GOATs of 2011

It was a good year to be a GOAT:

ARCHITECT: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard Architects has managed to stretch their impact beyond their native Australia by exploiting the same 21^st century resources that we are trying to employ.  No one has done more with less traditional capital than AMA.
Honorable Mention: CEBRA

BUILDING: Blue Tube Bar by DOSE


The project’s bold affect, DIY materials, high web visibility, diminutive stature and DOSE’s shameless promotion make the Blue Tube Bar the epitome of 2011’s architectural trends.
Honorable Mention: Reindeer Pavilion by Snøhetta

FASHION DESIGNER: Alexander McQueen

The impact of this year’s Savage Beauty at the Met make this much more than a lifetime achievement award.
Honorable Mention: Andrew Schnemaximoider

FURNITURE DESIGNER: Maximo Riera


Too much was taken too seriously in 2011; a nice Walrus Chair should be enough to counteract that.
Honorable Mention: William Lee

ARTIST[s]: Swoon

Swoon was everywhere in 2011 but that creative fertility was no detriment to her work’s quality, much of which was right here in NOLA.
Honorable Mention: Good Wives and Warriors

MUSICIAN: Ice Cube


We don’t care if his 2010 album was terrible and he hasn’t been musically relevant since the early 90s, the dude looks good in an Eames Chair.
Honorable Mention[s]: Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, Mastodon

ALBUM: Bright Lights EP by Gary Clark, Jr.


Saying an EP is the best album of the year might seem wrong, but that is how good Bright Lights is.  Look for a BIG 2012 from Gary.
Honorable Mention: Wild Flag by Wild Flag, For True by Trombone Shorty

SONG: “Otis” by Jay-Z & Kanye West


The industry’s biggest egos make the year’s biggest album, go on the decade’s biggest tour, and produce the year’s biggest single.  All is well in the world of hip-hop.
Honorable Mention: “Make Some Noise” by the Beastie Boys

MOVIE: Rango

The critical negativity surrounding Rango completely shocked us here at GOAT. It had the year’s most likable character, despicable villain, and perhaps the most vivid animation ever put to film.  The opening sequence’s Fear and Loathing nod pushes it over the top.
Honorable Mention[s]: The Descendants, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II

BOOK: Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America by David Kennedy


Nearly twice as many people were lost to violent crime in New Orleans in the last year than American soldiers in Iraq the last 2 years combined. The first murder of 2012 took just a few hours.  Note to Mayor Landrieu: No one has come closer to curing this plague than David Kennedy.
Honorable Mention: 3DD Deluxe

ATHLETE: Drew Brees

As if being the most prolific quarterback in the history of football weren’t enough, the work he does in and around the city of New Orleans has made an immeasurable impact.
Honorable Mention: Justin Verlander, Ndamukong Suh

10 Buildings We Love

Alligator House / buildingstudio

The next 9 after the jump...

GOAT at the CROSSROADS

GOATstudio has come to a troubling fork in the road.  In one direction, this experiment fades away as a naïve little side project that never grew legs and produced more than a second place competition prize, a few t-shirts, and a couple tattoos.  It has been nearly a year since we got those tattoos, and the annoying, nagging realities of the world have moved this “revolution” from priority to hobby and those involved have gotten office jobs or gone back to school.

In the other direction, the same fate likely awaits us. However, on this alternate path it will take infinitely more work and the failure will be much more heartbreaking.

This “fork” was presented suddenly when I learned over the weekend that one half of GOAT’s leadership is no longer able to contribute in a meaningful way because of those aforementioned realities. This endeavor, with collaboration as its professed lifeblood, suddenly feels very much like an effort of one narcissistic megalomaniac (me).

Luckily for everyone (except perhaps me, due to the aforementioned almost inevitable heartbreak), narcissism breeds continued naïveté and I have no intention of taking the first route.

Is design still valued less than accounting, marketing, and janitorial services?  Is it still prohibitively difficult to be a young entrepreneur in design professions?  Are architects still marginalized to the point of being subservient to less visionary interests? Are most young architects still getting paid less than $40,000 a year in this country?  Do aristocratic lobbyists, bureaucratic policy-makers, greedy developers, delusional corporate interests, and various other bastards still have more impact on the design process than artists and end-users?  Are there still exceptions to these rules out there that deserve a louder voice and more appreciation?  Are cities like New Orleans and Detroit still in desperate need of vision, energy, and youth?  Are you still sitting at a desk drawing toilet stall details while that six-figure degree of yours gathers dust? Obviously.

That’s where the narcissism comes in.  I have no choice but to continue because in my deluded state of continuous delirium, GOAT can and will, indeed must (!), contribute to the eventual resolution of these issues.  I get nauseated by the thought of progress being made without us, or, worse, that things get worse without our resistance.

See there? See how I seamlessly transitioned from the bleak, singular “me” to the optimistic, populist “us”?  This endeavor does not make sense any other way.  GOAT needs the voices of others to be relevant.  For the love of all things good, we need your voice, opinion, bile, adoration, and limericks.  If you have read to this point in the post and not thrown up in your mouth (or if you have), please post a comment.  On anything. On everything. After all, reality bites and you know it.

I’ll take naïveté for as long as I can.

Dig the new look?  A new era requires a new image. Thanks to Jason Ramirez and Vic Fieger for the fonts.  Get them here and here.