Rural Geometry of New-Mown Hay

My wife and I, driving yesterday morning through southern Sacramento County, passed one of the most beautiful sights of farm country - spring fields of fresh-cut hay near Interstate 5. I love the smell that goes with these photos. I grew up on a farm in Northwest Ohio, where new-mown hay was the best smell on earth. I like the visual order in rows of bales in a green or straw-colored field.

Once more, tricked up a little in black and white, like some weird Stonehenge:

High Above The World In Taipei 101

I am afraid of heights. Yet, from the time I saw my first high-rise in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of six or seven, I am fascinated by skyscrapers. So what a treat, while visiting Taiwan recently, to go up into what was briefly once the world's tallest building, Taipei 101.

Photo courtesy of dans.photo@gmail.com 2009

We were a group of reporters and editors, visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan through an East-West Center Asia Pacific fellowship. One night in the city we were whisked by the Association of Taiwan Journalists to the 85th floor of this giant to look out over a city of more than 2 million people. It was a stunning sight, with dusk coming on and beautiful rivers of arterial traffic below as people left work for home. I can never stand too close to the window, however. I look out, but not straight down. I don't need to feel that vulnerable, thank you.

But it is a beautiful piece of earth's skyline. It stands virtually alone in its neighborhood, a beacon that appears on postcards, key chains, stationery, you name it. Taipei 101 has become a symbol of the Republic of China - 23 million people just south of the People's Republic of China. Below is a gray-day view from my hotel window:


And another from the bus in the rain:


As American reporters we got a chance to meet with Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou. Most of the questions were about trade, economics and politics regarding China, but I asked the president about the building's symbolism in Taiwan, what it said about the city. He said, "I'm not really a fan of big buildings." But he said it's become a very successful business center and a "big tourist attraction." Mainland Chinese, especially, love to go up inside the distinctive landmark.

My home skyscraper guide, "Skyscrapers, a History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings," says of Taipei 101: "The skyscraper looks like an elongated multi-tiered pagoda, a traditional Asian form that symbolizes protection and achievement. It recalls, too, a bamboo plant, considered lucky by the Chinese and admired for its strength and resilience.

"The tower is composed of eight sections of eight floors each - eight being a lucky number associated with abundance and good fortune - and it faces south, an auspicious direction."

I felt auspicious myself coming down in its lightning-fast quiet elevators. Even being fascinated by this planet's skyscrapers it's always nice to be back on the first floor.

The Impeccable Taste of Lovely Singapore

In this whole big world of urban design there is everywhere else - and there is Singapore. I recently returned from Southeast Asia through an East-West Center fellowship - and fell in love with this excellent design outpost of nearly five million people on the southern tip of Malaysia.

Singapore is a small tropical country that raised itself from an under-developed colony under Great Britain to a global financial center in the span of my lifetime. Politically, it's a one-party state run - fortunately - by a government and urban planners with very good architectural taste. The waterfront skyline below testifies to the idea that good design can help create a great economy.



One of the most striking new features in Singapore is the Marina Bay Sands resort shown in two photos below. That's a ship on top of three hotel towers. I didn't get up there, but people say it's a walker's paradise of high-rise greenery. (The goal citywide is nearly 200 acres of high-rise landscaping by 2030).




View from a different part of the city:


I aim to study more about what global architectural firms designed what in this beautiful city. But here, for example, is the Singapore Supreme Court building.


And the National Library:


I shot this from a bus seat while stopped at a traffic light. I don't know if it's an office building or a residential high-rise. But the design is pure delight.


It was like this everywhere for five days. The airport was magnificent. Lush green landscaping adorned the parkway leading into the city. The streets were impeccably clean. I've long said that living amidst the magnificent scenery of Alaska, both in Kodiak and Juneau during the 1980s, ruined me for everywhere else. Lovely Singpore has done the same.

Adventures in Streetcar Suburbia

Long-time urban trekking friend Dave Todd and I ventured out this foggy morning to explore Oak Park, an historic Sacramento streetcar suburb. Dave and I have known each other for almost 20 years, since our days in Fresno. Three or four times a year we get coffee and go walking in an older Sacramento neighborhood, catching up with news and looking at designs.

A century ago Oak Park was one of the capital's first suburbs, connected by streetcar to downtown Sacramento. It still has great old infrastructure from that era. We discovered the wall of this one below, and felt rather like urban archaeologists. The wall paintings reveal the building as the home of Mother's Bread.
This whole wall looks like Gold Rush ruins you see along Highway 49 in the Sierra foothills. Is there anything that says classic like red brick and ivy?



This one below is like a cave painting. We saw "Horse Brand" painted on the wall. No mention of what it was. But here's the logo:



A few blocks down the line we looked up and saw the design embellishments that make these old office or retail buildings such classics. This one is near James McClatchy Park. Dave asked it out loud, the question so many have wondered about for 60 years: "Why could this be done then and not now?"






Across the park we saw the McGeorge School of Law, a division of Stockton's University of the Pacific. Look how this little street scene just invites you to come right on in.



Once more, without that bike route sign.

Baby Golden Gate Bridge

I went to a conference this morning at California State University, Sacramento, and parked in a garage near one of my favorite structures here in the capital. It's a mini-replica of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge. This is a bike trail and pedestrian bridge across the American River, connecting the campus with the Campus Commons housing development. The bridge opened in 1966 and is one-tenth the size of the iconic original. I don't know the story of how it came to be. But it's sure pretty to look at, a visionary little piece of architecture named after the founding president of CSUS, Guy West.

Nothing So Lovely As Our Trees

The suburb where I live, south of a Sacramento that calls itself "The City of Trees," is rife with ancient Valley Oaks. For all the architects who designed where I live and housing boom builders who made it all happen, nobody has managed to beat what was here first. That these protected, lovely old giants preside undisturbed over our city parks is all the better.

Morning and evening:




Late afternoon, another park nearby:

Hail The California Bungalow

California became home to thousands of Craftsman Bungalows early in the 20th Century - and for my two cents no home design ever beat it. I acknowledge a certain prejudice, having lived in a 1919 model in Fresno from 1988 to 2001. It took our breath away at first look and when we left it to move to Sacramento my wife and I were sure we'd never live again in a house as nice as that bungalow on Huntington Boulevard.

Near the newspaper where I work in Midtown Sacramento there are numerous bungalows at the corner of 26th and Q streets. Here's a handful of my favorites.