Delightful News From the Middle Coast

At 1451ft, Chicago's Willis Tower (née Sears) is the tallest building in the Western World

Our associates in Chicago informed us recently that some of the news out there in this cold, dark world these days is good and we felt we should share:

The Sears Tower, lately unceremoniously renamed the Willis tower, is about to pioneer a kind of crazy-innovative window, one that produces power without obstructing the view or letting in appreciably less sunlight.

At first the Willis tower will only replace windows on the south side of the 56th floor; eventually, the whole south face of the building could be slathered in glorious high tech energy generating windows, enough to generate 2 MW of power. The windows have the added benefit of keeping out the excess heat energy that plagues glass buildings.

As incredible as these windows sound, they're only a small part of a larger, $350 million initiative to reduce electricity consumption of the entire Willis tower by 80 percent.

(courtesy grist.org)

So please, Internet, I implore you to take a moment to block out the horrific situations in Japan, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf of Mexico, Wall Street, Detroit, Wisconsin, America, Mexico...etcetera, draw in a few good deep breaths, loosen the muscles in your neck, and soak-up a little ray of sunshine before you head back into the courtroom of public opinion and perjure yourself by saying the whole world has gone to shit because it hasn't.

Only most of it has.

_

Crazy House

Looks like somebody in Vietnam caught a case of the Gaudis (see his Casa Batllo) and designed himself a regular Crazy House (see below). Elsewhere in the world, the crazy had nothing to do with Gaudi (maybe), but the buildings are just as fascinatingly beautiful.

CrazyHouse in Dalat, Vietnam, found here

CrazyHouse (street view?) in Dalat, Vietnam, found here

CrazyHouse2 in Ramat-Gan, Tel Aviv found here

CrazyHouse3 found here

Dessert:

Here is a website featuring many more interesting/crazy buildings from around the world:

http://www.roxanneardary.com/blog/unusual-architecture-from-around-the-world/

Enjoy your exploring, trusty internet explorers! And please see your nearest Boy Scout troop leader for your merit badge upon completion of your journey to crazy town.

_

NOW! That's What I Call a Church, Vol.1

Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona
Designed lovingly by the great Gaudi
127 years in the making and still unfinished
Still waiting for me to find my bride, I suppose
Or is it me who's waiting?

_

Mood Swing, in Pictures

Depressing:

(screen capture from teens.aol.com - yes, it exists)

Exciting:

(Photo courtesy Getty Images, via the Guardian)

The lesson to be learned here, world, is that fairy-tale building decor (and wardrobe/kitten to match) is not only much more exciting, but also healthier for you than the existence of a couple of media-groomed little shits with blow-dried hair who have way more money than everyone you know (combined) for no good reason.

_

Sexy Apartment

_

Bow Your Head in Shame as Dubai Unveils Highest Swimming Pool in the World

The Burj Khalifa under construction

It is on the 76th floor of the new Burj Khalifa skyscraper, in the Arab Emirate of Dubai, which was unveiled today in an elaborate ceremony that was probably necessary considering the $1.5 billion price tag of the 2,717'-tall building in the middle of a vast desert.

By comparison, the Sears Tower in Chicago is only 1,450 feet tall. Imagine a building almost twice that size and you are beginning to get the picture. There are 160 habitable floors.

The question on many people's lips is...why? There is hardly a shortage of land in Dubai, and therefore no sensible reason to build UP instead of OUT, unless you're trying to impress someone with your brazen lack of common and financial sense, as it would be far cheaper and safer to build horizontally.

Considering the fact that the building is state-owned and the government had to beg its wealthier neighbor, Abu Dhabi, for a $25 billion bailout to finish the project and run its government, color me doubly unimpressed with the end result of the massive human effort that went into this building's construction.

My response to the news that owners of the units in the building have already seen their investments plummet by 50% before they could even move-in is a self-satisfied smile, followed by a biting monologue:

You wanted to brag to some other rich assholes that you bought an entire floor of the tallest building on Earth for $20 million? Fuck you--now one of those rich assholes can buy it from you for $10 million, fill it with $10 million in gold coins, and swim around in them like Scrooge McDuck while giving you the finger on a streaming webcam. And you deserve it.

The world's highest bar is on the 155th floor. The highest mosque in the world may or may not have already been built on the 158th floor (depending on what website you're reading). The building has the fastest elevators in the world.

Does anyone outside of Texas really give a shit about all this pointless dick-measuring?

I guess East Texas (aka Saudi Arabia) does. Supposedly, plans are already in the works to build a taller building there.

The man behind the mile-high tower in Saudi Arabia, Prince al-Walid bin Talal
Doesn't he just look like a selfish, pro-oil, evil mastermind
bent on creating the world's highest brothel, naming it the Mile-High Club,
and hanging out there after a long day of practicing evil faces in the mirror?

When and where will this obsession end? When we finally build a building that reaches all the way to the moon and swivels/stretches as the moon follows its orbit? Does China already have this beauty in the works, or will we see a few more incremental stages between now and that triumphant day? Can we not instead focus our efforts and resources on providing single-story housing for the working poor and affordable alternative-energy for the masses?

Believe it or not, there is way more money in it, fellas...

_

Coolest Fireplace Ever?

Marilyn "Missy” Chandler, wife of L.A. Times publisher Otis Chandler,
in their California home. Photo by Fairchild Archives

Not for everybody, probably, since some people have no taste, but I doubt too many of us would complain about having it in our house since, if nothing else, it would imply that our house was big enough to hold a fireplace you could drive a car into.

[My only complaint is the dead animals scattered around it--I'd rather watch them on Planet Earth, thank you very much!]

If you are not a fan, maybe this Parisian Le Corbusier-style beauty is more your speed?

Jeanne Moreau's living room
Photo by Fairchild Archives

Oh, to be rich...

_