General Chat / Cork's France Study Abroad Trip Report Thread

I'll take both of them, if you don't mind.

Xcoaster@gmail.com

All three good to?
I've sent the two different versions at DLRP and the one of DL to both you and Cork

Thanks Ty! Definitely what I was looking for!


In other news, I am in Berlin right now, and it is awesome. We leave for Paris tomorrow at 9ish, and unless I'm in a certain room at the Paris hotel we're staying at, I'll be out of internet contact till Sunday.

Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you know I'm back from one helluva trip to the UK. Six friends and I went over there for a four day vacation across six cities (well, including the one we're stationed in for architecture studio) to celebrate the 23rd birthday of one of them. More details will come later (still have the Berlin TR to do as well), but here are some highlights:

SAINTES [Thursday, Oct. 26]
- Get up at 5:30 AM. Catch a 7:02 train to Bordeaux

BORDEAUX [Thursday, Oct. 26]
- Dreary and gray, but a lovely city with a lot of old, historic character but a bit of the sophistication of a large city mixed in.
- Lovely architecture
- A very brown river or tributary

BIRMINGHAM [Still Thursday, Oct. 26]
- Extremely pleasant surprise of great weather, with puffy clouds and a blue sky when we arrived (weather.com had said it would rain all four days of our trip in every city we were in... I'm ecstatic they were wrong)
- Thanks to X250 for helping out with what to do and how to get around. Your instructions worked very well
- Went to the Bullring and saw the Selfridges Department Store building
- Birmingham seems like a great city; I'd love to come back and visit

DUBLIN [Thursday, Oct. 26 - Saturday, Oct. 28]
- Great weather here too... it was only cloudy on Saturday
- Fantastic city, very friendly people, lots of stuff to see within walking distance
- Temple Bar has GREAT nightlife
- Did the Guiness and Jameson (whiskey) tours

LONDON [Saturday, Oct. 28 - Sunday, Oct. 29]
- Got into the city at night, so basically didn't tour the city until the next day
- Went out to a bar last night, taking advantage of the extra hour we got from the end of daylight savings time
- Got plastered and had one very exciting walk back to our hostel
- So we did the tourist stuff this morning... we had 3 hrs between checkout of hostel and when we had to catch the train to the airport for our flight. What did we manage to visit in three hours? County Hall, Millennium Eye Ferris Wheel, Big Ben, Buckhingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, City Hall Building and waterfront area.
Crazy, eh? We got a lot of shit done!

Although by "visit" I mean we stopped by for 10 minutes or walked past. still, I got pictures! But I'm definitely visiting London again sometime in the future. Fantastic city.

LA ROCHELLE [Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006]
- Get in around dusk to see a fantastic sunset (arguably the best I've ever witnessed). Too bad the buses aren't running, so we can only witness it from the airport, rather than the waterfront.
- Dinner
- Train back to Saintes


So yeah... craziness. And I don't regret it at all. My pocketbook won't be happy, but this was one fantastic trip!

I love Berlin. I don't think I have to ask this question, but did you get to hit up the Jewish Museum. To be honest, its one of the worst museums I have ever been to in terms of exbits... but that building, damn. My favorite part is the garden of exile. Potzdam Platz is also really cool, lot of interesting buildings in that area. Plus I am a sucker for covered outdoor areas.

Definitely did. I actually liked the interior space. Outside is cool, but not positioned to be condusive to overall photos (only closeups). I didn't have time to go into the Garden of Exile.

yay for Birmingham!!! =D

-X-

The interior spaces are impressive to say the least, particurally the installation where you can walk on all the metal faces... that is chilling. I guess what disappointed me the most was for a building that is a massive memorial to the holocaust, the actual holcaust gets maybe a wall in the museum.

It's not the Holocaust Museum. It's the Jewish History Museum. Thus, it's a chronicling of the entire history of the Jewish people.

The Holocaust Museum is the one in Israel (with that incredible room of photos and candles that I thought was in the Berlin Museum but wasn't).

Yes, but there is no denying that from an architectural standpoint, the building was designed to revolve around the holocaust, so I think more than a wall was needed in the actual exhibits to do it justice. Plus, the other exhibits were hideously boring.

