m gillespie ward

resurrection

2009-05-02T10:51:00.001-04:00

so i've decided to resurrect this blog after letting it lay fallow for a couple of seasons. more very soon ...

human tetris (or learning to love the pixel)

2007-12-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

This is probably the most interesting video I have stumbled across on YouTube in quite some time. I watched the film, all the time wanting to control the "movement" of the pieces. It was most aggravating when I say a better move than the filmmaker. It is a brilliant synthesis of performance art and computer gaming.

shameless publicity for the cu architecture

2007-10-26T17:40:00.000-04:00

Student designs appear on campus

Students compete to win first place position, rewarded with use of their design.

By: Whittney Farrow

Award-winning designs to make Clemson more carbon neutral are underway this semester in the grad tower of Lee Hall.

The school-wide competition was called "Super Crit", and architecture students worked on projects in teams. The students behind the three winning designs are bright and enthusiastic about the goals of their projects. "Our brief study looked at the many ways in which we could alter our perception of the Clemson University campus in a sustainable manner," explained Meg Chandler, one of the project team members.

There are three designs that won McMahan Awards for Sustainability: "Bringing Life Into Death Valley" by Nic Fonner, Meg Chandler, Will Wingfield and Tim Hoskins, "Maximizing Landscapes" by Ashley Ortmann, Paul Kennedy, Shawn McKeever and Thomas Weir and "The Harvest" by Michael Ward, Mandy Mobley, Clint Riddle, Nathan Missel and Alisha White. The designers of the projects looked at existing structures on campus and available resources.

"Bringing Life Into Death Valley" uses, of course, Death Valley as a source of energy. For approximately 299 days of the year Death Valley is vacant. This design would involved placing photovoltaic cells on the backs of the stadium seats. They would all be folded down during the year when they aren't being used and Death Valley would become a source of electricity by absorbing solar energy. Nic Fonner points out, "[We] wanted to attempt to green the icon of Clemson University," said Nic Fonner. The Death Valley team is also considering ways to collect the millions of gallons of water that fall into the stadium each year.

"Maximizing Landscapes" looked at making the whole campus more sustainable by maximizing the natural environment and minimizing the consumption within the campus. "We as a group realize the impacts that our student population has on the environment," said Paul Kennedy.
They also looked at ways in which things we do everyday can be altered to lessen their impact on the environment.

The third design, "The Harvest", is an interesting plan that utilizes the resources we have on campus. Inspiration came from items such as lumber that has been cut down and rots away because no one needs it. "How can we use them?" asked Michael Ward of these trees. Students who are familiar with Lee Hall and the grad tower know that getting from one to the other is a little confusing and aggravating. The team decided to design a bridge connecting the two parts of the building. They were inspired by the basket weaving done in South Carolina.They created a similar design, keeping the extra lumber that is normally thrown away in mind. In addition to finding a use for our trees that are cut down, the latticework of wood would support vegetation and protect the building from ultra violet rays.

Along with the Solid Green spirit that Clemson has adopted, these designs could make a big difference. Each individual team member is working on a different aspect of his or her design over the duration of this semester.

The final review of the project designs is on Dec. 6. It is open to anyone interested and the admission is free. These new ideas can one day become a reality at Clemson.

POSTSCRIPT ANALYSIS

Whitney visited the studio space to talk with us. She was absolutely delightful, and seems to have taken an interest in issues of sustainability on campus. A staff photographer visited studio a few days later to photograph the models. This article appeared in the 26 October issue of the Tiger. Front page, above the fold. Just wanted to clarify a few points from the article:

The caption reads that our bridge intervention would be located between Lee + Lowry halls; this in incorrect. As stated in the text of the article, the bridge is to be located between the Grad Tower and Undergrad Studios of Lee Hall. The article makes this clear, but I heard reports that the some Engineering students were up in arms that we would put this next to their building. Additionally, we are unsure what becomes of the trees cut down by the University. We assume that they are ground up for mulch, but we have not contacted anyone at the University to confirm this.

On the whole, I am delighted to see the works of the School of Architecture relayed to the general student body. Hopefully, this will create some architectural discourse among the students of Clemson University.

fifty manifestos

2007-08-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

Fifty Manifestos of Modernity

September 11 Memorial Tour

2007-08-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

The national tour begins on Sept. 10 in Columbia, S.C., home to the company fabricating thousands of tons of steel for the memorial. Two 37-foot-long, 4-ton beams that will be installed at the memorial will travel with foundation leaders, Sept. 11 survivors, and exhibits including a firefighter's helmet, and the watch and building IDs of a man who escaped from the north tower.

Major Demolition in Heathwood

2007-08-01T15:08:00.000-04:00

I was born + raised in the Heathwood community of Columbia. My father told me stories of the grand Heathwood Hall which was demolished just days before the City could name it an historic landmark. Over the past few years, as increasing numbers wish to relocate to Shandon + Heathwood, many grand estates have sold off their side lots. But recently, speculators have begun to buy property, and sell off lots under half an acre. But the sheer madness of this latest move has me worried for the fabric of Columbia's first suburb.

