Larry Speck

I am a big fan of parks.  My local park in Austin is Zilker Park with its famous Barton Springs Pool. There is a beautiful 1940s bathhouse at the pool, designed by Dan Driscoll, an early Texas modernist architect.  I often stage my visits to the pool at times that will require a change of clothes just so I can enjoy ...

When I travel, I love to just hang out and observe urban life – how cities support the predispositions of their residents and how city dwellers embrace their environments.  I’m happy as a clam watching how crowds behave and spying on urban pedestrian life.  Such was this case a couple of months ago when I visited Quebec City.  I kept asking myself: why is it so enjoyable to be in a place that has…

Several weeks ago, I hosted a reception at my loft in Austin for Jhane Barnes, the very well known fashion designer.  I greatly admire her clothing and sense of design and was delighted to have an opportunity to talk with her for a bit before the event.  Combing through my closet earlier, I had found two outdated, thoroughly worn pieces, among the clothes I had that were designed by her: one a…

It really irks me when I hear someone talk about some piece of architecture that “rises to the level of art.”  Although I have a lot of respect for art, from my modest perspective, architecture operates at a much richer and more complex level.  It involves many more people and must address a myriad of technical and functional issues as well as visual and sensory ones. It requires getting outside…

I recently traveled to Bolivia to participate in the XIII Seminario Internacional de Arquitectura, a biennial architectural conference held at the University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.  I had spoken at the same conference fourteen years ago and, as was the case before, I really got my eyes opened about the current state of architecture in Bolivia and elsewhere in South America.  Three things…

Having started my career with several construction jobs working for building contractors, I have always had a keen interest in how the construction industry works. The movement to construction management a couple of decades ago has certainly changed the way buildings get built. Contractors are often primarily coordinators who self-perform little of the work, leaving the primary job of building to…

This summer I visited Vancouver, certainly one of the most spectacular urban settings in the world.  While there, I met with Mark Reddington, partner of LMN Architects of Seattle, and Ken Cretney, chief operating officer for the Vancouver Convention Centre.  Ken came on board with the center six months before the building was finished; as such, he wasn't the original client for the project and is…

I recently attended the wedding of two former students that took place at the Anthony Chapel in Hot Springs, Arkansas, designed by Maurice Jennings, a former partner of Fay Jones.  The influence of Jones’ celebrated Thorncrown Chapel is evident, but Jennings definitely takes the idea one step further.  Situated in the Garvan Woodland Gardens, the chapel is carefully sited with a view towards…

We always seem to be infatuated with newness in Architecture, and I will confess I am susceptible to the quick rush of novelty more than I would like to admit.  But I am also a great admirer of timelessness—that far more potent elixir that lends Architecture an enduring depth that most other media cannot touch.  I recently visited an exquisite house in Dallas by Edward Larrabee Barnes that…

A few lines in Nicholai Ouroussoff’s recent article in The New York Times about the new Parrish Art Museum particularly caught my attention: “The design is a major step down in architectural ambition.  It suggests the possibility of a worrying new development in our time of financial insecurity.  It is a creeping conservatism – and aversion to risk – that leaves little room for creative…

Over the holidays I visited the new Parrish Art Museum, in Mill Creek on Long Island.   The museum, which opened a couple months ago, has a mind-boggling history.  In 2006, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron unveiled their plans for a series of 30 angular, low-slung pavilions with over a dozen different roof angles.  Projected construction cost came to $82 million, a good deal more than the…

I was in Italy recently, visiting one of my favorite cities, Volterra, in Tuscany.  I can't go to Italy without admiring how art and architecture speak to each other there and often integrate beautifully.  This is constantly evident in Volterra where the two have a potent and historic dialog.  One particular example is the Duomo, a Romanesque church completed in 1120.  The architecture is solid,…

I have made several pilgrimages to the de Young Museum in San Francisco by Herzog and de Meuron--always to stare at the building, wander around and take pictures. Last Saturday I was in SF to see a performance art piece by Sarah Wilson, Derrick Jones and Nehara Kalev that just happened to be at the de Young. It was wonderful to experience the building as part of everyday life and to be focusing…

I am convinced that style has very little to do with the real success of buildings.  Although we as architects spend a lot of time and energy screaming about “modernism” or “regionalism” or “post-structuralism,” in the end, design genre does not make any guarantee about design quality or the ability of a building to make a difference in its culture. This summer I had the opportunity to see two…

The incredible scale of the Forbidden City is daunting.  The central spine contains vast open spaces defined by grand halls and endless arcades.  But the Eastern Palaces and Western Palaces on either side are a world apart.  There are intimate courtyards and lovely rooms where most of the court actually lived. It is impressive that this has been the center of power in China more than 500 years.…

Beijing's Olympic Green was an amazing accomplishment for which the people of the city still feel a great deal of pride.  Especially at night in the summer, the place is mobbed with locals just walking around with their families, taking photos, flying kites and watching little demonstrations.  For western eyes it is very strange to just have these two big objects set in a sea of undifferentiated…

We visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall which is more remote and less visited than the Badaling section near Beijing.  It was renovated in the 1950s and 1960s and is in an area of magnificent natural beauty.

Although Datong is a very old city and was a dynastic capital of China two different times, it is now dominated by coal mining and power production.  It is not a charming city as a whole, but it is interesting as an example of an "ordinary" Chinese city.  There is a transformation happening that is common across the country where cities are tearing out their old city fabric and replacing it with…

This 1400-year-old temple contains statues of Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist gods in stone, iron and bronze.  Many temples in China are similarly ecumenical, bringing together the 3 major religions of the country.  The temple was located at a critical pass on a trade route.  It is beside a river that is now dammed, but was once prone to flooding.  Hanging the temple from the side of the cliff…

I have long been fascinated by buildings created by carving out a void rather than by building a solid form.  I love the rock cut temple at Carli in India and the whole cities carved in the sides of the hills in Cappadocia in central Turkey.  But the very best version of this architecture  by subtraction may be the elaborate series of spaces created to house Buddhist figures near the border of…

It blows me away that this pagoda was built in the 11th century and was constructed with no nails.  It is one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, and yet huge and magnificently ambitious.  It is in a small town between Taiyuan and Datong--just all by itself in an otherwise nondescript landscape.  The building actually leans slightly and there is concern about its eventual failure.  But,…

Surrounded by one of China's few intact city walls, dating from 1370, Pingyao is a treasure trove of Ming and Qing architecture.  It was an affluent banking center beginning in the 15th century.  When the Qing dynasty defaulted on its loans and abdicated in the early 20th century the city's economy collapsed and financial power moved to Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Pingyao became a backwater, but was…

In the Muslim Quarter in Xian there is an amazing night market that is bustling with people, food and activity.  It is clearly the social heart of an ancient and cohesive neighborhood.  The street market weaves into a narrow bazaar that could be in Istanbul and finally up to the gates of the mosque.  What a visual feast!  And the people are a gas to watch.

Once the largest city in the world, Xian has been the capital of China for over 4000 years of its history.  There are artifacts from many periods of Chinese development.  In the central city, however, there are beautifully preserved relics that date back to the 14th and 15th century, the height of the Ming Dynasty.  The 9-mile long city walls are still intact and well preserved as are the Bell…

Images of the Terra Cotta Warriors makes almost anyone want to travel to China.  Created over 2200 years ago and buried until a farmer discovered them in 1974, these vast excavations definitely live up to expectations.  The objects are beautiful.  The story of  a great leader preparing for protection in the afterlife for decades is mysterious and compelling.  The archeological feat underway is…