VOLUME 6: BERLIN

Saturday, October 7, 2006

The trip actually started with an overnight train on Friday. We left Saintes at noontime, got to Paris before the evening, spent about two hours, then boarded an overnight sleeper train around 8 or 9 in the evening, bound for Berlin. Sleeping in the train was kind of tough, mostly because I wasn't used to it, and because each car room has six beds, in cramped quarters. Still, when we arrived in Berlin, we were all excited for what would prove to be a great time.

After checking into the CityStay Hostel (HIGHLY recommended if you're ever in Berlin; they have free wireless internet if you have a laptop!), we set out on our first day in the city.


Our hostel is located near a lively area called Hackescher Market, which features numerous shops, restaurants, and at night, clubs and bars. It was a nice place.


Most of our day was spent on Museum Island, home to a wonderful collection of museums (obviously). First up was passing by the Altes Museum, which defined the museum building type with its central layout of rooms from gallery to gallery. We didn't go in, but it was nice to see another building I once studied.


The Berliner Dome is the biggest Protestant church in Germany, apparently. It's extremely ornate as far as these types of churches go, but it was certainly beautiful. It was cloudy when we went in the morning, but I took a quick visit back later in the afternoon when the sun came out.


Here's another view.


You can go up to the top of the dome, where you get some great panoramic views of the city. Here's me. The TV Tower can be seen in the background.


Next was I.M. Pei's German History Museum. He actually came out of retirement to design this building after the city chose him to do the project. An iconic spiraling stair enclosed in glass marks the entrance to the building, which also connects underground to an old armory building next door that now serves as a gallery or exhibition space.


Looking up the spiraling stair.


Our final official stop was the Pergamon Museum, which features a variety of rebuilt architectural artifacts made from actual ruins transplanted from various places like Rome, Sparta, and Babylon.


The interior entrance greets visitors with the Pergamon, a large market and public plaza from the ancient days of Greece. It's pretty cool that the structures are authentic--transplanted from wherever they were plundered and moved, then rebuilt. Which means there really are parts of the museum that are thousands of years old.


Here's my friend, Sol, taking a picture of me taking a picture of him while everyone sits on the steps.


We had dinner at a tapas restaurant in Hackescher Market. It was pretty nice. Here's a pic of my friends, Sarah and Danli, as well as myself.

Short report for this day... the next one is humongous.



Sunday, October 8, 2006

Man, what a busy and compacted day! Gorgeous weather greeted us in the morning as we started our day in Potsdamer Platz, the new city center which, less than two decades ago, was split in half by the Berlin Wall. Today, it's home to several districts full of vibrant, flashy architecture and a pretty nice social spaces. Most of the day was a walking tour with Hans, a city urban planner who could tell us a lot about the area from an architect's and urbanist's point of view.


Here's a shot of the Daimler Chrystler District, with a couple of towers jutting out toward the intersection of the main streets.


On one side, there are three Richard Rogers mixed use office/commercial buildings that front a central garden lawn.


Renzo Piano has some residential/office buildings further down the "street."


They're pretty neat, featuring a terra cotta colored facing that Piano placed on many of the buildings he designed in this complex. Comically, his good friend Rogers jokingly mimicks this architectural play in some of his buildings in the complex too. I guess that's how famous architects playfully joust in design.


And in the middle of the central green space, there are some GIANT see-saws. Our own giant of a professor, Gerald, demonstrats how to gleefully operate one.


Here's a view back at the buildings we passed.


More apartments in the area.


Venturing deeper into the neighborhood block reveals some interesting office and institutional buildings. This area is essentially one big business park. It's pretty lively on weekdays, but much more dead on weekends when the people who work here aren't here to use it.


Across the street is the famous Sony Center, a "CityWalk" sort of complex with a centralized plan and a huge glass roof that reminds me of Space Mountain.


It is supported entirely by tension. To build it, workers first erected a huge column (no dirty jokes, please) in the center to support the span. Next came the structure on top, where the glass was laid, and then the tension cables below it, hooking into part of the column. When the cables were stressed to pull the forces outward, most of the column was sawn off, leaving an open central space. It's a pretty amazing construction from a structural point of view.


Some restaurants and shops inside the complex. A second level leads to more shops, cafes, and clubs, and the rest is actual residential, which makes this one interesting mixed use project.


