Reach for the sky

Magnet #965 - Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial

Another from my Columbus, Indiana set of magnets...this time, it's the Batholomew County Veterans Memorial, designed by Thompson and Rose. We missed seeing this memorial, but it's pretty cool, huh?

I picked it, because it's the most designy thing I had in my magnet photobucket cache...plus, it kinda reminds me of my visit to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum yesterday.

It's free to visit all week for National Design Week, and the main exhibition (the most sustainable in the museum's history) is the National Triennial Design, "Why Design Now?" It centers around design that addresses social and environmental challenges - some really fantastic stuff in there - from sustainable buildings and cities* in Norway and Abu Dhabi to $19 glasses that the wearer can select the prescription. Definitely check it out if you get a chance.

I think my only complaint (other than trying to figure out how we can get this stuff into a museum, but not mass-produced yet), is that they had a really cute shop. But one without magnets.

Dudes, cool magnets exist!

*Check out the video for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, which looks superfantastical right now, but it's pretty cool that it's already started phase 1. Maybe I'll wait till it's done before visiting. I bet money they'll have fabulous magnets.

What?

Quilty glass

Magnet #766 - Chihuly's Sun Panels

Another one from my Columbus, Indiana, collection. Again, if you haven't gone to Columbus, and you know, you're in the area roadtripping, it's worth a drop-by.

I'm very sad to report that I missed seeing this piece at the Columbus Learning Center. Though it looks like a pretty qulit, it's actually a specially commissioned piece by Chihuly, called Sun Panel Garden, a painted collection of 32, 3' x 3-ish panels suspended from the ceiling. It's backlit by the sun and artificially spotlit at night, and they basically show all of Chihuly's blown-glass forms - his reeds, his baskets, ikebana (flower arrangements), floats, etc.

I love all the shots of everyone visiting craning their necks to look up to admire it. There's a part of me that wouldn't dare step under it, though. There's this whole complex steel grid and tubular steel that holds up the panels - the whole piece is something like 19 feet!

But it is so very pretty, I bet it'd made for a great swaggy blanket or quilt.

Hmmm, I wonder if I didn't miss that in their supercute gift shop at the visitors center!

Dawn's early light

Magnet #659 - Dessa Kirk's Eos

Back over the summer, I mentioned how our family stumbled into Columbus, Indiana, home to some of the best art and architecture around.

I picked this magnet in honor of how I spent my last day in Seattle checking out the art (SAM's Michelangelo exhibit and the Olympic Sculpture Park) and architecture (Gehry's EMP) of Seattle. This was, of course, in between the BlackBerry breaks at stoplights and on I-5. Actually, the only time I didn't have my BB in hand yesterday was when the folks at Boeing had me check my BB in their lockers. My fingers missed the buzzing!

Honestly, it was weird. I had this unanswered urge to Twitpic and Tweet, and check for new emails.

Anyway - Columbus. I can't remember if we actually saw this Dessa Kirk piece or not - she's the Greek Eos, the Dawn goddess who rises from the edge the Ocean, chasing Night away, and opening heaven's gates every day to let her brother, Helios, the sun, ride his chariot across the sky. I love this idea that she's dawn rising out of the water.

The other reason I'm picking her for today is because I think I've met her every damn day this week. Hate dawn. Worst time of day. And I've got people trying to schedule 8:30 meetings tomorrow.

Hey. It's Sunday.

Work with me, people!

Columbus. Unexpected. Unforgettable.

Magnet #572 - Cummins Headquarters, Columbus, IN

Oh, yeah. Now we gots a theme going on up in here.

How's this for random? My sister forwarded me the Columbus, IN, visitors site last year, after having learned that the town was deemed a "Jewel of the Region" by National Geographic. Why? Because it's considered essential to American architecture, a veritable hotbed of cool buildings and art. Really!

And, when I saw the site, I dimly thought, huh. Lovely place. But, honestly, when's the next time I'll be in the heartland of America?

