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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Nest Magazine

I have it on good authority that architect Phillip Johnson hated landscaping and plants. You only have to sit in the outdoor plaza of the Sony "Chippendale" Building in New York (formerly the AT&T building) in the uncomfortable, cast-iron-like, ice cream-shoppe-style love seats to feel absolutely unwelcome. Not a plant or tree in sight.

Then, there is his mirrored silo at 101 California in San Francisco's financial district. The building rests on chi-leaking stilts. Its outdoor plaza opens California to Market Street, violating the historical layout of San Francisco, and leaking a buttload of chi. There are ziggurats for brown-baggers to sit on during lunch, but now a series of giant planter pots have been added so there are few spots to enjoy a juicy tuna fish sandwich.

Kevin Killian wrote an article for Nest about the interior of Johnson and his husband's getaway in Big Sur. Only Killian would reference Karen Valentine in an architectural review! I am not worthy. Nest was great not only because of the articles, but every issue featured a new way of dealing with the paper of the magazine itself. Wavy die cuts or in the example here, holes drilled through the mag itself, which upset the advertisers. Spoilsports! I believe Matthew Stadler was the editor and here is an interesting article about Nest's founder's country house. I love double possessives!

1 comment:

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

Too bad that Owen Jones and Andrew Sullivan did not live long enough to see Nest. Jones would have loved to write articles about the grammar of ornamentation.