Days 20 - 26 Beginnings & Endings

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

T. S. Eliot

 

As I near the end of my time here in Rome, I am struck by how incredibly lucky I have been to have been here at the American Academy in Rome for the past 24 days.  With 1 days left, I am so grateful for the support of family, friends, and my professional colleagues who all encouraged me to do this.  I hope that many others within my circle of supporters will also have the opportunity to do something similar in their lives.  It is possible, you just need to do it. 

One of the greatest gifts I have given myself during these 4 weeks has been a restored appreciation for disengagement, silence, emptiness.  I discovered that I do not need to fill every time slot with an appointment, and I don't need to fill every mental opening with stimulus (although there is more to stimulate you in Rome than perhaps any other one city in the world). 

Perhaps the most life-afirming change is that I rarely walk down the street or sit at a meal while looking or tapping on my smart phone (unless I am looking at a map of Rome on my handy google map).  One of the incredible things about the 40 or so American Academy in Rome Fellows (ages 27 - 68) is that most all of them don't carry their phones around.  NONE of them have them at a meal, and most all are never seen looking at one.  Speaking of the Fellows, imagine having the chance to get to know some of the smartest and interesting people you'll ever meet in the fields of Ancient Studies(7 Fellows), Architecture (2 Fellows), Design (3), Historic Preservation & Conservation (3), Landscape Architecture (2), Literature (2) Medieval Studies (4), Modern Italian Studies (3), Musical Composition (3) Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (3), Visual Arts (4). It has been amazing.  And then there is the City of Rome to explore, sometimes with the indomitable Kimberly Bowes who is an archaeologist from U Penn who is running a large part of the AAR. 

Below is a collection of some semi - final pictures from my last days here, which all give me dreams for all kinds of new beginnings. 

 

"Ways of Seeing the City"

(with thanks to Ed Bacon)

Rome is many cities, but most clearly perhaps it is a city of the ancient Roman emperors, both before and after Christ, and it is a city of the Baroque and Renaissance.  As I learned on my first AAR Friday morning walk with Kim Bowes, it is also a city of intense topography.  And with topography comes the need to manage water.  So, the 7 hills of Rome, and the distinctive winding Tiber River  (which used to be like the Mississippi - meaning it was co-planer with the land and is now channeled to prevent flooding.  This intense topography shows on this map below.

 

 Ed Bacon, in his seminal book Design of Cities, tells us of these two Romes - ancient and baroque. The ancient Forum, seen in this map below, is a higly ordered design where the interior and exterior are integreated.  Modulating the spaces are a unified series of columns, rythmically placed in disciplined rows which give a sense of order and function. Rectangles and circular forms predominate, wiht huge spans, heights and vaults that are almost impossible to imagine constructing during these early Roman times.   These forms are reciprocal with the law and government that Rome sponsored, and in fact many of these buildings were for governmental and legal proceedings.  But, the ordering devices were on a broad and grand enough scale that they met the demands of broad communal activities, including the violent games in the Colosseum. 

 

 

Here, an amazing recreation of ancient Rome

 

And here, a map that Kim gave us during our walk.  I have outlined in red the somewhat tragic Via dei Fiori Imperiali, which Mussolini ripped through the ancient Forum, dividing the Forums of Trajan and Caesar.  He did this in part for military pradades, but also to impress Hitler.

 

 This map, the wonderful and justifiably famous plan by Giambattista Nolli, drawn in 1748, shows us the other Rome.  Implanted on the formerly disciplined plans of classical Rome are the winding and somewhat confusing forms of the medieval and baroque city.  Once again, in the mind of Nolli, and as Bacon tells us the thing we love about this plan is that the "exterior and interior public spaces are integrated into a singleness of thought and experience."

 Here we see Piazza Navonna, St. Ivo and the Pahtheon, among a swirl of other extrodinary churches, spaces, streets and piazzas.

And here we see Sant Ignazio, where the rhythmic forms of the nave and side isles  of the church are extended across the square in the curved house walls which define the three interconnecting ovals in plan.

 

Here again from Bacon: "Again we have the phenonemon of the development of a common and powerful discipline of design, and Nolli's extrodinary map, a mode or representation which is commensurate with it."

This set of "2 Romes" has defined my stay these four week, and it will remain imprinted on my mind.  I believe that both are perhaps the most potent tools in the built world in terms of providing us with lessons to apply to our work in architecture and planning today.

 

Now, back to my final travelouge........



 

One thing that I have not mentioned enough is that the AAR is like living in a big house with the best food you could ever hope for. And, as a Visiting Artist / Scholar, I have been fortunate to have been given a very nice apartment, with a wonderful kitchen. This, combined with the food you can buy and bring home from AAR "Rome Sustainable Food Project" , like this outstanding granola, has made everything very accomodating.

 

Alice Waters of Chez Panise fame has been a visiting artist / scholar along with me during my time here.  It is Alice who guides the food at the AAR.  Here, one of the chef interns shucking beans in the courtyard where lunch and dinner are served in warmer months.  

Here, my last lunch :-(

Trust me, you have never had vegatables and pasta as good as the food at the AAR

 

 Here, happy Fellow having their daily lunch together.  Catie Newell, first on the left is one of two Architecture Fellows.  She teaches at U Michigian, and is featured at the Venice Biannale this year.  Her work is featured in this months Architecture Magazine.  I think that her work is very powerful and beautiful.  Google her and check it out.

No dinner at the AAR on Saturday or Sunday, but this great restaurant is just up the hill.....

 

 

Or one can walk down the hill into Trastevere for local color

 

 

 



 

 

 

And then across the river again into Rome - here the Farnese Palace

My favorite guy who was always in Piazza Navonna singing

Pomegranate juice in Palazzo Collona

People watching - many beautiful people to see

 

Always time to stumble across some Caravagios

or fountains

or churches (Bill McQuillan asked me to PLEASE put more photos of churches into my blog)

Or Roman gladiators in front of the Pantheon

 

 

THIS is the way to view the Pantheon (or the Sistine Chapel........)

 

 

What happens universally after many years of marriage....... 

 

And back to the AAR for some rooftop views.....

Looking over at my apartment building

 

Looking down at the entry to the main building and the four front studios 

 

and the view from my new apartment

and my pal Thomas Kelly, architecture Fellow, along with Elizabeth Fain's two boys.  Elizabeth is a landscape architect Fellow who worked on the High Line amongst other things......

 A book from Tom's studio that I want to get.  He also had a book called "Kissing Architecture" which my Dad Kindled me, and which I did of course not know how cool of a book it is until I saw it in Tom's studio

 

A little building on wheels parked in front of the AAR

Tuesday 10 / 22 there were "Tuesday Night Talks".  Kind of TED Talk like.  I did one, but you only have 5 minutes to do your talk.  Here Cate (can't remember her last name) who does classical drawings and paintings. 

 

Amazing stuff

and one on "The Epigrams of Julian the Egyptian"!!

 

 

And one on a childrens books on maps - very cool

And then I presented

A pictrue supplied by Lindsey Davis of me in school during my years abroad 38 years ago

our friend Ed Bacon

and his kids Kevin &  Elenaor

Ed Bacon diagram of Rome

AAG diagrams of Florence

From upper left clockwist : Pazzi Chapel, Tempieto, St. Ivo, Villa Giula - all similar!

diagrams of each

Some of the drawings I did of each

Villa Giula section

Then dinner at the AAR with a visitor from the Pantheon Institute

After dinner activities amongst the Fellows prior to streaming the Red Sox Tigers game

 

Night falls

but you can always go and watch Italian movies in Reynold Reynold's studio.  He is a Fellow making films

The nest day there was another walk with Kim of the Forum

.......along with new arrival Jim Packer who is an expert on the reconstruction of the Roman Forum

 

We we were allowed access low into areas where the public is not allowed, so this dude followed us around

While workers like this one kept things tidy at the Trajan's Forum

Jim regales us with amazing facts

Then we go to Trajan's market (where I had already been with the Tulane Students)

 

 

 

back into the City to find treasures of interpretive architecture, elegant.......

and weird

 

 

and always great fashion

and great urban design

and Japanese weddings on the Spanish Steps

Hebrew in this guys hands - must be Moses!

 

Back to my new palatial apartment

 

 

 

Thursday night - A Rennaisance concert in a Borromini Church

 

 

A store for my Father

Could not resist one more photo of this great spot

Look closely at the drawing

One more for Michael Vergason

So THAT is how they make these streets! 

 

 

The next day, my neighbor Jim Packer shows me some of his Roman Forum reconstructed drawings drawn by his colleague Gil Gorski at the U of Notre Dame

And Brendan Johnston shows me his and Catie's studio of amazing art they are creating

And I find an antique watch store to finally replace the watch my sister gave me years ago which was stolen

 

 

And some wonderful urban kiosks where I find a very nice Nolli map to purchase

Bringing things to a close, with perhaps my favorite visual sight in Rome - Bernini's Apollo e Daphne

 

Ciao e grazie ancora a l'Accademia Americana e di Roma per un ispirazione quattro settimane.