Its not Christo wrapping the Reichstag, but the large colorful wrappings deployed by exterminators could double as public installation art. These graphic tents not only enliven and decorate a sleepy street, they signal either that a house is in escrow or someone is fixing a bad problem.
Period typography and decorative lines combine to make this otherwise generic car repair building special. Unlike contemporary applied signage, these elegant ‘cast-in’ letters with ‘paint fill’ color lend both a sense of permanence and purpose. The entire building is a well-composed graphic design. Note how the forms of the E… Read more »
Berlin is often described as a gray or monochrome city, but sparks of color can be seen many places around this emerging European arts center. Here, a palette of cool hues on the window frames makes a striking pattern against the red background of the building. It could almost be… Read more »
Los Angeles has its share of great buildings and here’s one of them: the headquarters of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power designed by A.C. Martin in 1961. Known as the John Ferraro Building, the elegant high-rise features a luminous vertical curtain walled volume contrasted and protected by strong… Read more »
Yes, this is the only way out.
Colored Space? No. The steel columns and pots in this public building are pure white; the floor dark grey. The rainbow of rich color is light transmitted through multi-colored translucent panels. And the effect changes during the day as the sun moves around the building in downtown Montreal.
Cast in timeless bronze over ‘hand-made’ Art Deco-like letters, this handsome small sign has been part of the Salt Lake City streetscape since 1919. 10 West Broadway, Salt Lake City, Utah
The aging blade sign identifying the empty Rialto Theatre, recently red tagged by South Pasadena’s building and safety department, will now be repaired and for the time being remain in place towering over Fair Oaks Avenue. The 87-year-old theater has been closed since 2010 and needs substantial structural work and… Read more »
This beautiful image seen in a municipal parking garage was not created by an artist. Made by a surveyor for use as an optical sight target, the original scribed crosshairs were made more visible with colored chalk. Months later the remaining marks and the orange chalk have faded into a… Read more »
We put a lot of societal energy into preserving old designs and structures. And many preservation advocates are critical of today’s phony façade architecture – “Things were more authentic, honest and well-crafted in the past.” But look around at many ‘historic’ buildings and you’ll see a lot of fancy fronts… Read more »