I've sent a lot of Fedex packages lately, which means I've been walking around here a lot. I know it's just a typical, ordinary Southern California strip shopping center, but I just can't resist focusing on the elegant columns and arches. Who was it that said the art is in the details? Sunday, October 5, 2008
Pedestrian Wonders
I've sent a lot of Fedex packages lately, which means I've been walking around here a lot. I know it's just a typical, ordinary Southern California strip shopping center, but I just can't resist focusing on the elegant columns and arches. Who was it that said the art is in the details? 
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24 comments:
Hello Laurie !
yes, the columns are great...
Good shot, always...
See You later.
If only all strip malls were built with such care. I love the vines.
I love architecture and walking around old buildings. I too have been sending lots of packages via fedex. Although, I don't get to leave the office to do it.
I love columns. The colors of these are so pretty with the vines growing up. Looks like a shady spot for a rest.
I wish our strip malls here looked as good. Ours are some of the worst I've ever seen, ugh!
Strip malls, bleh! but this one is looking good. Thanks for using that artistic eye to pull out the pretty for us to focus on.
...not sure who said that, but someone else said; finders keepers, so own it! nice shot! sj
This is typical and ordinary? I can't wait to see what you think is fabulous. I love the vines growing on the columns.
These are very nice columns and the vines make them all the more interesting. I would not have guessed it was from a strip mall.
I think it was Frank Loyde Wright who said vines were the answer to bad architecture. Is this where the
K-in_ko..s is? I bet if you knock hard enough on those pillars you'll discover they're made of dense foam. A beautiful photo of 80's architecture.
I think you get to claim that quotation Laurie. The only one I've heard of is the devil is in the details -- which I've also found to be true. (FLW is wright -- er, right. I have vines growing all over my house.)
I think you get to claim that quotation Laurie. The only one I've heard of is the devil is in the details -- which I've also found to be true. (FLW is wright -- er, right. I have vines growing all over my house.)
I had a Glimpses of South Pasadena morning. Went to the Starbucks at that strip mall with the viney columns. Then I went to find the benches that overlook the skateboard park and the statue without a head in front of the cypress trees. Below those benches is the South Pasadena sign that is visible from the 110, the oldest freeway in California. I saw some interesting walking paths below. And off across the Arroyo to the right, the remains of the blue tarps hanging off the dirt cliffs that became mudslides a couple years ago.
Pas. Adj.: Why the interesting abbreviation of K-in_ko..s? Is it like G-d as viewed by Orthodox Jews? Too sacred to write out the whole name?
I wish they were all built with such an eye for detail! The plants are beautiful, and set off the columns nicely!
That line gets mangled quite a bit. I'll mangle it some more.
As usual I'm too lazy to actually Google this. I've heard it as the devil is in the details and, God is in the details. Ludwig Mies Vander Rohe gets the credit for 'God is in the details'.
And Laurie gets credit for 'The art is in the details'
I had a teacher in the 7th grade who was very funny. He wanted us to say "detail" pronounced
"d'tail," which is a perfecty good way to pronounce it. If you said "detail" and pronounced it "dee tail", he would say that's wrong, you "dee tail" a cat. I haven't thought of that in years. The devil must be creeping in.
"dtail", "dee tail". Either works. But I am glad in some decade it was important enough for the architects to make columns and archways. We can view them as "eye candy". Today's strip malls are mostly boxes. Who said, "Boxes without Topsies"? That would be a strip mall in a hurricane. Now I remember the origin. From the song, "My Darling Clementine"! "Herring Boxes Without Topsies and her shoes were number 9". Now I have completely deviated from the subject while blathering. Thanks, Laurie, for more archways. A feast for the eyes and a rest for the weary.
Ahh, more beautiful arches! It's a perfect tranquil Sunday post.
I am with you - we really live in an amazingly beautiful place. We took a walk today to the local shopping area & I just kept looking at the sky & wispy clouds & saying "this is so pretty".
It's so cool your husband likes Eddie's music. My husband went to PV high & graduated a few years after Eddie & surfed all thru jr. high & HS & still didn't know of him.
Such beauty found in everything things....I think that's what we're all looking for! My children see that beauty, too, and frequently remind me to see the world in a new way. You also open my eyes....and I do appreciate the adult conversation! LOL!
That should have read..."Such beauty found in everyday things" Ooops!
Tat may be ordinary to you, but to me it's a hidden gem. We just do not have this architecture.
Good point. Except for perhaps New Orleans, Southern California gives just a little bit more attention to its appearance than other parts of the country.
What style of architecture are those columns? They are wonderful and so strong and steadfast looking, softened by the beautiful curve of each undulating arch. I like the green tones of the vines amidst the warm golden beiges and terra cottas. This has an almost Mediterranean feel to it. :~)
These columns and arches look very nice indeed. Whoever said that art is in details is perfectly right!!
Hello all,
Welcome Marsha!
So I guess if both god and the devil are both in the details, and art is also in the details, then both god and the devil are artists? I think I would have mangled this if it were an SAT question...
Thanks for stopping by my strip mall arches, everyone. Pasadenaadjacent may be right about their construction being foam at the core. I remember watching houses being built in the 80s: huge, ornate porticos with imposting looking columns -- all made of foam covered with stucco.
Illusion is EVERYTHING!
Kevin, I do think that Southern California has a particular vanity not always found elsewhere. (Except for the San Fernando Valley...I don't think appearance is ever much of a factor, there.)
As for the vines -- how I love the way things grow here. I don't think there is a plant that doesn't thrive here. Is it that weird California light everyone mentions? Are there some kind of gamma rays at work at these coordinates? Whatever the cause, flowers, vines, all matter of foliage simply goes wild in Southern California. It makes people like me think we're REALLY good gardeners, until we notice gardenia bushes sprouting through cracks in the asphalt...
Dixie Mom, I'm cracking up over your song reference. That's too great.
Mister Earl, I'm afraid I always say Dee Tail. But then again, it took me years to break myself of the habit of pronouncing the first syllable of umbrella. (I'm from Texas! That's how we said it there!)
THanks for all the great conversation today, folks. Til next time...
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