Beauty Alert 7

Is it Disneyland, or is it Guanajuato? In any case, it's proof that old Walt got his inspiration from real places. The question is this, did those street lights exist pre-Disney? Me thinks not. They look pretty new. Perhaps the lovely street lights are simply new replicas of pre-existing lovely street lights. The picuresque curve of the street definitely existed before Walt made his utopia in California (as proved by old maps of the city), and the architecture of the space did as well, if not the lovely colors of the buildings which were a recent addition of the love-hate tourist industry.

tryptich of water in gto (guanajuato)

em and i made some discoveries about the river here. over the weekend we went on a wild goose chase that led us to a hotel called "Real de Minas" where a bellboy took us on a walk through the neighborhood and into an underground cavern where it is possible to see the rio gto. the river in guanajuato has been buried since the city was built and by now it's basically a sewer outlet for waste. i took a hike up into the mountains on sunday and go to the see the sunrise with a 360 view of the surrounding mountain range. there it was obvious that the water that comes into the guanajuato river is clean, it just gets polluted on it's way down either by the mines or by people using it for waste disposal.

Ancient Geometries

The geometric architecture of the city against the organic form of the surrounding hillsides is reminiscent of the ancient structures of indigenous populations and brings to mind the geometry of ruins and pyramids set against a similar fluidity of landscape as a backdrop. The rectangular buildings of the city all march in upon one another descending to earth as the stairs of the pyramids ascend up to the sky of the old gods.

need your help!

So it turns out that Guanajuato used to have a river running right through the middle of downtown but when it was settled it was put into culverts in various places. When the area had a larger rainy season than usual, the city would often flood, the water taking homes, buildings and streets with it. The flood of 1905 was so great, much of the city had to be rebuilt and, like Seattle after the fire, Guanajuatoans(sp?) rebuilt on top of the old city raising it's level and building tunnels for car traffic that manage much of the city's motor vehicles. Signs are posted all over the historic district(see below) showing the level the flood reached. Emily and I have both become fascinated with the idea of the subterranean river and have decided to do our studio on finding ways of conceptually daylighting the river since it is infeasible to actually daylight it, due to the depth of the riverbed. My history credit will also have to do with the river; I'll be making a brochure/walking tour of the river's course with points of interest, stories etc... and a short stop-motion(i hope) movie about the flood itself.

This entry is to ask your help a bit. Do any of you have any precedents, projects, articles that might aid us in our site analysis or give us some conceptual jumping off points? We'd love to hear from you. Hope you aren't drowning in work already. Also--MLA crew, any ideas from looking at the flooding in New Orleans?

street fair in guanajuato

first impressions of guanajuato

em and i got in yesterday and guanajuato is just the right mix of spanish colonial and baja taco vendor. i think we are going to like it here, not to mention the abundance of shoe stores and you can imagine my joy when i found out that guanajuato is know for it's candy making.(squeal of delight) manuel, one of the profs here has graciously opened his home to us which is situated on a hillside looking into downtown. the collage you see is of pictures taken at 8am and it's hard to make out, but the homes in guanajuato are painted like a crazy patchwork quilt. green, red, fuschia, yellow, you name it. more on the colors later.

more video and sounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6n947s5gxc

this one's a mix of our bus trip from zihuatanejo to san miguel de allende, a guy changing the linens at one of the churches in san miguel, and jesus, a local guy playing guitar and singing. you've gotta go to the link for this one. for some reason it is not letting me insert it here.

Sweet concrete treatment

Plaza Lifestyle: Community Building through Urban Design

The Plaza is the genius of Latin Urban Planning. I think it is entirely possible that the people in countries that employ this design type are more friendly because of the plaza. It is the place where all roads meet in the center of town, located next to the community's most important building, the cathedral. It is in total contrast to our American grid system that directs us past one another, as quickly as possible, with little opportunity for social interaction. Plazas are wayfinding devices and landmarks, business opportunities for vendors, but most importantly, create a friendly social structure within the town. The plaza is where people meet friends and family and form new acquaintances. It is a stopping place along the way and where everyone in town hangs out. Lonely? Go to the plaza!

The grand cathedral

The Village Livingroom

Plaza de Allende in the shadow of the cathedral.

Downspouts rule

And why shouldn't a downspout be a beautiful detail?

triptych

wringing out my suit i wasn't sure if it was water pooling below or tears of joy as i packed my bags to leave the sweltering coast. though i daydreamed of lounging my days away on the beach, all i really wanted to do was hole up in the shade and study spanish flash cards in hopes that evening would bring some cooler temperatures. not so in zihuatanejo, but now that i am in san miguel de allende, where the sun going down marks a change from about 75F to about 40F, i am slowly going back to believing that i love the heat. today's spanish word of the day is alivio. relief.

the pictures above document the bus ride here from the beach. the sun set that night in a fury, bright orange and distorted by smog leaving all black broken only by the occasional customs caseta and tiny bright fires glowing from people's homes.

Anti-theft Device

Spanish Colonial Gutter

Paving Detail Yo!

emmers freaks out on Spanish Colonial Architecture

swummer

hay tan much familias en la playa aqui
es casi mas divertido de mirar la gente que nadar

there are so many families at the beach here
it is more fun to watch than to swim
this kid spent at least an hour playing log in the surf
tyler provided the music

el ambiance

beachy

Susers and Emmers discover a common background with parents who practice amateur architecture.

vicinity / la vecindad

string cheese / queso tipo

early concepts / conceptos tempranos

alojamiento

em y yo vivamos aqui ahora
lo siento para mi espanol malo
zihuatanejo es muy bonita y la gente son simpaticos aqui

this is where em and i are staying
sorry about the miserable spanish
z. is very beautiful and the people are very nice here

front door / la puerta principal

floor plan / el plano

beds / las camas

secondo

hi tyler.