Alberta iela

Alberta iela (Albert Street) in Rīga is the street for Art Nouveau buildings. While buildings in this style are all over the district known for them, this street is all of a piece -- one over-the-top building after another, all dripping with grotesques, curlicues, floral motifs, faces, and such. Here are a couple of the gems that I particularly like.

By all means blow these photos up to see all the detailing. 

I must say, though, that as much as I like Alberta iela, I would not want to live on it. It was equally dripping with tourists snapping photos of these buildings (myself included -- guilty as charged), and I think that a lot of us forget that these are actually working buildings. In this case, these are apartments filled with actual Rīgans who I expect get tired of constantly having to deal with strangers traipsing up and down the street and gawking at what are, after all, private residences and not public property. I think that I might choose to live in one of the less spectacular buildings, or maybe in the one of the less desirable neighborhoods in Rīga. That said, Art Nouveau is an astonishing architectural style, and we're lucky that they didn't get all torn down in some hare-brained urban renewal scheme. If I were interested in learning a trade and living in Latvia, I'd definitely consider plasterwork because I would have lifetime employment.