Inspiration for Studio

Lasalle Parking Garage speaks...

"Take a look at me now
'Cos there's just an empty space
And you coming back to me is against the odds
And that's what I've got to face."

- Phil Collins, "Against the Odds"

A Sense of Place

Sense of Place: Intersection of River Road and Railroad at USS KIDD

Place is evident by:

the old feel of the materials
the creeping in of tiny weeds whose lifespan exist between train runs, sprouting up continuously
the lack of sizing of wood planks; maintaining more of a natural material
the material used for the planks seem place-based, use of locally available resources
the rails create a dominant flat space; the eye jumps quickly from one rail to the next moving horizontally to complete the spacial composition
the lack of endpoints is unique to the place; overtly continuous, boundless

This place has an important balance between irregular moments that fill up the space, while anchored by stronger elements that create a specific sense of structure, volume and direction that tells you about the movement through the space.

Portals

“Spaces…offer a greater or lesser potential for stopping, passing through, being happy, meeting, being moved, stimulating associations of ideas, and even dreaming.”

In this excerpt, from Elements of Architecture: From form to place, Pierre von Meiss suggests that spaces are static and when human interaction is involved a place develops. Buildings are stationary but places have dynamic qualities. A sort of awareness happens/an emotional growth/ learning occurs. A pulse is created and ripples through time and space. To be vibrant, to contemplate, to simultaneously stand tall and feel small, to rest, to be inspired, to awaken, to transcend

A person can be transported, encouraged to take a journey through places…portals.

Wordplay

Expected Experiences on top of Lasalle Parking Garage

voyeuristic/canopy/airiness/verticality/weightless
breezy/omniscient/tree house/freedom

Impressions of Lasalle Parking Garage

I am not from here

I am from Acadiana, from River Road, from Mississippi mud

I come to the city numb and sleepy-eyed

Looking for inspiration, perspective, a sense of place

There are towers growing out of the earth

Sabotaging the landscape

There are vacant lots with litter and broken bricks

A scarred earthen shape in between street and structure

I am not from here

I am a transient

Moving westward

Absorbing sun and song

Settled on the concrete seven stories high

Looking upward to the heavens

A vast unchartered ocean

Beneath the surface

Currents take over, moving in, flowing out

A place of loneliness, solitude,

Of quiet penetration into the sunset

A far-reaching streetscape

A far-reaching riverscape

I am not from here

I am not from this place

a blog for non-believers

This blog will document my designs throughout Architecture 7002 at LSU.