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Noisy Neighbors
March 15, 2018Example of an STC 30 wall – Photo Credit: Gypsum Association |
Example of a 55-59 STC Wall – Photo Credit: Gypsum Association |
Example of an STC 37 Floor – Photo Credit: National Gypsum |
Example of an STC 60 Floor – Photo Credit: National Gypsum |
Communication in a Yada Yada World
February 27, 2018Gary Cooper, as Howard Roark in the Fountainhead. |
Did Elaine just yada yada the best part? No she mentioned the bisque. |
Jeff Echols – Architect Of The Internet (@Jeff_Echols)
Communication and the Question of Relevance
what does it communicate?
Types of communication in architecture
Talk, Write, Draw — A Com Hat Trick
“communication….”
Architalks #36: Project Amplify
Communication – What, How, Why?
Tips for Communicating with Your Architect, Interior Designer, or Landscape Architect
Why Communication Skills are a Must for Aspiring Architects
Who’s Bad!
Communication
Explain Yourself…
Starting a Design: First Thing’s First
February 5, 2018How TV Shows Portray the Architect. |
This is What My Desk Really Looks Like at the Start… |
A Little Later on in the Process, Code Books on Top of Code Books… |
This May Be Closer to Reality… |
Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture (@FiELD9arch)
Slow Down. Hold Still.
Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
where do we start?
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
How to Start a Design
Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
Starting a Design: #Architalks
Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
On Your Mark, Get Set — Start a Design!
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
.”starting a design…”..
Meghana Joshi – IRA Consultants, LLC (@MeghanaIRA)
Architalks #35: Starting a Design
Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Where do we begin?
Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
Where do you start when designing a new home?
Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign)
do-re-mi- Design
Tim Ung – Journey of an Architect (@timothy_ung)
5 Tips for Starting an Architecture Project
Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark)
How it all begins…
Steve Mouzon – The Original Green Blog (@stevemouzon)
Starting Wrong – The Amazon Mistake
Renewal
January 15, 2018This is LBJ, having a worse day than I am. I believe presidential photos to be part of the Public Domain. |
This post is part of the ArchiTalks series where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. This month’s theme is “Renewal” and was led by Larry Lucas. A lot of other talented writers who also are architects are listed below and are worth checking out:
Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
get out of town renewal
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Goal Renewal
Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
renewal: #architalks
Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
Renewal – Re-Ranch
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
“renewal”
Meghana Joshi – IRA Consultants, LLC (@MeghanaIRA)
Architalks 34: Renewal
Stephen Ramos – BUILDINGS ARE COOL (@BuildingsRCool)
No guts, no glory!
Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Renewal
Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
5 Tips for Harnessing Renewal to Advance Your Goals
Samantha R. Markham – The Aspiring Architect (@TheAspiringArch)
reNEWal. new year. new goals
Tim Ung – Journey of an Architect (@timothy_ung)
Break Routines
Larry Lucas – Lucas Sustainable, PLLC (@LarryLucasArch)
Renewal is Valuable for Heart and Hometown
Steve Mouzon – The Original Green Blog (@stevemouzon)
The 12 Steps of Sprawl Recovery
Choose Your Battles: ArchiTalks
December 11, 2017When we ran out of our prepared questions, we asked if anyone there had any pet peeves or things they like to see. It is good to ask this but it is a bit of a loaded question and can also be the opener to the proverbial Can ‘O’ Worms. It turns out the Fire Marshal doesn’t really like vinyl siding or engineered lumber (TGI’s). Their reason for the aversion: vinyl siding “is like solid gasoline” and “TGI’s fail too soon”. Now, both of these items are tested and rated like any other construction material. Both sides of the table knew that the design called for both, and both sides also knew that it was perfectly acceptable, according to all prevailing building codes. The fact that they don’t like those materials really didn’t matter much. But for a response, we listened and nodded our heads and that was it. We all knew those two products would be in the project in the end and arguing about it now would only cause our local hosts to feel less amiable towards the out of town architects. So we basically zipped it while we indicated we understood their point of view.
Melted vinyl siding as a result of a fire. Photo Credit: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer A little like insanely hot silly string when engulfed, I bet. |
What do you say to that? In the end we said we would talk to our landscape designer about running a boarder of pea gravel around the building in lieu of pushing mulch beds right to the exterior walls. But in reality, we know we wouldn’t be able to pay for all that gravel. There was nothing else we could have said to assuage their fears. Our meeting was over, it was lunch time, and suddenly we were in the mood for pancakes.
Limit Their Stress By Limiting Their Choices
Choices — Your turn
A million choices
How Do You Deal with Choices During the Design Process?
choices
Slow… merge… stop
–>Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
“Choices…”
–>Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Choices
Eureka!
November 7, 2017The ArchiTalks theme this month required some reflection. In terms of major discoveries in my development and career as an architect, I don’t really think in terms of surprise
revelations. As with projects during my 20 plus years, typically the path is long and full of hard work and coordination with others.
