Local Fun

Last Friday I decided to become a tourist in my own city and take a Duck Boat Tour.  Despite being in or near the city for most of my life I have never done this, I have only quacked at the boats from the sidewalk.

I got to see the city from places I don't normally go, like the Charles River.  These are pretty much all of Boston's tall buildings.  We have three.

 The Hatch Shell and the Back Bay.

The water view toward the Citgo sign {it is unofficially a sort of sign for Fenway Park}.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.  I like to call it by it's whole name because it's a pretty fancy bridge and deserves a long title.  It is lit with blue lights at night and used to have a giant flag flying from it until the flag landed on a car below....

Carvings on the Salt and Pepper Bridge, aka the Longfellow Bridge.  It's falling apart which makes me feel really good because my train goes right across it twice a day.

Do you enjoy doing touristy things in your own city?  I had so much fun, I've decided to do it more often.

Out & About :: Secret Balconies

Have you ever spent a lot of time in an area and never actually looked up?  I worked a few blocks from Chinatown and on the way to pick up lunch one day I noticed all sorts of "secret" balconies hiding in plain sight!  I had to take a trip back because the people I was getting lunch with were in no mood for my revelation {with good reason, if you go to lunch too late, you wait in line}.  These were part of the city I had been walking by for years and never seen.

This one is only decorative, it looks like it wouldn't support a person, let alone one who dropped out one of those windows to the platform.

This one is on the border of Chinatown and downtown.  It's rare for the buildings downtown to have balconies.  If they have anything, they will usually have a roof deck.

Is there something you've been walking by for years and haven't noticed?

Out And About In Boston

I love the old buildings around downtown Boston.  It's a place I generally avoided before I had to work there but, since I'm never sure what to do with the whole hour I have for lunch, I started wandering around.  When I go with a coworker I try to restrain myself from photographing everything but days I head out alone I don't hold back.

There are so many great details on the older buildings and I'm always curious what is inside, especially what is on the other side of those crazy gothic stairs.  Fortunately, one of the perks of working as an interior designer is that I am able to go into buildings if I am working on a project that requires it.  I was actually able to go into one of the buildings I had photographed though I'll keep which one under wraps.

At one point this week, the phrase "If the dog-sized rats don't charge at us, I'd love to see the dungeon" came out of my mouth.  The dungeon was a huge cavernous space at least 20 feet high that was actually a sub-basement, and I managed to not see a rat.  I did see the dog-sized traps down there.  These rats are apparently a secret legend around the downtown area and I'm pretty sure they were the reason the Starbucks glass food display mysteriously shattered one night though they deny it.  My undergraduate degrees {yes, two} were in animal science and wildlife and fisheries conservation so critters don't generally bother me, just insects.  I'm still glad I didn't see those rats though.

Secret Newsstand

Downtown Crossing is one of the few parts of Boston I only visit if I absolutely must.  Lately though, I have been attending a study class for the NCIDQ exam nearby and so I have done a bit of wandering around {okay, really it's fast walking but I sometimes look around}.  I found this cute little building hidden right behind the Old South Meeting House - the brick building on the left side.

I love the combination of colors with the mustard yellow and the red door, I don't think it's a color combination I've ever used but it works here.

{photo: jeanine}

X Marks the Spot

It's been a crazy couple of weeks but I think I have finally made peace with the "follow me" tool in SketchUp which makes me very happy even if my humidity-fueled, crazy hair does not. 

On my way back from a meeting  last week I passed this house.  It's the kind of house that makes me love New England, the details are amazing.

 I love old New England houses, they are a pain to heat in the winter unless they have been well-insulated {this is hard to find in a rental at least} but totally worth it. 

On the way back from another meeting I saw this building near Faneuil Hall.  It looks like someone took it upon themselves to make a huge condemned sign in red ribbon on the side.

Have a great weekend.

{photos: jeanine}

Design Research Exhibit, Cambridge

 A Design Research exhibit has temporarily moved into the old Design Research building in Brattle Square that Crate & Barrel was most recently occupying.  The exhibit marks the 40th anniversary of Design Research {1969-2009}.

