Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Trumped--Jack

To finish up this series on Trump today, my birthday, I'd like to run through the structures he has planned for the next few years.

New York City
Handel Architects was another fortunate choice by Trump. It's a somewhat distinctive and interestingly, subtly detailed building.

Handel have done some extremely nice and recognizable work all around New York and should be commended for some of their recent work being LEED certified. But they've also worked in collaboration with some fantastic other architects, ones I mentioned in my opening post, in fact. They worked with UNStudio on the New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion in Battery Park to celebrate the 400th anniversay of the Dutch robbing Native Americans of their land settling on the island of Manhattan. They worked with Herzog & de Meuron on the design of 40 Bond Street, one of the more gorgeous buildings to go up here in recent years. And they're working with Christian de Portzamparc on 400 Park Avenue South, a stunning structure due to be completed in 2012.

They also did four buildings for Millennium Partners with which I'm very familiar, since they're all around the neighborhood where I work: Lincoln West, the building that used to house the Tower Records; Lincoln Triangle, which has the Barnes & Noble on the first few floors; Lincoln Square where the big Sony Cineplex is; and the renovation of the Philips Club, the building just north of the Juilliard building which used to have a Balducci's on the ground floor (it's now some other upscale food market).

Closer to where I live, they designed the Aquatic Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which I discussed before. In Long Island City, they're responsible for one of the big new apartment buildings creating a blight on the riverfront, The View at Queens West, which overlooks this:
--Photo ©2009, Ryan Witte.
I'm well aware that this exact same photo has been taken around four million different times, but I thought it came out remarkably nice, so I used this excuse to include it.


Trump Parc (2010)
Stamford, Connecticut
Costas Kondylis Design/ Lessard Group
This one is also not too awful, although a little bit on the bland side. Adding to the pressure for this to be a stunning work of architecture is that, at 350 feet, it's the tallest building in Stamford. But one might use words more like "restrained" or "reserved," which is certainly better and more appropriate for Connecticut than overblown and tacky, if it had to be one or the other extreme. One forum seems to indicate that the apartments are ridiculously overpriced for a part of the country that has impeccably tasteful traditional, vernacular residential architecture. They're allegedly having a lot of trouble selling them and have been forced to steadily lowering the prices.

This is actually one of the more successful towers Preston Partnership has done. They're based in Atlanta and have done quite a bit of work in that part of the Southeast. They've been particularly successful with smaller shopping plazas where a quaint, traditionalist style is either zoned or requested. Their work in this vein, while occasionally a little bit awkward in its detailing, is for the most part visually dynamic and has a great, personable scale.

Ironically, though these Atlanta towers are quite interesting, they seem to have a bit more trouble with their higher-rise work. They seem to have some difficulty reconciling between a pedestrian, human scale of street presence with the linear majesty required by a tower. In some cases, the buildings look like they built a tower and then just stuck a bunch of much smaller, completely unrelated buildings around the base of it. In this case, they appear to have foregone any attempt at a friendly connection to the street, and I actually think it worked in their favor here.



New Orleans
This might have been a mildly interesting building, were it not more or less a rip-off of SOM's tower for Trump in Chicago. Perhaps we should be grateful it's on hold. The latter is an infinitely superior building.

Adache's work is mostly concentrated around Florida, where they're based, with a few projects in the Caribbean. It's a lot of big hotels and resorts with the trappings of an expectedly clichéed, unimaginative sort of luxuriousness. Their massing tends toward the squat and unsophisticated. Their detailing--when not in a more studied, hence "safe" false traditionalism--is often overwrought and occasionally just downright bizarre. From the limited amount shown on their website, HSBA's best work would appear to have been in the 1970s. In recent years, it's gone from boring to unattractive to just plain ugly.

And that's all of it, as of now. In defense of Trump, in really exploring his developments, I've been surprised to have liked more of them than I initially expected. The point remains, however, that the sheer size of his projects demands a higher caliber of artistry. He should be patronizing world-class architects at every opportunity, nurturing their creative spirits, and pushing the envelope of sustainable design. All in all, it has been very interesting looking into his projects, I hope you've thought so, too.