Republished from The State, 01 August 2007

The surprise destruction of a 78-year-old farmhouse — sitting on more than two acres in one of Columbia’s most affluent and historic areas — has renewed debate over the value of preserving old neighborhoods.

The city’s preservation office is at least three years behind on requests for protected designations from a handful of historic neighborhoods, which include hearings on demolition projects like the one razing the house at 3916 Kilbourne Road in Heathwood last week.

At the center of the conflict — community concerns vs. individual property rights — is a two-person city preservation program with a backlog that frustrates people on both ends of the debate.

“The demolition of this house is a wake-up call,” Mayor Bob Coble said.

Today, Coble will ask City Council to review all the city’s development laws governing neighborhoods and historic designations. His mission: to protect buildings that have asked for historic designation while they wait for approval.

The review comes at a time when the price of in-town real estate is rising and developers are scouting for available lots, factors that make some residents say the nostalgic character of their neighborhoods is at risk.

“‘There’s just nothing we can do’ is what we’re constantly told by the city,” said Mary Baskin Waters, co-president of the neighborhood association for Kilbourne, which consists of stately homes on large lots.

“There just seems to be so little recourse to saving these houses ... other than getting the historic designation, which takes a long time.”

Waters said she’s been corresponding with the city’s preservation office about Heathwood’s historic designation since 2003.

She wants to bring together residents and city staff on “a plan for compromise,” saving old buildings in the city’s core.

But Councilman Kirkman Finlay’s view of the preservation program is that once an area is protected, unworkable rules hold up progress on economic-development projects.

Finlay said he’s in favor of historic designations — as long as the process is “streamlined and efficient” and the focus is on protecting history, not allowing people who don’t own a piece of property to tell the owner what to do with it.

“I’m always leery of putting on additional restrictions,” said Finlay, who represents the Heathwood area on city council.

The Kilbourne Road home, on roughly 2.37 acres, sold for $2.2 million, which apparently is a record for Heathwood this decade, according to Dan Pater with Russell & Jeffcoat Realtors.

The property has frontage on Devereaux Road, too, so the new owner could replace the one home he tore down with nine — all without getting the city’s permission.

Coble and some neighborhood groups are suggesting reforms to guide the style and placement of new houses within older neighborhoods, as well as the demolition of old homes or commercial buildings.

But even the former owner of the home at the heart of the debate would object to telling people what to do with their property.

“Why he tore it down, I don’t know,” David Ellison Jr. said of the new owner, developer Ben Arnold.

“But am I going to second-guess him and his plans or goals? No, I am not.”

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

Columbia has 10 neighborhoods where the architecture is protected. Five more, including Heathwood, linger on an informal waiting list at the city.

Establishing a historic district takes at least nine months, given the research that goes into the designation, said preservation planner Amy Moore.

Staff members walk through a proposed neighborhood to look at each building, listing historic structures and noting newer ones, Moore said. Meetings with property owners help work out the boundaries as well as what kinds of restrictions will be adopted.

Some neighborhoods on the waiting list for consideration as historic districts are big ones, such as Shandon, a 1920s neighborhood that Moore said could take four months just to walk and survey.

Once the city council designates a district, the preservation office monitors new construction, renovation projects and demolition requests.

The staff handles from half to three-quarters of development requests, cutting the time for a decision to a matter of days. Complex requests go before the city’s Design Development Review Commission for an answer. Getting a decision there could take up to a month, Moore said.

So what kinds of construction projects, in a historic district, go to the city ?

At one end of the scale, in the Elmwood Park neighborhood, the design review commission can require an owner to install historically accurate windows.

At the other end, in the Waverly neighborhood, for example, the staff could sign off on simple renovations to a porch.

In almost every case, a property owner must get permission to tear down an historic building.

It’s a process similar to what’s in place in Greenville, said that city’s zoning administrator, Bryan Wood.

Moore’s office monitors more than 3,600 parcels. In addition to the neighborhoods, it oversees about 120 individual landmarks, a mix of commercial buildings, homes and institutions.

In Columbia, 38 potential landmarks are on a waiting list compiled by Historic Columbia Foundation. Most have been there since 2004.

One of them, Central Baptist Church on Huger Street, was torn down last week, leaving 37 on the waiting list, said Robin Waites, director of Historic Columbia, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Belinda Gergel, a preservation activist who is running for City council, said the city needs to bolster its preservation program.

“We can’t allow the interests of a small group of private developers to beat the clock of historic designation and forever change the integrity of these historic neighborhoods,” she said.

‘A FARMHOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN’

Computerized tax records say the 3,250-square foot farmhouse on Kilbourne Road was built in 1929. It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms and just a handful of owners over the years.

