UO Campus goes Modern: Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes

Wolfram Burner's Flickr Stream - Coffee Shop

Wolfram Burner's Flickr Stream

from my phone - can't wait to sit by the fire sipping my coffee this winter

In the July volume of Metropolis Magazine there was an article titled, "The House the Phil Knight Built."  The article is clearly not written by anyone who has actually spent much time in Oregon claiming that the only reason P-town can support it's fancy pricey eateries is because of Nike HQ! It also stated that Eugene is close to the Oregon Vortex and from a Eugene resident I don't know anyone that has actually ever visited the tourist attraction which is over an hour drive away. If this is reporting than I'd like to actually like to seem some facts rather than perceptions. Truly the article is best when it sticks to detailing the logistics of the building itself but even then it misses the mark. So here's my 2 cents. I, as you might expect, love the building. I've only been in the lobby and coffee shop and most recently the bathroom! Don't worry no TMI shots here - just sticking to the design elements. I'll include the bathroom shots in my next post about modern bathrooms. You can check out a John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Students Athletes Flickr stream here showing photos taken by photographer Wolfram Burner. It may have cost $1,100 per square foot but it is a beautiful building right at the entrance of campus and I'm glad that student athletes do have very nice surroundings where they can study and attend their required tutoring. My only wish is that all of our UO educational programs and buildings could be equally as beautiful, cutting edge, and green. Maybe the presence of this building on campus will help highlight the disparity between the darlings of Phil Knight and the academic programs that generally are plagued by architectural problems like thin walls and inadequate lighting. The College of Education has just celebrated a year in their new building and it is also a modern space but unlike the Jaqua Center it was funded by hundreds of people including community members, alumni, and current faculty and staff.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House in Oregon: the Kitchen

Here it is, the kitchen, my favorite room in the Gordon House in Silverton, Oregon. The house was built in 1963 with the purpose of a pre-fab prototype in mind. The house is not huge unlike many other FLW Custom Homes. The kitchen was my favorite because of it's forethought for modern living. Just check out the refrigerator  - it has wood paneling! The fridge was custom made for the kitchen, as was the stove top. Apparently Mrs. Gordon was not huge fan of the stove top, on the tour I learned that there were lots of problems with the stove top. If you look at the picture you can see the stainless steel backspalsh - except that it's not actually a backsplash it's a lid that can close and add more counter space when not using the stove. This is a wonderful idea that hasn't carried over to our generation of kitchens. The best part of the kitchen though is the sky light and the tall ceilings. While it's very nice aesthetically, especially considering there are no windows in the kitchen but the tall ceiling also served to aide in air circulation and one of the walls housed the chimney for the incinerator (hidden in the cinder block wall next to the built in oven). The kitchen in not huge and it is not connected to the main living space (through the open door above) but it is right next to the front door of the house and directly in front of the service door that Mr. Gordon used for his business and for coming in and out after working the land around the house. Mr. Gordon's office is also directly off the kitchen. So while most people today would be put off by having a somewhat closed off kitchen the reality of the Gordon House was that it was in the center of the action. The Gordon House is a lovely house in a nice setting (it's be relocated from it's original location) and I would encourage folks to go visit it. I'm already planning for the future when I can rent the place out for a special occasion. 

Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House in Oregon

On a gloomy muggy day here I'm trying to ignore the piles of paper pounding on my mental door I'm traveling back in time to a more carefree month - August! It wasn't that long ago when Mr. Monkey and I with other modern monkey friends headed to the only Frank Lloyd Wright house open to the public in the PNW (pacific northwest). The event is a "Taste of FLW" which kinda grosses me out because I think of some cadaver tasting but I get it - local food and wine brought to you on the grounds of the FLW Gordon House. Around here we do often hear "Taste of Eugene" or "Taste of Portland" both are great fund-raisers and culinary carousels for the mouth. But I just think it's weird to have the name of a man after the words "taste of". Despite the zombie title the event was not stiff. It was a fund raiser for the up keep of the house and the food was great. Above you can see the view from the front of the house, that's the front door and the inside of the house, that's the view from the bathroom. Below are some pics of the bathroom. I love the built in wooden track for the shower curtain. At first I didn't even notice the shower head. All the molding on the windows is supposed to refer to a guitar neck and frets.  Next up the kitchen . . . 
  

Andaz San Diego: King Suite, Party Suite

Our tour of the Andaz San Diego continues with a few pics of our modernly furnished King Suite. After I caught eye of the bar I was wishing we had a bunch of friends in town to have over in our little living room furnished with a brown leather Barcelona couch.

The work space below was one of my faves from any hotel. The chair was beautiful and comfortable. The room itself had no real view so I guess having two large flat screen TVs was nice. There was one above the desk and the other on the other side opposite the bed. The curtains are drawn in part because the view was not a view simply an opening to other rooms and a peak of the roof top lounge.
When I saw the bar below I was wondering who we could call to come and enjoy it with us. Never before have I had such a complete bar in a hotel room - there even was a pair of slippers and an eye mask just in case you needed a relaxing refresher. The best touch was the drink shaker and jar of olives. It was a true southern California touch to have the non-alcoholic beverages complimentary except for the Red Bull.
Finally the bathroom, the sink was separate from the toilet and shower room. Which I always think is a nice touch when you have more than one person staying in a room. All in all we had a great stay and it was fun to live this modern glam SoCal life for 24 hours.