cool buildings

Stoned! Casa Miquel

| mjneal

sketch 7

stone, transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): stoned; ston·ing
13th century
1: to hurl stones at; especially : to kill by pelting with stones

stoned (slang) adjective
1952
1. Stupefied, excited, or muddled with alcoholic liquor
2. Stupefied, intoxicated, or otherwise influenced by the taking of drugs
3. (one I particulaly like) under the influence of drugs, under the influence of alcohol, drugged, ripped out, high, spaced out, tripping, turned on

These definitions sum up the week and what I’m going to do about it…

The post was going to start out, “So you want stone? Well here it is, all of you fake Tuscan-lovin’ sons of bitches…” But then, because of the week it’s been, the post has shifted to the fore mentioned theme.

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Anyway, the house is for a small site in Barcelona that has a four story building close to one side of it and a two story retaining wall about a fourth of the way into the lot. Fortunately, a garden could be placed around the side and front on the lower floor of the house, to achieve privacy and give a sense of the exotic and intimate.

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The house is simply organized around a pool/living area that opens onto a front garden. All interior spaces open onto the pool and are defined by rustic (rustico! Pepe) structural stone walls. The pool area has a wall of translucent and colored glass block. A traditional material that has been manufactured in Spain for, who could say, 80 years.

This wall allows a wonderful diffused light into all the interior spaces and controls the view of the multi story building. At the bottom of the glass block wall there is a low continuous ribbon of clear operable windows that look onto the small side garden allowing the eye to expand beyond the boundary of the wall. The problematic back yard, two stories in the air, was tied into the roof to make an extended garden and terrace. A green house on this upper level of land continues over the two story living/pool area to become a skylight.

Most of the sketches shown were done on the flight back from Barcelona.

It’s happy hour so see ya, what ever happened to those days of three for ones in Lubbock (that story will have to wait…).

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Picking up the National, Loving Boston

| mjneal

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As y’all know and have heard to death, at least from our end, we were awarded a National Institute Honor Design Award this year for the Anthony Nak Jewelry Flagship Store by the American Institute of Architects

Ok, so we went to Boston and picked up the thing.

We were the only Texans at the design awards, but MJ made sure he was wearing his boots. 

This project has won almost every award I can think of so, although the National was a surprise, it didn’t surprise me as much as you’d think… Nevertheless, out of curiosity, I went and researched a bit to see how rare this really was for Austin and wow, as far as I could find here, or here there have only been three other projects in Austin, TX ever awarded a national AIA award… it’s really kinda freaky, actually, they are:

– Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity House by Lundgren and Maurer in 1954.  (We think it was demolished, can anyone confirm?)
– The Oaks by R. Gommel Roessner in 1965. (Sadly demolished when the University acquired a vast tract of land east of Memorial Stadium. This guy’s work would be interesting to see, anyone wants to go with me to these archives and see what’s there?)

– Lake Austin Residence by Lake | Flato Architects, Inc., San Antonio, 2005 (hopefully this one is still standing)

– Anthony Nak Flagship Store, by yours truly, M. J. Neal Architects, 2008 

That is not a lot of projects for a whole CITY, F-O-U-R??? It just doesn’t sound right to me… C’mon guys the work in Austin is GOOD, I’m I missing something? Texas architects in general fared a tad better, but besides Lake Flato, not so well, actually…

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MJ still can’t believe it, but it’s real, I got in on camera! Slide show to follow, surprise, surprise!

Boston is now officially one of my favorite US cities, and they do have the best fish!!! We had lobster at the no name restaurant one rainy night after enjoying an afternoon at the ICA. 

The most wonderful thing about Boston was seeing Reese Schroeder, one of mj’s oldest and best friends. In the slide show you’ll see us at the opening of the Apple store where strangely and appropriately, we ended up celebrating the win after a dinner at Aquitaine that knocked our socks off. We enjoyed the Metropolis as well, and manager Tim is just too cute!

On the slide show, you’ll find also some pics of the only Corbu building in the USA at Harvard and the Office da’s McAllen building (worth the walk.) plus some bonus material!

We stayed at the Clarendon Square and I HIGHLY recommend the place, quiet, flawless, beautiful, comfortable, it’s all that and more!

On with the show!

(most pics by Viviane Vives (Who doesn’t mind shooting for hire email vvvATbarcelonafilmsDOTcom) some by MJ Neal, AIA and some by Reese Schroeder, AIA. All rights reserved) 

Vodpod videos no longer available. from picasaweb.google.com posted with vodpod

Moon Units for Sale

| mjneal

The Moon Units have gone officially up for sale. One of the Amstrong units is already gone and another unit is already reserved.

The coolest thing about the units is how they have floor to ceiling windows on BOTH sides. The back side opens into a walkway that is designed to be also used as outdoor space. The front has a variation of red perforated metal panels and some blue tinted windows. The top units also have skylights.

These units are TRUE LOFTS. You get the awesome raw space, with glorious white concrete block and diamond polished concrete floors on the ground units, one or two great bathrooms (depeding if you buy a large or smaller unit) and a high quality kitchen.

If you go by the sales office, they will show you the materials board we were posting about a few entries back, plus, this early, you’ll be able to chose pretty much any material you want for your interior. The idea is that you get to create your own space, inside. Or, if you prefer, you can come to our office to get your very own personalized interior! If you are not into designing things yourself, we’ll pick even your napkins for you, if you let us…

The units, especially the larger two story ones, can work especially well for people that work at home. You can work on one level and live on the other. It’s especially nice for artists or people that like big open spaces…

Go to the Moon Units website for prices and all that good stuff.