Favorite Place(s)

Have you ever had that one particular place that you always wished you could go back too?  That one place you could see yourself spending the rest of your life at?  That one place that you could visit over and over and never get sick of?  I’m pretty sure most of the architects I know could name some amazing place that could not only fit nicely into one of those categories, but could exceed your expectations and leave you drooling for more. I’m not one of those architects.

And so another #Architalks blog post is upon us, this month’s subject… “Favorite Place”.  I can’t do it, I just can’t!  There is no way I can pick just one place that fits the bill.  I always find somewhere else that I add into the mix. What I can do though, is pick a few of my favorites (and ones I could find my pictures of) that I have been able to go to.

   

New York, New York

Hey, it’s my kind of town. There is something too see around every corner. Times Square, Battery Park, Central Park, the Hearst Tower, the American Folk Art Museum, you could keep naming places to go see for about as long as you want to. One of the coolest things about NY, was the fact you don’t need a car for anything if you are staying anywhere in Manhattan. Learn the subway, it’s your friend; and at least when I was there, it wasn’t dirty, it wasn’t smelly, and the people were extremely friendly.  People can always tell when your from out of town, almost everyone we ran into that figured this out about us, were more than willing to let us know how to get somewhere, which way was up and down, and how to order something at the local deli without looking like you didn’t have a clue. (Please tell me I’m not the only one that got the song reference?  Please!?)

   

Southern California

A few years ago I got the opportunity to visit a lighting companies headquarters in the San Francisco area.  You know, one of those 4 day “learning” trips. But of course while your out there, you might as well see some of what the area has to offer, right?  If you’ve never been to Napa Valley and been able to go one a wine tasting tour, well… I’m sorry.  What are you waiting for?  I don’t know if it was all of the cool architecture of the wineries or the 4 glasses at each stop, but that day got better and better as the afternoon went on.  This was one of those trips where everything was a new experience. The food, the people, the beautiful weather; everything was amazing. Yeah I guess you have to worry about some shaking every now and then, but with everything else this place has going for it, ehhhh. Minor inconvenience.

   

Boulder/Denver Colorado

I think this one is just a personal one for me.  I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the base of a mountain and moved to DFW Texas in high school. Talk about a change in altitude and topography.  One year, my wife and I decided we just had to get away.  We talked for a bit, or maybe I talked and she went along with it, and we decided to go somewhere where I could get some of that mountain experience again. When we left, we really had no idea of what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised.  Boulder is a cool smaller town just outside Denver that has the Univerity of Colorado.  It’s one of those towns that has a great mix of architectural styles in neighborhoods where they blend seamlessly from one to the other.  One hint though, if you’ve never been somewhere where the altitude is somewhere around a mile high, be prepared for the loss of breath.  The air is a little thinner up there.

Huh? Where is this?

Ok, I just got to be a little dorky about this one.  One of my favorite places really isn’t a place at all. Well, at least not physically.  It’s that early point in a project where you get to sit down with your friends, consultants, clients, whomever; and you get to shoot out all sorts of ideas about what the project can be.  This “place” is filled with tons of opportunity and creativity. A couple of us at work recently got asked to come up with a design for the Parade of Playhouses for Dallas CASA  This is a part of the sketches we were doing in our initial meeting. We had our conference room table almost covered in these little vignettes of what direction to go in. We actually use dry erase markers right on the table top to sketch. It doesn’t look like much here, but a lot of great ideas came out of this. The contractor we are working with has repeatedly told us after seeing what we came up with, “We’re gonna win!”  Don’t tell him that we’re not in Bob’s competition, ours is going to be part of it no matter what. Ok, it wasn’t too dorky, at least I didn’t go Dad sappy on you.  Wait is there still time for that?

Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture @FiELD9arch
Ruby Slippers

Marica McKeel – Studio MM @ArchitectMM
Do You Have a Favorite Place?

Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect @LeeCalisti
favorite place

Evan Troxel – Archispeak Podcast / TRXL @etroxel
My Favorite Place

Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC @L2DesignLLC
ArchiTalks meets #ThisOldHouse”

Andrew Hawkins, AIA – Hawkins Architecture, Inc. @hawkinsarch
My Favorite Placein the Wild

Jes Stafford – Modus Operandi Design @modarchitect
Making Space and the Favorite Place

Michael Riscica – Young Architect @YoungArchitxPDX
A Favorite Place

Stephen Ramos – BUILDINGS ARE COOL @sramos_BAC
Cinque Terre

Eric Wittman – intern[life] @rico_w
my [first] favorite place

Enoch Sears – Business of Architecture @businessofarch
Where Do You Like To Go When You Aren’t Working?“