Brick, Mortar, and Blood

One Billion British Pounds Sterling.

That's what the new BBC Broadcasting building cost in 2011.

...and 2 years later?

.... over 500 jobs gone.

.... and 6 years later?

....  1000 more layoffs.

.... but..... we have a pretty new building. Why does Shelley spring to mind , I wonder?

I took a tour yesterday. A building addition is being planned and the cost will be $1,000,000.  When I asked if there would also be new security- of the human analog variety- to check ID and verify each person and parcel- the answer was "No." Adding another employee cost too much.

$1,000,000 for brick and mortar- no problem.
$50,000 for one job- nope.

Now I don't know how many of you have been in buildings without checkpoints- where only digital surveillance is used. I often wonder if anyone is watching the video feed.  I wonder how easy it is to cut the feed- or steal the feed. I wonder who is watching. I wonder where the blind spots are. I've seen demonstrations of facial recognition (think talking to Siri with a head cold) and demonstrations of mind-reading (scary as all hell). I think of all that and I'm swinging more and more to the view that , yep, AI will replace humans. We already value AI and tech more than "us".

We value what we build more than the people who build.

That isn't anything new. The Great Wall, the Pyramids, Borobudur, Angkor Watt...  there is a legacy which reaches beyond the builders in these... and yet... and yet... when I see handprints of Anasazi mud brick ... when I see the paint pots left on the floors of Pompeii ... when I see the snapline in an Egyptian Architect's tomb... when I can run my hand over ancient hewn wood and sense the strokes of the adze... those lives may have been nasty brutish and short but there is something of the builders left behind ... some breath... some sweat... some self.... It's why there is a weaver's path in a Navajo rug to let the life of the weaver escape on the path of the thread.

Isn't that really the source of our fascination? We don't fear the Great Ozymandias but we sense the hands which carved the stone and the minds which shaped the metal.

 

So why do we value the work

more than the worker?

The obvious answer is that the work doesn't talk back except with the voices in our own wee little minds.... which brings me back to AI. What happens when the building does talk back and we disagree?

You can't handle the truth, letter to the editor

Let me be abundantly clear. Point one: the top of Mill is my home. What happens at the top of Mill, Monarch and Aspen directly effects me.  Point two: I create visual presentations for a living. I know when pictures lie.

This may be the point at which we need a P&Z with serious 3D skills to strip a developer’s dream down to what matters for the town.

Gorsuch Haus…. Lordy Lordy, Lordy…

There are epic visual presentations from both sides of the argument

http://www.gorsuchhaus.com/about-gorsuch-haus/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jnQuXX4Ov0

and both fluff the truth.

Here is what I want to see in a visual presentation- for starters -  no unrealistic Point of View- standard eye level of 5.5’ please -do not use negative space to make things look smaller- do not use forced perspective to make things look larger -  no wider angle than human vision- no color cuing- existing and proposed buildings the same value and hue please. Don’t use camera tricks like “dumping” a big red blob down on the top of Aspen street and don’t use soft fuzzy pastels to make the building look all cozy and friendly.


1. What do *all* the proposed buildings look like- this includes what the Browns are pitching-  from the following vantage points:
2. What do the proposed buildings look like from the North end of Wagner Park?
3. What do the proposed buildings look like from the lower Catwalk (aka summer road)?
4 What does the FIS finish look like- from town, from the stands and - for extra credit- as it will be televised?
5. What does a line of 100 skiers at the proposed lift 1A look like? A simulation of skiing Norway to the new lift could be done for extra credit.
6. Create simulations of a skier accessing 1A from Mill, Monarch and Aspen - starting from Wagner Park.

Pictures lie. We need the truth.  I bet a 3D simulation of all of the above will cost less than a referendum.

Visualization lies- for beginners
Curbed Appeal (Architectural Renderings are Probably Lying to You- podcast)

Buildings Perdu

We have a new Art Museum being build in Aspen. It's been a supremely controversial process. The naysayers have been storming the castle "it's too big!" That's been the primary complaint "it's too big!"

None the less up she goes - a new architectural icon in the city a large block of man made already dripping with the promise of cutting edge avant guard wow with Shigeru Ban recently winning the Pritzker.

Walking past the construction block yesterday I couldn't help but notice how that straight edged cube cut against Aspen Mountain and reduced the ridge line of Shadow Mountain to nothing more than a frost tipped line of crenolated cake decoration. It is not another peak in the mountain range as pictured in the sketch it is a big rectangular bite of brutalism. I'm certain the Calders will be happy gently swaying on the roof and the view from the inside will be stunning but this designs mocks it's setting, and not in a nice way.

Oh, I miss the Given Institute soooooo much. That was poetry in the trees.  Take another look at Greg Watts requiem in photographs of Harry Weese's masterful humanism: