rss feedQuick images from Port Townsend, Wash.
It is easy to get busy in life and let things that you want to do slip by.
So, in that spirit, I’m posting some quick photographs I took while my family and I visited Port Townsend, Wash. earlier this month.
Archive for the ‘architecture’ Category
Want office space in a Seattle building that housed immigrants, a gangster and gold?
posted by brad wong on 2010.06.23, under architecture, asian american history, history, international district
Have you seen that line in New York City? It’s art. It engages. It also divides.
Anything that can make people stop and think about themselves, their surroundings and others nearby really can serve the public good.
Art, photography, architecture and even the news media can fill these societal niches – which hopefully will help us think in new, more broad ways.
So, I’m sure the sidewalk art video produced by Brian Stillman and posted on NYPost.com last week has produced page views as well as questions and thoughts.
Chinese official: Size of other squares eclipses Tiananmen, the heart of China
posted by brad wong on 2010.05.20, under architecture, china, context, design, history, world's largest square
Fireworks and crowds in Beijing's Tiananmen Square mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in October 2009. There are some reports that the square is no longer China's largest. Photo source: Xinhua
Oh, boy.
On the day that my thoughts turned to Tiananmen Square, in the sense of the vast public space near the Forbidden City and which is so central to China, comes word (in English, too) of an eyebrow-raising news story. It certainly prompts questions as to whether some Chinese people are lost in the new awakening occurring there. Or possibly, is a new push for privacy and freedom emerging?
It involves a former college professor, who in Mandarin would be addressed as “jiao shou.” But as my wife reminded me, some in China have taken to chat rooms to describe this instructor as “jiao shou.”
The pronunciation is the same. The Chinese characters are different. When these other Chinese characters are used, people are calling the person a “shouting animal” – essentially, a wild animal.
I’ll stick to Tiananmen Square and one of the more intriguing possibilities that I thought would never happen – that other public squares are larger in square meters than the symbolic center, or heart, of the People’s Republic of China.
Citylife and the living is easy (Seattle)
As I ran errands on Saturday, my wife and son strolled along the Seattle waterfront and basked in the sun’s warm rays.
Later, we met off Post Alley at 84 Union St. to head home.
Before I hopped back in the car, I looked up and saw the scene which is photographed above.
On Google, aerial views of Zhongnanhai, compound for Chinese leadership
For years, this was the typical view that ordinary people saw of Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing used by senior Chinese leaders. Google maps, especially the Earth view option, has changed that. Photo source: beijing2007.wordpress.com
So, do you remember the recent Google in China row?
The one earlier this year in which the Silicon Valley-based search and technology giant made global news with reports of hacked email accounts and possibly stolen code? The company – which questioned operating a filtered site in the rapidly-growing country – later decamped its mainland China search engine operations to Hong Kong.
Well, in an interesting twist, it looks like the California technology wizards have scored a point (or two) for transparency regarding Zhongnanhai, the compound near the Forbidden City that many in the senior Chinese leadership call home.
At Expo 2010, China (again) on world stage
posted by brad wong on 2010.04.30, under architecture, china, expo 2010 shanghai, history, technology, wow
The world’s party is happening in Shanghai – at Expo 2010.
And China’s “The Crown of the East” is turning heads at Expo 2010, which runs through the end of October.
Officials estimate 70 million people will attend. In many ways, the entire Expo 2010 symbolizes much of China – big, beautiful, complex, meaningful, modern, traditional and head-scratching.
Did Washington territory ever have royalty? Unlikely. But Port Townsend has a castle.
posted by brad wong on 2010.04.09, under alexander's castle, architecture, context, design, history, wow
Some like boxy buildings, others like curves
The Fennell Residence, in Portland, Ore., incorporates contours from a river. Image source: Robert Harvey Oshatz Architect, oshatz.com
