American High-Rise Afternoon

City Beautiful 1918

In the final year of World War I our civic ancestors, exhibiting the excellent aesthetic taste of their era, produced still another stunning Andrew Carnegie Library, in downtown Sacramento. Writes Dan Flynn in his 1994 "Inside Guide to Sacramento,"  "The original library was donated by industrialist Andrew Carnegie and was designed by San Francisco City Architect Rixford in a Florentine Renaissance style...The original library is now used for conference rooms and special events."

The entrance to those events

A closer view of the rich details of this triumphal arch 

One of a dozen lion heads that guard the first floor

Indulge me this nostalgia. Weren't those the days?

California Dreaming

The days are getting longer in Northern California. Welcome, to early January, when warm rays of sunset light the architectural treasures on the way to my bus stop.

In The Clouds

     Even the blandest architecture in a city of government buildings takes on a new light at sunrise below a thick fog. This December morning in downtown Sacramento had a certain San Francisco quality about it.

State Capitol Christmas

California's historic Capitol Building is stunningly beautiful in its own right. This time of year a 55-foot majestic white Christmas fir adds still more elegance. Workers were adding final touches when this was taken while out walking. 

 Tree lighting ceremony On December 7 

(Photo Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee)

Design Trekker loves how these holiday trees light up our Capitols across the United States, including the big one in Washington, D.C. again this year. Check this Washington Post link for photos of the national Christmas tree in Washington, D.C., in recent years. (Especially beautiful: 2007 in a snowstorm). We'll be collecting some images from statehouses across the U.S. in coming days. The juxtaposition of classic columns and design with wreaths and trees really defines the word "stately."

Washington D.C. 

Courtesy wn.com

Mid-December Update: I walked to the Capitol on Friday, December 10, to take in the daily noontime p.m. holiday concerts in the Rotunda and took some updated photos from our California Capitol Christmas.

Columns and Wreaths on the Front Portico

View from inside The Capitol Building

Outside, looking West toward Capitol Mall

 Once more, toward the Capitol Building, with white picket fence
 (Note flags at half mast for newest soldier killed in Afghanistan)

Ghost Mall

 Almost a decade ago as a reporter in California I came across a great and original Web site, Deadmalls.com,, and later wrote a story about Dead Malls in America being redeveloped for new uses.
  Now I live in a California suburb with a different kind of mall: The Ghost Mall.
   This is Promenade, a mall planned for 20 years, started during the housing boom, redesigned as an outdoor "power center," and then left for dead when the economy crashed. Owner General Growth Properties fell into bankruptcy with too much debt to fnish this thing. It's an awful disappointment in a city of almost 150,000 where the major shopping districts are Kohl's, Target and Burlington Coat Factory.
  What's going to happen is anyone's guess. General Growth is coming out of BK. There's been some talk about making it an outlet mall. Maybe it has some value as an eternal monument to excesses of the early 2000s. I went out at sunrise on a Saturday morning. This is what you see out there on another failed strip of the American Dream.

Autumn In The Business Park

Some people go to Vermont or the Rockies for Fall color. Friday morning at Creekside Oaks Business Park in Natomas north of downtown Sacramento: