There will be no update today, I am busy working on a deadline.
spencer
Oct 072009
Oct 062009
Tree hugger has a list of 7 ways that the building industry can help reduce climate change. While many of the things on this list, like planning for people not cars and providing natural ventilation, are standard ideas for anyone who has been to architecture school since the 1970′s, this list is a great summary of changes that can and should be made in our building culture. I am in love with this office in a steam trunk design. This reminds me of the new hotels for global nomads exhibit I saw at the Cooper Hewitt a few years back, and some of the steamer trunk designs that were a part of that show. What makes me really like this concept though, is that it would be great for the urban apartment dweller. When its time to change apartments, all you do is closet the trunk and wheel it away. Plus if you have a studio you can have an instant office when you need it. Morphosis created a houser for the make it right foundation that can float on piers up to 12′ off its foundation. This is one of the best proposals I’ve seen so far. Architecture aside, [...]
Oct 052009
This morning I went to a client consultation in Baltimore. While there we wandered for a bit around the Fell’s point district in addition to the neighborhood where the client’s property is (near John’s Hopkins Medical Center). I have to say, that my opinion of “Charm City” is not necessarily a good one. This is my third trip to Baltimore, and while tourist areas like the Inner Harbor are clean and well maintained, I have a hard time liking them and the city as a whole. The clean-ness feels forced, especially in comparison to the rest of the city, which feels like the bastard child of Philadelphia and DC. The streets are wide like in DC, but there is very little green buffer between the buildings, the sidewalk and the street, like in Philadelphia. The neighborhoods and streets seem to quickly merge from one indistinct area to another, and while doing so they don’t really seem to retain any sort of character, unlike the distinct neighborhoods of DC. In Baltimore everything just feels grimy. This is not to say that the Fell’s point district wasn’t lovely. It just seems to not quite be lovely enough for such a posh neighborhood. [...]
Oct 022009
After 6 years of schooling, 4 years of internship, 7 exams, and 12 weeks of waiting since my last exam I finally found out unofficially last night and officially today that I am now a licensed Architect registered with the Commonwealth of Virginia. While this does not affect my unemployment, it opens worlds of possibility for me as far as freelancing and my own firm is concerned. Once I get my paperwork in the mail I will be qualified to stamp and sign drawings which makes me able to undertake a whole lot more work. There is something to be said about the feeling you get when you achieve a long term goal. When I transferred into the architecture program at Tulane I not only promised myself that I would make it through and graduate within the standard time period, but I also made myself a promise, that I would be licensed at least before I was 30 and at best before my High School Reunion. I achieved both goals. I am currently 28 and my reunion (which I won’t be attending, another long story) is at the end of November. This accomplishment makes my unemployment seem like a blessing, [...]
Here are a few images from some of the terra cotta rain screens found on the urban renewal towers in parts of Southwest, DC. I have always been a fan of these semi-enclosed balconies and they way they play with public and private space. Plus the non-rectalinear units create a lovely interplay of form while also creating a regular solid/void rhythm to the facade while still allowing maximum penetrations.
Even before I was laid off I had to keep track of my expenses for work. At that time it meant extra bonus “expense” checks for mileage driven or reimbursement for my food. Now that I am working for myself and not taking a salary, it is of the utmost importance that I do this, because its one of the only ways i can get cash inflow. Since getting my iPhone I was convinced that there had to be a good tracking program. The problem was that many of the apps on the market were unitaskers, they EITHER calculated vehicular expenses (and some only mileage) or they were submittable receipts. Eventually I found XpenseTracker. This app lets me log all of this information in one place, plus i can divide things up in job specific logs. There are custom notes fields as well as fields for merchants and clients. It also allows me to keep track of my non-profit miles for the work I do with Dominion Stage. In addition to tracking and keeping my records it also allows me to use the camera to take photos of my receipts at the time of purchase. I no longer need to [...]
Sep 292009
Mirage Studio 7 has an entry on their blog about Sketchpad, the great grand-daddy of all CAD applications. Its crazy to think that computer aided drafting has been available for over 40 years, but only came into heavy use in the last 20. Build Blog has a great entry highlighting women designers who have had a major impact on design culture. The thing about this post that strikes me most is more of who they didn’t include – Zaha Hadid and Denise Scott Brown, as opposed to those who they did. Materialicious has a post about a spiral stair fit into a 1 square meter (9 square foot) footprint. While I applaud the genius use of a tilted axis to fit more in a smaller space I regret to think that this will never make it to this side of the atlantic. Not only would current zoning codes reject it because of lack of a handrail and child safety features, but the tilted axis would most certainly make the treads not identical which also violates current building codes. Inhabitat has a post about Brad Pitt being honored by the USGBC for his Make it Right Foundation and their work in [...]
Sep 282009
There will be no post today. I am observing Yom Kippur in my own way; fasting and contemplating my year past and the one to come. I am going to focus on what about myself I need to work on and how I can be both a better person and a better me.
Sep 252009
I have now been waiting for my last Architecture Registration Exam result for 11 weeks (13 if you include the penultimate exam which I have also yet to receive scores for). This delay apparently has been caused by the private company that administers and grades the exam (Prometric Services); specifically they have not graded a 5 of the 7 exam sections since the start of July. I was only informed of this delay from my state board last week, at week 10(12), which was the first time they had heard of this as well. This delay, which is not the first time Prometric has failed to perform, has affected at a minimum 3,300 people in the state of Virginia alone. The thing that is the most infuriating about this whole exam process is the lack of both transparency and communication. The exam, which is written by and property of the National Council of Architecture Registration Boards (a non-profit NGO in DC), is treated with the utmost level of secrecy and security. Not only are examinees not allowed to discuss the content of the exam, they are also not allowed to know the grading scheme that is used to determine passing [...]
Sep 242009
I love how St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Southwest, DC combines classical masonry construction in the main church with modern design in the Priory.