Last post from Holland!

They definitely know how do to salads here. The to-go salads have pasta, spinach, veggies, meat (optional) and dressing, all in one fancy package that even tells you it's "excellent." Packaged food is everywhere here, but I stuck to these salads because they were so darn good.


The Oudergraacht in Utrecht (the "old canal"). It is a great canal that runs through Utrecht. Buildings have their main entrances on the street, but in the back of the houses/shops (the back is what you see here) have access points to the canal. Deliveries and trash pick up used to be made by river (canal).


On Wednesday of this past week a few of us ventured to Rotterdam for the Architecture Binnale (it's a biennial architecture conference that travels to a different city for each conference, I guess). It was great that a city in Holland hosted it this year! The exhibits were amazing and we went to a lecture on "The Geography of Fear." The above plaza was done by West 8, a Dutch l.arch firm that did the red bridges in an earlier post. The flower installation that you see was also done by West 8 (it's not there all the time). It was created to mark the lives lost when Rotterdam was bombed (totally destroyed) at the end of WWII.

So we ventured to a park done by Kathryn Gustafson, an American l.arch who has done some fantastic works throughout Europe. This one was an old industrial ruin that was turned into a loved park in Amsterdam. I did take some photos of the park but they aren't that great. I decided this tree and it's grate/fence around it may be more interesting. It is the LARGEST tree cozy I've ever seen (Julia is standing with our bikes just to the left it). For the life of me I can't figure out why it is so huge other than it must have grown up with its tree.

My last rented bike. :( It was in Amsterdam - the best bike I've had the whole trip long. It's great that they paint them red - that way locals know you are a newbie to Amsterdam rush hour bike time. Nothing like having a HUGE target on your back, eh?

Here is a model of Bijlmer (that place I referenced at the end of my last post). I just posted it as an example of what you find when you go to the planning/city offices in nearly every town we've been to. The models here are huge and really well done.

Good planners. Soccer fields.

Even their trash is cool. A Mondrian cup?!? Well, okay, there trash is NOT cool (it's everywhere and disgusting) but I didn't mind that this cup was on the ground....it spruced up the turf.

Hostel room #2. When we first moved in, the beds were attached. Needless to say, we re-arranged! And added the requisite travel mess.


The outside of the hostel. It is gorgeous and perfect for an evening meal, I suspect. We were gone to lectures or visits nearly every night so missed out on that fun. Hopefully I'll be back in the future...for leisure!


A view of the hostel courtyard from our floor. I was out on the fire escape to get this photo.

Finally, the photo of Joost, Carolilne and me! This was taken after dinner as I left Maarn to head back to Utrecht. Joost and I were in the same freshman dorm at St. Lawrence. Caroline lived in an adjacent dorm. They now live in Montreal - he teaches economics the University of Quebec Montreal, she teaches anthropology at McGill University. They travel quite often to Kenya for their research on cultures and development. We had a blast having dinner!

Bijlmer, again. This is why the reference was made to Pruitt Igo - enormous housing complexes and a really impoverished area. The concept was to put people in highrises that have social uses on the first two floors (commercial, civic), and the rest would be green space. The green space is so massive it feels just as intimidating as these looming buildings. Corbusier and CIAM left it's mark on many places around the globe, this is the first time I've actually been IN a "modernist" master plan. It is overwhelming, the energy is dark and even looking at the maps I felt lost. The intention was to promote people living together and having communal spaces...I'm not sure we, as a species, can do that in massive numbers (these blocks have over 300 housing units).

Another Bijlmer characteristic - transportation hierarchy. Pedestrians on the ground, everything else raised above (even cars and trains). Cool concept but you feel like an ant in a monster's world.
One of the best things about the Strowis hostel.....coffee in the morning...yum!

One of the exhibits at the Binnale was on Corbusier. We've studied him in school quite a bit, he has really left his mark in the world of architecture (good and bad). This exhibit showed his larger body of work - I had no idea he was also a painter, sculptor, interior designer, writer, etc. It was amazing to see.

