Berkeley Art Museum Members Preview

Saturday, January 30, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) re-opened for a members' preview. Their new building was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who also design the ICA in Boston and The Broad in LA.

The building design is a combination of old and new; it's the former UC Berkeley printing plant, with the addition of a new cinema/theater and a connecting spine of stainless steel. The printing plant cues of art deco were preserved, and the functional north-facing saw-tooth sky-lights were re-created to fill the gallery spaces with natural light. There is a bit of a fiction that you are in the old printing plant; it is a new building behind an existing facade.

You enter along Center Street, below the extended terminus of the spine, and are brought into a large collection space. In front of you a multi-story hall, below the spine, leads to the theater; to your left, the space spills down to a wooden seating area. The main gallery spaces are wide and open, allowing plenty of room for installations and media pieces.

There is a tall, triangular sliver of a lobby for the theater; it's unclear how BAMPFA will use the space. The theater itself seems an excellent space to watch movies. On the second level, along the balcony over-looking the main hall is the cafe. Awkwardly, the end of the spine over-hanging Center Street is not a feature space - currently housing some small plants.

The second level, and the view looking down the spine as well as into the galleries below, is filled with wonderful shapes and counter-pointed lighting effects.

Take the fire-red stairs to the lower level and arrive at the galleries for the permanent collection, as well as the study and research areas. These galleries feel a bit less generous than the ones upstairs; a separate long gallery with a butcher-block floor houses the buddha.

One of the stated goals for the new facility to connect with "wider urban and public contexts". There seems to be some suggestion of this with the large, outside video display at the Addison Street end of the spine. Otherwise, there does not seem to be much of a nod to public spaces - the old building had a couple of public plazas (though not necessarily inviting public spaces).

Looking forward to vistiing during regular hours and getting to know the building.

Spring Break - Baseball and Prisons

Spring Break gives us some time to explore some of the things that the Bay Area and its (very) extended neighborhood has to offer. Our first stop is Scottsdale, Arizona, to visit with the World Champion San Francisco Giants at Spring Training.

Fast-car tie-in: we rent a white Mustang convertible. We see them everywhere. The white Mustang convertible is to Scottsdale as the silver Prius is to Berkeley.

Dodgers at Giants - March 29

Arrived in Phoenix, and immediately drove to the hotel to leave the luggage and then down to Scottsdale Stadium for a Sunday afternoon game with the hated Dodgers. Wow, was it hot in Scottsdale (about 95 degrees); felt like mid summer. The lawn, where we had tickets, was over-booked, and we could find no place to sit, so we paid our way into the food terrace in center field (thanks Tony). The "lawn" sounded so cool when I bought the tickets, but a very frustrating system on a crowded day. Blazing sun; hard to enjoy the game, anyway. Very hard to keep track of the goings on, too, as there was no decent info display for the folks looking in from the outfield; the left field board was hard to read from the glare. Lost it in the sun.

But the little Stadium is quite nice, with a decent food court  and concessions behind the left field stands. Excellent location right in downtown Scottsdale with free parking a short cart-ride away; the golf-cart taxi system was very welcome. SF won 11-9. The Gitants' young third baseman, Matt Duffy, went 4-3 with a double and 3 RBIs.

Golf at Westin Kierland - March 30

Took advantage of an early tee time and played a round of golf before our next baseball appointment. The hotel had a beautiful set of three, 9-hole courses that you could play in combination to make a full 18. Rather stunned at the wonderful conditions, especially given the drought in the Bay Area and the heat in this area. Everything was green, groomed, and gorgeous; made me feel a bit guilty for being able to play.

Giants at Cubs

The Giants visited the Cubs at Sloan Park in Mesa - what a place! A fantastic, new park with a major league feel: great concessions and facilities. Tough driving in and parking, though as it's kinda out in the middle of nowhere, and there's only, apparently, one right way to drive in. Another nasty, hot day. Down 4 runs, the Giants rally in the top of the 6th for 5 runs, only to give 3 back in the bottom of the 6th and eventually lose 8-5.