I do, however, recall a poignant moment I experienced in my first year at school.
This is from a later trip, thus the leaves. |
The Money Shot |
The Trellis |
photo: Daderot, CC0 1.0 |
We got back into those buses to go home with a part of me changed. There were still shenanigans. I remember we stopped for gas, and while the driver/professor went to pay, the guy sitting in the passenger seat wrote in the condensation on the windshield “BIG DADDY DON” in huge letters. Our professor’s name was Don. Hey, we were still kids.
This post is part of the ArchiTalks series where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. This month’s theme is “Eureka” and was led by Stephan Ramos. A lot of other talented writers who also are architects are listed below and are worth checking out:
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Eureka!? Finding myself amid the “busy.”
Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
Gee, golly, gosh EUREKA: #architalks
Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
Eureka! — Things That Suck
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
eureka!!!!
Stephen Ramos – BUILDINGS ARE COOL (@BuildingsRCool)
Searching for that Eureka Moment
Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
Finding That “Eureka!” Moment in the Design Process
Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign)
Naked in the Street
Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark)
Eureka moments and what do if clients don’t appreciate them
Larry Lucas – Lucas Sustainable, PLLC (@LarryLucasArch)
Eureka for George in Seinfeld Episode 181
Passing the Test
October 9, 2017I have literally no advice for anyone taking and passing the Architectural Registration Exam today. I am sure that was not the intent of this month’s topic, but I took it so long ago…
How long ago was it?
I am glad you asked. It was so long ago the Vitruvius only had seven Books on Architecture at that point. John Ruskin only had five Lamps of Architecture back then. They were just digging the foundation for This Old House…
From my yearbook… |
Alright, it wasn’t that long ago, but I did begin in 1999. It was version 1.0 of the fully computerized test, I believe. I couldn’t wait to get it done. I think the fact that I didn’t know what to call myself until I did finish the exam pushed me. I was once introduced to a client as “an intern” after a few years on the job. Then the client asked when I went back to school. Come on, man!
I completed my hours for the Intern Development Program (now called AXP) in the minimum amount of time possible and registered to take my first division of the test. I resolved to take one division per month until I passed all of them. There were nine divisions then. I took the first exam in October 1999 and finished the last in June of 2000.
There were two other interns in the office taking the exams at the same time. I remember the three of us rummaging through the mail bin to try and find our letters from the State Licensure Board to see if we passed or not. You see, you used to have to take the exam at the testing center and leave without knowing if you passed or not. What’s more is, notification was snail mailed to you and, looking at the postmarks, we had to wait a full month after sitting for the exam whether or not you passed. It was a painstaking wait!
This is all we got and we had to wait about a month to get it! |
Older architects would regale us “newbies” on the merits of taking the entire exam over the course of several consecutive days in an old Post Office in Philadelphia, with T-Squares on old doors. But being in the first generation of computerized testing was also a challenge. The design software was available for download for practice for the Building Planning and Site Planning portions of the exam. The software was was rinky-dink and fussy. Otherwise, the tests were more or less multiple choice on the computer, which sounds easy, but I recall only leaving one exam with a feeling that I definitely passed it. I was lucky enough to pass them all the first time, but there was one which scared to devil out of me.
Ah, the good olde days. |
I forget which test it was, I think it may have been Materials and Methods, but I was at the end of one section of the exam. Back then the computer saved each section before loading the next section you were going to take. After the second of three sections I pressed the “Save and Go to the Next Section” button – and I got a Fatal Error. I had to get the test administrator to restart the computer. The administrator couldn’t tell me whether the saving “took” or not. I was left to complete section three of three not knowing if the first two sections saved properly or not. That was a long month to wait for a Score Report.
Never a good thing. Really not a good thing on an exam. |
Fortunately it came back as a “PASS”. But that is all they tell you in the test report. If you failed, there was no indication on what you didn’t do well on in order to study for the next time.
This post is part of the ArchiTalks series where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. This month’s theme is “The Architectural Registration Exam” and was led by Meghana Joshi. A lot of other talented writers who also are architects are listed below and are worth checking out:
Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture (@FiELD9arch)
What is the Big Deal about the ARE?
Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
what A.R.E. you willing to do
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Take the architect registration exam, already
Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
ARE – The Turnstile
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
the architect registration exam
Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
I forget
Drew Paul Bell – Drew Paul Bell (@DrewPaulBell)
The Architecture Registration Exam
Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
What is the Benefit of Becoming a Licensed Architect?
Kyu Young Kim – J&K Atelier (@sokokyu)
Every Architect’s Agony
Nisha Kandiah – ArchiDragon (@ArchiDragon)
To do or not to do ?
Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign)
Test or Task
Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark)
Part 3!
