ando vs kahn

i had to wake up at 5:50am yesterday morning in order to catch my flight to ft. worth. my modern japanese architecture teacher decided to take us on a field trip to ft. worth to see the new contemporary art museum in ft. worth. she paid for our plane tickets out of her own pocket.

when i got to the airport, i saw some of my classmates and teacher waiting by the ticket line. while we were waiting for the last of our classmates to arrive, an airport security guy came by to inspect a bag that was left on a trashcan. he was shouting out to the crowd if anyone had left their bag. he ended up having to get a police guy to come out and inspect it. i lost track of what happened to it but when i turned around, it was gone.

we were running a bit late at first thinking we'd have to wait in line to get our tickets. luckily, a lady at the counter was able to check 7 of us at once. when we went through the security check, i was deemed as a chosen one and they gave me a yellow tag to carry. that sucked. why me? anyhow, it wasn't that bad. they just dig through all your shit and then do a full body scan with their wand. then they run your shoes through the xray machine. it's what happens to you if you set the alarm off now anyhow. they just do random checks on top of that.

there was a slight delay when we were on the plane. apparently the cargo door handle broke and they couldn't seal the cargo area. they said they'd find a way to fix it. hehehe..duct tape! that was my suggestion anyhow.

the museum did not exceed my expectations at all. i was far more interested in the art. i thought the concrete was beautiful and so was the bathroom entries. the water courtyard was wonderful as well. i don't know what ando was taking cues from. i think it had a lot to do with orientation and sightlines. the galleries opened up into these really great views of the downtown area...not that the downtown area is all that great to look at. over all, i was kind of dissapointed with the building. i thought the scale was a little akward but was glad to see a bit of mystery in the interior. it was easy to get lost. i love that about museums. i'm sure curators hate that though. i know i missed several exhibits.

we went across to the kimbell art museum aftewards. overall, it was a much better building and space. the lighting, scale, approach, and experience was much better. the art sucked. the building is a series of these quasi vault like roof structures that slice through the center to expose natural lighting. along that slice is a clever little shading device that diffuses the light. it's just a clever design. however, the building was so predictable in my opinion. my teacher had to disagree with me. i just think the circulation of the building was sort of over simplified. it may even have to do with the scale of each of the "vault like" segments. oh well.

i was never much a museum goer anyhow. i'm much more into civic types of structures. i'd love to see museums turn more into events than places.

we got back to austina round 6pm. jeremy picked me up from the airport but had to go back to work right away. he and his project group have something due tomorrow...or today actually. john had his friend chris over and he cooked fried fish, eggs, and stir fried vegetables. i remember eating, watching some of prelude to a kiss, and then hitting the sack around 10:30pm. i was so tired.

i have a meeting with my boss today around 11:15am. i need to get ready now.