10 BLOCK East Jones Street - south side

100 BLOCK East Jones Street - south side

Beginning 100 BLOCK East Jones Street - south side

Miami: Discovering the Marine Stadium

After greetings and refreshments at the AIA Gold Medal reception, we embarked on our next adventure: Discovering the Miami Marine Stadium. The causeway was closed so we spent almost two hours in gridlocked traffic trying to get off the island of Miami Beach and down to Virginia Key, normally a 20-minute drive. On Collins, we shared the road with a man in a power chair weaving through the morass of traffic wagging his finger at desperate drivers. At another point in the circuitous journey, traffic finally began to flow; just as we began to move through the intersection, an elderly man in a wheelchair slowly, slowly wheeled his way across the street while we waited, waited. This is Florida. Plenty of other adventures while we tried to escape the island...we were pretty crazed by the time we reached Virginia Key. It seemed a miracle when I finally saw the concrete roof form of the Marine Stadium rising above the palms on Virginia Key.We were surprised to see that the fire department seemed to be using the building for drills. Their presence in uniform and the fences and numerous No Trespassing signs could have dampened our spirits, but instead spurred us onto the challenge, not to mention our arduous trek to reach this point. We had to get in, to make it all worth it.After trying one side, through the fence and onto the substructure, we tried the other side, hoping to remain out of sight of the firemen and reach the seating area.The obstacle on this side was the large earth mover. From its platform, we had a great view of the stadium. It was almost enough; we hesitated then kept going toward the building, through another fence and we were in -In addition to the firemen, this abandoned structure was also being used for a photo shoot - for mens' underwear. Interesting...It was all worth it! What an amazing structure. We admired the design and craftmanship as the sun set on Miami. Can we still achieve {such dynamic} forms with poured in place concrete? The trend seems to be to complicate the wall section with a multiplicity of materials and cover it up with concrete panels.Better Photos of the Marine Stadium HERE.

Miami: AIA

Peter Bohlin is a hero! In addition to his keen sense of materials and the landscape and great success in making buildings sensitive to both, as well as engaging to the people that use them, he has won the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
My co-workers and I were attendees at this year's AIA convention in Miami because our tiny firm won a big AIA National Honor Award for the East Riverfront Extension.
Of course, I made it to the theatre for the final session of the convention by the skin of my teeth - leaving Savannah at 4:30am after the Friday night concert, picking up Kathy in Orlando, finding our art deco hotel, hailing the shuttle after a long sweaty wait and running two blocks to catch it after it passed me. We sat in the balcony and thoroughly enjoyed the part where Bohlin told stories from the black leather armchair about life and architecture while working around the line of discussion posed by AR editor Bob Ivey. We will all try a little harder to "tickle the trout."

FINALLY! The Avett Brothers Play in Savannah

Trying to decide what to listen to as I ran around Forsyth Park this morning, I scrolled toward Mignonette - and I remembered...TODAY is the day my friends and I wished on for six years: The Avett Brothers Play Savannah!
Alison and I first saw The Avetts play at Merlefest in 2004 and we were blown away by their punk-folk ways. I brought Mignonette back to Savannah and we played it as we worked at Terra Cotta where my friends also fell for the Brothers and, thus, we became big fans of The Avett Brothers, anxious for each new release and especially to see them live. We saw them in small towns, New York City a few times, North Carolina and the mountains a few times.
WELCOME TO SAVANNAH, Seth, Scott and B-O-B.

200 BLOCK East Jones Street - south side