This Could be China's Future, Too

WSJ: At night, the Chongqing skyline illuminates with neon lights, reminiscent of the film “Blade Runner”</td>

I thought I was done with international travel, but I might make an exception for Chongqing:

China has long awed visitors with wonders such as the Great Wall and the terracotta warriors buried in an ancient tomb. Now visitors are being dazzled by Chongqing’s vision of a real-world cyberpunk city.

Until a few years ago, Chongqing was largely a trivia answer: the world’s most populous city by some measures, with 32 million people in a South Carolina-size area. World War II history buffs knew it as the Chinese Nationalists’ wartime capital.

Then viral videos of its impossible architecture changed its image. Suddenly, many Chinese and international travelers alike felt they had to visit.

Chongqing welcomed 120 million tourists who stayed overnight last year, up 17% from 2023. In the first half of this year, Chongqing’s border checkpoints handled a record number of foreign nationals—but only 330,000, so overseas visitors who make it here can still brag about visiting a hidden gem.

Chongqing's popularity is not imposed from the top but is a grass-roots phenomenon. Chongqing native Ryan Chen, aka the "Chinese Trump," is a popular social media influencer.



Don't make the mistake of thinking that because China's problems are vast, that it is declining. Its dynamism is larger than anything we can imagine, too.

The Restoration of Notre Dame

The 2019 fire at Notre Dame (WSJ/AFP/Getty images)

Like many who watched in horror five years ago, we thought that Notre Dame Cathedral had been lost forever to fire. Yesterday it re-opened, radiant and gleaming.

The limestone facade of Notre Dame Cathedral is radiant. Its ornate gargoyles and angels show no signs of the smoke and flames that once billowed from the church. The cavernous interior is immaculate, the soot having been meticulously scrubbed from its arches.

By almost any metric the restoration of Notre Dame has been a success, coming five years after a fire swept across the masterpiece of Gothic architecture, nearly destroying it. On Saturday, a host of global figures, including President-elect Donald Trump, gathered inside the cathedral for a solemn ceremony to mark its reopening.

Notre Dame’s revival is nothing short of a miracle to many, a sign that cooperation across France and beyond to achieve a singular goal is still possible.

We marvel that the skills necessary for the restoration had not been lost, that there was little dithering over what the "new" church should look like, that funds were raised quickly, and most of all, that beauty came back into the world.

Notre Dame:: Continuing the Tradition

1966 windows by Jacques le Chevallier

Four years ago Notre Dame Cathedral miraculously survived a devastating fire. Not unexpectedly there has been disagreement surrounding the reconstruction of the over-800-year-old national monument.

The latest controversy is over the replacement of the Chevallier stained-glass windows that were not damaged by the fire. These windows are grisaille (“shades of gray” accented with color). In addition they do not depict scenes from the Bible or saints ("non-figural"), and didn't have defenders when their replacement was authorized by both the Catholic Church and the government.

Now there are petitions to leave the windows intact. Your humble blogger has no dog in this hunt, but I do think that, based on history, if the windows are replaced they will be beautiful.

The Official Name is the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building

2007: I didn't care for the appearance of the Federal Building then,
but at least it didn't have today's open-air drug dealing outside.

When the Federal Building opened in 2007, it was hailed as a model of "green" architecture. Through a process still mysterious to this observer, the building would reduce power consumption in the summer by an airflow design that didn't require air conditioning. To encourage exercise most elevators stopped every third floor and forced employees to use stairs. I didn't like the look or the nudge, but going green isn't always pretty.

Wikipedia: [bold added]

In 2010 the GSA commissioned a survey of employees in 22 federal buildings nationwide, to determine employee satisfaction with their workplaces....the lowest ranked building for employee satisfaction was the San Francisco Federal Building, with a rating of just 13 percent; the next-lowest was considered twice as satisfactory, at 26 percent.

