#and constructing more railyards and stations

[criminalizegolf]

I'm just not sure that all the teenagers going on about the glorious anarchist revolution actually understand how complicated the process of maintaining a highway is

[penaltybox14]

First meeting fic

Oh shit it’s an E! fic that’s not Brice and Bellingham. 

Anyway, Roy meets Johnny, take 4,732.

The county wanted experienced firemen.  That's what they said - men on the rescue, if you please, men who know their way around a scene, a rope, a ladder, a body.  Nevermind the rescue was a young man's game, like war, where once you got death in your mind and over your shoulder you quit for something more glamorous, like eating smoke and busting up automobiles. 

Trouble was all those bodies inside all those automobiles getting chewed up by the new interstates and locked up in three-thousand-dollar Detroit caskets.  Trouble was, the federal government and the state government wanted something done about all those souls they got busy scraping off Eisenhower's curves and there was this idea that maybe you could do something.

 Paramedics, that was the plan, if anybody could get behind firemen with stethoscopes over their bunkers, because the county department had the stations and the men and the trucks up to do it, and it was worth a shot, because you could only throw so many bodies up at a guardrail and cart them away in hearses without people starting to complain. 

Give us experienced firemen.  But there was just the dozen of them, at the start, for near three million people and a couple thousand square miles and everything from farms and brush to tenements and railyards.  Some men had come from the army, and they were skittish of another war, or they had war inside their hearts already.  Roy had done his service peacetime, such as it was, and counted himself lucky each and every morning he woke beside his wife and night he kissed his son and baby daughter off to sleep.  Roy had pushed paper and he was patient and he could grind right back against the wheels of any bureaucracy and Peter Breen said, flat out, Roy's just plain nicer than any of the rest of us (he was not sure that was true or how he felt about it), it fell to him to do most of the recruiting. 

The captain at 10s had called him up and said you know what, I got this rescue man, he's good, he might just be crazy enough for this stunt of the county's, I'll send him by your way. 

Roy thought maybe a high school had let its students go early.  John Gage was young, christ, younger on the face than on paper, even.  Young and leant just-so in his chair with arrogance that sat on him like a haute-couture coat, something expensive, something impractical.  His eyes were worried.  His voice said, sure and steady, convince me it's worth it, I'm no doctor I'm a fireman, but his eyes belied him, his eyes were earnest and considerate and Roy said: think about it, in the firm sort of way you let your kid or your kid brother think about making a better choice and not a damn fool one. 

He called back up the captain at 10s.  Got anyone else?  Go fish.  No, the captain said.  No, I know he'll drive you crazy, but I know he's the one you want.  Kid spent an hour, solid, rocking on his heels after we had a DOA at the construction site - kept saying there had to be something, had to be something, had to have just been something we could've done, if only we could've done.  I think Ken Brown was set to drown him in the coffee pot.  No, he's the one.  If it's any rescue man I know John Gage is the one you want. 

The hands that held the pen that signed the paper were callused, startlingly, for a young man who looked as if he had yet to hold his high school diploma.  And his eyes were wary as the veterans.  Prove it to me, he seemed to say.  Prove it to me it's worth it.  Roy let him sign as if to say: prove yourself.  

[danishmuseuminterns]

Nebraskan beauty

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the great state of Nebraska. My adventure started in the state’s capital, Lincoln, named after Abraham Lincoln, where the Nebraska State Capitol is located.

I have always been very fascinated by the fact that each state in the United States have their own capitol building and their own unique form of political system. One of the most interesting capitols I have visited is probably the Nebraska State Capital with its very iconic tower emerging as an essential component of Lincoln’s skyline – the very definition of Nebraskan beauty. Upon the tower’s gold-tiled dome is a statue called The Sower, a symbol of Nebraska’s agricultural industry, which still plays a central role in the state’s economy.

Designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the construction of the current Nebraska State Capitol began in 1922 and was completed in 1932. According to the tour guide, two former capitol buildings of Nebraska had been placed on the very same ground where the current one is standing today. The first one was built by local limestone, which apparently was a bad decision, as the building was already decaying upon its completion. Later, when politicians wanted to replace their crumbling state capital, a new building was built. However, this one was later deemed unsafe due to foundational issues.  

Nebraskans finally had their luck the third time with Goodhue, who succeeded to create a masterpiece lasting for the ages. Unfortunately, he died before witnessing the result of his work.

