Summer Storm

A few months ago while I was at work, this storm was going by:



A friend and I went out for a smoke break -- I don't smoke, I just go for the break part. This was the view to the West:



More of the view to the West:



Then the temperature dropped about 15 degrees, and it looked like this directly over our heads:



Then the clouds started swirling and we went inside:

Citygarden, Yesterday

I took my mom and a dear family friend down to Citygarden yesterday. It was the first day I'd seen that amazing fall-blue sky color, which made my favorite downtown building look pretty great. These were all taken with an iPhone, FYI.

At the Japanese Festival

These banners depict carp, which swim upstream and therefore symbolize strength and perseverance. I'm going to need some of that on my first day back after the long holiday weekend.

As they say in Nihongo: Ganbatte, ne!

Leaning into the future, perhaps

Lest you think I only care for old structures, I offer this lovely glass-fronted biotech research building. I pass it twice a day on my way to work and back home, but until I stopped to take pictures of it, I had no idea the slanty bit on the front was just kind of tacked on.

I still like it, though, for its unfussy lines, and the way it always looks as if it's about to fall over.

East, West, North, South

Here in the Midwest, storms come on dramatically. This morning, I found myself racing one to work.

In front of me, to the east, were clouds and sun:

To the south, the clouds were advancing on blue skies.

Behind me, to the west, these clouds:

To the north, diagonal lines indicating the front:

Once I got to work, the scene to the west was this:

And to the east:

Once inside, I headed for the roof; this is to the east again:

These last two are to the south:

The Office: Beam Edition

I have the great good fortune to work in a building that's been standing since the 1880s. It's part of a complex of paper warehouses that were revolutionary for their time in that they brought the railyard to their backyard for the sake of efficiency. (This was something even Chicago didn't have at the time.) In 2006, the advertising firm I work for partnered with a development company and an architectural firm to kick out the pigeons and make the place livable. They did a lovely job.

One of my favorite things about the interior of the building is the massive beams. From the basement, where they are anchored in iron footings that must weigh hundreds of pounds each, they go all the way up to the sixth floor, getting progressively smaller. Still, at the top, they're roughly eight inches wide.

The photos are arranged as a beam stands; if you look at the number of floor planks next to the second and third shots, you'll see what I mean about the beam getting smaller.

Yesterday, the sky did all the work for me.

As I was driving to meet a friend for yesterday's lunchtime thrifting spree I thought, "Wow, the sky is amazing today. I love taking pictures of the sky. And the buildings look great, too. I love taking pictures of buildings."

And that, my friends, is the story of how this blog came to be.

At 2:51 Facebook time, a friend who had no idea I'd decided to start this blog posted a status that said, "There are good shapes in the clouds today."

Freaky? Maybe. Groovy? Definitely.

These photos were taken in manual mode, but with default settings. They're in chronological order; the first three were taken around 1:30, and the others around 5:30.

Enjoy.

Southwestern Bell Building, 1010 Pine Street, St. Louis, MO, 1926

I might be obsessed with this building. I work a few blocks south, and so I see it every morning when I walk into my office, every evening when I walk to my car, and many times in between. The time of day, season, and weather all affect the appearance of the building, and that's one of the reasons I look at it so much: It almost always looks different, and its 1926 lines always supply my eyes with a much-needed heaping helping of gorgeous.

I like how the newer building across the street echoes the stepped effect of the original. Those steps, by the way, mean that there are 17 individual roofs up there.

These photos were all taken this morning; despite it being the end of July, a shocking lack of humidity made the air delightfully clear.