MADRID:

Tuesday a.m. I arrived in Madrid after an exceptionally painful 13 hours of train travel from Porto. Instead of Traveling southeast, I had to first go north and into Spain only to turn around and come back south. In any case, I arrived and have been enjoying myself over the past few days.

After taking care of laundry and getting some sleep on Tuesday, I spent basically all of Wednesday at the Prado Museum. The collection is basically European art from 1100-1800 with an obvious focus on Spanish art. Spectacular...it has to be one of my all time favorite museums, but what is really magnificent is the Velazquez and Goya collection. Velazquez's work in particular was exciting to see as I studied the seminal painting 'Las Meninas' in a theory class at Tulane. Seeing it in person was great as the scale of the painting only adds to its power.

The Prado is located next to the Jardim Botanico which I plan to see later on in the week, but even further beyond that is a great urban park called Parque del Buen Retiro. It is a Beaux Arts layout with different fountains and pavilions set in a structured series of paths through different gardens. It has been a great place to run in the evenings....

I have also visited the Caixa Forum by Herzog and de Meuron...It is the reuse of an existing building with an addition to the roof. The ground plane has been opened up with a new, folded steel roof supporting the underside of the building. Four different feet reach the ground as support, but from different vantage points, the brick building seems to be floating over a folding concrete plaza. Set perpendicular to the building, is a lush green wall. Planting vary drastically giving an exceptional amount of texture and relief to the wall. The green becomes a nice contrast to the red of the building.

The addition is a cor-ten clad structure that rests abruptly on the existing building's multiple pitched roof line. Created as a perforated veil, the addition is glass enclosed; the cor-ten becomes a filter to look through on what is a restaurant level.

To enter the building, you pass into the one 'foot' resting on the ground that is actually open. Here, the soffit of this open plaza under the building undulates and folds down to rest on the ground plane; inside is a folded stainless steel stair that circles its way up to the next level where the major publics spaces are located: information, book store, and informal lounge. The same stainless steel is carried through as flooring with different walnut wood pieces defining the program elements mentioned above. There are two floors of free exhibitions above with the restaurant level above those.

The lower level plaza and green wall are remarkable. Treated in a similar fashion as the Forum building in Barcelona with an undulating ground plane and building soffit, the Caixa Forum seems better scaled for habitation as there seems to be enough light to actually make it hospitable; also, there is a water feature that makes the folding of the ground plane integrated into a larger idea instead of just undulating for the sake of undulating.

Enough talk..I have an opera to attend at the Teatro Real...Verdi is on the bill and I am excited!!