I personally found the many symbolic figures embedded in the building’s exterior structure to be very fascinating. They range from Biblical figures such as Moses to Greek philosophers such as Plato, but also events from American history is featured – you can literally spot the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson’s Purchase of Louisiana. Inside the building, the walls are filled with murals showing Nebraska's history with Great Plains motifs, such as farming, livestock, trains, pioneers, and Native Americans.

As the only American state to have a unicameral legislature, Nebraska’s political system is truly unique. Implemented in 1937, Nebraska’s unicameralism has, according to proponents, cut government spending, improved efficacy and been a bulwark against political gridlock.

Following my visit to the capitol building, I had a delicious runza, an absolute Cornhusker State staple. It was so good that I had to order one more for the road before heading to Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska.

Omaha used to be the livestock capital of the world and a major hub for railyards, and is currently the home of iconic American investor and businessman Walter Buffett. In true Omaha-style, I ate at his favorite steakhouse, Gorat’s Steak House, where he still hosts business meetings. When I sat down at the table, I asked the waitress, who told me, that she usually serves Buffett, to have whatever Buffett usually haves when he visits. This included a T-bone steak, cooked rare, with side orders of hash brown and spaghetti, and a Cherry Coke to drink. I was full for the rest of the day.

As a great train aficionado, I had to visit the Durham Museum, which has a huge display of train cars and locomotives from Union Pacific. Located in Omaha's former Union Station, the Durham Museum has restored the building in its original art deco style. As a fan of this style of architecture, it was a pleasure to experience this exceptional museum and talk with the life-like sculptures placed in the station’s waiting room – each sculpture with their own tales of why and how they ended up in Omaha.

Since Omaha is the home of the Reuben sandwich, I had to try this sandwich before leaving. Omahans are proud of this heritage and as a result celebrates Reuben Sandwich Day on March 14 every year. I tried my very first Reuben sandwich at an awarding-winning placed called Crescent Moon, which is located across the street from the Blackstone Hotel, where the sandwich apparently was invented.

Filled with the joy of the Reuben, I left Nebraska and began my drive home to Elk Horn, Iowa.

Thanks, Nebraska! – I’ll definitely be back.

Best from Anders Tornsø Jørgensen

[architectnews]

Le Monde Group HQ, Paris

Le Monde Group HQ, Parisian Office Building, French Architecture Photos

Le Monde Group HQ in Paris

17 Dec 2020

Le Monde Group HQ, Paris

Design: Snøhetta

Location: 67-69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France, Paris, France

Snøhetta-designed headquarters for the Le Monde Group opens in Paris

photo © Marwan Harmouche

With the completion of its new headquarters, the 1,600 employees of the Le Monde Group have been brought together under the same roof in a generously arching building on 67-69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. With its bold new plaza and semi-transparent outer skin, the building creates connections to the general public and surrounding transit while also offering citizens and passersby a generous respite in the city. On December 11, 2020, the building received the prestigious French real estate prize, the Grand Prix SIMI, within the category “New Office Building Larger than 10,000 m²”

photo © Ludwig Favre

The Le Monde Group comprises some of France’s most famous publications, including Le Monde, Courrier International, Télérama, La Vie, and HuffPost, and their new home unites them under a shared roof together with the publication l’Obs, which is also owned by the group’s shareholders. Previously scattered across different sites in Paris, the six newsrooms now share a common home on the Rive Gauche of Paris, all while remaining independent and retaining their own space in the building.

photo © JARED CHULSKI

The project represents Le Monde Group’s re-investment in its staff at a time where other media outlets experience a down-sizing of their newsrooms, and their deep commitment to cultivating a vibrant public realm through democratic access to information and physical space. A translucent, dynamic façade and expansive public plaza express the building’s openness to its surrounding context.

– I am happy the Le Monde Group has chosen the heart of the Paris Rive Gauche district as home for its new headquarters, and by doing so, contributing to the district’s transformation, says the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. – Besides the building’s magnificent architecture, the project’s openness to its surroundings will make it an integral part of everyday life, both for the district’s inhabitants and the 13th arrondissement. At a time where information and dialogue are more essential than ever, my hope is that the 67-69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France becomes the heart of this exchange, promoting transparent and accessible information for all.