Rockies at Giants - March 31

Our Tuesday tickets put us on the opposite side of the Stadium from our Sunday perch, and we had a way better experience. Hot, but under the stands, there is a misting system that wafts cool spray from the edge of the canopy. Blanco was announced and almost immediately replaced in right field by young Justin Maxwell, who went 3 for 3, with 3 RBIs, and helped the Giants beat the Rockies 4-3. Great to see some of the young Giants doing well. After the game, we made a bee line for the airport in Phoenix, and flew back with a planeful of Giants fans, all of us still in costume.

Ai Weiewei at Alcatraz - April 4

Had never been to Alcatraz, and was very happy to go during Ai Weiwei @ Large. A quick ferry ride, and we skip the ranger's introduction and head right for the far end of the island to see the dragon kite. The kite is installed in the "New Industries Building", a ruined, empty hall where prisoners had done laundry and other work for hire. The kite coils around the mushroom columns, with smaller "swallow" kites in the corners of the space. In the adjacent room, a series of lego portraits are laid out on the floor; the portraits are of people who have been imprisoned because of their beliefs or affiliations. Exiting, and then re-entering the guards' "gun gallery" one can view both works through the old broken glass, as well as another isolated piece - an oversized bird's wing made from Tibetan solar panels and tea kettles.

 

Heading back round to the main "Cellhouse", we found a series of audio installations built into the prison cells in the "A Block", including music from Pussy Riot and a speech by Martin Luther King. Again circling back through another cell block, we reach the Hospital Wing where selected toilets and sinks have been carefully filled with hand-made porcelain flowers. In the adjoining Psychiatric Observation Rooms is another set of audio installations - these more reverberant and impactful: the chants of Buddhist monks and the music of the Hopi, which included drumming that echoed and shook the small room.

 

I suspect the sense of uplift in the show comes from the toy-like, joyful materials used: kites, legos, porcelain flowers, tea kettles, music. Placing them in the context of the old penitentiary, and wrapping them in the stories of the oppressed and imprisoned focused the message, and provided a springboard for personal thoughts on the meaning and idea of freedom, as well as the loss of it. The last stop was the Dining Hall where post cards with pictures of the national birds and flowers the countries of those being held in or outcast from; you could write a message and send it.

The next night, the experience of viewing the show came back when John Oliver interviewed Edward Snowden, who was featured in one of the Lego portraits. In the piece, you got a real sense of his exile, but at the same time his conviction poured through; he knows what he did and why he did it. The interview was amazing - compelling, funny, and obscene.

Rangers at A's - April 9

The first regular season day game at O.co this year. Two young pitchers: Kendall Graveman for the A's and Nick Martinez for the Rangers. Graveman allowed 3 in the first, 2 in the third, three more in the fourth before departing the game (3.1 IP, 8Rs, 7ERs, 2 HBP). Committing one of the three A's errors did not help. Meanwhile Martinez allowed two hits through the first 4.2 innings, and faced the minimum thanks to two double plays, by which time it was 8-0. The A's managed a couple of hits and scored a run in the eighth, but way too little too late; they played like a very young team. O.co got some fancy new scoreboards, but they provided the same basic info as before - just clearer and brighter, so I guess that's a good thing. But a gorgeous day, and great to see "real" baseball again. Rangers over A's 10-1.

Binge-watching Grand Designs and Ending Up in a Slum

During the Winter Break I got hooked on Grand Designs, a British TV show hosted by Kevin McCloud, now in it's 14th season on Channel 4. We were having work done on the house - lighting, landscaping, and some plumbing, and I somehow stumbled upon a bunch of "tiny house" videos, that then lead me to the video above - a house built in the Irish countryside made from shipping containers. The shows are addictive for anyone, but to someone who left architecture behind to work in tech, it's like re-discovering a lost dream or ambition.

The show is a great way to learn about the design process. Unlike This Old House or any show hosted by Bob Vila, shows that I've never really liked, Kevin McCloud encourages folks who want to build to talk to architects and planners: you could do it yourself, but you could do it better with professional help. He's also a great story-teller, and human drama amplifier.

