Organic, Yet Machine Honed

We went to the New High today to get lost for a while, while Jackson had our open house. We went with Dr. Li and her family, Fred and Lisa. Lisa is a freshman at Walton now, and plays basketball, and is into HIP HOP MUSIC...I couldn't believe how much she has grown up since I last saw her like 2 years ago. Anyway, back to the story: I've always been a fan of Renzo Piano, and the addition at the High is really spectacular. In a way, I think choosing him for the addition is a bit of an irony...in so many ways his addition is a non-building that simply defers to the original and the life within the whole, as opposed to the 1982 building (the original) that I think is a monument to Richard Meier's ego. Not in any overt way, of course...but the simple matter of the High being one in a chain of nearly identical buildings Meier has produced in his career attests to the fact that HE thinks he's really on to something big. Piano, on the other hand, has been successful realizing that lots of different CONTEXTS--that he (little he) has given expression to--are the something big. Every project has been different, and all have drawn their inspiration from his own unique relationship to each project and understanding of each culture in which it unfolds. Besides the spectacular beauty, simplicity and plastic ease of the eggcrate-like 1000 "light scoops" that illuminate the top floors, the nicest part i think is the expressed joy of the machine aesthetic. It is all honed, polished, and erector-setted in such a pleasing and efficient way. And the stairs are totally unpretentious minimal expressions of beauty...in simple cheap materials, like concrete and painted, exquisitely-detailed shiprail. And the current exhibition on Piano's Office is really cool...full of beautiful models, drawings, slides and ephemera all arranged in a way that suggest the viewer is in his studio, free to rummage through all his toys, books, slides, drawings, etc. Ok, enough gushing about the High. Y'all go see it! Oh, and by the way, one thing I do like BETTER about Meier's original is the sqeaky floors. The new buildings have wood floors also, but in this age of engineered wood, they are completely silent. A minus, I feel.