KenKen Photoblog: building

Showing posts with label building. Show all posts

Looking Up

Looking up in Los Angeles... these are some things you might see.

Shining Down

I liked the effect that the sun was having on this building... as you go higher up, it becomes brighter and brighter (until you get to the sky).

The Urban Landscape

Looking up in downtown Los Angeles. I thought the shiny metal cylinders in the foreground were interesting.

I enjoy walking around cities late in the afternoon or early in the morning. When the sun is at low angles, it creates unique lighting opportunities. You can play around with the shadows or reflections in the building's window (in this case, I did both).

Escape Pods

I'm not sure why, but looking closely at this photo makes me a bit dizzy.
What you're looking at is the side of a hotel building in downtown Los Angeles. The windows remind me of mini-escape pods. I guess this is where you would want to be if the world was coming to an end.

LA Sky

Looking up at the US Bank building with a crisp sky in the background. I will always remember this building as being one of the first to get blown up in the "Independence Day" movie (am I showing my age by remembering that?).

Los Angeles - "The City of Angels"

A few weekends ago, I met friends for some pre - New Year's Eve festivities in the City of Angels (Los Angeles). I went to school in LA, but never ventured too far east of the 405... tended to stay in the beach towns. Therefore, I'm not familiar with the downtown area (was warned to stay away).

However, on this specific weekend, we decided to see a show in downtown LA and stay overnight. Los Angeles is actually a pretty cool city (just be careful not too wander too close to skid row at night). There is good food, fun bars, nice museums, and the architecture in the city is very unique... it's a mixture of old, modern, and has some art deco thrown in.

The morning after the show I walked around the city in search of a Starbucks that didn't exist (wouldn't you think it would be easy to find a Starbucks in LA?!?)... and decided to take some photos along the way. I wish I had a bit more time to wander around this day. The sun was just starting to come up and was creating some cool shadows on the buildings. I will have to go back again soon.

A Walk in the City

Here are the last few images I took while strolling around Chicago with my parents on a cold/windy December evening... didn't want to spend much time out of the car this evening, but still managed to take some photos.

Cutting Open a City

One of the things that amazes me about Chicago is all the different levels of the city. There is a whole underground section that you don't normally think of (out off sight, out of mind)... however, the locals utilize the underground areas to avoid traffic (Lower Wacker Drive is a modern architecture marvel in my opinion) and stay out of the elements.

In this particular photo (taken along the Chicago River), it looks as if someone has cut a line through the center of the city and opened it up. You can see 4 different levels.

Life After People

Just next to the condo I was staying at in the Dominican was this giant abandoned property. Walking around it made me feel like I was in one of those post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies... kind of expected zombies to jump out from one of the rooms.

After asking a few locals, I figured out that this building was meant to be a plastic surgery hospital. Apparently, millions of dollars were invested in this project... and the engineers in charge of it decided that they liked money more than building things. Therefore, before the project was even halfway finished, they bailed with the money and were never seen again. The abandoned building has now been sitting here for over 5 years. According to the locals, it has found a second life as a sanctuary for homeless people and drug addicts.

China... A Work in Progress

In Southern China, everything is covered in a layer of dust (never paint a building white). The main reason for the dust is because the cities are still being built (every time I go back, there is a new giant building). As you travel around the Pearl River region, you will see giant cranes on the horizon, skeletons of buildings, and new roads being built. Guangzhou is constantly expanding outward (as are the cities of Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, and Zhongshan). Eventually, all of these cities will merge and China will have the world's largest "mega city" with a population of 42 million people. The numbers are mind blowing. I'm not sure if China's plans will work (they need better roads)... but the infrastructure, high speed rail lines, and public mass transport will hopefully reduce the need for cars.

Chicago Architecture

View from hotel room at Affinia (if you look really close, you can see me in the building reflection). It's kind of crazy to think that even though I'm on the 29th floor, I'm still surrounded by buildings twice as tall.

So... I meant to walk around the city of Chicago on Friday to do some shopping and take some pictures... but it was black Friday and the streets were INSANELY packed with shoppers, protesters, religious preachers, and street performers. I didn't make it out of a two block radius. Nonetheless, I still think I managed to capture some interesting pictures. Enjoy!

Art Deco - Miami Style

Miami is famous for its "art deco" style... and one of the tours that seems to be the most popular with tourists is the "art deco walk". Everywhere I walked in the city, some shop was advertising this type of tour. I'm not quite sure why people actually pay money for stuff like that. If you just wander around the city on your own, you're surrounded by those types of buildings... and you do not need to pay anyone to look at buildings. Anyways, these are a few pictures I took while wandering around Miami.

As I sit in my apartment in New England, I miss the warmth and sunshine.