I guess the really compelling part for me is the faith and total commitment of the people in the stories. They believe that these home projects will be life-changing - and they are of course, but not always for the reasons that the people expect. I'm re-connected to a conviction I once had that architecture is the ultimate human expression.

While watching a few of the shows on YouTube, I stumbled across a special he made called Slumming It, which documented his travels in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi. It is one of the most eye-opening looks at design that I've ever seen. The conditions in the slums are, of course, stunning and depressing, but when the cameras look at the community and the people, they are also amazingly re-affirming and hopeful (but, not for the feint of heart).

Hats off to Kevin McCloud. He is fearless.

More Architectural Tourism - A Field Trip

We were so fortunate to be able to take a trip to see works from two of the most significant american architects of the 20th century: Frank Lloyd Wright and I. M. Pei. I found it interesting that all the students recognized the buildings we visited - they had "seen" them, but few had visited or really delved into the heritage on their doorstep. Both the Civic Center and the Buck Institute are such visible parts of Marin's highway landscape. So it was a real treat to be able to enter, tour, and to really get acquainted with these two important architectural campuses. 

Our first stop was the Buck Institute for Aging; our guide was Ralph O'Rear (VP, Facilities and Planning). Pei had a hand several buildings that have played a part in my personal architectural experience: the Hancock Tower, and the Kennedy Library. The Tower was particularly familiar as I worked next door to it for many year, spent many a lunch hour in Copley Square absorbing the geometry and the reflections of Richardson's Trinity Church.

The Buck Institute had many familiar I. M. Pei design features: stark geometries, clean surfaces, and acute angles. Wandering around the lower passages, with long halls and 60-degree turns was a true mouse-in-maze experience - very disorienting, but saved by amazing, framed views out to the landscape.

I have an even more personal connection with Wright, having grown up in Madison (my parents were married in, and I attended school at the Unitarian Church), and visited several on more than one occasion: the Guggenheim, Falling Water, the Robie House, and the Unity Temple in Oak Park. I particularly recall seeing an exhibit called "Designs for an American Landscape", which showcased several intimate, unbuild projects that underscored his unconventional imagination and poetic vision.

The Civic Center was in amazingly good shape, and also had lots of familiar Wright design cues: dark passages and entries, taller and brighter public spaces, rhythmic details, and warm tones. The building was much longer that I had imagined, and balconies on the upper levels were surprisingly narrow.

Strange that when I was in architecture school, Wright had fallen out of fashion, and was derided for his "space ship architecture" by the faculty - who seemed to be more aligned with the post-modernist movement at that time.

In any case, I suppose you might think of these two facilities, or any remarkable piece of architecture as "being from another place". Or you can visit and reach into these places, and find the value that each designer can bring to a building.

More photos here: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A2G6XBubG6We8c

Jony Ive Talks About Values and Care in Design

A great interview, followed by an even better Q&A session with Jony Ive - a couple of highlights:

• I was struck by his explanation of Apple's design process, and how the process changes gear when the design of a product get three-dimensional: "as soon as there's an object ... it really galvanizes and provides a focus to an entire team, and very often when they're struggling with these abstract, tentative ideas";

• I enjoyed his description of a Braun food "mixer" (processor?) as "extraordinarily, achingly beautiful";

• I got a little rush, as did the audience, when he described copy-catting as theft, and copy-cats like Xiaomi as "lazy";

• I appreciated that Jony expressed his disdain for Augustus Pugin in the context of making products with care, and that that care is tangible.

Smitten - A Science Experiment You Eat

My foodie cousin Aenoch is moving back to California after some years in North Carolina. We welcomed him back with a meal at Toast. During the meal, the conversation did, of course, drift to dessert, and Aenoch mentioned that he had gotten a machine and had been making his own ice cream. So we decided to head down the street to Smitten and give their ice cream a try.

The place is setup like a big science experiment - you are greeted by a large super-shiny tank of nitrogen. Next to that is the ordering stations and the menu board above. From the tank you notice a series of thick pipes covered in beautiful braided cable casings which feed down from some kind of pump or secondary tank above a distribution tray.

