The places I’ve been live on in my soul. Glimpses of them flash across my mind throughout the day, inspiring me to be part of making great places and to live life to the fullest.
When I was in Thessaloniki, I tried video recording a cool reflection I found. (You’ll want to turn the sound down–I don’t have software for editing these yet and the street noise is a bit loud.)
But see how much the reflections change with the slightest shift of perspective or moment in time?
Flying trampoline. (Photo credited to Twitter user @courtmcmanus)
Can’t say I’m sorry to be missing this storm back home.
All is still fine at our home, Dave says. (We just chatted on Facetime.) He’s still working away. As am I.
In the meantime, I checked Facebook and thought I’d share this outlandish image from Milford, Connecticut, with my friends here in Ireland.
It’s a little window into what life is truly like in the US of A. I live in a neighborhood a lot like the one pictured.
The James River bridge nearly underwater. Image posted on Facebook yesterday by Operation Homefront of the Virginias.
There’s a huge hurricane barreling toward the east coast of Virginia today. Everything there is closed and Dave is hunkered down at home with the kitties. So that means he’s fixated on the computer screen for the day. Fortunately for my little workaholic, his power supply hasn’t gone out.
We live in the coastal area of Virginia, but our home is six blocks from the water. Since we’re on the mouth of the Elizabeth River rather than the ocean front, we’re not susceptible surges (historically speaking, that is). Our home isn’t in the “100 year flood plain,” although the ones on the next block are.
When Dave did leave home last night to grab sushi for dinner before the big part of the storm hit (that’s how people without kids prepare for a storm, by the way), he came home to find our cat Sienna asleep on his keyboard. He’d been keeping it nice and warm for her!
It’s very, very quite here in Dublin, too, and it feels a lot like hurricane days at home.
Here, it’s a “bank holiday.” Many places are closed. I haven’t left the house. In fact, I only stepped out twice in three days, and just for short jaunts (yoga and brunch).
The weather in Dublin is glum and drizzly. Which is actually okay, as I’ve spent the weekend working up lecture outlines, a Prezi file, a recommendation letter, and transcribing and making some progress on proposals for possible talks and exhibits.
If some of those come through, I’ll get to travel to “the Continent” to speak. That will be fun! I’m posting a memory from Rome to rekindle memories of a sunny day in Rome. I’ve been keeping up with the people who commented on the sketch via Facebook throughout the storm. Thankfully even the one who lives on the ocean front (Chris Bonney) is okay at this point. He’s still posting view of the storm….
A photo posted to Facebook by David Waterfield. Taken near Buxton, North Carolina yesterday.
Emergency Catnap!!!
Siena asleep on Dave’s computer yesterday.
A sketch I made in the courtyard of Rome’s Spada Gallery, home to the famous Borromini perspective.
I’m mourning the loss of Eden. Last night ended Daylight Savings Time in Ireland for the year. The shift to Dark Evening Time is a sad event for me each year.
It’s particularly poignant this year, because I’m living so far north that the days will be very, very short soon. Perhaps fortunately, I’ll be home for the very shortest of days this year, and I’ll get to eek out a little more sunlight than I would here.
I spent the entire sunny day yesterday working at home and needed a change of scenery. So, to help address my doldrums, I headed out for breakfast.
Since I can’t seem to find Sunday brunch in my neighborhood, so I wandered down to Temple Bar and found myself in Eden. Yum!
Eden: spatially wonderful!
Eggs Benedict, Eden style. What more could a girl want?
Eden prides itself in Irish cuisine fused with European flair. Funny, eh?
The Irish referred to “going to see the Europeans” when we headed out for Greece. They see themselves as different from the continent… and thus not entirely European. In my book, they’re so similar to US American, that we actually maybe a closer match. (Please, please, please vote sensibly my countrymen. Don’t succumb to inaccurate claims and smoke-and-mirror budget proposals.)
I’ve heard two people (one an emigrant from the US) say Ireland may well become the 51st state. It seems to align more and more with US culture every day. Although if we loose Obama, there will be a wider gap in values between the Irish and US ethos.
I’ve attached snapshots from breakfast (Eden is a very nicely designed place) and from my walk home… flip through them and pretend you’re here walking with me… imagine the smell of Guinness wafting through the air as you stride down the River Liffey.
