The Architect's Lair

The great room switcheroo

We have a three bedroom house, so we set up one bedroom for sleeping, one as an office (which was 'my' room) and one as a sitting room (which was my husband Jack's room). I never liked calling it a sitting room, because we had just one chair in it and it wasn't comfortable for reading; I called it the library. Still, it was his space and he chose the paint colors for it.

With a baby on the way in less than 10 weeks, we finally got off our collective duffs to make a nursery out of the sitting room. This involves a good deal of purging of junk on our part, because even in just the 2-1/2 years we've lived in this house, we have accumulated a surprising amount. To compound the issue, we have no attic, no basement, and no garage - i.e. virtually no storage in the whole house. Whatever we items we have, therefore, are generally out and visible.

So Jack was cleaning out the sitting room when he realized that it is in fact a wee bit bigger than the office. Since the office will now house the computer and desk, two pieces of exercise equipment, and all of our bookshelves, that little bit of extra space will be greatly needed. And therefore he proposed that we switch the rooms: the office would move to the sitting room, and the office would be changed into the baby's room.

That's all well and good, but now that means we have two rooms to move, purge, paint, and clean. All, preferably, by May 26 if not before. If we just have the walls done that will be enough for me, figuring that we can move the furniture later. Unfortunately, our April weekends are already booked solid, and the painting alone will be quite a task...

I have been eager to try a new decoration technique, namely Venetian plaster which you can get from Home Depot or Lowe's. The version from the store involves a pre-tinted plaster that you apply in 2-3 layers, then burnish to finish. (Here's the how-to from TLC, and some history of the product) The color will probably be pale yellow, and look mottled like parchment.

The nursery, on the other hand, will be two colors of paint: lilac for the bottom half, and sage green for the top, separated by a white chair rail. No special painting affects are planned so far. On one of the walls, we'll outline a large rectangle in the same trim as the chair rail, and inside it we'll paint a mural. Not sure what the mural will be yet; Jack's idea is to have a fantasy landscape, a view from the turret of a castle looking down on the town below, with a fair and jousting tournament just visible. I'd like something a bit more simple, perhaps a purple dragon in a forest. Either way the theme is 'renaissance fantasy', with colors of purple and green.

The project will be on hold for a couple weeks while we have company in town, but expect photos to follow soon after!

The American way

I've had this PDF sticking around my 'to read' files for a while now, and just got around to it. Wish I'd read it months ago. It is a great manifesto of where American design has gone - down the tubes in most areas, is the answer. And why? Because we hate taking the time to make something great.

"When we make something in America, our aim is just to get the job done. Once we reach that point, we take one of two routes. We can stop there, and have something crude but serviceable, like a vise-grip. Or we can improve it, which usually means encrusting it with gratuitous ornament. When we want to make a car “better,” we stick tail fins on it, or make it longer, or make the windows smaller, depending on the current fashion. Ditto for houses. In America you can have either a flimsy box banged together out of two by fours and drywall, or a McMansion—a flimsy box banged together out of two by fours and drywall, but larger, more dramatic-looking, and full of expensive fittings. Rich people don't get better design or craftsmanship; they just get a larger, more conspicuous version of the standard house."

Amen, brother!

Makes me want to read more Paul Graham. I've never heard of him, but this... well, he's got a point. American businesses value fast over quality, and a lot of the time the consumers do too. It explains a lot of the reason why the Big Three aren't so big anymore. The sea change is coming though, with Ipod leading the way. May we have many more well-designed things in the future!

Found materials

It is not uncommon for architects to receive samples of windows, stone, brick, etc. for their review, and then to turn around and use these materials in their home. For example, we get a lot of carpet samples, and they are great for using as car floor mats or next to the cat's litter tray. So I wasn't surprised when a former coworker contacted me to see if I wanted some granite.

Evidently, he has a job where they wanted a sample of a certain black granite in a certain finish. The supplier sent it, but the sample went through a series of mishaps before arriving late - and broken - to the final destination. It arrived so late, they had already ordered and received another sample which arrived intact. That left them with what had been a fairly good size piece of granite, 2' x 3' or something, now in about 4-5 pieces.

I, of course, jumped at the chance to get some granite like he was describing. All I need to do is pick it up, which I'm doing tonight. (it would be more appropriate to say that my husband is doing the picking up, of course; I'm 4-1/2 months pregnant and not in a condition to pick up heavy stone just now!)

What to do with it, though?

Well, I have had this idea of building a little meditation hut, or tea house, in our backyard. My idea so far is to build a butterfly roof held up by wood columns, with a rain chain to channel the water to a copper basin, over a concrete pad with a built-in fire place (irori) and colorful cushions for sitting, and bamboo screens on two sides for privacy. Simple but elegant, big enough for just 4 people to sit, looking over our moss-covered boulders and what will eventually be a koi pond. I figure that this stone, fitted together to make a 'table' riser within the concrete pad, would be a little wabi-sabi touch to the space, a place you could set a hot kettle for tea perhaps. It may not get built this summer, but maybe next...

Meanwhile, I'll happily store the stone. Mmmmm, pretty.

almost funny

How many architects does it take to design a closet?

Five, if my eyes were to be believed yesterday. Apparently my office IT guys are building a new rack for the office servers, and are going to enclose a corner of the office to become the server closet. Well and good. But I had to laugh out loud when I walked by and saw the two IT guys and FIVE architects from the firm all standing around, looking at the corner as they took turns gesticulating and talking. Most amusing.

Too many cooks in the kitchen, methinks...

