Parting ways can be very hard, especially for a car like my Mini. But it’s time. I need to let go of it and find someone new to give it some loving. Affectionately kept, it’s a 1977 “R” registration (with British plates) Mini Clubman Estate. The serial badge says that it was made by Austin-Morris. It is driven from the proper side of the car, from the right hand side; and has a new muffler, motor mounts, shifter rebuild and paint. The carpeting is newer, it is highly presentable. The odometer reads 27,000 miles, probably true for the motor, which is a very strong runner.
But it’s time. And breaking up is so hard to do.
If you know of a good home for a 1977 Mini Clubman Estate – red, with a white roof, suitable for many sports teams including the Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampeders, though friends have pointed out that a couple slight modifications would also make it suitable for the Montreal Canadiens – an excellent parade car, and a head turner where ever it goes, please contact me: info (at) babuk.com . It’s being offered at a highly reasonable price for a quick sale.
November / December 1983 "Minnesota Architect" Cover Photo
Many years ago, having just arrived in Washington, DC for my tenure but realizing that I was a long ways from home; an issue of the Minnesota Architect crossed my desk. The feature story was a photo essay about wooden grain elevators; the front cover photograph was of the “nine in a line” grain elevators from a town I grew up in. The photo was cropped so as not to show the Canadian Pacific Railway station where we lived, but looking at the grain elevators was comfort enough. Everyone who visited my desk – wearing crisply pressed shirts with stiffly starched collars – tried to understand what I saw in this. It seems as though I had an acquired taste for the Canadian Prairies that was difficult for my colleagues to understand. But for me, it was as soothing as a good cup of tea.
Moving ahead years later, I was waiting in line for a cup of coffee at the Oak Park Village Market. It was down the street from my office, and an unlikely place to get coffee. Oak Park Avenue has all sorts of trendy coffee places; they all sell what people believe to be strong coffee but in actuality, it’s simply coffee whose beans were over-roasted to simply taste strong. That’s the explanation I read in a catalog from Murchie’s Tea and Coffee in Vancouver. I think that it just tastes burnt, so I go for the regular stuff. You know – Maxwell House, or Folgers’s.
Back to the story – standing, waiting for coffee, they were playing rock videos. I never watch rock videos. But, about a month or so before, when a non-confidence vote in the Canadian House of Commons was being televised on CSPAN, my wife made the unconscionable error of saying that she felt that I had lost my Canadian accent. So I started listening to webcasts of Canadian radio stations to gain it back. One radio station from Toronto played the song “Photograph” by “Nickelback” often. This disk jockey described the video for this song, and how it had been filmed at the lead singer’s high school in Calgary.
So, this video was playing at the Oak Park Village Market as I was waiting for coffee. I watched. They showed a high school gym – I know all eighteen high school gyms that were in Calgary during my day, and this wasn’t one of them. We Calgarians always suspect the geographical knowledge of our friends from a city on Lake Ontario. But, this video; it showed a bunch of Canadian Wheat Board grain cars in a railway yard – this video was definitely shot somewhere in Canada, the background looked definitely prairie. It showed a stucco train station – it had a spray painted sign that read “Hanna”, but anyone could have done that. Hanna is a town east of Calgary, I recall my father telling me about how it had two different train lines, and that one of those was the Canadian National Railway. The arch-rival for a Canadian Pacific family. But they had a roundhouse in Hanna, Dad thought that it had been abandoned or something. But, back to the video – suddenly it showed one of the band members and a woman running across a turntable bridge – to a roundhouse! I thought that it had been torn down years before.
Everyone in the Oak Park Village Market wondered what had just come over me. I was numbed – kind of like the feeling after drinking a good cup of tea.
There is a website I found that has a link to The Babuk Report, Forgotten Alberta. The link can be found at http://forgottenalberta.com/ . It has a story about the Hanna Roundhouse. It reads like a good cup of tea.
Turntable Bridge, leading to the Hanna Roundhouse
And about the over-roast coffee? Yeah, that takes a bit of an acquired taste, too.
