Views east from the window at the New Hotel Jen revealed the CCTV building and CITIC tower.  Views within the hotel illustrate the desk setting, built-in seating, Samsung screen on arm, and warm wood and carpet finishes...

Beijing CCTV tower once again in purple ...

dà kùchǎ (大裤衩

Every time I see this building, I have to draw it, here's a view from the restaurant level at Hotel Jen...

The CCTV main building is not a traditional tower, but a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 473,000 m²(5,090,000 sq ft) of floor space, creating an irregular grid on the building's facade with an open center. The construction of the building is considered to be a structural challenge, especially because it is in a seismic zone.  The architect, Ren Koolhaas has said the building "could never have been conceived by the Chinese and could never have been built by Europeans. It is a hybrid by definition". Because of its radical shape, it's said that a taxi driver first came up with its nickname dà kùchǎ (大裤衩), roughly translated as, "big boxer shorts'.  Locals often refer to it as "big pants". A Chinese critic said that the structure was modeled after a pornographic image of a woman on her hands and knees, which Koolhaas has officially denied.....  From Wikipedia... 

Back in Beijing for the week for work time

Back in the big city of Beijing for meetings with financial groups, and some viewings of the new construction in the CBD ... CITIC Tower next to the CCTV tower...

Wrigley Building in Chicago, viewed from hotel, 1921-1924, first part

The building was designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White using the shape of the Giralda tower of Seville's Cathedral combined with French Renaissance details. 

The 425-foot (130 m) south tower was completed in April 1921 and the north tower in May 1924. Walkways between the towers were added at the ground level and the third floor. In 1931, another walkway was added at the fourteenth floor to connect to offices of a bank in accordance with a Chicago statute concerning bank branch offices. 

State Street bridge, Chicago visit

This bridge is among the newer of Chicago's deck truss bascule bridges with a 1949 construction date...The bridge is an example of the unique Chicago design which raised the position of the deck truss up just far enough so that the top chord is above the deck like a pony truss, where it can act as a guardrail and also increase both the clearance under the bridge and the streamlined aesthetics of the bridge. This design is known as the railing height truss...

Chicago visit for IIDA and Neocon

Today Chicago boasts somewhere over 40 movable bridges. At least 20 of these are in the downtown area. During Chicago's boating season, which runs from April 15 through November 15, over 52,000 boats pass through the Chicago River, and the bridges are opened close to 30,000 times a year.

Santa Monica palms over Memorial Day weekend

Fuente de la Diana Cazadora in Mexico City

The Huntress Diana Fountain (Fuente de la Diana Cazadora) is a monumental fountain of Diana located in the roundabout at Paseo de la Refirma and Río Misisipí and Sevilla streets, on the border of the Colonia Cuauhtémoc and Colonia Juarez neighborhoods of Mexico City.

Here is my drawing of the scene from the 3rd floor lobby of the St. Regis Hotel...

Flatiron print framed at Gensler NY

...One of my good friends and a principal at Gensler in New York, Rocco Giannetti, has framed the Flatiron building drawing shown here... this was created on my iPad back in April during a Big Apple trip...

Southern Edge of Central Park, Manhattan

While flying to New York at 32,000 feet altitude, I draw a Landscape of Objects...

I love to draw while flying, I often spend that unique space and time event in explorations of new ideas and concepts...

Celebrate Earth Day with my daughter

 Her drawings and collages are an amazing collection of ideas and thoughts about taking care of our very special planet Earth...

The flatiron building, New York...

"I found myself agape, admiring a sky-scraper the prow of the Flat-iron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the afternoon light."

H.G. Wells

From Wikipedia...When the building was first constructed, it received a lot of mixed feedback. The most known criticism received was known as “Burnham’s Folly”. This criticism focused on the structure of the building and claimed that “combination of triangular shape and height would cause the building to fall down.” Critics believed that the building created a dangerous wind-tunnel at the intersection of the two streets, and could possibly knock the building down. Although the wind is strong at the intersection, the buildings structure was meant to accommodate four times the typical wind loads in order to stabilize and retain the building’s iconic triangular shape.

The New York Tribune called the new building "A stingy piece of pie ... the greatest inanimate troublemaker in New York", while the Municipal Art Society said that it was "Unfit to be in the Center of the City". The New York Times called it a "monstrosity".

Fan palm and Bouganvillea on the island of St. Thomas

Virgin Gorda and the Baths with waterspout

On the rocky arrival to Virgin Gorda, the sight of a waterspout brings a memory of a Winslow Homer painting

Map of the journey through the Virgin Islands

Map of the route through the Virgin Islands 

Painted view of port in Tortola, Frenchmans Cay

Colorful scene from Tortola stopover for customs and entry into the waters of British Virgin Islands

...I was so intrigued by the colors of the metal roofs and the exterior walls and openings of the houses and shops on the island of Tortola...

... now I need to create a map of the journey...

Around the island of St. John's, the colors other waters are astonishingly beautiful...

Art show preparation

...selection of color prints for framing...

Preparation for art show in April