Province..late night...late food

One of the highlights (if you can call it that ) of late nights of work in Manhattan is what to eat for dinner :) there are so many choices and everything is good and not necessarily even that expensive (though not a concern since it's on the office). This is one thing I really missed when I was living in London as most places closed there relatively early and were not big on delivery much less variety...at least in the area our office is in.

One of our latest discoveries is this great little Chinese place called Province that serves the most tasty small sandwiches. They consist of a few choices of fillings (Shiitake mushroom is my favorite) inside a doughy steamed bread of northern China known as Mantou.

if your ever in nyc heading south of Chinatown towards the Tribeca area this is a must eat and it will only set you back $5.

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/Province/

a few pix from my weekend down in houston

this past weekend while in houston i got to do a lot of hanging out with friends and family. i had the chance to meet up with my friend, fernando, shown with me here and to go to a great art/street festival with my family in the old historic heights district of houston. ahh and not to be left out was all the fun i had with my sister's kiddos, however at the moment I don't have my pix of them downloaded just a few that fernando sent me from his camera, so more later on the kids :)

(yes and a bit of down time as well to play with my blog template, not sure about this red text and dark background but it's a new look i am trying :P)

"ego free-for-all"....architects talking about architects

a great article from a co-worker regarding recent trends in architecture

However, I personally resent, for example, two billion dollars being spent on a subway station in New York City that looks like a bird.
I have no idea why a subway station should either look like a bird or cost two billion dollars," he said
http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0801/design_1-2.html

Room mate wedding #2

kokkugia_a friend's work

back from london town but no time to gab now! just wanted to post this awesome work from a co-worker at grimshaw...crazy stuff :) enjoy

http://www.kokkugia.com/

Grimshaw colleague/ photographer

a pic from a one of my new colleagues here at Grimshaw of one of our projects here in Camden, London.www.stay.rudee.pl

final days in london

well things are winding down here in London as i am leaving in less than two weeks :-( :-)


I have mixed feelings as I am both excited to return to old friends and family in New York but i have grown to really love London and met so many great people in my time here.


4 months is just enough time to start to finally feel a bit settled in a place whatever that means.

anyway i am thankful for the time and excited to return to NYC to a new project at work and two new room mates. and lots of catching up to do.

here are a few pix from my past wanderings this weekend.....a trip to canary wharf....an amazing exhibit at the Bartlett Architecture school, the British Library and lots of stuff along the way :)

TEXAS EMBASSY CANTINA of London!

This weekend I did a bit of sightseeing with my room mate Vanessa and a friend of hers who is staying with us from Spain. It was great I love to walk around the city with people who have never been to London as I myself still feel like a bit of a tourist. Anyway not far from Leicester square I ran into this restaurant called the Texas Embassy, heheheh it was the most out of place hilarious sight smack in the middle of London with Texas flag waving out front and all.

Anyway I could not help myself from playing it up and taking a shot out front. That's me always Texas proud ;P

My new place in London!

A little bit of France in my English Adventure

Well as usual I am blogging in fits and spurts and so much has "happened" since the last time i made a post i don't even know where to start much less which of my hundred plus photos i should choose from my vacation to France last week to post. so as usual I'll just throw some random ones up here in no specific order :)

The nice thing about this last visit to France is I was more relaxed about not feeling that I had to take a picture of everything! But at the same time I wish I would have taken more people pictures as I seem to be guilty of my old architect ways of just taking lots of pictures of building and well of course the wonderful food (that is very different and better : ) than British cuisine).

In addition to several days in Paris I also had the pleasure of heading down to Avignon in the Provence region which was very beautiful and had such a wonderful Mediterranean feel.

Website of the day...WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Click HERE for more info on this and other photos

In Limbo in London

Well May 11 came and went and now June 2nd will come and go and I am still here ....not to complain considering "here" is London :) I am referring to my ever changing scheduled leave dates for work.

I am both enjoying the extension but also beginning to miss friends and family back in the states and also the feeling of never being sure of when i am going and how to plan for the next few months. Even if it was for longer at least I could plan for after or enjoy till then however you want to look at it. I just keep telling myself this is the free...single...flexible...bohemian lifestyle....or something........

Interesting in this flux I have now moved on to my second but not last place of accommodation. The Citadines Hotel. Not necessarily the most modern place with breath taking views of the city as my flat north of present but the great thing is it's right in the center of the city near many of the monuments, museums, restaurants, the river etc. Plus the adventure of living with my colleagues is now over! ahhh a sigh of relief for my new found privacy and solace. We had some good times but these are good too : )

yes and one last good thing about the extension, more time to travel! on to france next week!

Ok so enough of a rant about all that, some interesting cultural events in the past weeks to post
a lecture by mr. nick GRIMSHAW himself, funny i have to go to a lecture to hear my own "boss" talk


A night at the Royal Opera house for a treat of ballet and Opera.

London Roof scape

From various points of the building there are also some really great views of the city of London.

GRIMSHAW in London

Well since I am here mainly because of my work related to GRIMSHAW Architects and not just to enjoy wondering the great streets of London eating meaty breakfast and sampling gourmet delights at the outdoor markets i thought i would post a few pix of one of our recently completed projects. The project is called UCL Huntley Street Institute for Cancer Studies. It has some really amazing spaces as well as a very nice stair sort of ornamental stair right as you enter.

A short visit home....and more wedding bells!

well i was happy to make a short trip home to ny this past weekend for my room mates long awaited wedding...it was so great guess that is what is to be expected from someone whose major was mainly to do with events planning. it was flawless and she was so beautiful. unfortunately i did not get to take as many pictures of her as i wanted since there were 300+ people there wanting to do the same :P but here is one with the gang from 64 morton and Eunice wearing her traditional Chinese reception dress called the Qi Pao. also another shot with the ladies :)
although the wedding was in Pennsylvania i did manage to have one free day in Manhattan which was so great and i could hardly help myself from making comparisons to my new home in London...well i have to get to work so no musing on that now : )