Afterwards, our walking tour with Hans took us to Peter Eisenmann's Memorial for the Murdered Jews, which opened last year. It is a very simple but powerful series of monolithic black blocks protruding to various heights out of an undulating ground plane. As such, in some places, you can sit on the blocks, where in other places, they rise up well over your head.


I didn't think too much of it when I first saw it in Architectural Record, but I must say that going through it was pretty cool, and my opinion is a lot higher now than before. It promotes contemplation and exploration, mingling a physical and mental exercise into one. Just goes to show you shouldn't judge architecture completely until you've experienced it. Funny... the same thing applies to roller coasters...




Cool artistic shot of the sky from within the memorial.


Next was the government district. Here's the Reichstag, complete with Norman Foster's famous dome.


This area has a lot of new monumental architecture. The architect of this building (whose name escapes me at the moment) was heavily influenced by Louis Kahn, hence the geometric blocks and shapes that dominate the building.


Here's another view. It's a nice building.


Calatrava built a pedestrian bridge here. It was the first thing built on this redeveloped government zone, an honor given to him after he lost out on the Reichstag dome competition even though he was the one who came up with the glass dome idea in the first place. The bridge is nothing special compared with Calatrava's other works, but it's nice.


Here's the new Berlin Central train station, which opened only a few months ago. It's new, glass, and steel.


Modern and high tech interior space. Oooooooooh...

We went back to the hostel in the afternoon for a break before coming back out late afternoon to visit the Reichstag.


On our way there, we past by Brandenberg Gate, one of Berlin's central icons. It's sort of like the Arc de Triumph of this city in the way it serves as a landmark and gathering space.


We got to the Reichstag in time for magic hour, which yielded this very vivid but interesting photo of the building under the soft light. It looks extremely odd on stone in my opinion, but was still strikingly beautiful.


Speaking of strikingly beautiful, magic hour produced this amazing swath of light over the lawn across from the Reichstag.


After an hour in line, we finally entered the building and went up to the roof. Here's me.


It's very nice and sleek inside. Two curving ramps spiral up to the top viewing deck (one goes up, the other goes down). A viewing window allows people to look down into Parliament itself, expressing the openness of Germany's democracy.


Kinda reminds me of Star Wars and the Old Republic... yeah, I'm a nerd...


Had to include this really neat picture of light as it shines through a rotating sunshade device that prevents direct light from entering the Parliament chambers. It creates an incredible effect on the ramp above.


Me and my friend, KT, on the ramp.


The dome at night.


After dinner, we went to some architect's bar and studio place. Basically, these guys are artists, and they tag the building and decorate it and do a whole bunch of weird things artistically. It's actually pretty cool, to be frank. Just thought I'd include that to close the evening off.

Monday, October 9, 2006

After a very compacted day of seeing a lot of things in little time yesterday, today was much more relaxed. Class got out at... 12:30. Wow, that was a surprise.



Our first stop was the Berlin Philharmonic building, by Hans Scharoun. This Expressionist building could pass for a primitive version of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which makes sense, since Gehry is essentially an Expressionist. Scharoun, however, outdates him by nearly half a century, and this building features some wonderful moments of light, section, detail, and sound.


The interior is pretty convoluted but very cool. I was actually surprised by how "small" it is. I'd somewhat studied this building before and had thought it to be larger in scale, but it's actually rather intimate. And the acoustics are superb as well.


Balconies spill over each other, clouds hang everywhere, and the ceiling undulates with a dynamic energy that makes this a wonderful space.


Next was the New National Gallery, by Mies Van Der Rohe, master of the minimalist style. And minimalist this is! Basically, it's a huge metal waffle slab supported on 8 columns along the perimeter of the building, with glass enclosing the space. That's it.


Scharoun also designed a library across the street that resembled his philharmonic hall from the exterior. Inside, there's a similar sense of dynamic space, with textured beams and columns, bridges, stairs breaking through, and the structure being clearly expressed.


In the afternoon, I returned to the government district for some more photographs, this time with the sun out!


Same thing.


The Reichstag was gorgeous in the afternoon sun.


And here's Berlin Central Station again. I forgot to mention, last time, that it is the new central hub of every train system, with connections to the Berlin metro system, inter-city trains, regional trains, and international trains to other countries. Definitely a great hub.


