Articulation

EoA here with a mid-week entry,

Articulation is one of those planner-y terms that gets thrown around quite a bit. Worse than that, it can get thrown around without people really understanding what they're saying. To that issue, let's let Wikipedia drop some knowledge.

What I wanted to talk about today is called "Rooftop Articulation". Whenever you see a building where the top few floors have got something interesting going on, that's rooftop articulation. There are some cities and schools of planning thought that like to make rooftop articulation mandatory in new construction, especially in business districts and downtowns. Opposing viewpoints call these types of zoning restrictions silly. They claim such requirements are a dictation of design from the city planner's office and stifle the innate creativity of architects. Other people claim that it can create a "wedding cake" effect where you'll end up with a bunch of weird stuff on the upper floors of buildings and a monoculture of rooftop articulations.

Sometimes it can be awesome:

Other times, not so much....

But! This isn't the "be bitchy about architects" blog, this is Industrianism. To that end, I wanted to talk about the rooftop articulations that I've found in and around my neighborhood. Now, these weren't regulated and required articulations, but rather go back to an earlier era when greater stock and pride was placed in the industrial spaces created within a city. Too often, new industrial space is cheaply constructed cubes made of cinder-block. Too often, new residential urban units are a mishmash of modernist architectural styles that comes out looking like crap. Planners and developers should take notice of the wealth of examples around them and try to incorporate that beauty into new developments.
This rooftop articulation, placed on the tower of the building, overlooks a large intersection. The tower on the corner, and the articulation on it that demands attention, helps to put an otherwise wide-open intersection, that would be extremely pedestrian unfriendly, into better perspective. Imagine, an old industrial site that happens to have modern sound planning principles! Maybe we should just look around a bit more...

Weekend Funzies!

EoA here.

Soooooo, I broke my camera a few days back, which will understandably stunt the posting I can do on Industrianism (it being a photo-blog and all...). But! I've got some photos left over from my first jaunt around the neighborhood and seeing its the weekend, I don't see why we can't insert some whimsy into this here blog. Maybe whimsy will be a weekend theme for Industrianism. We'll see - everything's pretty much in flux right now.

Anyhow! These are some cool things you could only find in side-alleys in my neighborhood. You've always gotta explore - and not with a car.

I'm pretty sure my spare parts are cooler than yours. This was waaaay down a side alley between a towed car lot and a manufacturing warehouse. There was also a sweet Jimi Hendrix mural on the wall. It's something you wouldn't be able to see from a car, much less from the roadway. Little gems everywhere.

I call this one "Bad Dog". Original, right? It was down another alley and was the back entrance to a small manufacturing outfit. I've seen plenty of "Guard Dog" or "Attack Dog" or "Police Dog" signs, but "Bad Dog"? That's so sad. It's like the owners are telling you "not only will this guard dog bite you, it will also steal your wallet and ruin your credit. He's just a bad dog. We'd rather have another, but he's all we've got. Anyways, you've been warned".

Have a great weekend, all!

Angles

One of the things that draws me to industrial areas is the wealth of diversity in the types and shapes of buildings. Finding new and interesting vantage points and thoughtful details in my neighborhood is a daily joy to me. I mean, what's to like in seeing this every day:

Little boxes, little boxes, and they're all made up of ticky-tack...

What really captivated me today was some of the amazing angles on buildings that I've found in industrial and work/live architecture. When I saw this-

it reminds me of this -
equally, all of the interesting angles here -

remind me of stuff like this -

whereas all the ticky-tack up above only makes me think of this -

Maiden Voyage

East of Alameda here.

We've got some heady ground to cover on this here blog, but let's start with something fun, shall we? At heart, this is all supposed to be a celebration of LA's amazing industrial areas and the creative impulses that they foster. With that being said, let's see some bears!

"Welcome to the neighborhood, EoA!"

Just to get all serious for a second, I love the fallen-apart sign clinging to the building above this bear. Something about the juxtaposition of a cartoon bear telling you to "hug life" with a somewhat broken-down building that's seen better days is pretty awesome.

We've got something in common, bear. I hope this little venture goes somewhere.