The information accompanying the exhibit reads:

What was Design Research?  Before lifestyle was a buzzword, architect Benjamin Thompson (1918-2002) sold it - his version of the most up-to-date way to live - from a Brattle St. store called Design Research.  What it sold was a warm, eclectic, colorful, and international version of modernism, one that mixed folk art with designer products. 

D/R pioneered the idea of one-stop shopping for tools to eat, to sleep, to dress, and even party in a beautiful way.  D/R became an everyday statement of Ben's philosophy of life; comfort for the body, beauty for the senses, and power for the imagination.

At the time there was nothing like D/R - a store that invited customers to celebrate the 'art in everyday life'.  D/R would eventually add eleven more locations across the US, and extend and extend the design approach to other communities.

This unique retrospective represents the forward-looking furnishings, products, fabrics and fashions introduced to the American marketplace by Design Research International from 1953 through 1978.

 

 

 

 

The exhibit has the usual suspects including Marimekko, Iittalia, Aalto and Knoll.  All in all, I think the exhibit is worth visiting if you are in the area.  I love the overabundance of lanterns in the first photo and the simplicity of the different areas that is livened up by the addition of the Marimekko fabrics and other textiles.

The last picture has a lot of glare in it but I couldn't resist adding in a picture with the wooden rocking horse {deer?}.

{all photos: jeanine}

Hello Kitty Meets Modern Architecture

Whoever said modern architecture is boring obviously hasn't visited Lever House, the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill building in Midtown Manhattan.  There is a Wind-Up Hello Kitty statue in the pedestrian space of the building.  Just the idea of this pairing makes me giggle.

(photo:  xymox/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Castle Hill, Ipswich, MA

Okay, so I realize this is anything but modern, but I went to Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich yesterday and it was absolutely beautiful. It was kind of an accident that I went, but I'm so glad I did. I can't believe I didn't know this place existed. I was lucky to be able to get both a behind-the-scenes tour of the estate and a landscape tour (in exchange for hard labor) both of which I would highly recommend.

The estate is an English style manor built in the early 1900s by architect David Adler (which replaced an earlier Italian Rennaisance Revival mansion). The landscaping is fabulous, most of it designed by the Olmsted Bros. and Arthur Shurcliff.




Here is the former Rose Garden.


The 1/2 mile Grand Allee leading down to the ocean is composed of 3 hills and on a clear day you can see Shoat Island (I think) perfectly centered. Plans are being debated on how to restore this area to it's original state as it's a bit overgrown and the trees are beginning to decline. It's beautiful nonetheless.



There are many smaller buildings on the property that are no less fabulous than the mansion.





(photos: jeanine)

Today I Would Like To Be Here

This little stone house in Modena, Italy is exactly where I would love to be today. It's not modern but it's certainly fabulous.

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinomoscato/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Hotel Colorful, Shinjuko, Japan

I love that the windows on Hotel Colorful P&A in Japan are filled with color changing LEDs. I just wonder what it would be like to stay in a room here overnight.



{photos: jhmostyn}

Boston Children's Museum

Growing up near Boston, I made many a trip to the Children's Museum and loved every minute of it. A couple of years ago I had heard they had renovated the building, achieving a LEED Gold rating, and added on about 10,000 sq. ft. to the museum but I had never really made it over to see it. So when I walked past last month to see the tall ships, camera in hand, I was able to see the exterior of the building, designed by Cambridge Seven Architects, close-up.



It's quite simple, well designed and cheerful on the outside. It was closed for the day and I didn't have a child in tow so I didn't see the inside but I think as long as they still have the giant telephone and the bubble table I would be happy. I think those were always my favorite spots.


On the outside it's fairly monochromatic but there are plenty of textures to keep the facade interesting. Also when the museum is open, this place can be a mad house so a calming, well designed interior with proper circulation would be a nice change.



Some day I'll have to take a child for a tour of the inside.

{photos: jeanine}