©2009, Ryan Witte

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Trumped--Queen

In recent years, things have tended to get worse with Trump, for the most part. It may be that his reputation precedes him with architects and he can't even get an audience with the stars. It may be that, from the start, he places so many restrictions on them--namely, the bottom line--that they refuse to compromise their integrity and back out. Or it may be that he's so difficult to work with that the architects who do go forward with these projects, even the truly talented ones, are prevented from doing anything of real merit. Whatever the explanation, a big part of Trump's responsibility is to produce an atmosphere that's conducive to creativity and excellent architecture. Clearly, he doesn't.

Las Vegas, Nevada

--Photo courtesy Daylife.
I'm willing to admit that the coppery hue of the glass does give this building a little bit of appropriate Vegas glamour, especially in sunset light. But from looking around at BW&A's other work, it becomes clear it wasn't a particularly original idea. They're a Las Vegas firm that mostly does incredibly bland, insipid work all around that city. They helped on the Mirage and Treasure Island. They also had a great opportunity in designing the towers for Caesar's Palace, which could have been a very interesting Postmodern study of ancient Rome: Which Caesar are we talking about and what architectural features categorized his reign? How did the Romans build upward? Instead their solution was to slap on a few awkwardly placed columns and pediments, showing they did very little homework. They're also responsible for the Paris. I can think of no less imaginative project than to simply recreate monuments from some other city. It's sort of like an art school student copying Rembrandt to perfect his or her technique: a questionably good learning tool, but not real work of any substance.

One of the best things BW&A did, in my opinion, never got built. It's a study for a Hilton hotel with a wonderfully paper-thin profile and sort of exploded, Pop, vaguely Edward Durrell Stony decorative motifs reinterpreted structurally. It's somewhat clever and appropriately kitschy for Vegas.


New Rochelle, New York

This is a wreck, I'm sorry. It's like they squashed the Empire State Building, then stole the crown from some different building from 1932 that was demolished for being too ugly, and slapped it onto the top. There may even be something mildly exploitative, if one asks why on earth New Rochelle would have allowed this thing to go up. Sadly at the expense of even great works of architecture, New Yorkers will fight developers to the bitter end (and usually do). The answer likely is that New Rochelle was just pleased to have such a prominent bit of development going up in their town. I'm imagining city government just rolling out the red carpet for Trump and allowing him to do whatever he wanted. And Trump's thinking "hmm, New Rochelle...now that's a town that'll let me get away with architectural murder. They need me."

So he goes with Lessard Group. They did a pair of towers next door to this called LeCount Square that are a bit better, but not by much. They designed a Ritz-Carlton for Stamford, Connecticut that looks like it might be fairly interesting. They're also putting up a building at 42-31 Union Street here in Queens which I'll confess is really not such a bad building, although it was necessary to tear down a delightful little free-standing house probably built around the 1930s or 1940s to do it.

Sunny Isles Beach, Florida

I suppose I could've cropped that panorama, but I decided I liked it, click it for larger.
As much as I could rave about Sieger Suarez for their previous Trump project, this one kind of makes me say, "oh, well." Don't get me wrong, these are some nice enough buildings, but apparently they only designed one of them and then built it three times. Jane Jacobs warned quite eloquently about this kind of visual repetition, and I think it's a bit lazy. Perhaps Sieger Suarez were getting bored and annoyed about working for Trump and convinced him the grouping would have solidity and force. That may be true, but this has none of the dynamic rigor of their earlier work for him.

Hollywood Beach, Florida

--Image courtesy Serge Kay.
I appreciate the elliptical footprint, I suppose, but it's not particularly original. The proportions are fat and unfriendly and show very little finesse. It almost looks like it was originally supposed to be about thirty stories higher, but they ran out of funding and capped it off. It's the kind of building that gets a less-than-flattering nickname from people who have to look at it every day. Swedroe's prolific work in cities all over the place goes from ultra-tacky and gaudy down to boring and uninspired, and all too often verges on downright ugly. He also blatantly ripped off Sieger Suarez to put up towers in Las Vegas in 2007 and 2008 almost identical to their Palace and Royale for Trump, except without any of the artistry.

And Zaha Hadid has built one building in the United States, one.

Trump Las Olas Beach Resort (2008)
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Oscar Garcia

The reserved praise I was able to bestow on Garcia did not include this monstrosity. I'm fairly certain I don't have to go into detail as to what this lacks. It looks like the administrative offices for a garbage treatment plant. As I said, in Garcia's defense, it is very possible that working with Trump saps the creative energy out of anyone with an imagination. But that's the whole problem. Garcia clearly put only the most minimal amount of effort into this project. He was probably just trying to get it finished so he could forget about it.

Jersey City, New Jersey

Despite the fact that I share a similar last name with one of the architects (and here I said it was uncommon), it makes my brain hurt just to look at this monotonous pile of crap. Looking through their work, I can kind of get what DTA is trying to do, but I think it seldom works for them. For some unimaginable, perverted reason, the entire construction history of this thing has been lovingly documented on New York Sixth. Any sense of artistry is totally absent from this project. It's not sleek enough to be Minimalist, and there's no detailing to make it remotely interesting. Its extreme, unforgiving verticality is entirely wasted by the numbingly conventional windows. The crown is a joke, showing not the slightest understanding of proportion and lacking any sense of drama whatsoever. I'm not the type to hate on New Jersey, quite the contrary, but Jersey City definitely didn't need this crime added to the rest. To add insult to injury, it's the tallest residential building in the state.

Philadelphia
William Alesker for Alesker & Dundon Architects (A&DA)

Here, instead of just the base being an inhospitable parking garage as in Jersey City, someone decided the entire building should look like a parking garage. This is all the more appalling considering what a glorious and prominent site on the Delaware River this occupies. A&DA has done some particularly awful things, mostly in the low-budget airport motel mold. Studying the brilliant work of Richard Meier all afternoon, I just could not bear to look through their depressing website anymore. Their "portfolio" is no selling point. There's no question in my mind they were chosen solely because they put in the lowest bid.

Having hit rock bottom, happily, I can end on a high note.

Chicago
I adore SOM, obviously, and not surprisingly, this tower is absolutely magnificent. I'm terribly glad Trump went with them for this, because just look at where it's sited:
Click that, it's pretty big.
I can't imagine many other places in the country more ideal for a tower than that spot in the bend of the river in one of our greatest cities. It's also one of the greatest architectural cities, on top of it. The tower is glorious. It's dramatic, contextual, responsive to its site, sleek and sculptural, and completely fascinating. Perhaps Trump is a nightmare for architects to work with, but SOM is a force all their own. They've been around much longer than Trump. They've consistently built the tallest, most beautiful, most widely recognized buildings all over the world. They have the best talent at their disposal. They've got integrity and clearly take their reputation very seriously. Furthermore, for a firm this big, presumably they can divide the labor between those with a creative spirit from the businesspeople who can handle a destructive force like Donald Trump and run rings around him. How could he ever hope to keep them down?

Stay tuned for the last hand.

©2009, Ryan Witte

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Trumped--King

The beginning of the 1990s would seem to be a good place to start Part 2 in discussing Donald Trump. Perhaps his heyday, for a brief moment in time he was building relatively better buildings. Of course, to say that a Trump building is good architecture is extremely relative, sort of like saying that a black velvet painting is a good rendering of Elvis Presley. But during this time, he did put up a few things I can fault a bit less.

Trump Palace (1991)
New York City
I am perfectly willing to admit that this is not a terrible work of architecture, at all. In fact, it's got a sort of Machine Age robustness to it that I very much appreciate.
Its proportions and detailing are handled quite adeptly. It also contrasts its hard, blocky massing with an almost elegantly soft silhouette. I'm not sure I would find it to be a particularly delightful place to live, it's a bit too strong and lacks a certain human sensibility. For one thing, balconies 300 feet in the air with no buffer or anything are a complete waste of time...not to mention money. But as architecture goes, it's very well done.

Trump International Hotel and Tower (1997)
[formerly Gulf & Western Building (1971), Thomas E. Stanley]
New York City
Renovation by Philip Johnson
I pass by this building on my way to work, and I really do like it. I think it has a sort of starkly linear, glossy majesty to it. Certainly there is a lot about it that's derivative; the first thing that comes to my mind is Eero Saarinen's CBS Building with its similarly diagonally-oriented piers. This one is also kind of a cheap copy of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Building. But I think it has its own merits, and furthermore, no one would ever describe Johnson as being particularly original with a straight face. His strengths were elsewhere. I also really appreciate his self-referencing the 1964 World's Fair. Trump International is still a little bit on the banal side, to be sure, but definitely an improvement on what it looked like before.
--Photo courtesy Corbis.
There you can see it adjacent to Edward Durell Stone's 2 Columbus Circle, another of the "Ugliest" buildings decided upon by people who clearly have no clue what they're talking about. Why the New York Coliseum (at center) didn't make it onto any lists, I have no idea. I'd have had no argument with that.

Trump Place: 200 (1999), 180 (1999), & 160 Riverside Boulevard (2001)
New York City
Philip Johnson and Costas Kondylis
200:
--All Trump Place photos courtesy Wired.
180:
160:
Continued below...

New York City
(possibly Marta Rudzki for) Costas Kondylis Architects
One of the more controversial buildings he built, as many of you remember, World blocked numerous river views from adjacent (and no doubt pricey) apartments and cast a huge shadow over the rest. It may be the reason Trump mostly abandoned New York and began building in other cities where he'd get less community resistance. As I said before, I think Kondylis is a great match for Trump. I'm not convinced that, in 2001, we really needed another work of Minimalist architecture in New York. But as Minimalism goes, this building is glorious. From some angles in some lighting conditions, its façades look as if they could be made of one giant, solid sheet of glass. From others, the rigorous pattern of its window bays displays an unapologetic order unmatched in most other skyscrapers.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The funny thing about this is that everywhere lists this as a Michael Graves building, which redeems Trump slightly. The website, however, describes it as "Michael Graves inspired architecture" by Oscar Garcia. For a brief moment, I put a very contemptuous smirk on my face at this clever deception. It is a Graves building, though. Graves has it on his website, as well. I'll commend Trump for hiring an illustrious architect, but Graves was clearly just going through the motions. It has a somewhat personably proportioned street presence, but the primary colors are obnoxious. And the "I'm a cruise ship now" porthole windows are way too corny and obvious, even for Michael Graves. Garcia has done some interesting and quite subtly sculptural work. He's been particularly successful at times with a vaguely Latin-esque and decidedly Floridian typology.

Trump Place: 140 (2003), 220 (2003), 120 (2004), & 240 Riverside Boulevard (2005)
New York City
Costas Kondylis Architects
140:
220:
120:
240:
Again, Kondylis comes through with some nice, solid work. There's nothing particularly striking about this group of buildings, and I definitely think they'd have been well served by a little bit more stylistic cohesion. Having said that, Kondylis and Johnson seem to have referenced the historical language of New York's skyscrapers quite wonderfully. In a very nicely pared-down form, with the exception maybe of 120 Riverside, they would seem to recall buildings from the first third of the twentieth century. I wouldn't be surprised if the historical references were Johnson's contribution, although he had more or less abandoned Postmodernism at this point. I do find it a little disturbing, however, that this is such an enormous parcel of riverside property. It seems unnecessarily greedy somehow, even for Trump.

White Plains, New York
Costas Kondylis Architects
--Image courtesy 10 City Center.
Up in White Plains, it all starts to fall apart. Whatever happened to the grace Kondylis displayed in earlier works, I have no idea, but this shows none of it. Stodgy, awkward, uninspired, and painfully detailed, this is a real disappointment.

There are also various indications that Trump was somehow involved with the Acqualina Ocean Residences and Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, completed in 2005 with architecture by Robert M. Swedroe. It's about as tacky as Postmodernism gets but of course is described as having all kinds of "architectural splendor," disturbingly. It would appear Trump was only one of many developers involved with the project, so I'm not going to go into any more detail. More on Swedroe to come.

Sunny Isles Beach, Florida

Click these images: the files are huge and the photography is gorgeous.
That's the Palace on the left and the International Sonesta on the right. Here's the Sonesta:
This is the Palace, the Royale is its mirror image:
I thought I'd close out this installment here, because I think they're some of the best buildings Trump ever built. Certainly they wouldn't work in New York or many other places, but for their location, they're incredible. The practice of Charles Sieger and Jose Suarez is a mostly corporate firm that I'm not convinced I would trust to design a smaller, more intimate residence, but the architecture here is out of control. It's dynamic, sculptural, futuristic, and contextually appropriate. There's something ethereal about it that just screams Florida, and in a delightfully hip 1960s sort of way, but without being a throwback. The view of Sonesta from the beach:
The squared-off tower emerging like a chrysalis from the cocoon of the Sonesta's elliptical, terraced outer shell is particularly magical. That end seems to almost peel itself open in the most tantalizing way. The opposite façade presents a dramatic, sharp prow and a majestic but uncommon symmetry to the oceanfront.

The sort of overturned catamaran forms crowning the Palace and the Royale work so beautifully on a seaside site, but without being overly literal or blatantly symbolic. They're like giant, bright white futuristic machines. Machines that would perform what function, it'd be impossible to say, but they have the feel of enormous wind turbines or similar. The detailing of the window mullions creates a delightful texture from afar, and an almost Mondrianesque visual intrigue at closer range. In my humble opinion, they are a tour de force.

Unfortunately, this is the peak. Problems start to appear again in part three.

©2009, Ryan Witte

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Trumped--Ace

I think it's about time that we discussed Donald Trump. I don't know exactly how many square feet of development he's erected in the United States, although it'd be interesting to see that figure. Suffice it to say, he has had a greater impact on skylines across our nation than most other developers and is a colossal--and by the way, extremely publicly visible--figure in the world of real estate. His responsibility to the evolution of architecture is directly proportional to the amount and size of his projects and real estate holdings.

Donald Trump has a responsibility to us. He has the responsibility to erect stunning architecture that graces our cities, that pushes boundaries of style and aesthetics. Furthermore, there is absolutely no excuse, with the kind of wealth he has amassed, for him not to be building LEED-Platinum structures (or beyond, for that matter, to the point of innovating) across the board. Trump has not lived up to his responsibilities by any possible stretch of the imagination, and I think it's disgusting.

To be completely fair, there are a few names in the bunch. Swanke Hayden Connell is respectable enough, and I won't piss on Michael Graves, although his work for Trump was a very long shot from his finest work. Philip Johnson was a great choice, and the first Trump project on which he worked was probably a perfect match for Johnson--arguably a stylist above all else--since his contribution was a new shell for a pre-existing building. Costas Kondylis is probably the best choice for Trump. As far as is concerned the corporate (read: safe) architecture Trump seems to prefer, Kondylis has done some beautiful work. I understand that development is a business first and foremost. Radical, sculptural, avant-garde architecture has little place in a successful business model. But the rest of these architects? Who the hell are these people?

Let's take a look at who's alive today: Gehry, Hadid, Ando, Calatrava, Koolhaas, Lynn, Meier, Foster, Diller, Rogers, Nouvel, Portzamparc, Tschumi, UNStudio (they may seem like an unlikely addition, but I adore what they're doing), the list goes on and on and on. For Trump's intended clientele, Robert Stern would seem an ideal choice: refined, classy, sophisticated. He was lined up to do a building at Trump Place in New York, but it just never materialized. Has Trump even approached any of these other people? Perhaps he has, and they turned him down. I can't say I would blame them, and Frank Gehry did, of course. If Trump is going to build THIS much stuff, and the rest of us have to look at it and live with it, this is the caliber of architects to which he should be talking. Instead he hires the most bland, corporate conglomerate firms to put up one pile of garbage after another, presumably for no other reason but because they bid lowest. He needs to be stopped.

I'd like to run through the monstrosities he's perpetrated on the continental United States, in chronological order--that is, the structures he had built, himself, rather than existing ones he purchased--and make fair note of the high-quality exceptions. The fact that, in so many cases, it's practically impossible to even determine who the architect was proves my point perfectly. The architecture of these structures is not the selling point it so easily could be. In fact, it's more of an afterthought, as if Trump would just as happily hire a contractor to put up fifty floors surrounded by glass with the involvement of no architect at all.

