Tag Archives: black

Beyond Domes: 36 Photos of Burning Man Building Types

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

It would be a mistake to characterize Burning Man as merely a festival in the desert. For one week a year, an entire built environment (dubbed Black Rock City) for tens of thousands of residents emerges out of the flat cracked-sand landscape, only to disappear again at the end.

Photographer and author Philippe Glade has catalogued this temporary architecture in rural Nevada extensively on his blog and in a book covering fifteen years of structural ingenuity in one of the most challenging environments on the planet.

By now you have no doubt seen images of outrageous costumes and crazy art cars, but again: there is more to Black Rock City than those sensational elements – there are equally eye-catching and physically-compelling structures made to house and entertain small groups and massive camps.

Consider this deceptively-simple tension structure, for instance, which provides shade but also allows for breezes to pass through, and culminates in a viewing tower at the top – all lightweight, easy to transport and assemble, but robust enough to withstand high-speed desert winds.

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Burning Man 2007: Can the World’s Largest Temporary City Go Green?

Burning Man is an amazing annual event that takes places for one week a year in the remote Black Rock Desert. 18 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Burning Man 2007 Year in Images: Tragedy, Controversy and Sustainability

The dust has finally settled in the Black Rock Desert, both literally and otherwise. 10 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Ghost Architecture: Building Demolition Photo Composites

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Philadelphia native Andrew Evans takes pictures that give a new perspective on the processes of urban deconstruction, showing before, during and after images of once-proud civic structures.

What really brings this haunting black-and-whites to life is that three-step aspect – not just the building being there and gone, with its surrounding context standing watch, but the short interstitial stays of demolition equipment, semi-demolished rooms and falling rubble along the way.

Prominent captures include: The National Building, destroyed to expand the Odd Fellows Temple, Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Pennsylvania Railroad power plant and the Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center.

“Andrew Evans is an architect by training who is fascinated by construction and destruction alike. He is a lifelong Philadelphian and resides in southwest center city.” You can see more of his photos on Flickr. Side-note trivia: the destruction of Penn Station in New York City is part of what sparked the historic preservation movement in the United States – still, for better or for worse, many unique structures are still regularly demolished to this day.

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The Tallest Masonry Building in the World: Philadelphia’s Beautiful Load-Bearing City Hall

Did you know that brick or stone-clad buildings you see today almost invariably hide a steel support structure that does the actual work? 18 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

16 Sweet (and Scary) Building Demolition Videos: From Amazing Explosions to Botched Implosions

Some of these demolitions are simply damned impressive while other implosions are downright frightening. 60 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Fonts to Faces: 9 Personality-Rich Typographies as Portraits

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As humans, we are programmed to anthropomorphize our surroundings. So what would happen if the letters on pages conveyed meanings others than the words they represented … say, actual (versus just typographic) faces?

In this Type Faces Project, Tiago Pinto takes familiar fonts, breaks them down into serif, sans-serif and miscellaneous, then assembles them to form caricatures based on inferred character traits.

Futura becomes a kind of excited science geek – forward-thinking optimist, perhaps. Times New Roman is, predictably, that stodgy old bottom-liner. And Baskerville is, well, quite the hound dog.

It should come as no surprise that WingDings (upper left above) is one weird-looking dude, or that Comic Sans (upper right above) is a hopelessly confused-looking loser.

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The Many Faces of George W. Bush: Disturbing Portraits of the Commander in Grief

The president was thought of various ways by different citizens and artists, but many of them did not look favorably on his actions as our leader in their portraits. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Twisted Typography: Barbed-Wire to Cigarette-Pack Fonts

Beyond the most basic fonts in your favorite word processor, there is an entire artistic movement pushing forward the quality and variety of typographic styles. Click Here to Read More »»

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Just In Case: Refined Survival Kit Includes Chocolate, Liquor

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Missing from most survival kits are the less-obvious but still-essential elements for preserving not just life and limb but sanity along with them. Hence the more diversified offerings of this lovely bug-out box, just in time for the much-misunderstood (and not actually) Mayan-predicted apocalypse.

