Piano Pavilion at Kimbell Art Museum. Photo: Robert LaPrelle.
Menil Collection architect Renzo Piano --- whose addition to Louis Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum just opened in Fort Worth --- explains in an interview with Glasstire why he loves working in Texas: "You may be used to the light in Texas, but it’s a special light. It’s brilliant, stronger than usual. I remember actually one of the first things we did when I came in ’80, Dominique de Menil told me, 'I want to go to Israel because I’ve been told that Israel is the same light as Texas.' I don’t know why she said that. By the way, it was not true. But it is true that Israel has a strong light. But in Texas it’s also because of the latitude, because of the absence of mountains, and the clouds and the nature. Nature is also very spatial. It’s flat. When you plant a tree in Texas, it grows up. It’s a real forest."
It's not easy to get around in Houston, writes Cite contributor and MasterChef Christine Ha. But it's even harder when you're legally blind: "The city is spread out across 600 square miles, yet public transportation is limited," she writes in a blog post for Houstonia. "While a sighted person can hop into a car and drive from my neighborhood to the University of Houston’s main campus in half an hour, using a shared ride service can increase that time fivefold. . . . When I could no longer get behind the wheel, my only options were to walk or use the METROLift, a shared ride service for the disabled. At first, I was uncomfortable with the whole idea of this; while it satisfied my need for transportation, the service forced me to face and accept the loss of both my vision and, just as heartbreaking, my independence. I felt this loss every time I sat on the front stoop of my home in Southwest Houston, waiting for the sound of a mini-bus or van pulling up."
You can take a virtual ride with Metro on Houston's next section of light rail, opening soon.
And, thanks to the nighttime videography of Hair Balls' Cory Garcia, you can witness the latest round of Astrodome demolitions. Watch three of the four ramp towers go boom.
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