Jackie's Architecture Blog

First the golf course closed. Then the tennis complex moved to greener pastures. Now Baltimore Country Club wants to sell 17 of the 30 acres it owns. Plans are to construct a multi-care facility for the elderly.

Many residents say that the new construction will shatter the vision of the Olmsted firm, which became famous for incorporating green space into community design. Supporters of the plan argue that Olmsted and his firm would embrace the change. After all, communities should provide for aging residents. But, does anyone really know what the original designers would do? More:

• Club’s Plan to Sell Land Shatters a Baltimore Neighborhood’s Serenity, New York Times
• Neighborhood Design
• Frederick Law Olmsted

^{Photo: ClipArt.com}

Architects who designed new buildings for Beijing were faced with an interesting challenge: how to create powerful, iconic designs in a landscape that is often shrouded with smog.

"Beijing seems to lose its pizazz when the smog is thick," says Christopher Hawthorne, Architecture Critic for the Los Angeles Times. Buildings that look so bold and crisp in architectural renderings turn vague in the reality of Beijing's hazy atmosphere.

To help buildings stand out against the dull, gray sky, architects often chose intense colors, like the dark glass walls of the CCTV headquarters. And, the older buildings like you find in Tiananmen Square? Thank goodness so many of them are red.

Full story: Architects take Beijing's smog into account, Los Angeles Times.

^{Photo: Donchang'an Jie Shopping Centre in Beijing, China. © John W. Banagan / Getty Images}

Deadly clashes between Russia and the breakaway republic of Georgia have put that vast land once again in the spotlight. The mounting tensions are taking place in a scene that reflects centuries of cultural conflict, with a unique blend of architecture born of Mongol rule, czarist reigns of terror, European invasions, and Communist rule.

More: Architecture in Russia >

^{St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow - ArtToday.com Image}

August 9 marks the beginning of Elvis Week in Memphis, Tennessee, when thousands of fans converge on Graceland, home of the Rock 'n Roll idol.

Elvis Presley died on August 17, 1977, and Graceland is now a National Historic Landmark. Of course, in this case historic doesn't mean old so much as interesting. Graceland is a souped-up Colonial Revival with interior decor that is, well, different.

^{Rock 'n Roll star Elvis Presley is buried at Graceland, his estate in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo by Mario Tama/Gettty Images}

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