Indeed, the project itself emerged from a moment when these priorities were called into question. As the Le Monde Group deliberated over architectural proposals for their future home in early 2015, just days after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo Magazine’s headquarters, they ultimately selected Snøhetta and local partner SRA’s design, opting for a building that remains in open dialogue with the city of Paris and its inhabitants.

photo © Ludwig Favre

– Since its inception the Le Monde Group Headquarters has embodied an architectural and symbolic counterpoint to the many challenges our societies face today. The building is primarily about opening up in a time where fear and uncertainty pushes our societies to increase barriers and strengthen security enforcement. In this sense, the project invites us to reflect on how architecture can create spaces that can be both public and private, exterior and interior, transparent or opaque. Like so many other of our projects, it is a hybrid building that explores the interstices of architecture and that is conceived to be at the service of the public, says Founding Partner of Snøhetta, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen.

photo © Ludwig Favre

Sitting adjacent to the historic Gare d’Austerlitz train station, the project is a close neighbor to the historic Latin Quarter and the lushly planted gardens of the Jardin des Plantes. The concave form of the building bridges over the below-grade railyard, anchored on both sides with two seven-story cantilevering volumes held together by a complex network of steel. Three gestural «cuts» shape the building mass: the «sky cut» reveals the oblique surface of the solar-panel-clad roof; the «city cut» pulls the building back from the along its street-facing facade; and the «ground cut» carves out the underside of the bridging structure, enveloping the new public plaza together beneath its expansive arched form.

-The construction of the Le Monde Groupe Headquarters marks a historic milestone for all our publications, explains the CEO of the Le Monde Group, Louis Dreyfus. – Our building illustrates both our editorial and aesthetic ambitions, but also the diversity of our newsrooms. In a world where the demand for high quality information is only increasing, our new common home offers our 1,600 employees a luminous working space with top amenities and dedicated spaces for each newsroom. This in turn ensures that we can continue to deliver journalistic content on all our platforms and in all formats, whether written or audiovisual, both today and in the future. Moreover, the office interiors, developed in collaboration with Archimage, offers our newsrooms a warm and soothing atmosphere with secluded spaces that ensure privacy when needed, says CEO of the Le Monde Group, Louis Dreyfus.

photos © JARED CHULSKI

A Uniting Structure at the Heart of Modern-Day Paris The 23,000 m2 Le Monde Group Headquarters is built at the intersection of the old, historic parts of the French capital, and the more modern districts on the Rive Gauche. A previously industrialized area with railway tracks, the district has experienced a mass development since the beginning of the 1990’s under one of the most comprehensive urban developments of the French capital since 18th century Haussmannization. Today, the district has continued to develop as a high-density commercial and business district.

The building’s pixelated outer skin is composed of more than 20,000 pixelated glass elements in a strictly organized pattern with 772 possible configurations, that give the building a sheer appearance that shifts with the changing weather and light conditions. Each glass element represents one distinct pixel classified on an opacity scale ranging from transparent to fully opaque depending on its placement, allowing for the best views from the building as well as a maximum of daylight penetration. This highly sophisticated pattern references the printed letters of newspapers and magazines and makes up a text-like pattern that can be read more clearly when the 10 000 m2 facade is seen from afar.

photo © Ludwig Favre

Spanning 80 meters from one side to another, the building is a response to the conditions and challenges of the site: Acquired by the Le Monde Group in 2014, the site is situated just above the railways and platforms of the Gare d’Austerlitz which makes the creation of a technical basement impossible. The first challenge, therefore, was to construct a building where the entire technical system of the building would be cleverly incorporated into the structure of the building itself. The second challenge was that the site could only carry a specific amount of weight, and only on the two extremities of the site. As the middle section was not planned to hold the weight of a building, the client’s initial brief was to create two buildings on the parts of the site that were buildable.

photo © JARED CHULSKI

Snøhetta and SRA’s response to these challenges was to work on the idea of merging the two units together through a bridging structure of steel that would literally leapfrog from one side of the site to the other: a highly demanding engineering task for a building that weighs more than the Eiffel Tower. Nonetheless, it was a necessary one: only a unified building would create the dynamic environment needed to unite the different magazine and newspaper titles of the Le Monde Group.

photos © JARED CHULSKI

A Walk Through the Building The journey through the Le Monde Group Headquarters commences at ground level where visitors are greeted by a broad public plaza with integrated vegetation. The plaza invites passersby to linger and interact while also creating connections to the cityscape on each side of the building. From 2021, this physical connection will be further enhanced with the introduction of a new bridge that will spanning across the neighboring railways of the Gare d’Austerlitz.

New retail spaces also help activate a dynamic public realm. Situated below the warmly lit arch of the building, custom designed concrete benches offer refuge from the activity of the busy surrounding area. The site further encourages diverse transit modes and greener mobility alternatives with more than 300 bicycle parking slots and through its immediate proximity to neighboring train station.

photo © JARED CHULSKI

The materiality of the plaza is predominated by concrete with clear references to the urban context of the building. The concrete environment creates a sense of continuity and consistency, as if parts of the ground were gently peeled back and fused into the arching roof soaring above the plaza. Cast in in-situ concrete, the arch above the plaza is carefully hand-treated to create a textured finish.

