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Boston, Massachusetts
Piles of broken bricks, sign posts on the path, every moment points toward the aftermath
Designed by Eero Saarinen, the MIT Chapel is a small, wonderful building that needs to be seen to be believed. Its design consists of a (generally) circular building sited in a reflecting pool. Inside, wavy brick walls highlight a clever natural accent lighting system where light bounces off the water and then up (through horizontal glass panels) to uplight those aforementioned wavy brick walls. Meanwhile a singular frosted skylight (with a shiny hung metal sculpture as a backdrop) strongly highlights the non denominational altar. The design is simple but the effect is amazing- a dark room with soft, variable lighting up the outside variable walls with dazzling direct lighting over that central altar.
I have been lucky enough to have visited most (not all) of Louis Kahn's best North American work. The Salk Institute in La Jolla, the Esherick House outside Philadelphia, the Bryn Mawr dorms, both buildings at Yale and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Despite such visits to such sites, the Exeter Library (a long, AIA tour bus ride from Boston) may now have just vaulted the Kimball Museum as my favorite of all I have seen (so far). The Exeter Library is a brick cube on the outside, and once inside a simple (but strong) combination of strong concrete elements and wood accents in a wonderfully crafted, complex space that (of course) takes full advantage of whatever natural light it can find.
As part of the AIA tour experience, we were given a run through of the building by both its (exterior) renovation architect and its librarian who has worked in the building since it opened in 1971 and was present during its design and construction. She had all the stories you could imagine, letting us know how all the furniture is original (although thankfully upholstered), how a secret tunnel was boarded up after students found it and were able to sneak into the library, how the top floor meeting rooms had no waterproofing and would flood after most storms, how Kahn wanted to use more expensive materials but the budget had him resort to (exterior) wood panels, how a complex landscaping plan by one of Kahn's three simultaneous wives was scrapped and (most of all) how much she and her students absolutely loved the building. After visiting her library it's easy to understand why.
Harvard's Carpenter Center may not be my favorite building by Le Corbusier (that would be Notre Dame au Haut in Ronchamp) or his most famous building (that would be Villa Savoye in Poissey), it is at least his only building in North America (unless you count the UN complex, but that's a whole other story). And while the building may be small, it at least still has the best damn scuppers you'll probably ever find.
Outside Concord and just past Walden Pond, Walter Gropius (you know, the Bauhaus guy) built his own private residence which is now open for tours, although by "now" I mean in June and not when I was there in mid May. Still at least I was allowed on the property and now know where it is, meaning next time I go there's an even better chance I may get to see if the inside is even half as much fun as I now still imagine it to be.
And while I did not get inside the building, getting to the building was still half the fun. I was in Boston without a car when I decided to sign up for Zipcar, a company that lets you rent conveniently located city cars for short amounts of time. In my case I took the red line out to Alewife (last stop) and then drove the last 20 minutes (or so) out to Lincoln. When signing up you receive a card which unlocks your reserved car (which was unbelievably easy to find and reserve over my iPhone), with the key and a gas card inside- an advantage of Zipcars is that you don't pay for gas, all you need to do is return the car with a quarter of a tank minimum and if you need to buy gas you can use the company gas card instead. The whole thing was about as convenient as I hoped and something I should have (probably) signed up for long ago.
If you're not in Maine all that long and (with the weather and other concerns) only have time for one real trail, why not choose Cadillac Mountain's legendary South Ridge Trail. From the Blue Hill Overlook at the summit, the trail stretches over smooth rook and generally treeless, open vistas that lead straight down to the sea and beyond. And while it may not be my favorite mountain trail on the island (that would be Pemetic Mountain, or maybe Hugenot Head, or maybe Precipice, or maybe Parkman/Sargeant, or maybe the Beehive, or maybe even Gorham Mountain), it certainly can be a lot of fun on a blue, bright blue Saturday (or Sunday for that matter).
