Ah, that is the Harpo I've come to know and love! He was such a crazy little imp and things like that happened to him a lot.

I am also very jealous of snarky for being an architect. I love architecture, I just couldn't do it myself. Let's just say the spatial-mathematics skills aren't quite what one needs to be an architect? However, I do understand it well enough to truly appreciate it. That web site looks like a riot -- I'm going to check it out when I get to work, and that's what I'm procrastinating doing right now...

Oh, Snarky isn't an architect. She decided going into third year (and with more finality during her study abroad semester in Italy) that she just couldn't do it the justice it deserved. Plus her education was sub-par. (Though she sort of let it be too.)

She just doesn't have the cajones to look a wealthy client in the face and say "it is thus because I said so". (Plus she's pretty certain anything she designs would look awesome but be structurally unsound.)

She's just an avid fan like the rest of us.

Mr. Lockley's site(s) (there's also a group of essays under his "Place Doctor" personae) are still under construction, but what he does have up is so insightful and accessible (a rarity in architectural criticism sometimes).

Well, you an almost-architect! Much closer than I am! The Walt Lockey web site had a link to some pages he put together on the work of the architect who designed the building where I work.

http://www.waltlockley.com/lalibrary/lalibrary.htm

The interior of the L.A. Library is very similar to the Law Library in the State Capitol, so much so that it was difficult to tell at first what building was being pictured. He talks a lot about the rotundas in each building -- in this building, the rotunda is where the lobbyists stand around when the Legislature is in session. There's one lobbyist who is an extremely large man (truly a "fat cat" lobbyist), and a friend and I enjoy looking for the "orb within the orb" when we look around at the lobbying contingent.

And so here I sit, in what Lockey called "the dead center of Nebraska" in a building "that won't shut up" (how true on so many levels!), wearing Snake Oil and O! Hee hee!!

Well, you an almost-architect! Much closer than I am! The Walt Lockey web site had a link to some pages he put together on the work of the architect who designed the building where I work.

 

http://www.waltlockley.com/lalibrary/lalibrary.htm

 

The interior of the L.A. Library is very similar to the Law Library in the State Capitol, so much so that it was difficult to tell at first what building was being pictured. He talks a lot about the rotundas in each building -- in this building, the rotunda is where the lobbyists stand around when the Legislature is in session. There's one lobbyist who is an extremely large man (truly a "fat cat" lobbyist), and a friend and I enjoy looking for the "orb within the orb" when we look around at the lobbying contingent.

 

And so here I sit, in what Lockey called "the dead center of Nebraska" in a building "that won't shut up" (how true on so many levels!), wearing Snake Oil and O! Hee hee!!

Wow. The more Snarky reads Lockley, the more she likes him. And now she wants to visit the Capitol! Straight up corn!

Straight up... corn? Ahem... I have to wonder if Goodhue was having a few erectile dysfunction issues when he designed this place.

I was in looking something up on state website and noticed they have a virtual tour of this building, which includes some eye-crossing, vertigo and migraine-inducing turning camera shots. For some reason, they chose to show a few of the darker first-floor hallways, which would have meaning only because they're the ones that I use to get to and fro my office. I traipse by those Governor's portraits every day.

But... if you look at the Courtyard shot, the camera will pan around to a place where there's a lilac shrub that's a bit overgrown across a window. That's my office window! Whee! Had we known this was going on, my coworkers would have all stood in the window and waved, or mooned the camera, or carried on in some deeply inappropriate way. I would have hung up a large sign that said: Viva BPAL!" Well, anyway... the entire little tour just cracks me up:

http://its.ne.gov/vt/