Headline, August 11, 2023: Crime is so bad near S.F. Federal building employees are told to work from home, officials said

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street...

Dozens of dealers routinely plant themselves on, next to or across the street from the property, operating in shifts as users smoke, snort or shoot up their recent purchases. The property’s concrete benches are an especially popular site for users to get high, socialize or pass out.

The locale is dangerous, the employees are miserable inside, the building is ugly, and the green design doesn't even work. Forget about statues, if San Francisco wants to tear down monuments this would be a good place to start, and I'll bet even Nancy Pelosi wouldn't mind.

The Zen of Gray Concrete Blocks

Brutalist example: the FBI building

We've commented on the brutalist style in architecture before. (As with many cultural topics, it became politicized when President Trump disliked brutalism to the extent that he issued an executive order banning the style from future Federal projects. President Biden revoked the order.)

In general our tastes don't run in the direction of gray concrete blocks, but we do find some of the structures, such as UCSD's Geisel Library, esthetically pleasing.

Kanye's $57MM Malibu home (WSJ)

The latest trend by ultra-wealthy home buyers is to have their home designed by 81-year-old Tadao Ando, whose technique some have likened to Brutalism:

Celebrities like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are flocking to homes designed by Tadao Ando, a self-taught, Osaka-based architect. Ando’s homes aren’t just rare, but also affordable only for the very rich: Numbering fewer than 20 in the U.S., they are generally defined by their use of reinforced architectural concrete, which makes construction far more expensive than in typical homes...

Tadao Ando (WSJ)

Born in Osaka in 1941, Ando had a brief stint as a boxer before turning to architecture. Largely self-taught, he opened his eponymous firm in 1969, according to the firm’s website. While early works included tiny homes in Japan, Ando became famous for cultural institutions like the Church of the Light in Osaka, which opened in 1989, and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, which opened in 2001. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1995...

Sometimes described as Brutalist, Ando’s homes are typically hulking, sparse structures with smooth edges, water features and windows that frame the views. Admirers say they evoke an almost spiritual, Zen-like experience in their simplicity, while others say the concrete is too hard and cold to be livable.

This Ando Santa Fe home sold for $40MM (WSJ)

Tadao Ando's method isn't for everyone, but those who like it really, really love it. Concrete is difficult and expensive to work with, but billionaires and centi-millionaires don't care that his works cost "two to three times more than traditional high-end home construction."

And at his stage in life the architect doesn't seem to care about money either.

“a billionaire could come in the door tomorrow and offer him a billion dollars to design his house, and that wouldn’t motivate him,” said L.A. real-estate agent and developer Tyrone McKillen, who has worked with Ando. “It has to be close to his heart for him to work with you.”

National Geographic Features Another Strange Culture

Venice Beach Boardwalk (National Geographic photo)

One silver lining in the California drought of the mid-1970's--a cloudless silver lining, to be sure--was that swimming pools were empty, skateboarders took advantage, and the modern skate board movement was born:

[Steve Alba], Salba (as he’s known), now 57, was among the second wave of pioneering skateboarders after the Z-Boys, so named for the Zephyr surfboard shop in Santa Monica that they frequented. He helped popularize vertical, or “vert,” skateboarding during the 1970s, when a severe drought in Southern California kept many residents from filling their swimming pools.

The deep bowls in today’s custom-designed skate parks are modeled after the private pools that Salba and his gang used to sneak into, merrily launching their daredevil sky-bound tricks before the police came.

Now an Olympic sport, skateboarding is on the verge of breaking out:

The skate parks of Southern California—now influencing public spaces all over the world—are themselves copies of denuded urban thoroughfares. They emulate the outlaw tradition of skateboarding as a reimagination of staid, orderly cityscapes. Staircases, park benches, guardrails—they’re all there to be skated on.

Your humble blogger has never skateboarded--and will never do so now that aging knees make walking downhill a challenge--but as cities are being re-imagined the boarders' "scruffy DIY ethos" has become pervasive among the influential under-30 crowd.

