Hill's Architectural Bombshell

Mayor LaGuardia's The ABC of City Planning

Download The ABC of City Planning

The Citizens Housing & Planning Council scanned a copy of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's 1937 The ABC of City Planning. You can download a PDF copy at their website or from the link above.

J—is for jumble     
    Caused only by man
Who recklessly built
    Without a good plan

found at www.chpcny.org/

Occupy Mansions & Beautiful Houses

AT THE OTHER END OF THE SCALE from Liberty Plaza, were the houses in a recent dinner discussion with Classical architects. "Pick three houses," one said, "A city house, a country house and a beach house." All three picked New York City houses I didn't know, until I said, "Why not the Frick?" which started a different level of discussion. I went on to pick the Otto Kahn house instead, and then it turned out my other two picks were also the consensus winners:

• Otto Kahn House
• Monticello
• Vizcaya

I realized I would need something in New England:

• Hamilton House
• Sargent / Mission House
• Hollister House

I chose Hollister House for its gardens, and that brought up gardens and Europe:

• Sissinghurst

• Palazzo Farnese
• Blenheim
• Villa Kerylos

And then there are the weekend houses (where Modernism finally came in):

• Fallingwater
• Maison de Verre
• Chiswick House
• La Rocca Pisana

Occupy - 2 months, from the Brooklyn Bridge

A beautiful car

click for larger image - from the ABC show PanAm

OWS, Valley Forge & Mayor Bloomberg

Snow on the tents at Liberty Plaza Park

PEOPLE have been wondering what will happen to Occupy Wall Street when winter arrives. Will it be like Valley Forge, with a few hearties holding the fort until the troops start straggling back in the spring?

Well, it's only late October, and it's only 34°, but it's snowing, and towers and bonus plazas and nor'easters can make strong winds that make it feel a lot colder. The crowds are way down today, and Mayor Bloomberg says Brookfield Properties hasn't complained about the tents. so they can stay for now.

Mayor MIke's a good mayor, whom I've voted for three times. But there's an obvious conflict of interest when his girlfriend remains on the Board of Directors of the real estate company that tells the city what it wants done at Liberty Plaza Park.

The Mayor rightly said, ""The [OWS] protesters have a Constitutional right to demonstrate and have mostly been peaceful. You may not like it, but these people have generally obeyed the law." But week or so ago, Mayor MIke called off an early-morning clearing of the site requested by Brookfield for "cleaning" only after the public told City Hall what they thought about that pretense. Friday morning, the police took biofuel and gas powered generators that had caused no problems since OWS started more than a month ago. Was that at the request of Brookfield? I also think the Wall Street billionaire was on the wrong side of the issue when he barricaded Wall Street. 

What if Brookfield asks him to get rid of the tents? According to a new poll, 87% of all New Yorkers support OWS.

Continue reading "OWS, Valley Forge & Mayor Bloomberg"