Harlem and Divison Auto Repair in Oak Park looks after my Mini. Bob, John & staff take good care of it for me. They work on all kinds of cars, people seem to bring their “unique” cars there for service.
In taking my Mini to Harlem and Division the other day, it was noted that while I own the smallest car they service; the largest car they service, a 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine, was in for repairs. I couldn’t help but photograph the two. The shop even moved other vehicles out of the way to help stage the photo. But then, I think that they may have had problems putting the Cadillac on the rack without the tailfins puncturing something once it got lifted in the air. My Mini, on the other hand, has to be driven carefully onto the rack. It has such a narrow gauge between tires that there is a concern that the rails on the rack may not be spaced close enough together to prevent my Mini from slipping in between the two guiderails.
An optical illusion, the Mini actually appears larger than the Cadillac
According to the laws of perspective, if something – like a small car like my Mini – is in front, it will automatically appear larger than anything behind it. My Mini still can’t hide this behemoth. To be fair, it ought to be noted that my Mini is actually an Estate model, the “stretch” version, if you will.
Tinkerbelle vs Jane Russell
It was kind of like the difference between Tinkerbelle and Jane Russell.
This blog has written at length about early industrial age buildings that go up and down, and turn round, and do all sorts of neat things. One of those buildings from my youth is the abandoned railway roundhouse in Hanna, Alberta, Canada.
Abandoned Railway Roundhouse, Hanna, Alberta, used as a set for Nickelback’s “Photograph” Video
For years, this building sat empty. A group of concerned townspeople are putting together a not-for-profit organization to raise funds and to restore this Roundhouse back to its glory.
The Aviva Community Fund is holding a contest to award funding for community projects, the Hanna Roundhouse Project is one of those. This is a note from Laurie Armstrong, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for the Town of Hanna, encourage people to vote for this project, with a link to vote for this project:
VOTE FOR HANNA!
A project has been submitted to the Aviva Community Fund in the hopes that it will receive $250,000. There are three rounds of voting with only 4 days left in round one. The projects with the most votes and comments make it to the semi finals. Please vote and leave a comment for the Hanna Roundhouse Restoration Project!
The Centennial of the Chicago Plan of 1909 – the Burnham Plan – provided for a season of great networking this year. One of the last Burnham events – a reception to honour the entrants of the Burnham Memorial Competition was held last night at the Field Museum. Nice group, but didn’t have the previous reception’s star power of Mayor Daley and Valerie Jarrett.
It was an “Invitation Only” competition, though a handful of unsolicited entries were submitted. One was submitted by an architect who interned under me in his previous life, Casimir Kujawa, and his intern, Mason Pritchett. I wish that their entry would have been displayed; it was a tremendous design and a stunning presentation.
Otherwise, the fundraising for construction portion of the competition program starts, and will be challenging in this market.
The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, by Renzo Piano
On the way back to the train after the reception, I was able to stop by the Art Institute and retake a couple photos that didn’t take at all well last week during that Burnham Reception. The Chicago Loop at night is exceptionally photogenic. With a camera suitable for night photos, it’s impossible to take a bad photo. These are the last few days for the Burnham Pavilions on display at Millennium Park, they were glowing profusely. It will be sad to see the pavilion describing the earth, they sky, and the city that grew in between be taken down.
While early industrialists had grand visions of mechanized buildings and cities that walked, many of those ideas were whimsical at face value. Mind you, when applied as small parts, they were very useful – like the passenger elevator. One of those side concepts probably came to be applied to personal transportation – the automobile – which I argue is a highly popular form of architecture. Unfortunately, it’s a half baked idea of the original concept, and a half baked idea that has turned tables on traditional architectural and urban planning principles.
Original El Rancho Hotel, Las Vegas
What got me going on this topic was a recent assertion that the original El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas was planned specifically to be only accessible by car, not on foot. At the time, the Las Vegas Strip had some seemingly seedy elements to it. The thought was to start a brand new “strip” away from the original Strip. The new Strip would be elegant and – controlled. It was a specific tourist destination. To keep the new hotel a “controlled” atmosphere, the easiest way to do this was to limit the patrons only to those who had cars. It mitigated the seedy element.
