mesmerized by Palladio @ the Morgan

Today was a good representation of my weekend routine in the city: slept in (heavenly), got up and dealt with non-running downtown 6 trains (not heavenly), finally made my way to the Morgan Library to see the exhibit on Palladio (unreal. amazing. a must see.), came home, and picked up samosas and mint chutney on the way back.

So that’s the short version. The slightly longer version is that the Palladio exhibit nearly gave me chills…they had around 30 original Palladio drawings (Italian architect from the 1500’s, designer of beauties like the Villa Rotunda in Vicenza…google it if you’re unfamiliar) and recently made (possibly z-corped) models. To stand that close to his original drawings, see all of his annotations, measurements…it was unreal. I took my time going through the exhibit, read all the text on all the plaques, did some sketches, and at the end bought the exhibit book. The show documented first his study drawings from his two major visits to Rome (he hailed from northern Italy and did a lot of work in Vicenza and Venice), then moved on to his own designs, then described the processes he went through in publishing I Quattri Libri dell’ Architettura (the four books of architecture), which taught designers of the time what the classical orders were, how they should be put together, and more. These books were necessities for centuries, even Thomas Jefferson had them. The final portion of the exhibit demonstrated his influence on American architecture through photos and more z-corp-style models (various capital buildings, libraries, houses, NY Stock Exchange, etc).

One interesting point was the distinction he made between design sketches, construction drawings, and presentation drawings. Sketches were obviously just a way for him to work out ideas, construction drawings are what they sound like, and the presentation drawings would focus more on rendering shadows more realistically and left out most annotations and dimensions to convince the client of the scheme. Another interesting note is that historians can date most of his drawings by his handwriting, which changed throughout his lifetime. Also, he rarely drew statues and figures in his own drawings; he would leave those portions blank, then send them off to artists to be completed.

The show is at the Moran Library until August 1st, and if you’re in the city before then I really recommend you go check out the show (especially all of my archies!).

A bit of rain cooled of the city today, and this is the first night in I can’t remember how long that we aren’t running the AC- just fans. Whew! Tomorrow I’m off to a site to measure and document the east façade of a building- I’ve already drawn up the south and west, tomorrow’s task is the east (the north was previously done by other people at my firm). Each façade takes me about a week and the guy I’m working with seems impressed by how quickly I get my work done- yay!