Ilaria Marani – Creative Aptitude (@creaptitude)
How to Become a Licensed Architect in Italy
Jane Vorbrodt – Kuno Architecture (@janevorbrodt)
Seven Years of Highlighters and Post-it Notes
A Little Ugly Never Hurt Anyone
September 11, 2017Credit: Getty Images |
Everything in moderation, or so the saying goes. In my opinion, this holds true for both beauty and grotesque in the built environment, for without one, the other holds no meaning. For this month’s ArchiTalks, I will let my pictures do most of the talking.
You may look at the picture on the left and see nothing of merit. How on earth can anyone help this double occupancy room?
The second picture is the same exact room. There was potential in the room from the first picture. The designers just had to coax it into existence. We call it re-invention.
What’s wrong with a little decay? It may be my rural roots, but all I see is a field of new pumpkins next year.
Speaking of decay… Actually, this one kind of hurt. But once the damage was done, this building in downtown Lancaster held an eerie beauty.
Before this building was worked on (and inadvertently destroyed) no one ever knew about that painted advertisement on the side of the wall.
Most old buildings are drafty, aren’t they?
Speaking of painted advertisements… I love these barn billboards. Yeah, yeah, chewing it will give you cancer….
But just looking won’t. Hey, tobacco was a cash crop here.
This is a building in Lancaster as well, but it has been abandoned for as long as I can remember. It was once the largest silk mill in the U.S. During the War, they made parachutes there so the windows were blackened to keep Nazi bombers from seeing it. Over the years it settled into a state of decay that fascinates me.
Utilitarian in its nature, it is simple and brutal beauty in my opinion. The AEG Turbine Factory by Peter Behrens in 1909.
Architects have always been fascinated with decay and ruin. The Romans built upon Greek ruins, and in turn, the West built upon Roman ruins to develop Neoclasicism.
My misguided fascination with decay may have its origins here. The picture to the left is where I studied architecture for 5 years.
This post is part of the ArchiTalks series where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. This month’s theme is “Ugly” and was led by Jeremiah Russell. A lot of other talented writers who also are architects are listed below and are worth checking out:
–>Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
ugly is ugly
–>Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Ugly Architecture Details
–>Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
unsuccessful, not ugly: #architalks
–>Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
Ugly is in The Details
–>Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
Ugly
–>Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Ugly, sloppy, and wrong – oh my!
–>Eric Wittman – intern[life] (@rico_w)
[ugly] buildings [ugly] people
–>Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
Is My House Ugly? If You Love It, Maybe Not!
–>Nisha Kandiah – ArchiDragon (@ArchiDragon)
the ugly truth
–>Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign)
Behold
–>Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark)
Ugly or not ugly Belgian houses?
–>Larry Lucas – Lucas Sustainable, PLLC (@LarryLucasArch)
Die Hard: 7 Ugly Sins Killing Your Community
Fresh Eyes
August 22, 2017The start of school, the approach of Fall, that says one thing to me. |
I saw this one at a local farmer’s stand. I want to live in the Rambo apartment! |
Homecoming
July 31, 2017I live and work in the same zip code that I grew up in. Aside from my college years and about 12 months after school working in the greater NY metropolitan area, I have lived in the same school district my whole life. Our kids now go to the schools I attended. I like to tell people I didn’t get very far. This flippant comment hits really close to home, though.
The current office (in red box) and environs. Photo Credit: Google Maps. The farm I worked for is to the left. |
An enlarged image from within the red box above. |
2004 aerial photo. The striations in the green there show early May corn where the office currently sits. |
This was the view from my window one morning. |
That is a red fox in the distance (winter view). |
This post is part of the ArchiTalks series (led by Bob Borson of Life of an Architect ) where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. This month’s theme is “Homecoming”. A lot of other talented writers who also are architects are listed below and are worth checking out:
–>Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture (@FiELD9arch)
Coming Home to Architecture
–>Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
looking back i wonder
–>Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Coming home as an architect
–>Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
9-11 — A Look Back
–>Michael Riscica AIA – Young Architect (@YoungArchitxPDX)
Homecoming & Looking Back
–>Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Homecoming Memories
–>Emily Grandstaff-Rice – Emily Grandstaff-Rice FAIA (@egrfaia)
Letter to a Younger Me
–>Kyu Young Kim – J&K Atelier (@sokokyu)
Homecoming, in 3 Parts
–>Nisha Kandiah – ArchiDragon (@ArchiDragon)
Just give me a reason : Homecoming
–>Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark)
Homecoming
–>Gabriela Baierle-Atwood – Gabriela Baierle-Atwood (@gabrielabaierle)
My Ode to Fargo
–>Jane Vorbrodt – Kuno Architecture (@janevorbrodt)
Looking Back Through the Pages
–>Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
“homecoming”
–>Drew Paul Bell – Drew Paul Bell (@DrewPaulBell)
Looking Back…Was Architecture Worth It?