June 2011 archives
I just had to share this: Al Capone’s so-called ‘Park Avenue’ Cell in Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. If I had to spend time in prison, I couldn’t possibly imagine a more accommodating space. It seems as if it were tailored to the needs of a writer. I am not sure if Al Capone was much [...]
It is unlikely that many of us will be famous, or even remembered. But not less important than the brilliant few that lead a nation or a literature to fresh achievements, are the unknown many whose patient efforts keep the world from running backward; who guard and maintain the ancient values, even if they do [...]
I am about to embark on a design project that I am tempted to call a ‘pure’ architectural problem. What is important about this observation, apart from the details of the job, is my impulse to refer to it as a ‘pure’ problem. This implies that some architectural problems are ‘impure’ or contaminated in some [...]
