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Edmonton, Alberta
Load the car and write the note, grab your bag and grab your coat, tell the ones that need to know- we are headed north
One of the true meccas of hockey (and by "mecca" I mean an ageing arena desperately in need of a renovation) just has to be the Northlands Coliseum, um I mean Rexall Place, home to the National Hockey League's very own Edmonton Oilers. In the 1980s this was home to a young Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, and today both have nearby roads named after them but, of course, Wayne Gretzky Drive gets much more recognition even though in many ways Mark Messier Trail may in fact be a better and far more important franchise road.
I was in Edmonton in February during the NHL's Olympic break, so I could not see an Oilers game. Luckily there was an alternative and instead I settled for an Edmonton Oil Kings game, a Western Hockey League (minor league) team that also plays at Rexall Place. Sure it was great to see hockey in Canada and the Oil Kings kind of tried hard, but it still wasn't the Oilers or the NHL no matter how hard I tried to pretend that it was.
When I was on my site visit (the actual work related reason I was in Edmonton) I asked the locals about things to do in Edmonton. Most looked at me like I was insane and talked about how things were better in Calgary or Vancouver or Toronto, an odd answer considering how many fun things can happen in Edmonton in February. The weekend I was there just happened to be the annual Silver Skate Festival, a literal winter wonderland of ice skating races, horse driven sled rides, oil can curling (!) and an amazing snow sculpture contest. Fantastic fun.
It might have been cold outside, but (as always) all was just fine underground. If you have never ridden architect Harry Weese's Washington DC Metro then you are missing a true theatrical experience unlike any other subway system I have ever ridden (and I have ridden a lot of other subway systems, trust me). The amazing vaults, the flashing red lights at the platform edges and, most importantly, the purposeful dark shadows that trains entering and leaving stations always project on the high vaulted ceiling is just wonderful. Yes, wonderful. Even seeing how time and age have made the stations feel like a live black and white photo can just really take you by surprise, especially looking out the window at the stations from inside the subway cars. Next time you're in the district, try and look at the stations as the living pieces of architecture that they were designed as. One of the great experiences of Modern Architecture despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that no one else around you seems to notice a thing.
The brand new US Capitol Visitors Center is actually fairly impressive and surprisingly large. A massive underground hall (with fountain skylights featuring Capitol Dome views) is used as a secure entrance for both tour and gallery visitors. The surprisingly short tours start with a movie that says Congress isn't all bad (the jury's still out on that I guess) and then takes you into the Rotunda, over to Statuary Hall and then takes you right back to where you started. On the day that I visited, the Senate was (barely) in session so I waited in line for a gallery pass, and it was a long and convoluted line at that, with multiple security stops, a lot of circuitous corridors, a few elevators and, eventually, a fine balcony seat where I watched a yet to be identified Republican Senator whine about healthcare for about twenty minutes. At least it was nice to see the inside of the Senate I guess.
Facing the side of the Pentagon that was hit by a plane on September 11, 2001 is the Pentagon Memorial, a series of really overdesigned benches (one per victim), grouped by victims' ages and each atop it's own small pool of rushing water. The effect at night is actually fairly interesting, although the field of benches otherwise isn't as powerful as I expected, partially because of its location between parking lots and within sight of an elevated freeway, things which seem to lessen the impact of the memorial- it seems like an afterthought and a barely visited one at that. The day I visited I practically had the site all to myself.
Question: When is a Frank Lloyd Wright building not a Frank Lloyd Wright building? Answer: When it's Monona Terrace.
Completed after Frank Lloyd Wright's death- a long, long, long time after Frank Lloyd Wright's death- Monona Terrace is a conference center and parking deck in downtown Madison that connects the Wisconsin State Capitol Building with the lake. What's missing from the building isn't its overall Wrightian design (which just about seems right) but rather its modern details (which are nowhere near close to right). It's hard to imagine Wright accepting materials like EIFS or standard Kawneer storefront systems- they cheapen the building close up so badly that its almost best not to go and see it in person, or at least not to see it from close range.