Another image of Utrecht. The tower you see is called the Dom Tower. It's about 370 feet tall, and was built in 1321-1382. They have an ordinance where you can't build above a certain height so that this is the prominant feature in Utrecht. It's gorgeous.

So that's it! I certainly have more photos but will leave it at that for this trip. I jump on a plane tomorrow morning and arrive in Saint Paul by midday! Of course, there is a seven hour time change so I'll have some time, a good nine hours, to reflect on my journey!

Love you all and see you SOON!

More of the Netherlands!

Yep, I'm still here! The next installment of photos...be patient as you read this...it skips around tremendously because I don't have any idea how to change the order of the photos once uploaded. I'm sure it's easy, you computer gurus, but half the fun is seeing these in (somewhat) random order!
The above photo was taken from Restaurant 11 - a restaurant in Amsterdam where we had a lecture. The view was unbelievable and my photography skills certainly don't capture it, but hopefully it gives you the sneaking suspicion that we were on the 11th floor. Or maybe the name of the restaurant does??
I was struck by the shutters on some older buildings in Amsterdam....just thought they were fun!

So this development, the big box that you see, and the "island" that I was standing on is called the East Docklands. They were old ship piers that have been developed into a myriad of housing types, parks, etc. I was super impressed by the density and how comfortable I felt. I wish I could find an aerial photograph to illustrate how HUGE these docklands are and the coold development but haven't found a good one yet.
This is the inside of the "big box" on that last image. It's called the Whale. It's an amazing structure with a "viewing" couryard inside. I love that it is a place just for viewing, not sitting in it. I was mesmerized as I gazed from the 9th floor. Julia has a friend, Phillip, who moved in six years ago when it was built - he loves it there.

Another view of the Whale.

The houses above are now my new favorite. Row houses along the water. This is on another pier in the docklands area. The facades are so unique and each have some sort of outdoor space on the water - be it two stories above or just right above water level.

So this graffiti was on our way to Restaurant 11. In fact the entire hallway into building is graffitied. The building is actually totally vacant, except for on the 11th floor, where this new restaurant is. It is a bizarre experience to walk through this tunnel and think that everything is going to be okay once you venture to the 11th floor.

After time in the Eastern Docklands, and before the dinner at Restaurant 11, we went into another old part of Amsterdam to see some architecture that is from the Amsterdam School of Architecture. Michel de Klerk started this "school" using materials in a unique way. Supposedly it is inspired by nature, but it looks like a ton of bricks to me. :) Well, there were some interesting design features but I didn't capture them by photograph.

It is natural for the Amsterdam School designers to throw in a windmill as exterior window treatment. This building was built for factory workers - many of whom had left the farm. de Klerk wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and didn't forget their homeland so a number of features illustrate the "farming lifestyle."
Just your typical Amsterdam canal shot.

By this time, I just wanted my pillow and a corner..........

But I didn't get it. I had to walk over this intimidating bridge done by West8 (Dutch l.arch firm).
A different day...back to Almere to tour the city center area. This group of buildings was unbelievable. I can imagine Todd here all day, and coming home with 1,000 photographs. I did.
It is actually social housing (affordable housing) and is able to accomodate people with various disabilities.

I decided to see if I could make my way down this crazy ramp by bike without touching down. I made it and took a photograph of me doing it to boot. I was careful Todd....and I won (my goal was to defeat the ramp)!

More cool, shwoopyness....

This, on the other hand, is a colorful house but not as durable. I'm not sure it would stand up to the elements as it is yarn and wood. It was displayed in a theatre we ducked into and we all enjoyed it!

My old room in the hostel! Finally, the hostel! I have many more photos to take (sorry Krista), but this is what our old room looked like. Laura and I moved rooms because of the crazy noisy neighbors. I'll get that one up soon!

In Almere they make life-sized models...we could walk on them and everything. I decided to be a ship at sea and look at all the giant people.

This is Almere's city center - designed/planned by Rem Koolhaas. He doesn't like trees. I don't like him.

More housing - the material of the building above is a lot like the material used at CALA - a scandinavian insulated glass material that is super light and makes inside space lighter too. Literally...you lose 5 lbs as you walk in. :)

Another cool design - the architect of this building talked about the design challenge and how he worked with structural engineers in the design phase to get it done.

