Picturequote

“My education has been so unwitting I can't quite tell which of my thoughts come from me and which from my books, but that's how I've stayed attuned to myself and the world around me for the past thirty-five years. Because when I read, I don't really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop, or I sip it like a liqueur until the thought dissolves in me like alcohol, infusing brain and heart and coursing on through the veins to the root of each blood vessel.” - Bohumil Hrabal

Travel is much the same. This photo was taken on my first trip to continental Europe. My travels; especially Switzerland, Denmark, and Germany; will undoubtedly influence my designs far more than any studio I've ever had or book I've ever read.

Cemetery in Chur, Switzerland

San Francisco Film

All of this is shot on Kodak B&W 120 film. Borders are left because it's basically photojournalism and no edits are made other than brightness and contrast - as per the usual.

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption by Nervi and others.

Frank Lloyd Wright's V.C. Morris Gift Shop.

Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Renzo Piano's California Institute of Sciences.

Artesa Winery in Napa by Domingo Triay.

The Painted Ladies next to Alamo Square.

San Francisco

California Academy of Sciences designed by Renzo Piano.

Back entrance.

The de Young by Herzog and Demuron.

Copper facade.

Entrance courtyard.

A cathedral made of...

... bullets, gun parts, casings, and buck shot.

Interior courtyards in the de Young.

View from the observation tower.

This is the inside of the California Academy of Sciences.

Walk under aquarium...

The green roof made of native CA plants.

I'm not a fan of ceiling tiles, but in this case - sans the metal rack they usually sit on and replaced by an undulating pattern formed by hanging them from metal wire they both perform and please.

The Golden Gate Botanical Garden.

Rafael Viñoly's Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building for UCSF.

It abuts a beautiful nature preserve with quite the elevation.

A view to the green roof which is open to staff (and by the looks of it actually gets used).

These are a collection along of homes along Laidley Street that I found interesting for one reason or another.

Morphosis designed San Francisco Federal Building... it's like contemporary brutalism. Looks oddly similar to his Cooper Union building.

The back was the best part. It reminded me of the buildings in Germany.

San Francisco MOMA by Mario Botta.

The brickwork was nice but I'm not thrilled by the building.

Frank Lloyd Wright's V.C. Morris Gift Shop (now Xanadu Gallery).

Easily the best building I saw. Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption designed by Nervi plus some other people.

Notice the size of the people where the concrete touches the floor.

The scale is hard to capture in photos. The roof is 190' tall.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna House - tours booked months in advance.

Ritual Coffeehouse.

Artesa Winery in Napa by Domingo Triay.

French Oak barrels. They were playing Gregorian chants...

Looking out from the entrance.

The Painted Ladies.

This is Buena Vista Park. It made me realize that Chicago doesn't have any parks that are, in some sense of the word, native/natural or even really picturesque landscapes. Maybe North Pond/the Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool or maybe even Washington Park if Chicago weren't a segregated city.