Chapter 8: Frank Gehry, King of Biloxi?
I got up this morning with a couple things in mind that I needed to get done before my flight out at 1:55pm. Fortunately, I got all but one of them completed. Saturdays are somewhat free-for-alls around Hands-On as well as the studio guys and gals.
Today most were going to be working on St. Louis, but Matt decided that he would be a swell guy and help me out by driving me around to do some photo documentation and then drop me in Gulfport at the airport.
Stop 1: The Frank Gehry designed George Orr Museum (or what is left of it)
We totally lucked out when we drove by the new museum which was under construction when Katrina hit. Consisting of a number of buildings, the Orr/O'Keefe Museum's gates were open so Matt and I took that as an invitation to go and explore. It was amazing to see what happened to the project and a sort of strange, living building (sans inhabitants). During the storm, moors broke free from one of the casino barges and actually ran aground, slid across the beach, four lanes of Hwy.90 and into the building closest to the shore. The funny thing with Gehry is that I'm not sure the exoskeleton would have looked that much different if not for the debris littering the site. We joked about it for a while as we climbed around inside of the buildings and checked out some of the detailing and what not strewn around the grounds. We had a scare when a local came out of his house on his phone, but all was good as we ended up shooting him a wave on our way out. No word on when or if the museum is going to be restarted.
Stop 2: Goodbyes at St.Louis
This was the one I didn't really want to make, but it was good to know that people were excited to have me back as soon as possible. I also drove by a couple of interesting things. One was a house which had the porch supports knocked out and fell down which had been fixed up and and the porch roof jacked back up.
The second is a building right next to the site for an AFH house which will be going up in the near future. It's this little old car repair shop with two stalls, a small backyard and a space inside with two huge windows facing Division Street. It made me think of Alchemy Architects digs back in the Twin Cities. The best part is, it's for sale. I think I'd like to inquire, if only for fun to see what something like that would go for.
We also drove by Al and Ruby's to check on the ramp. They weren't home, but I'll drop by and shoot the shit with Al next time I'm in town. Their house looks like it's in really good shape, so I hope they're close to moving in.
Stop 3: Bay St. Louis and the Laundry Shed
I hadn't had a chance to get back to Bay St. Louis in the day yet, so we ventured back out there and drove along the coast which was DEPRESSING. We went for minutes without seeing something besides a FEMA trailer or blown out supports for beach houses. We got a chance to drive around some of the interior neighborhoods and I must say those looked really good, but the coast is still really messed up in the smaller towns that got hit along the coast.
We also tried finding the Laundry Shed that David Vilkama and Mark Lescher designed and built for Miss Kathy until we realized that while her mailbox was still there, the shed and her FEMA trailer were not... weird. I'll have to ask Cameron or Kate about that one.
Stop 4: Lunch
Matty and I grabbed some lunch at this great place in Bay St. Louis on the way back towards the airport called Los Tres Amigos. Needless to say, it was Mexican food and great Mexican food at that. After that I was ready to roll to the airport and we had to step on it.
Stop 5: Airport
I got there in plenty of time, but without any cash or a bag for my pomade, I had to throw that away. They are rebuilding/adding on to their modest airport in Gulfport and it's actually quite a nice little design with huge glass arcs that form a sort of light hangar aesthetic. I dug it. Anyhoo, the jump to Atlanta is around an hour and then a 3.5 hour skip back across the time-line to Minneapolis where my folks picked me up at the Humphrey Terminal which I prefer a good deal over Lindbergh. Anyhow, we grabbed some chow and here I am, back in the frozen north... one week later, 50 degrees colder. More tomorrow.