What a bummer to end with this photo as it's pretty darn ugly...but remember I told you about the garbage sucker? Well, this is how they work - a garbage can connected to a big pipe that runs below sidewalks. All your troublesome junk is sucked into the vortex. I think it's not the best thing, but funny that they even thought of it...can you see someone pitching it in a boardroom?!?

Well, to bed I go. Another crazy day tomorrow. Down to Bijlmermeer - one architect scrunched his nose when he heard we were going there....he said, "Well, you guys have your Pruitt Igo, we have our Bijlmermeer. It was built when everyone was a communist." So, with that, I wait in giddy anticipation!

Love to you all.

Den Haag

So The Hague, Den Haag, the place where the gnomes gather, er wait, I suppose they call them international judges and officials. Secretly, though, they don't do much during the day - just sit around in store windows posing as gnomes. It's much more fun than international law.
Some of the urban fabric of Den Haag. We didn't get to walk around much as we had work to do. Our work was to address land, transportation and water issues in the historic Mill District of Minneapolis using some Dutch principles. It was a challenging day for all of us, but fun too. Mom, you'll be excited to know the two peaks in the background are a Michael Graves building. I will be in Den Haag two more times and will try to get better photos of it when I'm there!
This was just a cool drawing I saw posted inside of a building we walked through. I like its gestural qualities - which you probably can't see in this small thumbnail. Trust me, it's cool. :)
Along the street - canals are much bigger here than in Utrecht and built differently. I'll take a picture of an old canal in Utrecht soon and you'll see what I mean.
This was a completely white building, done by Meier, an architect. I can't recall his first name right now but he always works in white. It seemed a bit sterile to me, but what do I know, I'm just a girl who likes flowers.
Now this one is done in earthtones.....I like it. :) I just liked the rich wood, the window panes and it served as sort of a marking point for a road we walked down.
The Den Haag train station....I was playing with the camera a bit and liked this one. Too bad my photos always look crooked. It was a busy place early Saturday morning.

So today we officially had the day "off"...which means we all worked on our papers. Our instructor, Julia, also agreed to meet with some of us and work on watercolor. It was a perfect day for it, overcast with the sun peeking through, and not too hot. I learned a ton and will hopefully find sometime to do some more!

Tomorrow I may actually have dinner with a few friends from St. Lawrence! Joost de Laat and Caroline - Joost is from Holland, Caroline from Montreal. They live in Montreal now and just haappen to be here in Holland for two weeks. Imagine that!

Love to you all!

Leidsche Rijn

Today we toured a vinex (pronounced like phoenix, er, feenix) - it's a new development that has been planned at the national level in effort to save some of the green space and make sure development happens near the three big cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam). Leidsche Rijn is the biggest development of any vinex planned at 30,000 housing units. It is just on the west side of Utrecht. We biked over, met with a tour guide and biked around...everywhere it seemed. It was hot today, suprisingly, totally sunny too! I anticipated rain or mist every day so this has been a pleasant surprise! Alright, more photos....again in absolutely no coherent order...
The one above is of a stair case made for bringing your bikes up the stairs, how cool is that?
So this one is a bit washed out but thought it was interesting - the old houses (or what looks old) on the left, and the new, modern stuff on the right. Set perfectly along the agricultural border.
Here's my bike, some housing and flowers....I'm in heaven. :)
Some cool models of the plans....the one below even lights up.

This was the beginning of the tour - our tour guide is on the right.
So this area is planned for development - I think it is so cool that even before the development happens, the bike trail goes in. Even before the soil (in this case, sand) is hauled, the bike trail goes in. Cool.
Todd suggested I find a way to have a photo taken of myself.....here I am (you can't really see it but I had pants rolled up and my socks (blue and black stripped long socks) rolled down. Fashion guru, I am.

So that's it for today. Tomorrow we have a charette to design some place in Minneapolis. We'll work with the professionals we've met, put our Dutch hats (and clogs) on and work on the project in Den Haag (The Hague).