Wednesday, May 30, 2012

No Poblanos

Los Poblanos, a historic estate and inn located in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque New Mexico, has a new crop of buildings, courtesy of the excellent design of Moule & Polyzoides. This small chapelesque building is part of the owners new residence, and blends the architectural stylings of the existing farm buildings and northern New Mexican forms.

Sacrilegious words have been known to have been uttered in and around this building, sometimes very appropriately.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Hit the Brickyard, Jack

Last September, we spent a lovely weekend out near the Great Wall. Not as great as the wall, but still very,very good was this eco-resort called the Brickyard (http://www.brickyardatmutianyu.com/). Started 18 years ago by two American/Chinese couples, this is a model for low tech green. They have built new, sometimes modernist, houses on existing footprints with local materials and local builders, they have encouraged a slow food movement in the five surrounding villages, and they have created a business model that allows villagers to stay in their village instead of moving to the megalopolis.

They also had an excellent patty melt burger, possibly the finest in all of China.