Ron's Log

"A Single Man" features John Lautner

As if you needed any more reasons to see A Single Man, here's the word that the residence in the film is Lautner's Schaffer residence, which is actually located in Glendale, not Santa Monica. This sales listing includes some photos of the home.

Frey Marina at North Shore

Today was the first time I've visited the marina at North Shore since the county started construction work to turn it into a community center/medical clinic. I'm really disappointed that they seem to be doing everything possible to strip it of its mid-century modern appearance. I think it will turn out looking like a county clinic.

They haven't touched the bait shack.

There was a gull who thought he could challenge the pelicans.

BART Construction Update - 1967

Other sizes here.

CSUSB Campus

Today I was on the Cal State San Bernardino campus for Relay For Life training. I'm going to be the "Online Chair" for Desert Hot Springs this year, which is what I get for complaining. During short breaks from learning how to send emails, I got a few photos of the library and nearby buildings.

The library building which is some sort of modified, softened Brutalist style.

More photos here.

North Shore Yacht Club

Photo by slworking2. The current state of renovation on the marina on the Salton Sea designed by Albert Frey.

Four Times The Floor Space Of Chicago's Merchandise Mart

Or triple the floor space of the Pentagon, if you prefer that comparison.

It will be the second tallest building in the world and looks like something you'd see in Las Vegas, but the crescent moon on the top should be the clue that this hotel will be built in Mecca.

Here's an almost 11-minute video ad for the hotel. It looks like a time share.

From the WikiPedia article about the Hajj:

During the Hajj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in the ihram, a garment consisting of two sheets of white unhemmed cloth, with the top draped over the torso and the bottom secured by a white sash; plus a pair of sandals. Women are simply required to maintain their hijab - normal modest dress, which does not cover the hands or face.

The Ihram is meant to show equality of all pilgrims in the eyes of God: that there is no difference between a prince and a pauper. Ihram is also symbolic for holy virtue and pardon from all past sins/

But that does not mean that rich and poor pilgrims must always look and live the same way while on their pilgrimage.

When asked by The Guardian how this level of luxury would help pilgrims achieve spiritual fulfilment, [hotel manager Mohammed] Arkobi was unable to answer. Nor was he sure how the hotel complemented the hajj. However he did say the hotel would meet the needs of the most 'discerning' pilgrim.

"Ultimately, the hotel's sophisticated ambiance, our range of features and highly personalised service delivery such as those offered through our 24-hour butler service will help to ensure that our residents' overall experience will be enriching."

Chicago Trump Tower

A two-minute time-lapse video documenting the construction of the Trump Tower in Chicago. Warning: it has audio and no controls, so after you click through, it will begin playing. No pausing or rewinding.

Dumpster Pools

In Brooklyn a group called Macro-Sea has created some swimming pools out of old dumpsters. There are photos. It took them 12 days to complete a pool.

Novel idea, two questions in my mind: (1) is there a great surplus of used dumpsters that makes this project less expensive than some other above-ground pool? and, (2) local codes? zoning? Can I put a permanent dumpster in my backyard in Desert Hot Springs and fill it with water? Does that 12 days include the time to get a building permit and required inspections?

Macro-Sea's website is here. And here is their project to convert abandoned shopping malls to something useful and popular. If you click on Launch Interventions you will see how the power of Photoshop can turn any ugly empty mall (not yet infested with zombies, I assume) into a popular, colorful spot, crowded with mimes and people who look like UC Berkeley students. I wonder if the City of Palm Springs has a copy of Photoshop and have considered using it to fix up their empty mall problems.

Julius Shulman 1910-2009

His most famous photo, Peter Koenig's "Case Study House No. 22."

To capture the image in the camera, however, Shulman had to essentially take two photographs at once -- one of the vista below, which required a time exposure, and one of the house, which required a flash.

Working quickly and without a light meter, Shulman shot a 7½-minute exposure of the city lights with his 4-by-5 camera.

"Then, when I felt I had given enough time for the exposure, and I wanted to flash the interior, I called to the girls," Shulman told Taina Rikala De Noriega for the Archives of American Art/Smithsonian Institution. "I said, 'Girls, sit up now and look pleasant. Look toward each other as if you're talking and hold still for just a second and the flash will go off.' I pressed the release. All this time the shutter was open and the flash illuminated the interior."

Probably his most famous Palm Springs photo, the Kaufmann house.

I did this many times, like in this 1947 photograph of the Neutra Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, which is standing here. It's a twilight picture, which is a 45-minute exposure. I had been doing photographs with Neutra at the house, and towards evening, as the sun was setting, I noticed, looking out to the eastern desert, there was a beautiful glow in the sky, and I said to Mr. Neutra, "Just a moment. I want to go outside and look at the house from the eastern side of the property." I looked at the house and I thought, "My God! Look at the twilight developing, and look at the mountains, and the scene which was being created by the changing light!" So I quickly ran into the house, against the will of Neutra, because Neutra was insistent that we continue working, because he wanted to do more interiors in the house.

So I said, "No, Richard, we can't do that. That sky is beautiful, the mountains are beautiful, and the light glowing inside, the exposure values are just right." So I ran out with my camera and my film bag, and I set up the camera, and out of this came this photograph. And I had a shutter which didn't have to be cocked. You can open and close this shutter at will, expose two or three seconds at a time, and then run into the house and turn on lights, turn off lights, and built, kept, like building blocks, kept building my exposure for this scene. And out of this came this photograph. Now the point I'm making is I didn't know what I was doing.

His L.A. Times obituary and L.A. Times bio.

More photos and an interview. More photos and yet more photos.

Frank Lloyd Wright House On The Market

The Ennis House in Los Angeles is on the market for $15 million. The Ennis House Foundation decided "that the house needs more stewardship at this point than a small nonprofit can sustain." The house, built in 1924, was damaged in the 1994 Northridge quake and the heavy rains of 2005.

Ennis House photo by Miss Martini (AnnaLynn M.).

Many more photos of the Ennis House here. Here's a photo of the house as it was used in the film Blade Runner.

From Architectural Digest:

The Ennis House is one of the first residences constructed from concrete block. Wright transforms cold industrial concrete to a warm decorative material used as a frame for interior features like windows and fireplaces as well as columns. His sixteen inch modular blocks with intriguing geometric repeats invite tactile exploration. The art glass windows and doors, reminiscent of examples from the earlier prairie period, here achieve greater color suddenly as they graduate in intensity from darker at the top to lighter at the bottom. The wisteria motif mosaic above the living room fireplace is the extant example of the only four art glass mosaics Wright ever designed.

The metal work based on Mayan imagery is not of Wright's design, and may have been included at Mr. Ennis' request, yet from the very large iron grill at the main entrance to such minute details as light switches and lock plates, there is a unity of conception and materials that complements the entire structure.

Google satellite view of the Ennis House.