The concrete plaza and elements from the façade continue inside the building. The building’s wayfinding, which is also developed by Snøhetta, is inspired by the glazed facade of the building and adorned with classic typewriter typography. This custom wayfinding guides visitors and staff effortlessly through the building.

The Le Monde Group Headquarters can be accessed from the two extremities of the building, one of them public, leading to food and retail services and providing access to a two-story auditorium. The other entry leads to a reception area for parts of the building which are only accessible to the Le Monde Group. The reception area reveals itself as a white canvas framed by a grey-scaled concrete terrazzo flooring that evokes the plaza outside.

photos © JARED CHULSKI

Two large amphitheater stairs in each entry lead up to the third level of the building, providing an unformal meeting space for staff and visitors. The stairs mark a physical continuity with the building’s arching middle-section, as if the stairs were mounted on top of it. The stairs provide access to the auditorium through an open reception area, well-suited for either conferences or receptions. The floor also comprises a staff cafeteria and restaurant including back office functions and meeting rooms.

From the third to the eight floors, the building offers high-quality, expansive open office spaces with a ceiling-integrated heating, ventilation and lighting system assuring the building offers maximum layout flexibility. With its floor-to-ceiling windows, and views overlooking the Seine and the surrounding city of Paris, the offices offer a bright and spacious backdrop for the thousands of employees and journalists of the Le Monde Group. Floors second also feature amenities such as a library, a staff restaurant and an analogue archive dedicated to the Le Monde Group.

From the fifth to the sixth floor, one finds the office spaces dedicated to the Le Monde newsgroup. Just like the office floors below, the Le Monde offices are organized as an open space, while also offering a diversity of flexible workspaces that integrate over 100 private work areas and over forty meeting rooms for group collaboration. The floors are connected by a double-spiraling staircase that opens the central part of the two levels. The staircase ties the newsroom together, breaking down artificial collaboration barriers and securing that information may be shared easily across the entire newsroom.

photo © Ludwig Favre

Finally, the top level of the building leads out to an open-air terrace which is accessible from both sides of the building. Framed by vegetation, the terrace creates beautiful views overlooking the surrounding cityscape and the Seine.

photo © Marwan Harmouche

Le Monde Group HQ in Paris, France – Building Information

Design: Snøhetta

Building Completed: First half of 2020 (Started February 2017) Competition: 2014 – January 2015 Building permit/Permis de Construire: January 2016 Location: 67 Avenue Pierre Mendès-France 75013 Paris, France Certifications: BREEAM Excellent, Etiquette COV A+ Size: 22 933 m2 net (SDP) Budget: Confidential Client/Maître d’Ouvrage : Le Monde Group Client/Assistant à Maître d’Ouvrage : Redman IDF Team: Main Architect/ Architecte Mandataire: Snøhetta Landscape Architecture: Snøhetta Interior Architecture (Fixed furniture): Snøhetta Local Architect/ Architecte Associé: SRA Architectes Project coordinator Building site: CICAD Engineering Consultants Competition/ Bureaux d’Études : Bollinger & Grohmann Structure Engineers/ BET Structure : Khephren Ingeniérie Supervising Office/ Bureaux de Contrôle SPS : Veritas Environmental Consultants/ Conseil Environnement : Green Affair Fire Consultants/ Conseil Incendie : CSD-Faces HVAC Consultants/ BET Fluides, ascenseur, coordination SSI : Barbanel Facade Engineers/ Ingénierie des façades : Arcora Acoustics/ BET Acoustique : LASA Kitchen Consultants/ BET Cuisine : Conceptions Nouvelles Finance Consultant/ Economiste : Gleeds Main Construction/Entreprises principales : Structures and Façade/ Structure et façades : Eiffage construction + Goyer Arch Façade/ Façades de l’Arche : Glauser + AAB Partitions, plastering, painting/ Cloisons, platerie, peinture : Vallée

photo © Frédéric Chaume

Photos © Frédéric Chaume, Ludwig Favre, Marwan Harmouche and JARED CHULSKI

Le Monde Group HQ, Paris images / information received 171220

Location: 67-69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France, Paris, France

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[sferailyardartsdistrict]

Charlotte Jackson Fine Art

ARNOLDI & ARNOLDI

(Charles & Natalie)

November 15  through December 14, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, November 15 from 5-7 p.m

Written by Dr. Michaela Kahn

An exhibition of new work, ARNOLDI & ARNOLDI (Charles & Natalie), by Charles Arnoldi and Natalie Arnoldi, will open at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art on November 15 and extend through December 14.  An Opening Reception with the artists will be held on Friday, November 15 from 5-7 p.m.  A Gallery Talk with the artists and Rani Singh, Director of Special Projects at the Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills and formerly of the Modern and Contemporary Collections of the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, will be held on Saturday, November 16th from 3-4 p.m. The gallery is located in the Railyard Arts District at 554 South Guadalupe Street.  

