Category Archives: Skyscrapers

Robert Stark interviews Rich Houck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Rich Houck about urbanism, aesthetics, and the need for social capital. Rich is a recent law school grad and you can check out his blog on Patreon and his Twitter account.

Topics:

Rich’s interest in photography
Rich’s patronage of independent artists
Interest in both traditional and Retro-Futurist aesthetics
Neon nationalism: reclaiming the future we should have had
80s nostalgia: the 80s as a going away party
The Last Mall Rat OR The Decline and Transformation of The American Mall
The importance of communal spaces, whether it’s Interior Urbanism or a traditional village space
How urban planning models and density relate to social cohesion
Does Diversity Create Distrust?
Crime prevention through environmental design and A New Way of Understanding ‘Eyes on the Street‘ 
Impression of San Francisco, how it could have been an American Paris with a uniquely American European aesthetic
The spring COVID-19 took from me
How the pandemic is exposing a wide range of problems from open borders to factory farming
Robert’s novel Journey to Vapor Island’s lesson about taking the best from all sides
Symbolism of the Neon-Raccoon

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark & Richard Wolstencroft discuss the Film High-Rise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Melbourne based director Richard Wolstencroft discuss the film High-Rise (film), a 2015 film by British director Ben Wheatley, based on the novel by J. G. Ballard.

Topics:

The Bush Fires in Australia, climate change narrative, and other factors
Deep ecology and right wing environmentalism
The Science Fiction of J. G. Ballard including the timely The Drowned World , and how Richard would like to adapt his work into a film
The 70s Retro-Futuristic aesthetic
Brutalist architecture in High-Rise, and the genre in Clockwork Orange and Richard’s upcoming film The Debt Collector
Ironies of the film’s dystopian nature and how it compares to other dystopian films such as Joker
A self-contained city, an Arcology with all amenities within the same structure
Class conflict in a society where all classes live within the same structure
Metaphor for the breakdown of civilization
The unsustainable of the neoliberal system
How technology exacerbates inequality
Archetypes of the characters, including filmmaker Richard Wilder, an apocalyptic anarchic figure
The theme of attempting dialogue with gate keepers and elites who refuse to listen
The architect, a Nietzschean figure, an aesthetic and technological visionary in contrast with our managerial elites
Conspiracy theories vs. the view of elites as a managerial class who extract resources with no vision for the future

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Vegas Photo Album(December 2019)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album includes Baker, California and Primm, Nevada in the Mojave Desert, and the Flamingo, Venetian, Mirage, and Wynn on the Las Vegas Strip.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island

Continue reading Vegas Photo Album(December 2019)

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about Urbanist observations from trip to San Diego

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about their recent trip to San Diego and their observations on cultural and urbanist trends.

Topics:

San Diego’s reputation as a smaller, cleaner, nicer version of LA and its unique attributes
The layout of the city with a centralized downtown near the waterfront surrounded by suburban sprawl
San Diego and Orange County among the largest areas of upper middle class sprawl in the nation
Politics of San Diego as a historically Republican stronghold that has trended Democratic in recent years
Demographics of San Diego and how they relate to overall CA trends
The most stereotypical American City located in CA while the State is culturally drifting apart from the rest of the Country
After decades of suburban sprawl, San Diego eyes big shift to dense development
The historic Gaslamp Quarter which is the one section that feels truly urban
Horton Plaza: Will this PoMo wonderland in San Diego be saved?
Architect Jon Jerde’s inspiration for Horton Plaza from Ray Bradbury’s “The Aesthetic of Lostness” extolling the virtues of getting “safely lost”
Wealthy beach community La Jolla and it’s village layout
The importance of investing in communal places that the public can enjoy, particularly in wealthy areas
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
The Victorian Hotel del Coronado
Friendship Park at the US/Mexico Border and political symbolism of the border wall
The Inland Empire
Heavenly Action by Erasure, the soundtrack of the trip with a message that friendship, love, and positivity can conquer anything

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Logo Daedalus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logo Daedalus is the author of Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull’s Blue Skiddoo and writes for Autistic Mercury. You can also check him out on Twitter.

Topics:

Logo’s novel Selfie, Suicide, a coming of age satire of a failed artist
Instagram inspired parody art museums
New York’s Staircase to Nowhere
How technology impacts politics
Wyndham Lewis
Andrew Yang
How the UBI could create a cultural renaissance
The Obama to Trump voters in the Rustbelt
Aesthetics as politics
Retro-futurist genres Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Cyberpunk
Underground comics

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Urbanist Lessons from Trip to the Southwest

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas discuss their trip last fall to Las Vegas(Vegas Strip and Downtown), The Grand Canyon, and Zion.

