dancing with architecture: Sunspot, New Mexico

One of the side trips we took out of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, was to Sunspot, a small scientific community perched at the literal edge of the Sacramento Mountains overlooking the Tularosa Basin. The focus of Sunspot is, well, sunspots! It's a solar observatory station and is one of the places that provides early warnings of solar storms in addition to basic solar research. It's a rather gorgeous facility in a rather gorgeous setting with almost everything painted in International Style white. The facility above is as much below ground as above with its shape driven by function (nonetheless, I think Corbusier would love it). We showed up at just the right time for me to catch this shot of the sun peeking over the top.

Visitor center.

Another observatory.

Yep: That's a sunspot in Sunspot!

The inside of the tall tower.

There's another observatory on the next hilltop; however, this one focuses on the night sky. 

One of the older buildings.

Original barracks.

One of the original observatories (in a grain silo!) that now houses a night telescope (for the amusement of the scientists).

Driving out to the site from Cloudcroft are roadsigns for the planets to give you a sense of scale for the distances between them.

Kerning: It's important.

dancing with architecture: Norman and Oklahoma City

I found myself in Oklahoma for 24 hours this past week and was able to steal a few minutes to poke my head in on a couple of houses designed by Bruce Goff. The conditions weren't ideal: I didn't have my real camera with me and the sky was dusking, but I did what I could do.

I kinda like Goff. Born in Kansas with much of his work focused in Oklahoma, my best description of his designs would be Plains Googie. Frank Lloyd Wright pursued a unique American architecture inspired, at different times, by Midwestern prairies, the Mayans, and southwestern mountains. Goff, heavily inspired by Wright, chose American Indians as his touchsource. His soaring often cable-supported designs brought the Googie to the table, his personal style of neo-expressionism. Another calling card of his was the use of large chunks of glass.

I was happy to see that the Ledbetter House in Norman, close to the university, is, in fact, owned by the university. This pleased me for two reasons: (1) university ownership suggests that the house will remain preserved (they presently rent it) and (2) university ownership suggests penance for firing Goff in 1955, head of the architecture department at the time, for being gay.

The Ledbetter House, built in 1947, is quite nice with two large cable-suspended disks floating outside, one for the carport and another for a side patio. The house is very organic, resting easily among the bushes and trees.

I was also able to stop in at the Pollock House (1957) in northwestern Oklahoma City. When I pulled down the street, I thought to myself "Surely the address is wrong..." because the neighborhood is late-80s to early-90s suburbia, but there it was, all the more glorious given its surroundings, teepee-ish in its dusking glory. My photos are awful: incentive to come back again (and also see the Goff-designed church nearby).  The black-and white photos below are from the National Register of Historic Places documents.

Narrow Larry's map of selected architecture by Bruce Goff

Photos of the Pollock House:

dancing with architecture: Alpine, Texas 2015

Cold and rainy with a parting shot of ice.