A father and daughter exhibition pairs new work by consummate abstract artist, Charles Arnoldi, with the atmospheric place paintings and gouaches of Natalie Arnoldi. Despite the radical difference in approach, there is a subtle cohesion between these very distinctive bodies of work.

Charles Arnoldi has been following his inspiration and ideas for over 50 years making art. The history of his work reads, visually, like a long and ongoing dialogue between Charles and color, shape, and form. No matter the medium – whether oils, acrylics, canvas, charcoal, metal, paper, wood, or the burnt sticks from his earliest successful works – Charles sees himself primarily as a maker of objects. And these objects, with their complex constructions or simple balance, infused with the ideas and kinetic energy of their maker – above all, must have a life of their own.

In this exhibition are two new series inspired by a trip to the ruins of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. Charles was fascinated by the ruins, pulled into the mysteries of their seamless carved block construction. In the original design of the citadel, the stone blocks, though not uniform, are fit together in beautiful and seamless patterns, fit like the most massive and intricate puzzle. The geometric patterns of the place took hold of him, and Charles has been inspired by their unique beauty in several of the series he has created since his visit. It is easy to see the connection in the two sets of work he brings to this exhibition: a new set of sculptural wall-works of interlocking wood blocks, along with a selection of large acrylic paintings of joined blocks of color and lines in rich earth tones.

Natalie Arnoldi, who in addition to working as a full-time artist is pursuing a PhD in Marine Ecology at Stanford University, brings her signature darkly luminous paintings to the exhibition, including several new pieces featuring desolate gas stations at night. Having grown up in the “school” of her father’s studio, surrounded by artists in her home, perhaps the greatest lesson which Natalie took with her, she says, is her work ethic. Natalie witnessed the daily, persistent work that goes into creating works of art and to maintaining an artistic career.

However, Natalie’s aesthetic is fundamentally different from her father’s. Place-based: showing ocean scenes, shark fins disappearing into waves, night time freeways, railroad tracks in fog, lonely gas stations at night – these works have a clear narrative line which diverges from her father’s strictly abstract constructions of color and shape. And yet, these works, with their fogged and blurred borders and mysterious qualities, somehow also seem to push against the nature of representative art.

Evocative, the gas station works combine an architectural cleanness with a diaphanous use of light and darkness. While Charles’ works may challenge the viewer with seeing harmony in geometric patterns, finding the living quality of an object – Natalie’s work challenges the viewer to go inward with emotionally paradoxical scenes that elicit simultaneously a sense of familiarity and unease.

Beyond the inspiration of place and the architectural qualities of their work, there is an underlying sense of these disparate artworks working together. While distinct and unique, the works of Arnoldi & Arnoldi (Charles & Natalie) speak to each other, conjuring a sense of some common, underlying, aesthetic DNA.

In addition to this unspoken dialogue, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art will present a dialogue between the artists and Rani Singh, on Saturday, November 16th, from 3-4 p.m.

Rani Singh is Director of Special Projects at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills. Her work focuses on strategic planning and legacy management for artists, exhibition development, museum outreach, and long-term conservation practices. For over seventeen years she worked in Modern & Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Singh joined the GRI in 2000 as a scholar based on her work on experimental filmmaker and artist Harry Smith. At the Getty Singh was responsible for the planning and execution of Pacific Standard Time: Modern Art in Los Angeles and curated the painting and sculpture exhibition. She organized the Art on Screen initiative which focused on the hybridity between moving image media and the fine arts. In 2016 she was co-curator of the Beat Generation exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Singh has engaged extensively with archival preservation, avant-garde film, and contemporary art in a broad range of contexts. Since 1992 she has been the director of the Harry Smith Archives.

For more information about the work of Arnoldi & Arnoldi (Charles / Natalie), running from November 15th to December 14th, contact Charlotte Jackson Fine Art at 505-989-8688 or press554@charlottejackson.com.