...........DOWNTOWN.............

....Asked to do a semi-industrial / ' Jules Verne ' style interior for a bar in a basement in the centre of Manchester I trailed the Internet for images and stumbled across the words ' Steam - Punk ' , a generic name for a style that I was familiar with visually , but a phrase that I had not come across before .

 .....Suddenly things started falling into place - the film ' The City of Lost Children ' , a french film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet ; ' The Difference Machine ' a novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling , some of the opening scenes from the film ' The Golden Compass ' , the Arts et Metiers metro station in Paris - all redolent of an alternate society that retains the visual edginess of Victorian engineering  - science fiction as seen at the turn of the century . Society as envisaged through scientific and industrial development unencumbered by the visual curse of ' modernism ' ,  free of the influence of the Bauhaus and the microchip.........and powered by steam !?............its that point in time when the developing , cutting edge of technology is still dressed up in doric columns and victorian decoration

.......and then I came across The Edison , a bar lounge in downtown Los Angeles .

L.A.'s first ever power plant , built in 1910 by Thomas Higgins , disused , redundant - and rescued from obscurity by Andrew Meieran and Marc Smith to be re-born as a stunning nightclub. To have the vision and the confidence to leave the interior pretty much ' as found ' - concrete floors, turbines , generators, ovens - this is just wonderful . Opportunities like this come along once in a lifetime so well done to Kelly Architects..........

..and no, I haven't visited it - but the website http://www.edisondowntown.com/ is equally exemplary . Again , a most interesting and stunning piece of web design , this time I think by The Bureau ( I can't find a link to them - anyone help ? ). For an interior designer like me this is a most wonderful web-site , complete with walk through plans and interactive panoramic shots - the shots I think are by Will Pearson , a London based photographer who at least features it at www.willpearson.co.uk/virtual_tours/edison_downtown . It is not often that everything comes together so well - scheme , graphics , website . An integrated source of delight. 

And still in Steam-Punk territory, a quick mention for the artist John Coulthart at http://www.johncoulthart.com/ whose art is great and whose blog I follow with interest at www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/  -  again , another nice web-site.

All this great talent - makes you want to give up at times.