At this point, one can easily imagine the sorts of gated subdivisions and target market power centres that populate suburbia. All too often, getting from one’s house to do shopping, go to work or school, or even to go to a neighbour’s house is virtually impossible on foot in a cul-de-sac’d subdivision. It’s all designed to be accessible by car only, leading to all sorts of social / economic ills. Maybe even obesity.
Back to Las Vegas – the new Strip grew. Eventually, it became larger than the original strip, all of the new hotels modeled after this “accessible by car” concept. Robert Venturi even wrote a book “Learning from Las Vegas” that looked at the intricacies of this new type of planning and the sort of spaces that just happened around the hotels. I thought that it was written tongue in cheek, but apparently he was serious.
Since then, Las Vegas has built sidewalks up and down the new Strip, and offered transit service along the road. The scale of the street is still built around automobile speeds, rather than pedestrian travel. Now, the automobile scale can be exciting in a way – think of Dan Tana driving up and down the strip in his classic Thunderbird.
West of Chicago, along Roosevelt Road – it has a highway designation, though I can’t recall the number – there is an endless suburb that stretches some twenty miles or so – so mind numbing that I can’t even convert the distance to metric measures. My daughter refers to it as the “Land of Parking Lots”.
This is the last week for the Burnham Pavilions on display at Millennium Park in Chicago. They were meant as temporary exhibits and with the coming onslaught of a Chicago winter, it’s probably time. The Burnham Pavilions (see previous posts) were constructed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Plan of 1909, sometimes referred to as the Burnham Plan, after one of its authors.
One final event was held last Friday, a roundtable discussion between Mayor Daley and Valerie Jarrett – currently Senior Advisor on Domestic Issues to President Obama, but formerly Mayor Daley’s Chief of Staff and even a Chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority at one point. About 800 people – mostly invited – packed the Rubloff Theater at the Art Institute of Chicago on a cold and dreary Friday afternoon in October. Where else could one draw a crowd like that but in Chicago?
Many of the attendees came from Chicago’s volunteer and charitable community – a setting unique for this city. Chicago runs on volunteer help and organizations.
While there was a fair bit said about high speed rail funding and public transit in Chicago; there wasn’t a lot said overall about “grand picture” programs for the metropolis overall as an American entity. While many European and Asian countries have cities, the United States has the Metropolis. I’d argue that the Metropolis is distinctly American (this coming from a Canadian), and in danger of fall from a variety of sources: downfall of manufacturing, suburban flight…. There was a fair bit of discussion about social programs, however.
Upon exiting the reception afterwards, the sky was already dark, the Burnham Pavilions shone in their lighting, as did various buildings of the Chicago skyline that peeked out between the wings of the Art Institute. I wish that my camera would focus in night time skies, Chicago truly showed itself off. Chicago is the American Metropolis, located in the Midwest.
A reception will be held this week for the display of the entries to the Burnham Memorial Competition. An Architect who interned under me years ago, Casimir Kujawa, submitted an entry that will be on display.
A recent television news series spoke of development of a new electric automobile. It appeared odd that the person interviewed wore the title of “Product Development Architect”. Many in the software industry also wear titles denoting some sort of “architect”, though they’ve never been exposed to issues dealing with public well being, building envelope issues, and professional licensure by a public entity or even (irk!) liability.
We tend to think of architects as trained and licensed professionals who work with stone and concrete, and who understand builders’ lien laws. Architecture is regulated in some fashion by governing jurisdictions, and only certain individuals – usually distinguished by education, experience and examination – may wear the title “Architect” or practice “Architecture”.
Although one side of me is elated that this person wore the title “product development architect” as opposed to “product development engineer”; still, how would someone who designs software or leads a product development initiative think that they could be called an architect?
Perhaps, in taking one portion of the practice of architecture – visionary project leadership – and forgetting about the legalese, one might craft a definition of ‘architect’ that could describe this position. But that’s just dealing with the people who want to wear this title, what about the practice of architecture?
