Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

I have resisted the urge to overly Photoshop the pictures for the DowntownWV blog. Yet as I am not a great photographer but a dangerous amateur, I sometimes come home with underexposed photos. (I shoot fast and often, as opposed to carefully and painstakingly, my modus operandi akin to a Japanese sho painter — make the stroke, take the shot, it’s done!) But sometimes, Photoshop can work magic on an otherwise unworthy shot. I think this scene, looking down Washington Street, is one, with its other-dimensional flavor. I hope at least one of you thinks so.

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

I have resisted the urge to overly Photoshop the pictures for the DowntownWV blog. Yet as I am not a great photographer but a dangerous amateur, I sometimes come home with underexposed photos. (I shoot fast and often, as opposed to carefully and painstakingly, my modus operandi akin to a Japanese sho painter — make the stroke, take the shot, it’s done!) But sometimes, Photoshop can work magic on an otherwise unworthy shot. I think this scene, looking down Washington Street, is one, with its other-dimensional flavor. I hope at least one of you thinks so.

Photo for theggazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Boulevard Towers, at the nexus of Kanawha Boulevard and Leon Sullivan Way, is one of my favorite buildings in toute la Charleston. It is an exemplary example of how to design a building that looks exquisite from four different directions, yet in four different ways. All the while, it remains a unified whole. There are two signature details. On the western face seen here, it’s the rectangular symmetry of those glassblocks and that delightful zig-zag fire escape. Its inset, yet exposed look recalls the more contempory architectural gesture of showcasing the exoskeleton of a building. See the picture below for the second signature element.

Photo for theggazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Boulevard Towers, at the nexus of Kanawha Boulevard and Leon Sullivan Way, is one of my favorite buildings in toute la Charleston. It is an exemplary example of how to design a building that looks exquisite from four different directions, yet in four different ways. All the while, it remains a unified whole. There are two signature details. On the western face seen here, it’s the rectangular symmetry of those glassblocks and that delightful zig-zag fire escape. Its inset, yet exposed look recalls the more contempory architectural gesture of showcasing the exoskeleton of a building. See the picture below for the second signature element.

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Humans impose rectangles, squares, boxes upon the world. One word: Super Wal-Mart. And when was the last time you saw a curve or meander (its noun usage; definition 3) in a website design? Yet nature always curves and meanders in her multifarious creations. Walker, you say, get to your point! Oh, yes. The facing curve from near ground level to rooftop on Boulevard Tower completely softens this corner downtown. The remarkable thing is it’s a curve achieved with rough, hard bricks. It’s soothing to the harried urban eye. Contrast this building with any of your glassbox skyscrapers, which look as if cut from obsidian with a bandsaw. I’ll take my buildings, like mon amoureux, with curves anytime.

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Humans impose rectangles, squares, boxes upon the world. One word: Super Wal-Mart. And when was the last time you saw a curve or meander (its noun usage; definition 3) in a website design? Yet nature always curves and meanders in her multifarious creations. Walker, you say, get to your point! Oh, yes. The facing curve from near ground level to rooftop on Boulevard Tower completely softens this corner downtown. The remarkable thing is it’s a curve achieved with rough, hard bricks. It’s soothing to the harried urban eye. Contrast this building with any of your glassbox skyscrapers, which look as if cut from obsidian with a bandsaw. I’ll take my buildings, like mon amoureux, with curves anytime.

Photo for thegazz by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Stepping back to better appreciate the building’s flowing form. The glossy black marble that skirts the first floor of the structure is another key to its eye appeal, offering a dashing, elegant contrast to the brick. My least favorite part of the building stands at attention near the front door. The bronze midget in the entryway is my nominee for The Stiffest Outdoor Sculpture in Charleston.

Photo for thegazz by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Stepping back to better appreciate the building’s flowing form. The glossy black marble that skirts the first floor of the structure is another key to its eye appeal, offering a dashing, elegant contrast to the brick. My least favorite part of the building stands at attention near the front door. The bronze midget in the entryway is my nominee for The Stiffest Outdoor Sculpture in Charleston.

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

The Empty Glass Cafe, at 410 Elizabeth Street, presents the dowdiest visage. To call it a Cafe, with the connotation of la vie Parisienne, is almost a wink and nod of a joke. Yet the club is important to the city, aside from it being the sine qua non establishment for some of Charleston’s booziest creative wonks. It is a fecund place, too, where generations of fine young area bands have learned their sound. And touring bands booked here are consistently, ambitiously variant. The fact you will hear very few of them on your average radio is a comment on the perfidy of most radio music. Still, while I hear on the street the club plans to spritz up a bit, one does feel the need to splash on Purell after departing its catacombs. In that regard, the Glass is spiritual kin to, say, a Glasgow pub on the edge of the edgy side of town.

Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

The Empty Glass Cafe, at 410 Elizabeth Street, presents the dowdiest visage. To call it a Cafe, with the connotation of la vie Parisienne, is almost a wink and nod of a joke. Yet the club is important to the city, aside from it being the sine qua non establishment for some of Charleston’s booziest creative wonks. It is a fecund place, too, where generations of fine young area bands have learned their sound. And touring bands booked here are consistently, ambitiously variant. The fact you will hear very few of them on your average radio is a comment on the perfidy of most radio music. Still, while I hear on the street the club plans to spritz up a bit, one does feel the need to splash on Purell after departing its catacombs. In that regard, the Glass is spiritual kin to, say, a Glasgow pub on the edge of the edgy side of town.