selophane.blog

The Incredible Lightness of Being Licensed

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, because without it I would not have had the time to study and take my exams, nor would I have had the motivation to get my own firm started.

Now to start on my next professional goal. I have 7 years to accomplish it, so that should be doable. I want my work to be exhibited in a 35 under 35 magazine article or gallery show. All that I need is some clients looking to act less like their own designer and more like an art patron. Any takers?

The Terra Cotta Rain Screens of South West

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.

www.selophane.com/blog/Images

Wednesday – App Review – XpenseTracker

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 lug them with me and store them in envelopes at home. The really great aspect of this program is that it can wireless sync with your computer to export all of this information in CSV, QIF or Plain Text formats.

As far as tracking apps go, this software is not cheap, but it is also not too expensive. The $4.99 price tag is easily justifiable, considering it can do so much more than any of the free or $.99 apps on the market.

Tuesday – Time for Links

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 New Orleans. While I am happy to see the profile of architecture raised and see my old home being brought back from the brink, I’m getting kind of tired of Mr. Pitt “playing architect.” I’ve worked hard for 5 years of school, 4 years of internships, and 7 exams and while I wait for the final results I still can’t call myself an architect or even act as if I am one. But, bring enough money to the table and put it behind a worthy cause and suddenly no one cares what you call yourself.

clips … New Modern Home in Montauk, NY … Exhibition: Philadelphia’s Creative Architectural Boom … BeaMalevich … Santiago Calatrava Unveils High Speed Rail Station in Belgium

Yom Kippur

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.

Government Privatization Inaction

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 association 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 and failing. There is neither communication about how this exam is graded – on a bell curve, if some questions are weighted more than others or if there is a strict pass/fail point ratio – nor is there any information about how the design components factor into your test results. To further compound the secrecy, passing results for the exam just say you passed, whereas failing results give a small analysis of what subject areas need further study. In addition, if NCARB suspects “Testing Irregularities,” their code for cheating, they can and will hold results form all affected sections until the matter is resolved, which can be as much as 6 months.

By itself this would all be frustrating but workable. The real annoyance comes from the lack of available channels for communication. Before an examinee can take an exam they make have their NCARB council record transferred to their state board. NCARB does not have a collective repository of state testing requirements, so an examinee must work through their state testing application on their own. Once the application is completed, examinees then register directly with Prometric for their exams, by providing a clearance code issued to them by their state. When the day of the exam occurs and an examinee leaves the testing center, that is the last moment they may have any contact with Prometric; from that moment on they can only contact their state to determine why they have not received their results. Grading is supposed to take anywhere form 4 to 6 weeks, but usually takes more like 6 to 8. Prometric has a habit of bunching exams and sending scores to the states all at once. This has lead people to speculate that Prometric only grades at certain intervals or holds all grades form a specific time period to establish a bell curve, but because there is no discussion of grading policy this is all speculation. The thing that convolutes all of this even more is that the state boards do not contact Prometric directly. Instead they eagerly await results but must phrase all of their inquires through NCARB. So to summarize as an individual, if you are fearful that your test has been lost or delayed, you must contact your state, your state contacts NCARB, who contacts Prometric. In this game of bureaucratic telephone it is easy to understand why results can be delayed by 10 weeks or more. 10 weeks, which result in lost wages associated with passing results and being declared a licensed architect, not to mention anxiety and nervousness.

Saint Dominic’s Church

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.

Wednesday – App Review – myPantone

I know as someone affiliated with architecture and not Interior Design I should be somewhat ashamed to say this, but I am a color nut. I think it stems from my days as working as a graphic designer, but I love color standards, whether thats ICC profiles or standardized colors like the ones in the Pantone Fandecks. This is why I love the myPantone app for the iPhone.

