Philadelphia

I had a decent time in Philly. The conference went well, I survived both the red-eye and general lack of sleep, and aside from some minor hallucinations due to exhaustion, I've come out of the whole trip in one piece. I also managed to get in a walk around the Independence Hall and Society Hill areas.

I don't normally take good pictures, I don't really know why. But this turned out well. The building in the foreground is the Independence Living History Center, a National Parks joint. The brick tower thingy (my pal Dennis described it as "quasi-Bauhaus") and the reflecting glass wall are utterly out of step with the surrounding Colonial and early American architecture, for instance the revivalist First Bank of the US that it reflects in the picture. Weird. And in the background is the Art Deco 1935 US Customs House.

More of that part of Philly seems to be 19th century rowhouses...

... like this one.
Where these have been torn down, to a satisfyingly great extent they've been replaced by buildings that fit the scale, and many,...

... like these, that mimic the spatial configuration. This is part of a long block of rowhouses, built as one big building without variation in roofs or fronts, except for the colors of the front doors. But it felt right, across the street from the old rowhouses.