I’m adding trip to California to my 2013 to-do list because it is imperative that I see Madonna Inn with my very own two eyes.
The only problem: what room do I pick?
A very gracious family invited me to go on a trip to Ireland. What a gift! Check out a few buildings and sites I visited while I was in Adare and Galway.
Cottages with thatch roofs in Adare.
Trinitarian abbey in Adare.
More after the jump!
Aragon Ballroom in 1976 via Uptown Update
One of the most exciting things about TVB’s new HQ in Uptown is the neighborhood’s history. As we’ve mentioned, we’ll have free tours during the June 10th event and the guide will be sharing tales of the neighborhood and historic Aragon. In case you want to prep, you can read up on Uptown’s glittery and gritty past on the Uptown Chicago History blog.
Allandale House: A Cabin of Curiosities by William O’Brien Jr.
The A-frame style home was born in the ’30s by Rudolph Schindler, but its heyday was the 1950s through the 1970s. Typically, the style lends itself to cabins and vacation homes because of the limited storage and dead space the shape yields. But, I’ll take one as my forever home for sure, especially if William O’Brien Jr. is the principal architect.
Painting on a boring landscape you found at the thrift has surely occurred to you, but you’ve probably never got around to it. Chris McMahon and Thyrza Segal actually followed through on the fun idea and the results are a remix worthy of a spot on your mantle.
Photo by Flickr user lumierefl
The Aragon Ballroom is an architectural treasure you’ve probably never had the chance to fully enjoy if you’ve only been there for a rock show. I mean, the lights are dimmed at show time and your focus is probably on the entertainment/your beer/a cute dude or lady in front of you. But TVB is going to change all of that this summer as we take residence every second Sunday of the month from 12-5 pm starting June 10.
I am a sucker for peeling paint and vacant spaces. Brian Henry has captured exactly that in his series of beautiful photos of abandoned hospitals. Even better he takes most of his photos with vintage cameras using Polaroid film. Take a gander at a few of my favorites and make sure to view the whole portfolio on his website.
Photo: Brian Henry
Photo: Brian Henry
photo courtesy Michael Wailes
Maybe I’m weird, but I kind of dig giant, hulking concrete structures that look like they house all the characters from George Orwell’s 1984. Brutalist architecture is so obviously stark and out of place no matter where you put it in the world that you can’t help react to it. Some people love it, some hate it.
Erno Goldfinger was a Hungarian-born architect who studied in Paris under Leon Jaussely and went on to design several buildings in the U.K. after the war, when there were a lot of British people and not enough British houses. The idea at the time was to build tall, concrete buildings that screamed, “future!” and housed hoards of new citizens who would busy themselves with work of rebuilding the country. So Goldfinger built buildings that achieved that objective.