This app was released on September 10, 2009 and has been covered by many of the big tech blogs recently (here, here and here). This app allows you to make color palettes on the go. They can be pulled by hand from the Fandecks within the app (only one can be in play at a time), or they can be extracted from an image. The program allows you to choose an image already on your phone or take one with a camera. Once you have an image selected you can have the app automatically choose colors from the image and map them to the current active Fandeck or you can choose them yourself. This is where this app is really useful for architects. Do you have a client with a work of art that you want to set the mood for the rest of the project? Or maybe you’ve passed another house with the perfect exterior trim and siding palette, just take a photo in this app and send yourself the color palette from the photo. This color palette can be imported into any Adobe CS4 product or uploaded to the myPantone website as well as shared on twitter and facebook. Now you have the colors saved and you can go about finding a suitable match from a stock paint color or have a custom one mixed to match. Be warned, this app will give you a good estimate, but it is not a professional print matching tool. And while there still may be no color calibration available for the iphone, at least by using industry standard colors like Pantone’s Fandecks you know that if you use a calibrated monitor or printer or a professional print house, you will be working with consistent colors.

The only downside to this app is that it is a bit pricey at $9.99, but as a business expense it is well worth it. I tried out some other free color apps and none were nearly as helpful. I even tried the Benjamin Moore color matching app (which is free), and while it allows you to select favorite colors and match from a photo as well, it has no way of offloading your favorites. If Adobe ever releases an app version of their Kuler software and web site I would imagine that it could give myPantone a run for its money, but knowing Adobe they would probably price themselves out of the market.

Tuesday – Time for Links

Inhabitat has a great post about recycling plastic as a concrete aggregate. I’ve always wondered about the use of non standard aggregates. I wonder if we could do some sort of non standard aerated concrete which could be use as a carbon banking system? Just a thought.

ArchDaily has a few image of the new Pakistan Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo. Does this remind anyone else of an eastern version of Burnham and Root’s world’s columbian exposition buildings?

Shigeru Ban has made another paper towel structure, this time in London. The comments on Dezeen’s post about this show that people are just not that impressed this time. Maybe, if the tower was a giant Ferris wheel or something.

Architect Magazine has an article on the legal punishment of people for using the term architect without a license. This article is heartening to see that some starts are actually doing something about this. On the other hand, in the statistics that are quoted at the bottom, Virginia has not filed a single case in the last 5 years for this, which kind of makes sense considering their draconian laws which make it technically illegal to call my degree a Master of Architecture or to refer to myself as an intern-architect because I am not yet licensed. In fact, Virginia has no wording that is allowed for those who have an education in architecture but are in the process of completing their license, besides employee. Yet, IT companies can call any of their staff architects without impunity, HA!

clips … PREFAB PARASITE … A look at Hardware purchasing strategies of architecture firms in a soft market … A topographic table and base that has been making the blog rounds

Virtual autoCAD

One of the most expensive purchases of any architecture and design office is drafting software. Not only does it cost anywhere from $1000 to $3000 a seat but the software changes yearly and every three versions the file formats tend to change as well. Whenever that happens firms either need to buy into the new version or be left behind. Autodesk has come up with their own solution to this, yearly subscriptions. The initial charge is the same as a usual one seat license, but every year they charge the firm about $500 per seat and send you the updated software. This is supposed to save you money while giving them a guarenteed revive stream, which it does but each version still needs better hardware to operate at maximum efficiency. That’s about a $2000 investment per machine on at least a three year rolling clock. In all, that’s a lot of expense especially for a new found firm. It’s no wonder people turn to piracy, unauthorized installs, and multiple seats.

Citrix has a different solution. They have developed a virtualization software which can eliminate the rolling hardware expense. This software is like most virtualization software, it lives on a host box which users can access through the desktop client. Where this differs from most virtualization servers is that it allows the users to run OpenGL software like REVIT, 3D Studio Max or AutoCAD with no real perceptible latency. This means that users experience the software as if it was on their own machine. In a large firm this could be a major cost saver, but in a small firm I’m not that sure it’s feasible. First, servers are expensive, especially those with good graphics capabilities. The amount of money saved on user terminals could easily be less than the cost of one server especially if there are only a few boxes being saved. Second, this software cost as much as a single seat of any CAD software on its own. If there are more than a few users this cost could be made up in the hardware savings but for a small office it could be prohibitively expensive. Third, this requires staff that understands servers and other complicated networking infrastructure. The cost for this kind of support onsite or off could ruin the brute cost savings exercise, yet a large firm should have this kind of staff already.

All told, for small firms, there really is no way to save money here. CAD is an expensive proposition and yet one that all office have to purchase at some time. I just wish there was a more cost effective option.