As much as the boundaries between design and art fade away (at DesignMiami galleries sell design through an art market structure, such as a $50,000 limited edition of 3 “designer” chairs), yet we continue to need to categorize and make distinctions between the two. And when we can’t see the distinction, bewildered, we cry for an explanation.

A recent post here by Starre Vartan elaborated on one of the defining factors of that distinction: the relationship between the creative and the commercial and what it means to both. This was a great insight. Then my visit to Indianapolis and the new art hotel brought even more clarity to the topic, a case study for discussion.

The Alexander Hotel (a 209 room property, part of the CityWay redevelopment complex in downtown Indianapolis) is the result of an initiative by Indiana developer Brad Chambers, a long-time art philanthropist and collector. With the assistance of the curatorial team, lead by chief curator Dr. Lisa Freiman of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Chambers wanted to bring to the project the inspiration that art, his passion, gives him and, in the process, bring to Indianapolis something new and unique.

Beyond a comprehensive and thoughtful art collection put together exclusively for the hotel, 14 artists were commissioned to create site-specific pieces for the property. All pieces make relevant statements and combine successfully to bring the trendy art hotel category to America’s Midwest. Undeniably, the piece de resistance is Jorge Pardo’s “design” for the bar and lounge, Plat99.

Pardo was given one of the most prominent parts of the project to design. The bar and lounge area is a glass box slightly pulled off the main volume of the Gensler designed building, hovering on the second floor at the corner of the busy intersection where the hotel is located, its curtain walls serving as a teaser, inviting passersby for a closer look at what’s inside.

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After mounting a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper at Rockefeller Center in 2008, and then placing a diverse collection of vintage streetlights like lit columns at a main entry to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), artist Chris Burden astounds us again. LACMA presents Chris Burden’s Metropolis II.

1100 miniature cars race along 18 lanes of traffic around 25 buildings. Given the miniature scale, they speed the equivalent of about 230 miles per hour. 13 trains mosey along through this mini-city as well.

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Problem: What is environmental architecture?

Answer: Let’s start by stripping the term down to the basics: Buildings provide us shelter and they do this by controlling the environment. All architecture is necessarily environmental.

Problem: But, isn’t there a set of values implied in the term? Should we be controlling nature to begin with? If so, how?

Answer: A classical view

We’ve got two old-school approaches to handling this issue (also mentioned in my previous post):

Hands off: Arcadia is a place you stumble upon. It’s a green paradise in which dwellings are subsumed by the greater forces of nature.

Hands on: Utopian dwellings master nature through technology.

Another answer: A more modern view

When we parse the word “ecology,” we find that “eco” comes from the Greek word Oikos meaning house or dwelling. This is a convenient idea that hitches those older senses of place and home to a scientific view of nature as ecology. Ecology connects the natural environment to the built environment through flows of energy. It also helps us get from where we live to how we live. (But, more on that in a moment.)

Conference attendee examines Olivo Barbieri’s image of the Flatiron Building, New York City, part of the Altered Landscape exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art. Photo by Chris Holloman.

Problem: Ecology is like a house? Huh? What is ecology?

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