Architecture historically has been rooted (no pun intended) in solid buildings with form foundations tied to the earth. While many professionally licensed architects have been responsible for designing and producing items ranging from tea kettles (Michael Graves) to aircraft interiors (Cambridge Seven) to farm tractors (Clifford Wiens), those actions have never been termed “architecture”. Mind you, at its introduction, the design of the current Volkswagen Beetle led many to describe it as an “architectural” car.
Is this architecture?
However, in describing architecture as a machine for living, perhaps the object isn’t to limit who may be an architect. Rather the object may be to expand the definition and scope of what is architecture, allowing architecture to move beyond structures rooted in the earth built of masonry or steel.
And that may be good for society’s overall growth and advancement
Waking up on an overcast morning, the multi-hued tree leaves were irredescent. They glowed, and spilt a dazzling display of colour into a darkened interior space.
A previous post described “if walls could talk”, but what about if buildings could walk?
It’s not that far fetched an idea.
Taking cues from the railroad industry, it wasn’t uncommon at the turn of the 20th century to find fixed structures – buildings – with large moving parts.
Bridges were prime examples.
It took the use of steel used as structure to give rise to this. The first structure built of steel was a bridge built in 1775 over the River Severn near Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, in the western midlands of England – the “Iron Bridge” as it’s called today. Steel was a lighter-weight material that permitted more flexibility in shape than did masonry, with the advantage of superior strength when compared to wood. Moving ahead a century or so, shipping lanes along rivers located on flat plains required a way for bridges – built relatively low to the ground – to be built so as to give way to permit relatively tall shipping traffic to pass.
Turntable Bridge, Chicago, 1898
Confining this description to bridges found in Chicago: some of the first bridges designed for this were turntable bridges. There still are a couple of these left in Chicago. They are configured as steel trusses set onto a central pier in the middle of the river. Train tracks were built inside the truss structure. When shipping lanes were needed, train traffic would come to a stop, and the entire truss – hundreds of feet or dozens of metres long – would rotate around this pier.
Pennsylvania RR Bridge, Chicago, 1908
Turntable bridges had their limitations, not the least of which was the central pier becoming an obstruction in a shipping lane. Finding ways to raise bridge sections vertically, rather than rotating them horizontally, became the issue at hand. Those types of bridges appear in all sorts of variants. Some have a truss spanning between two towers, this central truss raises and lowers between the towers. Still others rotate truss sections vertically to give clearance along the waterways, the most dramatic examples are those with truss structures raised above, rather than below the track bed.
Western Avenue Pennsylvania RR Bridge, Chicago, 1907
Beyond bridges, other railway structures rotated (roundhouses with turntables) and lifted materials (coal towers and granaries).
The SS France – a complete floating community of thousands of people
Railways – and shipping lines – gave rise to buildings – entire communities – that were mobile. It could be possible for one to live their entire life on an ocean liner; all lodging and dietary needs cared for in addition to entertainment, recreation, socializing, even employment and well being. In a stretch, one may make the same case for a transcontinental train.
The Walking City, Archigram
Going back to our history lesson studying some of the early modernist architects: many – like Le Corbusier – had a vision of “buildings as machines”. Looking to what’s traditionally defined as architecture, this concept taken to mean “buildings that move” really hasn’t come to pass, save for a couple amusement park rides, or visionary works from think tanks like Archigram.
In a mobile society, having one house that could move with its occupants could be a sustainable concept. It reinforces the notion of small housing, since that would take less energy to move around. Part of one’s housing could be detachable and self propelled for personal transportation. Perhaps a workplace concept also becomes something that one takes with them and “plugs in” to a workplace community.
Parting ways can be very hard, especially for a car like my Mini. But it’s time. I need to let go of it and find someone new to give it some loving. Affectionately kept, it’s a 1977 “R” registration (with British plates) Mini Clubman Estate. The serial badge says that it was made by Austin-Morris. It is driven from the proper side of the car, from the right hand side; and has a new muffler, motor mounts, shifter rebuild and paint. The carpeting is newer, it is highly presentable. The odometer reads 27,000 miles, probably true for the motor, which is a very strong runner.