Topics:

Las Vegas as the quintessential Post Modernist City
Creating an other wordy aura that does not exist in mundane consumerism
Creating something noble or grandiose out of consumerism
Las Vegas as an economic rather than geographic concept
Nothing permanent because architecture only survives if profitable
Vintage Vegas and Neon Signage
Irony of historic preservationist dismissing architecture of value because it is a product of capitalism
The pros and cons of private zoning
Casino Resorts functioning as an arcology or self contained city
Theme parks as models for urbanism
The potential for an urban alternative to over priced West Coast Cities
St. George Utah, sprawl layout, and high trust homogeneous middle class demographic
Alt-Urbanist solutions that seek to recreate those attributes in an urban setting
Southern Utah and Northern Arizona as one of the most scenic and geologically diverse regions in the world

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks to Constantin von Hoffmeister about India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constantin von Hoffmeister is originally from Germany, lives in Moscow, blogs at Oge Noct, and published the National Futurist Manifesto.

Topics:

Working as a journalist for Blitz(newspaper) in Bombay and National Herald in New Delhi
Interviews with Sonia Gandhi and the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama on migrants in Europe
Activists Launch ‘Gandhi Must Fall’ Against Statue of ‘Racist’
The cultural and ethnic diversity of India
The Ancient language of Sanskrit, linguistic division between Hindi and Tamil, and the role of English
The Parsis
The Indian diaspora
India’s geopolitics and rivalry with China and the Islamic World
Indian Cuisine and the regional differences
The poor quality of sanitation in India
Economic disparities among regional and demographic groups
Growing prosperity, investment in infrastructure, and skyscrapers
The Right’s irrational hatred of skyscrapers and the need for National Futurist architecture
Le Corbusier’s model of Urbanism and his Chandigarh project in New Delhi
Indo-Saracenic architecture from the British Colonial era
Indo-Islamic and Mughal architecture
The impact of British Colonialism
Political tension between secularist and Hindu Nationalist

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Vegas Strip Photo Album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album includes:

The Flamingo
The Venetian
The Wynn
Caesars Palace
Paris
Cosmopolitan
The Mirage
Luxor
The Shops at Crystals
Peppermill
Circus Circus

Check out Robert’s last Las Vegas photo album from 2016

Brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Continue reading Vegas Strip Photo Album

Robert Stark talks to Adam Mayer about San Francisco Architecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk to architect Adam Mayer about San Francisco’s architectural history and current trends. Check out his TwitterInstagram, and Architectural Portfolio.

Topics:

Robert’s meetup and architectural tour with Adam in Downtown SF
Ghirardelli Square and the Cannery
SF Neon TOURS
Beaux-Arts Palace Hotel
Art Deco highrises Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Shell Building, and Pac Bell Tower
Mid Century Modern Joseph Eichler highrises, the Fairmont Hotel, and the Hilton
William Pereira’s Transamerica Pyramid and Louis Kahn’s use of concrete inspired by ancient monuments
Underappreciated 80’s post modernism, Art Deco revival, Marriott Juke Box, and Crocker Galleria
Philip Johnson’s 101 California Street and Union Square Neiman Marcus
The John Portman designed Embarcadero Center, it’s attributes of a self contained city and urban oasis, and the JW Marriott
Portman’s uniqueness in being both an architect and real estate developer
Jonathan Segal’s project ‘Architect as Developer’
SOMA highrise boom, Central SoMa Rezone, 5M development, and, Caltrain redevelopment 
New Transbay Transit Center
SOMA skyscrapers 181 FremontSalesforce Tower, and Rem Koolhaas’ Tower
The end of the high-rise boom cycle
The Missing Middle Housing
Addressing the housing crisis while respecting historic preservation and aesthetics
Current trends in architecture and marriage between modernism and post modernism(meta modernism)

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks to Ashley Messinger about Restructuring Education in Self Contained Cities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to ASHLEY MESSINGER about restructuring education to adapt to future social, economic, and urban trends. Ashley is based in the UK and writes for AltLeft.com. You can also find Ashley on Twitter.

Topics:

Ashley’s article Educational Formality and Its Abundance
How education is primarily about job-market signalling, hence the phenomenon of credential inflation
Education as a form of day care
How Geniuses tend to be self-taught
The problem of age segregation
Free-range parenting movement
Education as conditioning for wage slavery and the need for a leisure culture
Education alternatives such as virtual education and apprenticeships
The need for specialization in education and the economy
Ashley’s article The Harmless Psychopaths
Finding niches for different personality traits
The lack of social cohesion caused by our education system, internet culture, demographic change, and suburban sprawl
How self contained cities can address these social ills
Universities campuses as models for self contained cities
The U-Shaped Fertility Trend and Affordable Family Formation in a self contained city

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island