Funny that Gavin and I discussed diagramming gears (an idea I brought up over lunch), then this model popped up at the Cork students’ exhibition.
I never know where I’ll end up when I leave the apartment. Yesterday, after scintillating lunch conversation about Gavin’s thesis and a book proposal I am trying to develop, I hustled back across town to meet with architecture student leaders Colin and Andrew to discuss where our interests overlap.
They asked such great questions about the way we teach at Hampton University and the research I’m doing here. And, they asked me to be part of a day-long Schools of Thought symposium that they, the students, are organizing for the DIT School of Architecture. In a couple of weeks, I’ll talk on the topic “Student-Centering Architectural Education: Revamping the Way We Learn and Teach.”
Andrew, Colin, and me at the Sab Inn Cafe (it’s the one I refer to as the Hungarian restaurant but the students call the red cafe). The owner gave us complimentary desserts to go with our tea! He’s such a doll!
I’ll get to help spread innovative ideas–that have been implemented by Gavin and his colleagues–with the architecture faculty and students. I’ll also share the things Michael Seymour and I found in our survey of student preferences.
Colin and Andrew mentioned I might want to stop by the “darc space gallery” where the School of Architecture at Cork was exhibiting fifth year projects. Finding that gallery was harder than you’d think. Google had it listed as being on South Great George’s Street, but it’s actually clear across town on NORTH Great George’s Street.
I hung in there, and when I finally arrived I found beautiful graphics, interesting design proposals for Istanbul (they reminded me very much of the work I did in architecture school in the early 90s), and many wonderful people to talk with.
Their primary teacher for the fifth year, Jason O’Shaughnessy, studied at the Architectural Association in Edinburgh, Scotland when Peter Eisenmann and Daniel Libeskind were teaching there (I was working on my Master’s at Virginia Tech at the time). Any way, the influence of Eisenmann and Libeskind is quite clear in the students’ work. They say the spent the four years leading up to this designing buildings with very typical sorts of programs, such as schools.
Jason O’Shaughnessy actually insisted that I guess his last name. It took a while, but I finally succeeded. His only clues were that it was “the most Irish last name,” and that I was on the right track with O’Sullivan. Whew!
I had a ball talking with Helen (who works in TV and film production in Dublin) and David (an architecture student from the DIT).
During the event, I particularly enjoyed speaking with David (a DIT student who I heard speak several weeks ago as an opening act for the featured lecturer), his girlfriend Helen, and another colleague of David’s from the DIT.
They expressed astonishment when I said I could happily live here in Dublin for the rest of my life. People here have no difficulty conceiving of emigrating OUT, but they don’t assume others would want to immigrate IN. That, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people did just that–move in–during the Celtic Tiger (and most stayed, happily).
What Malahide Castle looks like from outside the fence. (Photo downloaded from Evergreen B&B.)
The Irish are typically this polite…. This sign announced the castle was closed for restoration.
Paper celebrating end of war in Europe.
I’m not wild about spending months apart from Dave, but there are so many fun ways to communicate theses days using the web. They make it much more bearable than the year I spent working in Switzerland (1997) without him.
I thought I’d share some fun things Dave sent me this past week:
A photo from our March 2012 day-trip out of Dublin to see Malahide Castle (top). It was, unfortunately, closed at the time. Wish we’d have had a closer view of the castle (below the castle).
Dave also sent this pattern he found:
Thanks to the Irish for Halloween, and to Michelangelo Buonarroti for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, says The Week magazine.
It notes that Wednesday is “Halloween: Brought to the U.S. by Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine.” Oddly, Halloween is the USA’s “second-largest commercial holiday, with Americans spending an estimated $6.9 billion annually.”
that Gearing up for Halloween in Dublin. Photo by Shannon Chance.
But let’s also not forget Thursday, Nov. 1, is the “500th anniversary of Sistine Chapel ceiling unveiling. …Julius II inaugurated the chapel on All Saints’ Day with a solemn Mass in 1512.”
That is the same day as Halloween. (It’s the Catholic Churches’ version of Halloween–and the version celebrated in Italy today.)
Michelangelo painted the entire ceiling in just four years. It was frustrating, backbreaking work.
There’s a really amazing website with a 3D version of the chapel that lets you spin around as if you were there. You shouldn’t pass up seeing this fantastic, interactive model.