The nitrogen is sent down to a series of small mixer-like appliances where the ice cream "brrristas" mix your treat to order. Part food-processor and part Halloween atmospheric, these mixers (called Brrrs) quickly churn the ice cream base within a cloud of cold, one for each flavor being offered (they cannot mix flavors in a cone, as that would require making two batches).

The ice cream itself is served a bit on the soft side, but extra creamy, and full of flavor - reading some of the negative reviews on Yelp seem to confirm that if you don't like strong, clean ice cream flavors, you're not going to like Smitten's ice cream. I love it.

I've had the mint chip and the Tcho chocolate. The mint chip is like bruising a mint leaf under your nose and eating that smell cold; it's strong and sweet. It is not like the mint chip you get at the store; even a premium mint chip doesn't have this strong, clean flavor. The Tcho chocolate is based on a 60.5% cacao dark Tcho product, and they add some salt to bring it out.

There are lots of comparisons to Ici in the Yelp reviews, which is fair given the cost and wait time. The time at Smitten is spent waiting for your treat to actually be churned, and at Ici for the server to dig out the scoops from the tubs of rock-hard ice cream. I do love Ici, but they take the old fashioned "shoppe" and execute that at a really high level. Smitten is Bay Area high-tech, maker-culture meets slow food culture, and just plain nerdy.

I recommend the small cone, no toppings; it seems to offer the best bang for your buck. The cones are home-made, thick, wide, waffle-style - a bit soft and crumbly, so watch the last few bites, cause the stuff will spill out. The cookie-like taste and texture are great for the softer ice cream.

Admittedly, the cones at Ici are better - tall, narrow, crunchier, and with a plug of chocolate at the bottom to catch the drips (brilliant).

MakerBot Replicator 2

A couple of years ago, MakerBot took a turn from making 3D printer kits and printers that looked like kits, to "mature products". It introduced the Replicator 2 in 2012, as their first real attempt to make a salable consumer product - for about $2200. The Replicator 2 got rave reviews and seemed to spark the market for "pro-sumer" devices, as the number of competitors seems to have swollen in the meantime. And this new class of devices has now found their way into homes and schools everywhere.

This year, MakerBot introduced their latest "5th generation" products, and the price for the Replicator 2 dropped to $1899 - too cheap to ignore. So I went to the Microsoft Store and grabbed one. Set it up, pushed some buttons, and it's very easy to get started - really impressive how easy it is to get started. I printed a couple sets of the nuts and bolts on the provided SD card. Piece of cake.

But there are nuances and issues. My idea is to teach a technology class as an art (architecture) class, so I tested the printer by printing a model of the house, and the steep, curvy contours of the landscape made a giant mess - the extruder never stops extruding, and drags a thread of plastic every time it has to "cross a valley", thus filling the valley. After the printer finished, I had to go back and clear out these threads, leaving lots of funny edges and bumps.

There is also an on-going balancing act going on in the hobbyist community between getting the plastic to adhere to the build plate during the printing process, and releasing the printed object when finished. It involves: blue painter's tape, kapton tape, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, hair spray, glue sticks and other household cleaners and chemicals - or some combination thereof. The basic process I've started with is to lay down blue painter's tape on the build plate (made of acrylic), and clean it with the alcohol between renderings.

The other battle going on is a search for a solution to the curling of the plastic as it cools. The nuts and bolts are about 3/4" in diameter, and I had no problem printing them directly on the build plate. When I first tried a larger print (4-in square base) without the tape, the plastic peeled up at the corners, and began rocking back and forth as the extruder crossed the area. The tape does not prevent the curling, but seems to keep the print job in place, holding the edges steady to get a better render.

I've also found that by turning the model in the software, you can get the extruder to cross the "valleys" in different ways, so it's worth checking the "print preview" to see which position gives the cleanest render.

Any way, there is much more "art" to this process than it might seem. Regardless, it's an amazing technology.

Bonus cool-thing for the weekend: Apple Maps now has Berkeley in 3D, and that includes our house (compare to the model above):