This guy loved Japan. So much so the mega city of Los Angles that is home to one of the largest Asian community in the country chose him as their Japanese art building architect.  Goff once again did not disappoint. Putting his own flair on the structure while incorporating traditional Japanese style. What sticks out about this building to me most is the use of warped handrails. They flow like a snake in water down the uniquely curved sidewalks entering the facility.  I would argue Goff is just as much and artist and expressionist as he is an architect.

The Ledbetter house was designed by Bruce Goff in 1947 in Norman Oklahoma and is the reason I chose him as my architect for the blog assignment. The front of the house is a rounded glass layered with a section of stone that resembles that of a visor of a race skier with ice shards stuck to the glass after a sharp turn. It’s Goffs take on a tradition Japanese home mixed with his unorthodox Goff stye. One of my favorite details reading about the house was the  glass ashtrays inserted in the front door.  Very 1940’s. Very Cool.

If the phrase “what the f%#k” was a place, you’d find yourself in the beautiful college town of Norman Oklahoma at the Bavinger house. Bruce Goff was a weirdo, and this award winning home was an expression of himself and his architectural philosophy. A term we used in class was Biomimicry and it’s prevalent in this design. I can only describe the home as a sea shell from space. An alien structure randomly placed in the midwest. A bizarre tribute to sea life hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean. It’s spectacular and impossibly Bruce Goff.  A staple of Norman I would have never been exposed to without this class.

Edit: after further research I read the home was demolished. A crime to humanity and culture in my eyes. I am leaving my blog up to retain the passion and excitement I had for the structure before reading the news.

Bruce Goff is a person in my mind who truly is a mix of a brilliant architect and Dr. Suss. The lavender Gryder house is a perfect example of this. One look at this home and you are teleported into a fantasy world. The home is built atop a reflecting koi pond and features bizarre cartoon like structures and shapes. My favorite part of the home is the spinning top like balconies. The balcony sits atop the pond and appears to be floating, removing all sense of understanding of structural support to the untrained eye. The residence is uniquely Goff; weird, abstract, and beautiful. 

The Spectrum Center formally Time Warner Cable arena is another building I associate with good times. My family is huge into basketball and growing up we were fortunate enough to have season tickets to the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets) and the spectrum center was their home court. Those memories remind me of some of the best times with my younger brother. We are a historical bad NBA franchise but theres a sense of charm that comes with that curse. It was beyond rewarding when the team finally made the playoffs in 2014 and it being such a hatable team brought the few charlotte fans closer. Ive been to plenty of other sporting areas and something I always miss about the Spectrum center is that Carolina bbq. Its a vinegar based sauce that is extremely regional and hard to find outside of NC and SC.

A building I do not associate with positive memories is Appalachian New River Veterinary clinic. Growing up we always had animals, several dogs, cats, and for a brief time a baby wild bore that my brother rescued on a hunting trip. Now that I am a bit older I have a better understanding of veterinarians but my memory of that place is always tied into the death of animals I loved. It wasn’t the clinics fault but its hard for a child to process that at a young age. I have a dog now and the vet in Oklahoma is actually a really positive place. Whenever I take my dog in for a checkup I spend my time asking the vet about all aspects of dog ownership and its a really educational tool.

One of the most impactful buildings in my life was the Banner Elk cafe. The Banner Elk cafe was a restaurant in the center of the small town I grew up in. It was owned by my good friends father who was also my soccer coach growing up. Often times after practice of a big game we would go back to the cafe and eat pizza and watch sports together. In my early years the Cafe was a place where I made friends, and bonded with my teammates but as we all got older and the team broke up the Cafe turned into something new. It was where I had my first ever job at the age of 16 and where I learned the importance of hospitality and work ethic. Working at the cafe in thought me so many life lessons and it was my first real taste of the real world. If you’re ever find yourself in the small ski town of Banner Elk, NC do yourself a favor and order the baked penne pasta and thank me later.

One building that affected me in a positive way early on in life was the Sugar Mountain Ski lodge. I first encountered this building my first winter in North Carolina at around 8 years old. Prior to living in NC, I lived in a beach environment and had no idea of the concept of snow sports ( a pastime that grew to be a huge passion of mine to this day). My time spent at Sugar Mountain ski lodge was spent eating breakfast and making friends before a long day on the slope. The lodge was a den of warmth in all senses of the word. If it was a particularly cold day you could go inside and warm up. It was also warm in the sense it felt like a community. There would always be tourist but the local kids like myself treated the lodge as a clubhouse. It was the home of thousands of card games, laughs, and memories. To this day, skiing Sugar Mountain is what I look forward to most when I return to NC for Christmas.