Monthly Archives: May 2009
Salome in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS—A standard production of Richard Strauss’s “Salome” requires a cistern, from which John the Baptist booms out prophecies and imprecations against the title character’s dysfunctional family. Opera Theatre of St. Louis, one of the country’s best summer festivals, doesn’t … Continue reading
Filed under Music, Opera, Uncategorized
14 Degrees, Halfway Done
The economic decline may have slowed the Emirate’s development, but the raising of the world’s “most leaning” tower continues. RMJM has just sent a progress report on the Capital Gate tower, which leans (or rather, appears to lean) at an 18-degree angle—more than … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture
The Ordos Prize
Young Chinese architects are blessed and cursed with an abundance of work. Many of them have burgeoning portfolios of built projects in their 20s, when young architects in the West are still thoroughly in the apprenticing process. But when I visited … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture
Old Bohemians in New Groves
The mad ambition of Saadiyat Island continues to take form. A torrid patch of sand just off the coast of Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island is slated to become one of the world’s most ambitious, built-from-scratch cultural districts. The bluest of … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture
Of Ducks, Donald and Daffy
Tucked into the bottom of a fascinating Wall Street Journal article by Susan Bernofsky, we find this gem: “Even Frankfurt School philosopher Max Horkheimer admitted to enjoying reading Donald Duck comics before bed.” It’s part of an interesting little piece … Continue reading
Filed under Culture, Feuilleton, film
Exploring the “film memoir” at the National Gallery
Beginning tomorrow (Sunday, May 24), the National Gallery presents three very different, but wonderfully rich film “memoirs.” The best of them (May 31 at 4:30 p.m.) is Agnes Varda’s The Beaches of Agnes, certainly one of her finest films, if … Continue reading
Rethinking embassy architecture
Dwell magazine, which bears the subtitle “At Home in the Modern World,” sponsored a panel called “Designing Diplomacy: Embassy Architecture in Washington DC and Abroad” at the Finnish embassy yesterday. I was on the panel, deftly moderated by Dwell editor … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Uncategorized
Arthur Erickson, dead at 84
Arthur Erickson, one of Canada’s most prominent architects, is dead. Even Washingtonians who don’t know his name know his work: The Canadian embassy, certainly the most prominently displayed foreign embassy in the nation’s capitol. It sits on the Mall, … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture
The Architecture of Authority
I think this show is better than it might seem on superficial first glance. Richard Ross’s photographs of institutional spaces include interrogation rooms, prisons and execution chambers. But also high-school corridors, hotel phone booths and religious spaces. If you take these connections … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture, Photography
Edith Wharton reprieve
Last summer I took a long trip through New England and upstate New York, which included a visit to Edith Wharton’s home, called “The Mount.” I described the house this way: The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in the Berkshires, presents … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture
