Day 6
Monday September 30
With a driving rain it was a good day to stay in my apartment
Viewing the rain at the AAR I made a mad dash and had lunch there and then came back to my apartment to prepare for my talk at the Tulane Architecture program Monday night.
Arrived at 5:45 and the lecture space was ready
Giovanna made a nice poster for my talk
The projects that I discussed included:
Small = Monticello
Medium = Travel Plazas
Large = Ed St. John Building
XL = Harvard Allston Plan
Day 7
October 1
Tuesday morning, I awoke early and walked from my apartment to the Forum to meet the Tulane students for a walking tour given by Davido Sabatello
Through Trastevere
........as the city woke up...........
One sees many police seemingly doing nothing and guarding who knows what
trastevere's little museum
........students heading to school........
.......morning light on the Trastevere Basilica
Some street art for Perry...........
a quick espresso on the way.........
Some nice semi - modern findings along the way
Crossing the Tiber
..........curio shops abound as one gets closer to the Forum
Sighting of Tulane Students........
Aquaduct ruins - incredible
One understands how important Rome was for Louis Kahn
Arrival at the Arch of Constatine adjacent to the Colesseum
Tulane students - all terrific and interesting and from all over the US of A
Davido and Giovanna get things started
The Temple of Hadrian built by Antoninus Pius n 145 BC. Strong relations to the Pantheon.
One of these seemingly on every corner
The brutal, thick, buono Colosseum
"While the Colosseum stands, Rome whall stand; when the Collosseum fails, Rome shall fail; when Rome fails, the world shall fail".
Later buttressing added - again Louis Kahn must have seen this.
Total circumfance of 545 meters
Getting ready to see San Clemente
Entrance into the courtyard
From the courtyard to the facade of the Upper Church - which sits on a lower more ancient church below (rediscovered as recently as 1857 by Father Mullooly, an Irish Priest and the church is still run by Irish Dominicans. Below the ancient lower church, sits on even more ancient Roman ruins!
Paving in th courtyard
Interiors of the Byzantine and Baroque upper church
This ceiling was / is hung below the original church ceiling. It is made of wood!
The lower church
The Roman ruins and Mithraic temple below the lower church
Arches in the upper church that are actually for the lower church.......
Back past the Colosseum - too many tourists on segways
Workers unearthing the ruins of the Forum in the 1920's
Today a new subway is being planned near the forum - hard to believe.
look through the arches to see the cantilevered concrete partial dome beyond. Harder to believe.
Davido introduces us to Trajan's Temple, his column and his markets - built between 107 & 113 BC
Trajan's column - a film reel with some 2,500 figures spirals up telling the story of his life and conquests during the Dacian campaigns (101 - 102 BC). Dedicated by Hadrian to Trajan. It is good to know a guy............
St. Maria di Loreto adjacent to the Column
Excavations and restorations ongoing.........
Up the steps to the Museum that is inserted into the ruins of the markets
A precedent for current shopping gallerias
This museum is wonderfully designed and the displays are sublime
Before and afters of the markets and Imperial Fora
Head of Trajan - only discovered recently in a sewer
Beautifully appointed signage, trash cans and railings
Modern art is interspersed
The Markets
Railings and ramps elegantly woven in. Shades of Atturaif and other ASG historical projects
Tulane students - all attentive and curious
look at the hand on this fragment of sculpture. It is the hand of the person in the drawing. Imagine how huge the total original sculpture was.
This is most amazing. Davido explains a modern structure that is holding up the ancient arch!
Heading into Pope Pius Sixtus V's large urban interventions on the Quirinal Hill
to Bernini's St. Andrea al Quirinale (1658 - 70).
The steps make an excellent classroom.
It is all about the ovals
This plan by Bernin creates a perfect oval plan organized perpindicular to the axis of entry
The oval plan smoothly moves into an oval ceiling
To an oval over the celbrant
Perfection
Then just down the street, the other oval plan church by Borromini (1665 - 68) . Incredible that these two B architects dueled like this at the same time.
Borromini's oval is placed on axis with entrance and the plan itself is more complex than Bernini's.
The oval domed ceiling is truly incredible.
Tulane Students feel the compression in the adjacent courtyard
......as a nun walks through
the Borromini trail!
And the Quattro Fontane - Uno
Due
Tre
Quattro
and Borromini's curving wonder
Just down the hill is the Pallazzo Barberini
Bernini's perfect palazzo facade - finally getting away from that pesky Borromini
But wait, Borromini somehow inserts this wild spiral stair - trying to upstage Bernini??
Tulane students and me.
A beautiful plan of galleries
and beautiful Bernini designed ramps, vistas, optical illusions and gardens. A wonderful integration of buildings, pathways and gardens.
the stepped ramp is not an option for this man in a wheelchair however
Into the galleries looking for the Caravaggios
but finding other treasures along the way
Outside a stylish man with a beautiful blue tie sits and reads next to his motorcycle
cars which are the size of motorcycles - a good idea
Lining things up - a good urban design strategy
more policia hard at work
on my way to see Saint Ignazio da Loyola I stumble upon the Trevi Fountain
which has just a few tourists around it
More policia and lots of dogs. Saw a Cairn terrier yesterday. Made me miss our dogs.
more stylish men - this one a bit shy.
came across this shopping galleria. pretty nice
and this ruin imbedded into the more modern city
Saint Ignazio da Loyola - recommended by my tour guide Mikela from the Vatican
and I am glad she recommended it. It is a marvel
Darkness shot for Catie Newell - A Fellow at the AAR who is studying darkness. Her work is fantastic. Google her
YIKES! What a ceiling. Such soft colors
A set for the Game of Thrones
my Syracuse professors used to rave about this important Palazzo by Peruzzi (1532)
I want to see this show for my Pops
Renaissance and Baroque side by side
and finally back to the AAR where I went straight to the library to do a little research on what I saw. All told, a 8 hour walk.
Dinner which followed a lecture by the resident archaeologist Kimberly Bowes on how the poor of Roman society lived during ancient times. Totally fascinating. Similarities to how the poor survive today.
Chris Calenza, head of the AAR and JHU Professor of Classics introduces this weeks now arrivals, including a painter from Russia who I sat next to. I got a similar introduction last week.
My buddy Hunt Williams from Baltimore with Elizabeth Fain - a Fellow in Landscape Architecture who works for Field Operations in NYC
Hunts wife Deborah and me. Amazing they were here from Baltimore!
While touring Deborah and Hunt around the AAR, we spied Visual Artist Fellow Hamlett Dobbins studio through a skylight. Hamlett is a painter and also is the Director of the Clough - Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College.
A beautiful night view from the AAR after a long day. Finito Basta
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