On yesterday’s Morning Edition, NPR broadcasted “Cezanne’s Shadow: A Master’s Influence Lingers.” The story investigates the long-lasting influence of the French painter, which is the theme of Cezanne and Beyond, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s current exhibition.

The Cezanne exhibition displays some works borrowed from the St. Louis Art Museum as well as works by Ellsworth Kelly, who as most of you readers know, has a permanent piece (Blue Black) displayed in the Pulitzer’s Main Gallery. On the Morning Edition show, you can hear Kelly express his respect for Paul Cezanne’s work.

Also, the Pulitzer would like to brag that its previous curatorial assistant, Camran Mani, is now a curatorial assistant for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and worked on Cezanne and Beyond.

As a way to generate interaction with our PFA Myspace/Facebook pages, I’ve been asking people to email me photos and drawings made from Pulitzer visits, to put in albums currently titled “Visitors’ Images.” This is so average guests can showcase their creativity and have a visual discussion of what they see at the Pulitzer.

Today is the opening at this online gallery. Here is some of what is being exhibited:

If you have something you would like to submit, you can email it to me at web@pulitzerarts.org.

This past Saturday, art teacher Bryan Rickert visited the Pulitzer with his wife and two daughters. It wasn’t the first time he has come to see Ideal (Dis-) Placements; he’s regular at the Pulitzer and enjoys the peaceful qualities of its atmosphere.

A view of the back of the Pulitzer building, with trees in bloom:

With the recent onslaught of cold weather in St. Louis, an effect we saw last year is happening again on the Pulitzer’s watercourt.

Last year (actually almost to the day!), I wrote about the swirling steam in the watercourt. The cold air against the heated water in the reflecting pool causes the steam to glide across the water’s surface. It’s a sight we saw for the first time last year since it was the first winter that we had a heated watercourt. Previously, the water had to be drained each winter so it wouldn’t freeze and potentially damage the sides of the pool. In addition, I just learned, that the rising steam also actually protects the windows from thermic stress and potential cracking. The steam was a nice surprise last year, and a welcome sight again this one. So pick an extra cold day to visit and see if the steam is in full effect!

A few days ago I arrived at work and saw that the water had been completely drained from the watercourt. This used to happen regularly each winter (to prevent the water from freezing) but since we got a heater, seeing it empty is a rare occurrence.

Here’s a picture of it taken from the stairway to the mezzanine:

And here’s a close-up photo taken from the stairway near the offices:

I asked Steve, the Pulitzer’s Facilities Manager, for the scoop on the “drought”. He said that ever since upgrading the watercourt with a water heater last year they have gradually been upgrading other features as well. This includes trying out new water level sensors. To do this, the pool had to be completely drained and refilled. Finding a new sensor will be an ongoing project, but draining the watercourt also provided an opportunity to do some needed cleaning and covering of the pipes. And everything was back up and running and full of water before we opened on Wednesday, so the public was none the wiser.

A few weeks ago, I promised to find out the stories behind some images I posted of the Pulitzer’s construction. Well, today I interviewed Steve (Facilities Manager) and asked him about this one:

Steve described the process of building the Mezzanine and why a tent was necessary to complete this. It began with ordering window frames. The Pulitzer’s windows have extruded aluminum frames that were custom-made and sized for the building. The company that worked on these said they couldn’t create the frames without having the exact dimensions needed. The widths of the Mezzanine windows were known, however, they didn’t have the height. The Mezzanine ceiling wasn’t scheduled to be built until after the rest of the building’s walls were complete.

Therefore, they had to push up construction on the Mezzanine without delaying the schedule for the rest of the building. This put the work right in the middle of winter, which meant the concrete had to be poured between December and January. This created a few challenges:

First of all, since the Mezzanine is elevated, cold air could move freely around the concrete, which greatly increased the chances for freezing. Additionally, plywood that was laid down for the pouring could absolutely not get wet. If it did, the wood would swell which would then create lines in the concrete after it was poured.

Additionally reinforcing steel was placed on top of the plywood. This runs through the concrete and is what gives it its tensile strength. Because the concrete on the Mezzanine roof is thin, a large amount of steel had to be put down, and in precise locations so the concrete would hold. As Steve said, it looked like a sculpture. Here’s a photo:

You can see the wood underneath that thick web of steel. If that plywood got damaged in any way, all that steel would have to be removed and then replaced.

All these conditions made it absolutely necessary to have a tent to protect the construction process against the winter elements. It definitely gives you something to think about next time you’re sitting up on the Mezzanine!

On Tyler Green’s blog today he links to a fantastic aerial view of the Met in New York. It made me want to see an aerial view of the Pulitzer. Since we’ve never rented a helicopter (though wouldn’t that be an exciting day at work), we don’t have any really dramatic views, but here’s a few that we do have of our courtyard from the top of our building:

I decided to type our address into Google maps to take a look at the satellite image. Here’s the link –you might have to zoom in and move towards the left a bit on the map if it doesn’t do that already. I was hoping I could post the actual picture in here, but I don’t think that’s allowed. However, if anyone has some interesting satellite or aerial images of the Pulitzer or Grand Center that I can post, let me know. As you can see in the link, the Contemporary is still under construction which means the image is probably from around 2002 or 2003. However, it’s really interesting to see what the area looked like a few years ago. It’s a valuable historical document for other reasons too–in the parking lot you can see a few of our staff member’s old cars that now reside in junk yards. Plus, doesn’t Joe look fantastic??

Today I’ve been sifting through our image archives, looking for photographs taken during the construction of the building. I need to send a few for a book that will possibly feature the Pulitzer and the unique construction techniques utilized on site. Here’s a few of the images I particularly like:

Steve, our Facilities Manager, is busy today–most likely constructing something really complicated. (I can hear the sounds of drilling as I type). But as soon as I can, I’m going to corner him and ask him a few questions about the above pictures. He has tons of great stories to tell. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask him, send me a note and let me know. In the meantime, watch this video on our website that briefly describes the construction process, specifically, the development of “Ando concrete”.

Today I thought I would share two photos with you — one when the building first opened and one from the present.

Here’s a view taken by Peter Clarkson, Construction Manager for the Pulitzer building. This picture was taken shortly after the building opened–on the right you can see the Contemporary still under construction (click on the image to enlarge).

Here’s a much more recent picture of the roof garden on our mezzanine. I wanted to show the same angle as the above picture, but unfortunately, I can’t stand on the roof. However, comparing the two images, you can see how much the vegetation around the building has grown. The pgymy bamboo garden (which is the largest of its kind outside of Japan) has grown considerably, and trees have been planted at the far end of the building. A lot has changed in Grand Center since we opened in 2001. If you have any memories or pictures from when the building first opened and how the area has changed since then, post a comment and let me know.