And here's a shot inside the top level of the station, showing off that sexy tension-arch structure.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Our final class day in Berlin began with us getting lost in West Berlin for about five minutes. Once that was done, we made our way to the Jewish History Museum, by Daniel Liebeskin.


This building is perhaps most famous for its exterior building skin, which features metal panels being cut by small, slitted windows. Cut is the appropriate word here, since the building as a whole represents the torn history of the Jewish people.


It's kind of a hit or miss building in my opinion, but must people seem to love it.


You can see the Garden of Exile to the right. This area is interestingly similar to Eisenmann's Holocaust memorial, except it has willow trees literally buried in the huge concrete planters. It would be interesting to see if Eisenmann was thinking of Liebeskin's garden when he was designing his own project.


The interior twists and winds its way around, offering several paths through its exhibits. The result is a very penetrated space that's also convoluted. Without navigational arrows on the ground, it might actually be pretty easy to get lost. I would normally find this annoying, but I think it's appropriate in this museum, which focuses on the tension of the Jewish history.


Later, we walked the streets of Berlin, where old mixes with new and a major building boom has been ongoing for a good decade or more now.


In fact, the amount of new construction here is unparalleled anywhere else in the world--except in China.


We passed by the GSW Headquarters building by Sauerbruch Hutton. Another building I studied (two semesters ago, in fact) in studio.


We ended the official day at Checkpoint Charlie, famous site of many flights from East Berlin to West Berlin. The Wall has long since been torn down, but there's a museum nearby that we were forced to visit. Its convoluted layout made me quite frustrated. Plus it was extremely stuffy in there.




Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Free day! With no field studies or official tour to take in, we were free to do whatever we wanted... until 8 in the evening, when we would be leaving on an overnight train to Paris. So what did we do?

Sleep in of course. C'mon. We're college students. Work hard. Play hard. Party hard. Sleep.... when we can.

So after a surprisingly fantastic lunch of Vietnamese food (HOORAY VIETNAMESE FOOD!!!) at a restaurant called Monsieur Vuong's, where we had some great spring rolls among other things (see first picture), we went to Berlin's Olympic Stadium for the afternoon.


This thing's old. It was built for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. You know, the one where Jessie Owens stunned Hitler by outrunning all of his "superior" German athletes? Yeah. A big F-U to the Nazis there. Anyway, while the Nazis were eventually demolished, this stadium wasn't. Mostly because it was and is a pretty nice stadium, reminiscent to me of the Coliseum in LA. The outside is a very monumental but simple stone and concrete facade that also supports the arena.


Here's me.


Inside, there's a track and a soccer field. The same one they played the World Cup finals on this past summer. They've also got a new roofing system that provides shade to pretty much every seat and is somehow held up by twenty very thin columns that ring the middle of the upper deck. Very cool.


We decided to sit down and watch an invisible game.


And once sunset came around, the soft light gave the stadium a beautiful glow.


By the evening, it was time to leave Berlin and head to Paris for a second trip.

Overall, Berlin was a pretty fun place and a fantasic city. It moved in front of Amsterdam as my second favorite city in Europe, but couldn't quite nip out Paris (which holds a special place in my heart... um... just because). However, shopping is fantastic in Berlin, and I highly recommend it. You can get some good stuff for pretty cheap prices!

VOLUME 7: PARIS... AGAIN

Thursday, October 12, 2006

After another overnight train, we were in Paris for a couple of days. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning, went to our hotel, the Hotel Royal Bastille, left our luggage, and set out for a short field study day.


Our first stop was the Cartier Center, by Jean Nouvel (yep, yet another Nouvel building). Unfortunately, it was closed. The exhibit that our professor had wanted us to see was being taken down. Needless to say, Selwyn was quite disappointed. The building itself was sort of interesting, though. It's glass, glass, and more glass. Unfortunately, the rain prevented a more glamorous photo of the project.

After that... class was done! However, some of us decided to take an excursion to the infamous underground catacombs of Paris. Now this was quite an experience! Imagine a long series of damp, winding, sometimes claustrophobic corridors a good 60 feet underground or more. Now imagine that they're filled with bones... lots and lots of bones. Skulls, femurs, ribs. All piled and arranged in artistic patterns. All dimly lit. Well, you have the Paris Catacombs. Delightfully creepy!