Image from the Interactive Sistine Chapel Garden of Eden website. Please check it out!
Yesterday, I posted images of three of the winning HRACRE development projects that Dave photographed. Today’s I’m sharing images of the two other projects that won awards; including the AECOM project that the jury praised so highly in its statement.
Praise from the HRACRE jurors for the awards package submitted by the team that included Hourigan Construction, AECOM architects, and Dave Chance Photography.
Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital designed by PF&A. Image copyright Dave Chance Photography.
The highly-praised award proposal submitted by Hourigan Construction for the team’s work on AECOM‘s Norfolk Headquarters. Photo copyright Dave Chance Photography.
Máirtín sent me some updates to our conversation today, after reading the blog. This is the kind of conversation and cultural exchange that I think the Fulbright program is all about. These are Máirtín’s words:
Order here: Bungalow Bliss. Mairtin downloaded this image from Flicker.
Diane Hamilton (Guggenheim) was the wealthy American that brought Liam Clancy to America, who later appeared on a 20 minute slot on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1961. They achieved fame as ‘The Clancy Brother’s & Tommy Makem’.
It wasn’t just womens’ names, the tradition was that the first child would be called after the mother’s people, giving us names like Bradley, Harrison, Stewart, Rawson, Carroll, and so on and so forth as first names.
This tradition comes from the Ulster Presbyterians, or now Ulster Scots, from the North. There is an Ulster Scots Heritage Park between Strabane and Omagh in Co. Tyrone. In an intersting link to the Blue Ridge Mountains many of the Ulster Scots had the first name ‘William’ after William of Orange, William the Third of Great Britain, victor of the Balltle of the Boyne. So many of them lived in the mountains this is believed to be the origin of the term ‘Hill Billies’.
This is the Book, believed to have brought more shame to Ireland than @Ulysses’.
Bungalow is a Hindi word. In my opinion is that the Irish bungalow is a vernacular version of the traditional cottage. When John Ford made ‘The Quiet Man’ in the west in 1951 he was looking for a perfect Traditional thatched cottage to act as John Wayne’s character’s house ‘White O’Morn’. They found one near Maam Cross. When they were finished, they paid the owner a wedge of money, who used it to build a new house, and demolished the original. What is left has been pilfered by souvenir hunters.
Mairtin sent this image of Dan O Herlihy. IMBD says “Dan O‘Herlihy, Actor: RoboCop. Irish-born Dan O‘Herlihy decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps, forsaking the life of an architect in favour of the acting.”
I also meant to say that another famous (kind of) architect who became an actor was Dan O Herlihy, from Wexford, who qualified as an architect from UCD and went to Hollywood to become an actor. His most famous role is probably ‘The Old Man’ the head of the evil OCP Coproration in ‘RoboCop’ (1987). I hope you’ve seen it, if not I can lend it to you; a biting satire of Reagan era economics.
He is the father of Lorcan O Herlihy, a well known Los Angeles based architect.
The Director of ‘What Richard Did’ is Lenny Abrahamson, who also directed ‘Adam & Paul’ and ‘Garage’. Very good, but not ‘Feel Good’. Don’t watch on a Sunday night when you have the fears……
Praise from the HRACRE jurors.
I’ve got to brag about my Dave today.
He’s a stupendous photographer. And very dedicated to his craft. To get brilliant architectural photographs, he’s up at sunrise nearly every day. Literally, he’s on site, at the building, when the sun peeks over the horizon.
He can tell you exactly where the sun’s rays will fall at any given point in time.
Dave’s award-winning photo of Via design architects‘ VIMS ESSL building on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
And the hard work pays off. For him and his clients.
Last week, Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate (known as HRACRE) hosted it’s annual awards gala. It gives prizes in 12 categories. FIVE–count em–FIVE of the projects that won awards used photographs by Dave Chance Photography.
At last year’s gala, the speakers emphasized the central role photos play in awards selection. They said the quality of the photos and the entry applications/awards packages has been on the rise.
See what they put in print this year, about one of the projects Dave photographed? I am so proud!
The new Judicial Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. Designed by HBA and photographed by the one and only Dave Chance.
The new Portsmouth Housing and Redevelopment building. Designed by Via design architects and captured by Dave Chance Photography.
Ireland by Chance 