This 1963 Westchester California building designed by Eliot Noyes is presently occupied by Otis College of Art and Design. Here is a closer view beautifully documented by South Bay adjacent Tash. Before it was Otis the building served as IBM’s Aerospace Research Center. The window design is a reflection of IBM’s computer “punch card” system. Mr. Noyes also designed the company’s Selectric typewriter. Some of us didn’t part with our Selectric till the year 2000. Some of us created a museum dedicated to the Selectric
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This is the kind of trivia that makes life worth living. If you get a chance do take a minute and read this link to Elliot Noyes, an unsung design pioneer. I too had never heard of him. He’s interesting
IBM & Otis Art were indie same building, huh?
My intuition has been that art is a science, or at least mathematically inclined.
I miss the Selectric! When I was a little kid, my dad would bring home those computer punch cards (from the Dept of Energy) for my sister and I to play with. Fun!
Good ole punch cards. I remember them from when I was a kid.
I’m showing my age here. Early in my stay at Cal Poly Pomona, I took a computer / data processing class and we still used those punch cards. They were gone soon after.
Boy, that building is as unattractive as the punch cards but I like the bird captured on the left flying into view. Wonder how many boxes of those old cards are still stashed in basements around the world.
Oh no! The card you show is from the Univ. of Michigan! It might well be mine. I remember standing in line to register for classes in the mid 60s. Some of the kids were wearing signs of protest which said “Do not fold, bend, spindle, or mutilate; we are human beings!”
Reading left to right:
That enterprising bird is delivering some serious takeout.
I hope the building is more cohesive/handsome close-up, not that it matters. Harvard University has the hands down ugliest math/science building/campus ever. Our local univeristy is sublime in comparison.
I wish I was in design school. Without it I’ll go to my grave feeling bent, spindled, and wistful.
Wonder why that was the chosen name. They could have gone for the personal: Melectric. Or the communal: Welectric. Or the religious: Theelectric.
The masculine: Helectric. The feminine: Shelectric. The active: Belectric.
First, IBM and then, an art school. A building with a mid-life crisis?
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These are some great quirky comments. I’ll have to get back to everyone later. Headed up to Westchester to slap a UV coating on the murals before the rains come.
Hurry Hurry Hurry
I think thelectric thoundth thexy.
Very, very clever.
I just looked at our former IBM building here. I’ve never noticed but it is in the shape of a punch card turned on it’s side with narrow windows mimicing the punchouts. Now I feel stupid for not realizing it, but thanks for making me look twice.
I am a proud owner of an punch card that I used during my 1st engineering job. I got pretty good at JCL (Job Control Language) we had to submit with every run. And then, all that went away – thank goodness.
Beautiful shot of the building, you did it proud. Thx :) for the link too. I like the bird adjacent in the photo!
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Our grade school collected punch cards for the holiday season. We painted them gold and folded each card “heal to toe” then formed them into the shape of wreaths. Seems Washington’s Visual Art Center has taken on the challenge of turning punch cards into art stars
http://www.washingtonpavilion.org/VisualArtsCenter/events/punchcardart.cfm
CO: Now your trying to get on my good side. There are some that would argue that great breakthroughs in physics coincided with the break up of form within figurative painting (think cubism)
Linda: I loved my Selectra and only threw it out this last year. When I type on my Mac key board I seem to always hit two keys at a time and have to return to the text and do a ton of deleting. Never happened on my Selectra.
Vanda: but did you keep any of them? Do they show up at paper sales?
Keith: Isn’t it a pain to be between technologies? Similar in that in the mid 80′s I was studying commercial printing at L.A. Trade Tech (negative/positive film separations) when all along digital technology was in the pipes making my new found skills irrelevant.
D: I agree. It’s kind of a stinker with a great history. Could this be a form of regional architectures rich cousin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_architecture
Elliot Noyes (I think) is the brains behind backlighting colored opaque plexy glass; not good for neon
Dina: Being that I’m a fan of arcane knowledge, you don’t know how happy I am with “Do not fold, bend, spindle, or mutilate; we are human beings!” (so is PJ)
Too long for a bumper sticker but a Tee Shirt?
PJ: It’s ugly but the banners give it a touch of whimsy (it is an art school after all). The bird was a surprise and had I had my Cannon G9 at the time of “research and Development” phase of the project, instead of the G2 I’d be able to tell you what he was hauling.
AH: I’d hate to have you on one of my committees.
Professor Margaret: My post or the architecture? elaborate
Tash: Is that what they called this system “JLC” or was that specific to your job?
Mr V’s big into cameras (sells buys trades and shoots) all kinds. Drove me nuts. Now I drive him nuts with my frequent stops to point and shoot. In fact he’s now making suggestions “how bout that for your blog?”
the building is not so attractive