You enter by going down a very long spiralling stair. And I mean long. And dizzying. Because you're just going round and round and round.... down, down, down into the bowels of the city. You finally arrive at a little "lobby" that has several poster exhibits detailing the history of the catacombs. Basically, in the late 18th century, city officials decided to exhume thousands of corpses from mass graves that had been haphazardly made because disease was rampant at the time. The problem was that bodies were often carelessly buried, and besides creating a space shortage, it also worsened sanitary conditions. To fix this problem, the remains were moved to underground quarries that had previously been used to get the limestone that makes up much of the city's buildings. In a gruesome, massive undertaking, thousands of bodies and bones were moved and effectively dumped underground.

It took another couple of decades before someone decided that the catacombs could be used to illustrate part of the city's history. Eventually, one of the city officials reorganized the system and had the bones "repositioned," to create patterns, walls, and just a whole variety of things. The result was an eeriely beautiful display of human art. Literally.

Anyway, after the "lobby, you enter a long corridor.


It looks something like this. Except it turns a few times.


Eventually, you reach the bones. On either side, bones are piled up to form walls.


Indeed, it's not for the faint of heart. You might very easily become scrrr'd. (scared)


But if you're... um... me... you find it pretty cool. All around, there are thousands of remains placed artistically. It's really quite incredible. And surprisingly, it's not really smelly or anything. The remains are so old that any odor of rot has long since vanished. Going through the catacombs is like going through a dank cave. It's musky and damp, but it's not fetid. And the interesting thing is that even though we walked through a 5 kilometer section of the catacombs, there are actually hundreds of kilometers worth of corridors. These tunnels literall stretch throughout the city. Paris literally stands on hundreds of thousands of bones. I find that utterly fascinating. And you might find me weird for finding that fascinating, but hey, it fit the Halloween mood of the time.

We returned back to the hotel and rested for the afternoon. In the evening, we re-emerged from slumber for a night out on the town.


I caught this moment of the Place Bastille at sunset time.

We went to Sacre Couer first. A beautiful church on a large hill overlooking the city, Sacre Couer has been a top tourist spot for decades. And it's certainly beautiful at night...


We approached the church from the rear.


The lighting is quite dramatic and showcases the clean white marble stone of the building.


The front is pretty nice too.


And looking across the great stepped lawn, you can see the beautiful city of Paris unfold in front of you. You'd see more if it was daytime, but unfortunately, we did not have a chance to visit during sunlit hours.

Afterwards, we decided to walk over to the Moulin Rouge. To get there, we had to go through Paris' red light district.


I wasn't aware Paris had a red light district, but apparently it does. Sex related attractions everywhere!!


The Moulin Rouge was pretty nice. I *think* this is not the original one, but it still holds shows inside.


We'll close with a nifty long exposure shot I took without the aid of an LCD screen, since my camera decided to go low on batteries right as we reached our destination. Fortunately, this was our last stop for the night.



Friday, October 13, 2006

Today was a fuller day. In the morning, we visited Parc Andre Citroen (named after the car manufacturer and built on the former grounds of a Citroen factory). This is a pretty cool example of an urban park. For one thing, it's huge. And for another, it's got some great spaces carved by landscaping. And thirdly, it was a nice sunny day, which is always a good thing when visiting a park.


So here's a sunken garden. It's part of what's called the Black Garden, which features sectional changes with landscape on either side forming some really cool spaces.


Here's what I mean by landscape on either side forming cool spaces.


There's a couple of big glass greenhouses that double as exhibition spaces in the middle of the park. In the foreground is part of a massive lawn.


The parks's got some nifty fountains... and a giant balloon you can ride to get some aerial views of Paris if you're willing to overpay.

After lunch, we headed toward Maison La Roche, a Corbusier building.


Did I mention I love the streetscape of Paris?


Inside Maison La Roche, which features Corb's five points (piloti column support structure, free plan, free facade, ribbon windows, and a roof garden). The interior reflects the elegant, pure style of the Modernist era. And heck, it's nice to finally visit a building designed by the architect that every instructor has been shoving down our throats since first year.


The house has a nice central atrium space with bridges that connect the two halves. It's actually more of a double house. Corb's brother also lived there, I think, and today, it's home to the Corbusier Foundation.


This is the nice roof garden, which we were not allowed to access (the photo is taken thruogh a glass door).

