Spencer Museum of Art

Although I visited this place about a month ago, it still stands out in my mind as one of the coolest, and most innovative builds that I have seen.  When you teleport in, you might be confused to find yourself standing around a whole 'lotta nothing. That's because the majority of this build is slightly above ground level.  Looking up, you'll see a network of tunnels with interactive glass window entrances. When you click the glass, it will open and you will find yourself in a chamber that has the beginning of several more tunnels. Now, here is the real cool part that I haven't quite figured out: Every 10 minutes or so, the tunnel segments just randomly fall to the ground, and then they slowly rebuild. It's really amazing! In addition to the network of tunnelry to be explored, you can find quite a treasure trove of bizarre gems spread around the sim. Whether its strange buildings, eyeballs growing from plants, or floating sheep, there is something for every-weirdo!

Overall, Spencer Art Museum seems to have a rustic steampunk feel with organic elements laced into it. It's a really lovely balance of hard and soft; a symmetric theme.
ALSO! You even get souvenirs: An awesome hat that is a replica of the build, and some floating sheep!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spencer%20Art%20Museum/57/36/22

Empyreal Dreams - The Art Anthology

With a name like Empyreal Dreams, one might be expecting an immediate and blindingly visual, dreamy, and wholly encompassing presentation. However, its beauty actually lies within much smaller nooks and skyboxes around the sim. Although every little space has its own unique style, they all have one connecting theme to accompany the imagery; poetry. On the walls or floating in the air are words, and pieces from various poems. What is great about a sim like this, is how it really has a mixed-media art approach, which allows the visitor to really immerse themselves in the virtual art build. To navigate to each location, you need to be at the central landing point for the sim. On the walls will be the name of each location with a teleport.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ctrl%20Shift%20H/55/143/22

Soviet Red Square, Red Square

My mostly absent, and fervently secretive friend, Tux, recommended the Soviet Red Square for my blog. Initially, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and to be honest, assumed it would bore me to death. However, I found the bland grandeur of the Soviet Russian themed sim to be quite fascinating. Sure, everything is either blindingly off-whitish, or red, but the whole place had some real personality.
Lets start by pointing out it's best asset: The frakkin fabulous sculpts! Between the large statues, tanks, cannons, or furniture, the sculpts and textures were pretty amazing. Probably what I loved the most about this sim was the architecture. It was very reminiscent of the soviet era, and reminded me of this link with old Soviet era sculptures that have been sort of left to decay over the years of neglect. http://humanscribbles.blogspot.com/2010/12/spomenik-propaganda-or-pure-beauty.html

Now, don't let yourself get too excited. I found out the day after I took these pics for my blog, the Soviet Red Square was shut down. :( As far as I know, it's gone forever. So, enjoy these pics of the virtual world's take on the smooth, shapely severity of the Soviet Union.