Borneo Sporenburg

Lamenting the half-blocks of SF, with their quaint, tiny drives and each homes' perfectly- executed coved ceilings, we had to counter the high with a little low: great architecture of the early 1900's wasn't matched by any execution of smart outdoor space. (And no, we didn't expect it to be... ) Still, we ended up on Borneo Sporenburg again.

Your brief history (circa mid-1990s): "Borneo Sporenburg was a dock area on the outskirts of Amsterdam serving trade with Holland’s colonies in the East. As part of the phased regeneration of these now disused areas, a residential brief of 2500 dwellings was set for this zone, dictating a high density of housing, despite the predominant market demand for a suburban self-contained house. The development demonstrates that family housing is not incompatible with dense urban areas. It reverses the predominant social trend towards a dense urban core inhabited by childless couples, singles and the extremes of high and low income, and a suburban fringe occupied by middle-class families."

And so the design standards went on... arriving at a mandated 30-50% void (patio,outdoor, or public) space requirment per residence and the kind of facades we wouldn't mind seeing form a strip along any wanting Excelsior or SOMA street. While we're not the biggest fans of the Sphinx Garden (the public space aspect of the mandate above), we think we'll be easier to please with pics of the interior patios.

West 8 did the designing, though their website has too many other huge projects to celebrate to go into detail on Borneo S. Good luck googling for interior shots, but Harvard's Graduate School of Design has published Residential Waterfront, Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam, edited by Rodolfo Machado.

Holl in the KC

How'd the great Steven Holl-designed-Kansas-City-art-museum reveal/soiree go? Surely someone was allowed to be there.

P.s. Steven Bowers has some great photos online from 2006, if you haven't been lucky enough to visit yet.

They're Cool. That's Why They're *Expensive*

We admit it. We love this project. From the oh-so-forward thinkers of Hell-A who love their dogs enough to make a (BIG-ish) dog park in many of the city's new developments to the awesome pairing of white Arrital Cucine cabinetry with concrete floors and the built-in wine glass storage units. All of it does it for us.

If you haven't been to the "neighborhood", it kind-of borders something sometimes nicknamed "Skid Row." But now the "young professionals" are moving in, L.A. Live has hit the (friends and family) market, and you should really have a look at it all.