Fast forward about eight months - as our Chicago roadtrip turned into a desperate search for a Chinese restaurant for my dad's discerning palette which then devolved into a desperate search for just any place to sit down and eat, we found ourselves in a rather dilapidated Denny's.

Don't get me wrong. I love Denny's. But sometimes, when you're looking for Chinese, a semi-congealed Grand Slam breakfast sandwich at 2 in the afternoon isn't always what you're lookin' for. But, I digress.

So we're sitting there in Denny's wondering why we passed a wayfinder sign saying, "Architectural Tour." And suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, DC Sister and I realized we were in the hotbed of architecture! A little magic on the Blackberry landed us in the pretty busy visitors center.

The town proper is terrific. But what I loved was that wherever you turned on the city grid, you saw folks walking around...with the same map in hand. The maps that told us where the Saarinens were, along with the Pei, the Meier, and even the Dale Chihuly. Eeeee! It was like a scavenger hunt!

This magnet (purchased at the sweet little shop shop with the nicest ladies ever) is of Pritzker Prize-winning Kevin Roche's Cummins Corporate Headquarters. This place was one of my absolute favorites in town. So neat, I took the same picture, without realizing I had the matching magnet, from this more-to-come-of-course magnet set.

Don't know Cummins? They're one of the largest manufacturers of diesel engines - with the funnest corporate history I've seen in a while. Ya'll have to check out the videos in that link. I'm half in love with their founder now.

This guy, Cleesie Cummins, used to take cross-country trips like no one's business, back in the 1930s. He was one of the first folks to put diesel engines in buses. To prove it would work, he drove one cross-country, with two reporters in tow - all told, using 365 gallons for the price of $21.90. He was also one of the first to put a diesel engine in a cool passenger car - an auburn convertible. He then drove that to LA - 3,774 miles for the grand total of $7.63. Annnnd, don't get me started on his many race cars on the racing circuit.

Hee, what a fun (for me) post! C'mon. Where else are you gonna get architecture, Denny's, roadtrips, industrial magnates setting world records - all in one fell magnetpost?

A dairy great adventure

Magnet #557 - Fair Oaks Farms, Indiana

During that Chicago roadtrip earlier this summer, my sister and I pulled night-driving duty through Indiana.

No offense to Indiana but our impressions? Dark. Flat. Never-ending. Frankly, boring.

And where are all the people? Don't they have to live near highways?

So, then on our way back in the daylight, we were shocked. Shocked!, I tell you. Light. Flat. Never-ending. Frankly, boring.

That is, until we started seeing these superpunny cow billboards convincing us we needed to stop at Fair Oaks Farms. Not one, not two, but at least a few superpunny cow billboards. So, of course we had to stop.

After all, how could we resist cows double dairy'ing us to have a dairy great adventure?

Plus, ya'll don't know DC Sister. That girl is a sucker for a good pun - has been ever since the Juneau? Juneau? Juneau? Alaska! joke she (thinks) she made up when she was like five. (Or, in regular people's terms: "D'ya know? D'ya know? D'ya know? I'll ask 'er!" Yeah, that was never going to be funny written out loud.)

Anyway, we all piled into the little red barn, as opposed to the big red barn, and lined up for ice cream. They also had a locavore-ish bistro with cheese and cheese and cheese. And did I mention they had cheese? They even had a cheese-factory tour, but no one there - fairly well-produced videos had to suffice, as it was like 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and us having ice cream was kinda pushing it. (Though not really, if you eat as much ice cream as I do.)

I've now confirmed on their supercute and pretty darn robust site that what little we visited of Fair Oaks Farms was just the tip of the udder, because apparently, there's a thing called Mooville Adventure Center, plus the dairy barn tours, playareas and a birthing barn (ewwwwe) and a 4D theatre, some sort of cowculator, and it goes on and on.

And it's all supercutely branded by a dairy extraordinary marketing team. We were really glad we stopped in at Fair Oaks. These folks know how a create a branded experience - for that, I can forgive your extremely overpriced magnets.

Moo done, you!