This Ain't Your Typical Prefab

Very interesting article from Wired Magazine about the growing trend of prefab houses, particularly ones that are modern and use sustainable technologies. I liked this quote in particular:

Buying a house, Kaufmann says, should be like buying a sneaker. On her Vaio laptop she pulls up the site for Nike iD, which lets people design their own shoes by choosing from a palette of options for lacing, fabric, and so forth. "Every shoe has the same bones," she says, showing me the record of the Nike Free she bought the previous week, "but you can customize your own, down to the color and putting your initials on it."

To Kaufmann, the question is obvious: "How can we do this for architecture?"

I also like the analogy between hybrid cars and these new prefab houses; the early adopters help pave the way and shows others what can be done. Makes me wonder if there are any prefab manufacturers in my state that I could work with to develop something like this, since obviously the freight from British Columbia would be a bit steep. Hm.

Online Reading

A few articles of note lately:

• The Project for Public Spaces has released the top 12 public squares in the U.S. and Canada. Personally I would have put Rockefeller Plaza (NYC) and Pioneer Square (Portland) higher than Jackson Square (New Orleans). Jackson Square doesn't feel as enclosed as the other two, because the buildings are historic and low. I suspect that PPS put it first only because of the NOLA rebuilding issues. And hey, Detroit's new Campus Martius came in at number 4! I was surprised that Chicago's Millenium Park didn't have an entry though; I suppose it doesn't qualify because it is bounded by the lake, rather than buildings like a proper plaza. I still would have put it in over, say, Bryant Park. It's anouter PPS slant, I suppose - a full third of the entries are in NYC, while there are more diverse, well-done plazas elsewhere.
• CNNMoney.com's list of the top 10 fastest growing states - predictably, the West and the South. What I was surprised by were the particulars: Nevada and Arizona are growing the fastest (rather than California or Washington); top cities included Atlanta, Dallas, Jacksonville, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon, rather than San Francisco or Seattle.
• And my favorite, given the angst my town has been going through in contemplating *gasp* 10 story buildings: Planning Commission Embraces Height and Density! (link is to Google's cached copy of an Oakland Tribule article)

Oakland's Planning Commission is delighted to approve two residential highrises as the city continues enjoying its downtown revival under Mayor Jerry Brown.

"After years of low-rise residential construction, Oakland's push for higher density building downtown is finally paying off. A practically giddy Planning Commission last week approved plans for two 22-story apartment buildings — one at 11th and Jackson streets and the other at 23rd and Webster streets.

The commissioners gushed over the designs, but more than anything, over the height and the density of the projects." Just as significantly, the developers will "help with measures to improve pedestrian safety in the area," a big concern for the nearby Chinatown area.

They even have a Whole Foods going in downtown. Wouldn't we just love that! Now given, Oakland is slightly less than 4 times bigger than my town, but surely we could manage a couple of 10 story buildings around here. The fact that other cities can somehow manage to embrace, rather than deny, density for those who want it is amazing to me. Why can't we do the same??

Architect humor

Holiday plans, as an architect might draw them: Download HolidayPlans.pdf

 

one too many all-nighters

What happens when architecture students watch too much MTV and then stay up way, way too long? they come up with videos like these: Pimp My Model.

Predock wins AIA Gold Medal

That makes four for four: another of my favorite modern architects, Antoine Predock, has won the 2006 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. Predock is known for his particular style of Southwest-inspired architecture. You can see more of his work here.

Last year the Gold Medal was awarded to Santiago Calatrava, designer of the famous Milwaukee Art Museum. Before that was Sam Mockbee, and Tadao Ando before him. I like all of their work for different reasons, but at the heart of it, they all speak to me of the poetry of buildings, and remind me why I got into the business in the first place.

I look forward to the day that a woman wins the award, as long as it isn't Zaha Hadid. I can't stand her big ego or her architecture.

Green Urbanism

Why leave green buildings to do all the environmental work? Green infrastructure, like forests, parks, alternative stormwater systems and recycled sidewalks, can also do some of the heavy lifting in an effort to make our urban environments better. For example, this article mentions the following:

And green infrastructure often does the job better than anything human-built, for much less money, as groups like the Tree People in Los Angeles and Cascade Land Conservancy in Seattle argue. Take storm-water management. With conventional approaches, runoff from roofs and roads is channeled into underground pipes and into lakes and streams, an expensive process that also causes too much water to flow too quickly, disrupting habitat for fish and picking up pollutants from city streets and yards, spoiling water quality for all. Trees and vegetation slow, collect, and filter flowing water, and replenish aquifers.

Enter the “green street” concept. In this, Seattle, the city of rainstorms, is leading the way. The city constructed the Street Edge Alternative (S.E.A.-Street) pilot project with a group of citizens. In this innovative streetscape, designers wove winding landscaped areas along the road edge to filter and slow the runoff into nearby Piper’s Creek. Some of these projects rise to the level of a new artform. The “Growing Vine Street Project,” designed by Carlson Architects and Peggy Gaynor, which carries storm-water over eight blocks of Seattle’s downtown, features a streamlet coursing downhill over a series of water and plant terraces that act as biofilters for stormwater, as well as walkways and gardens to be enjoyed by passersby.

Green infrastructure is a deep interest of mine, the natural outgrowth of my planning degree and an interest in sustainable design. The greater question is always, how can I incorporate it here in the stodgy and often less-than-progressive Midwest? and I haven't come up with a good solution for that yet. Building a green building out in the 'burbs doesn't work from a larger environmental point of view; what good is a green building when you have no choice but to drive to it? So green urbanism is really the next, natural step.