No visit to Montreal is complete without the architectural marvel that is Habitat 67. Initially conceived as the Master’s dissertation by McGill Master’s student Moshe Safdie, it is one of the most daring residential projects ever to have been built. We braved the cold and snow last weekend and took a walk to the site.
We got back from a weekend visiting friends in Montreal yesterday. There is a daily Amtrak service from NYC Penn Station all the way to Canada. It takes a bit more than ten hours yet is surprisingly very affordable. Herewith some impressions from the short trip up north.
Looking at Elevator #2 from McGill Street
As forewarned, I am going to jot down further notes from inspiring readings that have made me enter 2014 on a more thoughtful note. After pondering a radical article on the failure of “green capitalism”, herewith unsorted reflections on Peter Buchanan’s “Big Rethink” on architecture, published on Architectural Review over 2012 and 2013.
Montreal real estate development
It’s one of these buildings that everyone has seen but hardly anyone remembers. If, then for its seeming ugliness and prime location next to the Brooklyn Bridge. 375 Pearl Street, or the Verizon Building as it’s also known, does not have the best reputation.
I just got back from an interesting paper presentation at Columbia. The authors looked at the impact the long “Lost Decade” had on the labour market and countered the commonly held assumption that dismal economic growth has led to a surge in “bad” jobs.
Night scene – Yamamote Line
A few articles have got me thinking over the past couple of weeks. Ideologically, they have made this year kick off on a slightly “disorienting” foundation. Of particular note have been a long piece on ecology as well as a series on architecture. Yet also polemics on work ethic and class have been pondered long after putting them aside. Herewith a few scribbles.
Man walking in front of Shimizu HQ, the most eco-friendly office in Japan, so they say…
The violence in the Ukraine leaves me with an incredibly numb feeling in my stomach. To some older folks it may appear like a flashback from the time when the Soviet Union disintegrated amid strife in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Yet this also seems like a slow-motion train crash people feared but never really thought possible. In this it reminded me of another event in the post-Soviet space.
Painted tanks near the Great Patriotic War Memorial, Kiev
In the second part of this short series on Japanese post-war nation-building and national identity, I will revisit the 1970 World Exhibition in Osaka, short “Expo ’70”. Just as with the Olympics six years before in Tokyo, the Expo gave a newly confident Japan a stage to present itself to the world and, more importantly, its own citizens.
View of the Expo grounds, with danchi housing estate in the front
As my business partner and I are beginning to plan a trip to India around election time (April/May) I tuned into a recent Asia Society event with great interest. It was all the more interesting as my wife and I explore opportunities of going to India for a longer period of time once we’re done over here in the US.
The Mausoleum of Itmad-ud-Daulah, Agra, India
Global Frontiers Inc., the venture I run together with my colleague Sam Baker, now has a website. My friend Robert from Tokyo designed the page while another buddy, Manuel, kindly agreed to us showcasing his photos. The symbolism of “opening doors” to primarily Asian markets works really well I feel.
