From: lauf-s
To: design-l
Subject: Re: he was a man who lived his live in small rooms
Date: 2002.02.11 14:57
Perhaps in apposition to the question (posed by Brian) as to today's "mental health" diagnosis of the United States, "Learning from Girard Avenue" offers a microview of this situation. Philadelphia's Girard Avenue is for the most part a large, cross-town street that runs through poverty and near poverty level neighborhoods, yet the street itself is named for Stephen Girard, once the richest man in America, and indeed sixth on the list of the United States' all-time richest men (Bill Gates is number five). There is Girard College, the school for orphans willed by Stephen Girard, and site of quite remarkable architecture--Founder's Hall and the early dormitories are by the same architect as the Capitol of the United States--which literally defies the grid of Philadelphia. Then again, one of the few American Saints thus far, St. John Neumann, rests under the lower church altar of St. Peter's Church at Fifth and Girard Avenue, and there is the fairly new (1995) Calcutta House, an AIDS hospice run by the nuns of Mother Teresa (just two doors east of the house that Venturi likes so much).
I've taken three automobile trips down Girard Avenue since 1 February, taking almost 200 images, and there is still so much more to record, assimilate and learn. The United States is a big place, yet so is Girard Avenue. One of my favorite 'discoveries' so far is Hatfield House, an 18th century structure with a Greek Revival porch addition (with a rare columniation of five columns holding up the pediment) that was moved from its original site in Nicetown (a more northern Philadelphia neighborhood) to a piece of Fairmount Park at 30th St. and Girard Avenue, directly adjacent to the Girard Avenue Bridge, (the other side of which is the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, the first such place in the United States).
Today, there is lots of construction within the street of Girard Avenue. Street trolleys are going to run there again--urban renewal in a very real sense.
I'm really looking forward to learning a whole bunch of stuff from Girard Avenue, and I also look forward to sharing what I find with you.
Steve
ps
"Learning from Girard Avenue" reenacts the first (i.e., large) edition of Learning from Las Vegas. Part III of Learning from Las Vegas presents the work of Venturi and Rauch Architects from 1965 to 1971. Within this presentation are "8 Houses of Ill-Repute." I can't wait to start reenacting that part of Learning from Las Vegas with (at least) "88 Houses of Ill-Repute."
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