Siesta dovetails with survival in this kit created by the Mexican branding firm Menosunocerouno. Seven pie-shaped slices of a circular chocolate give you a week’s worth of treats – rewards, perhaps, for staying alive. Then wash your dessert down with some original Mayan liqueur from Casa D’aristi in Yucatan.

But aside from the fun stuff, there are some core materials as well: a liter of water to stay hydrated, a pack of matches, survival knife and waterproof notebook to document the good and the bad as you make your way through the world’s end. All of this is packaged in a suitably-austere black-and-yellow box with instructional tips should anything less obvious come your way during the end of days.

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Blown To Smithereens: The Story Of Survival Town

Survival Town was a group of buildings and structures designed to measure the effects of an atomic weapon. On May 5, 1955, Survival Town became Loserville. 7 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Bento, Chocolate, & Beyond: 10 Intriguing Examples of Food Art

For most, lunch has become a disappointing time spent in front of a microwave; however, a lot of people are compensating with beautiful food aesthetics. 5 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Cop This Look: Rihanna – 2012 Grammy’s

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Last night’s GRAMMY performance by our gal RiRi was a good show. Goldie Hawn meets Tina Turner meets vintage Madonna meets Rihanna. You loved it, so we recreated it.

Rerock viciously:

The Bonnie Top by Motel

The Pretender Shorts by Mink Pink

The Peek-a-Bow Solid 70 Denier Tight by Betsey Johnson

The Double Chain Spike Necklace  by Luv AJ

The Super Top Sneaker in All Black by iiJin

…now go find love in a hopeless place!

Cop This Look: Zoë Kravitz

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cop this look zoe kravitz leather dress

Zoë Kravitz, daughter of bohemian beauty Lisa Bonet and rock star Lenny Kravitz, is naturally quite the trendsetter. Her innately cool sense of style is definitely an inspiration for me. Recently she was spotted at an event looking super chic in an Alexander Wang mini leather shift dress and sleek pointy pumps. This outfit is so effortless but edgy and glamorous at the same time which makes it totally memorable. No wonder why she has hot boyfriend Penn Badgely by her side and tons of acting and modeling projects coming up! As soon as this leather-look dress by Evil Twin hit the site it reminded me of her flawless ensemble.  Learn how to get her look:

  1. The Brown Sugar PU Leather Dress by Evil Twin
  2. The Eye Doll Shoe in Black by *Sole Boutique
  3. The Uma Clutch in Black Leather by Mata Hari

karmaloop evil twin dress platform heel mata hari envelope clutch

Evil Twin SS’12: Black Magic Woman

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Bustiers, leather fringe, ripped denim, and maxi skirts, all done in sun-baked, earthy hues like ochre and rust, make up the majority of Evil Twin‘s new S/S ’12 lookbook.  The overall feel can only truly be captured by a weekend at Coachella (or a slightly more gothic Woodstock), but we think the Aussie brand is as close as you can get to a sun-beaten desert without booking a plane ticket to California.

With names like the “Joplin” and “Brown Sugar,” Evil Twin isn’t trying to hide where their inspiration comes from. Think rocker meets hippie meets cowgirl, and anything that would help you get in touch with your wild side. If you need further explanation, we can put it in clearer music terms for you – they’ve dubbed the lookbook “Black Magic Woman,” after the 1968 bluesy rock single from none other than Fleetwood Mac.

– Ashley Suarez Wood, Spring Intern.

Build This Look: Mixing Work with Play

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Most office environments can be a bit blah when it comes to showcasing personal style. But not ours! Yes, our office is probably better than yours ;) We have young ladies running around that bring something fresh to the office everyday and I LOVE it. Our business casual is probably on a different scale then most. So I thought I should show you how we do it.

One thing I am a big fan of is mixing patterns. I think it brings out what is really going on in my head. I will definitely be that old crazy lady where nothing on matches…and look forward to it! But until then here is the clever way of pairing prints without catching too many crazy looks.

Her breakdown:

Stylist: Jasmine Imani

Model: Lealyn

Photographer: Mari Nishimura