Stylish Blight

March 2, 2008 5:31 PM

Stylish Blight (slideshow of awesome live/work architecture office) The outside says pure urban squalor, while the inside is pure awesomeness. Full story in today's NYT about the project. (via beebo)
posted by mathowie (25 comments total)

"a floor of Mexican beach pebbles" .... "glimpses of passing freight trains." and a fire in a "courtyard formed by the walls of what was once an auto-repair shop."

Oh yes. Please.
posted by takeyourmedicine at 5:54 PM on March 2

Mexican beach pebbles?

Because local beach pebbles doesn't have the same pretentious ring?
posted by Keith Talent at 5:57 PM on March 2

Must be hell getting a pizza delivered.
posted by hal9k at 6:07 PM on March 2 [3 favorites]

This is really awesome.
posted by lunit at 6:10 PM on March 2

Man, I love it. I tried to do something like this in the mid '90s but wifey nixed it. I'll pass on the pebbles, Mexican or otherwise.
posted by snsranch at 6:15 PM on March 2

I love it. How wonderful to have a secret, glamorous office and home *hidden* in a gross old building. I think the pebbles look beautiful, and probably feel wonderful underfoot - but I have to think that those guys have never been sick and have never know the sweet relief of lying on a bathroom floor, face pressed on the cold, unsexy linoleum.
posted by moxiedoll at 6:23 PM on March 2

have never know the sweet relief of lying on a bathroom floor, face pressed on the cold, unsexy linoleum.
posted by moxiedoll at 6:23 PM on March 2 [+] [!]


wow... are you channeling bukowski or something? that was beautiful, man...
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 6:29 PM on March 2

The photos resemble an Abercrombie version of the Steelcase catalog. Which keeps me at odds, frankly - though reclamation of spaces is a great idea, the irony level's spread a bit thick. Metal-surfaced kitchenware, with minimalist domicile? Check. Accent lights and the aforementioned pebbles? Double check. It's as if the designers had cribbed several pages' worth of notes from International Design, Wallpaper, Architectural Digest, and back issues of Metropolis.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:29 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Mexican beach pebbles?

Because local beach pebbles doesn't have the same pretentious ring?

Actually, that's what they're called in the building trades. It's a specific kind of pebble.

I'm not sure I'd ever want pebbles on the bathroom floor, but if I did, I wouldn't use those big ones. The smaller sizes are much more comfortable on your feet. I like how the caption says they're "for drainage" as if there were always two inches of water on the floor. Wouldn't you just want an actual drain, in that case? Other than that oddness, I like this project, especially the courtyard.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:56 PM on March 2

Their property tax assessor is obviously like ours, put your money on the inside and leave the outside alone.
posted by cedar key at 7:00 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

oneirodynia
There's certainly a drain beneath the pebbles. Like sports fields use sand and grave beneath the turf, the pebbles provide a walking surface without impeding the flow of water to the drain.

I suppose the bathroom probably has an open shower, like they do here in Seoul.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:18 PM on March 2

I kind of like the pebble floor idea in the bathroom. May be hell to clean but it'd be pretty sweet from both a reflexology as well as a pebble beach kind of perspective.
posted by aaronscool at 7:31 PM on March 2

I have been wanting to build a car like this- a total heap rust bucket on the outside (think scary green mid-seventies Buick with a peeling vinyl top) but sweet, new, clean, powerful, and quiet on the inside.

Also- an old boho friend of mine has an awesome home-made house/studio with a loose stone floor in a bathroom that opens out onto his back garden. He just hoses it down from time to time.
posted by squalor at 7:35 PM on March 2

I kind of like the pebble floor idea in the bathroom. May be hell to clean...

Hose?
posted by rokusan at 8:10 PM on March 2

A hose with a disinfectant spray? Look, I think they're pretty, but I'd have hygiene issues with that floor.
posted by Salmonberry at 9:51 PM on March 2

oneirodynia
There's certainly a drain beneath the pebbles. Like sports fields use sand and grave beneath the turf, the pebbles provide a walking surface without impeding the flow of water to the drain.


Yeah, I know that- but you don't need them for "drainage". The drain will work just fine without them. As a landscaper, I'm pretty familiar with sand, pebbles, and turf.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:07 PM on March 2

My main concern about living in what used to be a garage would be any carcinogens left over from the garage days.
posted by gen at 12:30 AM on March 3

...but I have to think that those guys have never been sick and have never know the sweet relief of lying on a bathroom floor, face pressed on the cold, unsexy linoleum.

Then again, perhaps that is what they were referring to with "drainage"?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:08 AM on March 3

You know, it looks cool and all but I've walked barefoot on a beach that was all sand and rounded stones like that, and it's not the most comfortable thing to put your feet on.

Also, as a business location, I kind of see this as a massive fail. No sign out front indicating what it is. If I were going to talk to someone about an architectural job, and this is what I saw upon driving up to the address, I don't think I'd bother knocking. I'd just leave. There's a chance I'd make a phone call to be sure I was at the right place, but I highly doubt I'd be encouraged. Call me superficial, but urban rust and decay doesn't inspire confidence in the architect upon first sight.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:01 AM on March 3

I wonder if the rocks in the bathroom start to stink after a while.
posted by not_on_display at 6:47 AM on March 3

Why don't you derelique my...oh, that's actually pretty cool.
posted by taliaferro at 7:35 AM on March 3

Puts me in mind of my (dream) yacht - rusty Mexican tramp steamer on the outside, Italian mega yacht/Bond villian electronics haven below decks.
posted by Standeck at 7:44 AM on March 3

> Mexican beach pebbles?
>
> Because local beach pebbles doesn't have the same pretentious ring?
> posted by Keith Talent at 8:57 PM on March 2 [+] [!]

Atlanta is one thousand ten feet above today's sea level. It's the second highest major US city, after Denver. We won't be getting a beach until 2013.
posted by jfuller at 8:11 AM on March 3

If I were going to talk to someone about an architectural job, and this is what I saw upon driving up to the address, I don't think I'd bother knocking. I'd just leave.

I have a feeling these guys don't need walk-in business at this point. You'd be talking to them because they do things like this.
posted by mendel at 8:33 AM on March 3

This garage conversion is a stones-throw from my place. The pictures don't do it justice.
posted by dobbs at 8:50 AM on March 3