Skateboarders sandbagged in Venice, CA (laist.com)

A couple of months ago a brief controversy ensued when authorities filled the Venice Beach Skate park with sand, and enthusiasts tried to remove the obstacle by hand. The health officials won, but as more becomes known about transmission of the coronavirus in the sunny outdoors they are looking sillier by the day. I don't think they'll try this again the next time.

Below: Steve Salba and the next generation hang out by the pool.

Brutalism: Not Ready for Revival

Geisel Library, UCSD (WSJ photo)

Not so brutal in the San Diego sun.

"Brutalist" architecture is enjoying a mini-revival: [bold added]

Brutalism, the oft-derided architectural style of blockish buildings and naked concrete, is making a comeback. Fans have mobilized on social media, and there are waiting lists for apartment buildings once dubbed eyesores...

Architectural styles fall into and out of fashion, but few have been as controversial as Brutalism. It flourished in the post World War II period of public-housing construction and tight budgets. It was known for gray concrete, no decoration and severe geometric lines. Boston City Hall and the Geisel Library in San Diego are frequently cited U.S. examples. Latin America abounds with such buildings.

Comments:
1) Brutalism has a powerful association with decrepit housing projects and government buildings in run-down areas.
2) Well-maintained brutalist structures, e.g., UCSD's Geisel Library and Boston City Hall, still are attractive.
3) After enough buildings are torn down, the negative associations are likely to be forgotten.
4) A more pronounced revival will have to wait until this generation--the one with the bad associations and all the money--passes from the scene.

The Full Flintstone

(Chronicle photos)

We've admired Hillsborough's "Flintstone House" for decades. From three years ago (scroll to bottom for update):

For nearly 40 years Peninsula motorists have been driving by a white, mushroom-shaped structure off Highway 280. When it was re-painted in 2007, the 2,730-square-foot orange-and-purple home was nicknamed the Flintstone House.

The unique Hillsborough property is listed at $4.2 million. If you can afford to cut a check for such a whimsical purchase, you're entitled to shout Yabba-Dabba-Doo.

The interior's special, too.

The metal dinosaurs are new (Mercury News photo)

2019: Hillsborough sues to declare Flintstone House a ‘public nuisance’

Calling it a “highly visible eyesore” and “out of keeping with community standards,” Hillsborough planning and building officials are asking a judge to officially declare the iconic Flintstone House a “public nuisance,” and they want a recently-erected metal menagerie of prehistoric animals, along with other features, removed.

Media mogul Florence Fang purchased the property in 2017 and quickly got to work remaking the backyard with a herd of 15-foot dinosaurs, plus a giraffe, mastadon, and brightly-colored mushrooms.

You've gotta admire owner Florence Fang for her commitment. If you're gonna go Flintstone, go full Flintstone.

Answer: Probably Not Enough for a Skyscraper

Bloomberg: "An architectural rendering of a 1,000-foot-tall wood skyscraper proposed for London."

Question: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

The titular answer to the playful question is not so silly as it used to be.

The Economist: The case for wooden skyscrapers is not barking. Wood is lightweight:

There would also be less construction traffic. [Cambridge professor Martin] Ramage calculates that for every lorry delivering timber for a wooden building, five lorries would be needed to deliver concrete and steel.

Objection #1: Is wood strong enough?

there have been big advances in “engineered” wood, such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) made from layers of timber sections glued together with their grains at right angles to one another.

Objection #2: what about fire?

The concrete covering the floor was mainly for sound insulation, but it helps to deal with the second worry: fire. The concrete adds a layer of fire protection between floors....But with other fire-resistant layers and modern sprinkler systems, tall wooden buildings can exceed existing fire standards, reckons Benton Johnson, a project leader with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Wood, with a little help from concrete, is strong, light, and fire-resistant.

It all looks good on paper, but the big bad wolf has yet to be heard from.