The official school day was over at this point, but a few of us decided to visit Parc de la Villette, another modern urban park--on the other side of the city. No worries, the Paris Metro system is superb (as I've touted multiple times before), and we were there in less than 45 minutes. Try getting across Los Angeles in 45 minutes during rush hour. Not possible.


So the park is situated next to the Cité Museum. We didn't go in, but I hear it's got some interesting exhibits on science, industrial design, and the like.


The park has a LOT of sculptures and sculptural bridges and structures. It was originally intended to be completely hardscaped--no trees or grass or anything. Just pure urban materials. But that was a tad too extreme.


After exploring part of the park, we decided to hold our own Long Jump competition. Here's my friend, Amar, jumping over an imaginary river while we watch in amazement.

That concludes Friday the 13th, a day that didn't turn out to be so cursed. Tomorrow would be a free day in Paris. And that meant taking a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of architecture, Villa Savoye. Or at least you'd think it was a holy shrine, given how much every architecture professor at USC raves about it. Would it live up to the hype? Find out soon!





Saturday, October 14, 2006

Half of this update is pretty much dedicated to the architecture people on this mailing list. The rest of you will probably just nod politely as you read and remark, "Oh, I suppse that's a nice house."

Anyway, Saturday. Free day. We can go anywhere in Paris we want. Well, I'd already gone to Disneyland Paris last time, so this time, I decided to be more scholarly and visit what is only the most famous house in all of architecture. Well, at least most famous European house. Yes, indeed, it was time to finally visit Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's masterpiece of modern design. This is the building that everyone has touted since first year. It was practically built up as the shangri-la of architecture, the greatest creation of the greatest architect in the world.

Or at least that was the hype. Was Villa Savoye that good?

In a word, yes. Despite my high expectations, this building was incredible. And it wasn't just the pure exterior and diagrammatic layout and execution of the design that impressed me. It was the fantastic nature of the interior spaces, the quality of light in every room, the roof garden, the terraces, the flow of space that was truly impressive. And the gorgeous weather didn't hurt either!


The entrance takes visitors to the back of the building first. The house isn't actually set in a field in the middle of nowhere; Poissy is actually a pretty dense suburban town. But it is set in a field shielded from its surroundings by thick trees and foliage, so it does have the effect of looking like a jeweled ship anchored on a verdant green lawn.


You come around the lawn to arrive at the front, where you behold the money shot--one of the most famous photos in all of architecture!


"OH MY GOSH! I'M STANDING IN FRONT OF VILLA FREAKIN' SAVOYE!!!!!!"


Here is the main vertical circulation: a ramp that connects all three floors of the building. There's also a set of stairs to the side, but the main mode of circulation is obviously meant to be the path. It's also something that Corb-worshipper Richard Meier uses in his buildings. Here, you can see the incredible quality of light already. The interior practically glows with natural light, and it is truly wonderful.


On the second level, a living room opens up to an outdoor terrace to the left. It still has the original furniture Corbusier designed for the house (as he did for practically all of his buildings). How is a Corb chair like? Well, it's comfortable, at least.


This is the master bathroom. It's actually pretty elegant, and is accessible directly from the master bedroom. There's not really a door on this side of the bathroom.


The ribbon windows allow plenty of light to flood each room with plenty of sun. This is perhaps the most amazing thing about the house. Books constantly talk about the theory behind it, with the aforementioned Five Points, but it's also quite an experience as well. The natural lighting is my favorite thing about Villa Savoye, because it makes the quality of the spaces so much more incredible and enjoyable.


A shot of the outdoor terrace. The ramp moves outside at this level and continues to the roof garden.


We were so overwhelmed that we actually voluntarily sketched, even though this was not an official class trip, nor was there any assignment required here!


The roof garden is pretty nice. The crush gravel you see in the foreground is actually very common throughout parks and gardens in France. I think it'd be really cool to use this in the U.S., because it's a simple and neat way of giving an outdoor space a nice ground layer that's not too hard or too soft.


The stair is to the left, the ramp is to the right. And again, I emphasize how amazing the light is throughout this building.


Nothing like relaxing on a Corbusier reclining chair. =)


Finally, after a couple of hours, it was time to leave. But not before giving a hug to a dear friend. Yup. I hugged a piloti.