Trump Tower (1983)
New York City

Clicking on most images will provide larger views.
--All images understood to be in the public domain unless otherwise noted.
Trump's first major erection (pun intended) is actually a stunning building: a beautifully elongated, crystalline structure with terraced balconies planted with trees. Its marbled lobby atrium is particularly dramatic, with interlaced floating escalators and the waterfall cascading down one full wall, probably four or five stories high. One might have believed he had some promise at this early stage. SHCA has built some beautiful buildings over the years and were a fine choice, but are mostly known for their interiors work. They've been involved in the historic preservation of a number of New York's buildings, including Harrison & Abramovitz' Time & Life Building. They also designed 130 East Fifty-Ninth Street and the graphics and website for the New York Historical Society.

Atlantic City, New Jersey

--Photo found here.
There really are no good photos to be found of this one. I guess I'm not all that surprised. I mean, if the man who put his own name in huge letters on the side of the building didn't care what it looked like, why should anyone else? Martin Stern, Jr. (1917-2001) built extensively in Las Vegas, and is possibly best known for the International Hotel (1969, now the Las Vegas Hilton), which was the largest hotel in the world when it was built and is said to have ushered in the era of Las Vegas' towering casino hotels. He also designed the original MGM Grand (1973), also the largest hotel in the world at the time, which was destroyed by fire in 1980, was rebuilt, and is now Bally's Las Vegas.

Trump Plaza (1984)
New York City
Philip Birnbaum & Associates
--Photo courtesy City Realty.
I don't remember ever noticing it, but this mostly boring Y-shaped apartment building is on Third Avenue at Sixty-First Street. Philip Birnbaum (1907-1996) designed over 300 buildings, examples of which I'm not going to bother mentioning. Aside from allegedly innovating the rooftop swimming pool, he was mostly known for the efficiency of his floor plans, which would waste little to no space. Listen to what Trump said about him: "...he probably designed more buildings in New York than anyone else. Not all of them were good, but they all made money." Mmhmm. Because of course, making Donald Trump more money than he already has is definitely more important than creating quality architecture. This doesn't particularly look like the work of Costas Kondylis, but Kondylis worked for Birnbaum, so if nothing else, this is most likely how he became acquainted with Trump.

Trump Plaza (1985)
West Palm Beach, Florida

--Photo courtesy Casa Bella Productions.
Schwab and who? With their mountain of institutional, scientific, retail and corporate projects around Florida, STH has built mostly in this kind of cold, bland Modernism and hackneyed, McMansion-style neo-Postmodernism. These towers are inoffensive enough, but I'm inclined to wonder, "why bother?"

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Okay, so let's look at some of the architects whose work makes it onto "Ugliest Buildings in the World" lists, shall we? Although I don't despise it in theory, I guess I won't argue with the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but Forbes accuses Richard Rogers, I. M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Mario Botta, Paul Rudolph, and Edward Durrell Stone. At the very top of a lot of other lists is Boston City Hall. Others include its British counterpart, the Birmingham Central Library. The list for Gridskipper, allegedly compiled from the opinion of "experts," includes Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Norman Foster, and--although one is a Trump building, not surprisingly--two by Philip Johnson. Those are the ugliest.

Now, granted, a lot of this comes from kiss-ass tourist sites and/or is quoted from Trump's own advertising propaganda, but here's what's said about the Taj Mahal:
Need I go on?

I'll be the first one to defend kitsch. I read and adored every last word of Learning from Las Vegas. While Atlantic City is really only a pale facsimile, I think Vegas is one of the most truly astonishing cities with some of the most important architecture in the world (however incredibly tacky it may be--I said "important," not "beautiful" or any other qualitative adjective). But seriously? "Architectural masterpiece?" The Trump Taj Mahal? Are you freaking kidding me? It's not so much that the casino would market itself that way. That, of course, is understandable. It's the fact that so many people who don't know any better, looking for a hotel to patronize in Atlantic City, will see this description over and over again and presume it to be an unbiased assessment by those in the know.

Plenty of these same people will stumble onto a major newspaper or similar publication and glance over a fun top ten list for a laugh, with Walter Gropius listed on it. Walter Gropius, easily the founding uncle of Modernist architecture, if Mies and Corbusier are its founding fathers. There is something very, VERY wrong with this picture. And the architectural press is nowhere near innocent in the equation, either. I think it's a disgrace.

More amusingly, Francis Dumont--who I'm not trying to blast, not exactly--also conceived a renovation plan for the Liberace Museum.

Stay tuned for part two.

©2009, Ryan Witte