"Villa Savoye, I've read about you for years, and it's been a great pleasure to finally meet after all this time. I hope I can visit you again. Signed, Albert."

On the way back, I decided to take a side stop and visit La Defense, a "second downtown" business sector on the outskirts of the city. I liken this area to Downtown LA... except better. This whole complex started as a result of Parisians being outraged by a skyscraper being erected in the city by Montparnasse Station. They vowed/voted to have no more skyscrapers in the city ever again, so when the time came to build a new business district to handle city growth, La Defense was placed on the northwest side. The development was basically office buildings and some retail at first, and for years, the area stagnated becaused no one really used it outside of business hours (sound familiar? the exact same thing happens in Downtown LA; that's why it's freaky to be there after dark) However, Parisians were quick to learn the lesson, and housing was added to give afterhour usage (also familiar; that's what they're trying to do in Downtown LA now). And now, it's actually a really cool place. Skyscrapers soar over a main esplanade. Buildings are glassy and modern, and the whole area feels like a modern U.S. metropolis than rich, historical Paris. But it's still really nice.


The centerpiece of La Defense is La Grande Arche. It is built at the end of a long urban axis extended from the Champes Elysses, through the Arc de Triomphe, all the way out to La Defense. The main esplanade is organized along this axis, which terminates at the Grand Arch. And it IS grand!


Some massive stairs take you up to the entry level. This, coupled with the previous photo, gives you an idea of how effing huge this thing is.


Here's a view back on the development. Everything is actually raised up on a plinth. The esplanade branches back, but underneath, there is parking and vehicular circulation. There's actually a main arterial road that leads straight to La Defense, but when it reaches the area, it branches out, bypassing it on either side. Thus, the main central linear space is devoted to pedestrian activity, which has also helped to liven up the area. Very smart, in my opinion.


If you go through to the other side of the Arch, you see this. So I guess you can say the axis continues, but it just leads out of the city.


For 6 euros (student price), I took a trip to the top of the Arch. There was an art exhibit as well, but obviously, I was here for the view. And it was certainly a nice one. See the Arc de Triomphe far in the distance? The Grand Arch was intended to symbolically face it, thus connecting La Defense to the heart of Paris.


Back on ground level, there are pools and fountains in addition to the modern buildings.


This one features interesting blinking lights.


Here's a view of the road that leads to La Defense. Metro line 1 is in the middle (that's what we took coming out and going back to the hotel). It's quite a nice view, I must say. Paris rocks.



Sunday, October 15, 2006

Alas, the following day, it was time to leave. Two official trips to Paris totalling a good two weeks and I didn't feel like I'd even begun to explore the surface of the city. Paris is so rich, and there's so much to see. It remains my favorite city of the trip, even if things are a bit expensive!


One last look at Place Bastille and our hotel around the corner. You were a cozy hotel, Hotel Royal Bastille.


And me on the train back to Saintes. *sigh* What a trip!

Beautiful.

We need more of these modern architectures here in NY...

Yay, the Sexodrome!

Great update! Now I really wish I'd been able to see more in Berlin besides the airport and a curry-wurst stand. The Reichstag looks sweet.

Now I really want to go back to Germany. And Villa Savoye, I'm jealous. The pictures are incredible, but i'm sure it doesn't do it justice. Architecture is funny like that... being there just adds so much that a photo can't capture. You are a lucky man Cork.

Thanks for putting up this beautiful photo-book (great pics!) and showing so many of my beloved places.

And yes, for Paris one needs months and it never gets boring!

Okay, so at this point I'm showing off just a tad, but here's a sketch I did at the top of La Defense of the view of the city while I was waiting for the sun to come back out so I could take a panoramic photo of said view.

Wow, nicely done. You maybe could have left the sky empty instead of scribbling but I like how you outlined the large structures with bold lines. Very appealing. Is that the Arc de Triumph on the horizon?

Yes, that's the Arc.

And yeah, after scribbling the sky, I realized I shouldn't have done that.

Oh well. Totally forgot to photoshop that out.

it's nice to finally visit a building designed by the architect that every instructor has been shoving down our throats since first year.

Tell me about it, really if they shoving up more about Corb than I'll have to throw up
I'm in my first year btw (did aerospace engineering for two years, but I wasn't comfortable with it and I hated that whole study was about calculations only.)