In the spring, Ellison placed the house on the market after living there for the better part of 35 years and raising his three sons.

He and his family put a lot of time and money into fixing up the house. But at 68, he said, “an old football knee” made it hard to get up and down the stairs. He and his wife moved to a family home overlooking the Forest Lake golf course.

Arnold bought the property, saying he planned to save the house and create four lots around it — building a house for his family on one of them.

Last month, he went before the planning commission with a request to divide the property, agreeing to keep the old house. Heathwood residents reluctantly supported Arnold’s plan, according to minutes of the meeting.

Arnold said in an interview last week that his plans changed, so he retracted the request.

Arnold said it wasn’t feasible to keep what he viewed as “an old, rundown house” and that he intends to sell the property as a nine-house subdivision.

Because the original zoning on the property allows nine lots, he can proceed without a public hearing or vote of city council. A hearing would be triggered by a request for more or differently configured lots.

“I don’t know why people are making such a big deal over that house. It’s nothing special,” Arnold said. “It’s a farmhouse in the middle of town that’s out of place.”

While some residents understand the value of subdividing the Kilbourne Road site — the largest tract to become available in Heathwood in years — there are concerns with the number of homes in the latest plan.

“Six lots, I can deal with,” said Sam Waters, who shares neighborhood duties with his wife, Mary. “Nine lots, I get uneasy.”

OTHERS TAKE NOTICE

Jackie Bartley is president of the Shandon neighborhood, where consideration of a historic designation is at least two years away.

Bartley said residents in her neighborhood are fed up with newer homes squeezed in among classic bungalows. It’s a trend that seems to be accelerating, she said.

“It started in Rosewood and, in the last two or three years, it’s coming to Shandon,” Bartley said.

The latest controversy in her neighborhood involves a developer building a three-story log home on Duncan Street, a house that Bartley said looks out of place in materials and scale.

Bartley said the Kilbourne Road demolition points up the need for reforms in Columbia’s older neighborhoods.

“There needs to be some waiting period, some public notice” when an owner wants to raze an old building, she said.

Robert Lewis, a developer and preservationist who lives in Heathwood, said a waiting period could have saved the old farmhouse around the corner.

Last Wednesday, when he realized the house was going to be demolished, Lewis said he called the real estate agent with an offer to buy the house and one of the lots, where he would move the house.

He was too late.

Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771-8641.

HISTORIC DISTRICTS

Columbia has 10 historic districts:

Elmwood

Earlewood

Downtown landmark district

Governors Mansion

West Gervais business district

University Hills

Melrose/Oaklawn

Waverly

Old Shandon

Oakwood Court

Another five neighborhoods are on a waiting list for the historic designation. Research for each takes a minimum of nine months, though waits for consideration can take years:

Wales Garden

Cottontown

Hollywood/Rose Hill

Shandon

Heathwood

SOURCE: Columbia preservation office

jean baudrillard 1929.2007

2007-03-06T20:17:00.000-05:00

French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard has died aged 77 at his home in Paris following a long illness.

Baudrillard, a leading post-modernist thinker, is perhaps best known for his concept of hyper-reality.

He argued that spectacle is crucial in creating our view of events - things do not happen if they are not seen.

He gained notoriety for his 1991 book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place and again a decade later for describing the 9/11 attacks as a "dark fantasy".

Baudrillard focused his work on how our consciousness interacts with reality and fantasy, creating from them a copy world he called hyper-reality.

He said that mass media led to hyper-reality becoming a dominant force in today's world - an argument taken to a provocative extreme in his statement that the 1991 Gulf War primarily took place on a symbolic level.

Since little was changed politically in Iraq after the conflict, all the sound and fury signified little, he argued.

'Dark fantasy'

In his essay The Spirit of Terrorism: Requiem for the Twin Towers, he caused controversy again by describing the 9/11 attacks as a fusion of history, symbolism and dark fantasy, "the mother of all events".

While terrorists had committed the atrocity, he wrote: "It is we who have wanted it. Terrorism is immoral, and it responds to a globalisation that is itself immoral."

Born in Rheims into a peasant family, he studied German at the Sorbonne, later working as a teacher and translator. He taught sociology throughout the 1960s.

He was a prolific writer, penning more than 50 works including: Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Spirit of Terrorism: An Requiem for the Twin Towers (2002).

pixelated skin lecture at the NAI, rotterdam

2007-03-01T06:42:00.000-05:00

The Pixelated Skin
Realities:United + Rogier van der Heide

Thursday 8 March at 2000

More and more, architecture has become image. And that image is, like other images, turning into a medium of communication - a medium that has moreover come to the surface. Guy Debord already foresaw this happening in his book The Society of the Spectacle. The skin of the building is changing: instead of static stone, concrete or glass, what we now see is increasingly often a dynamic image of the kind only made possible by electronics. The skin turns into a display screen on which the message is plainly legible. The building thus turns into an "urban transmitter" whose skin not only shields its interior but functions as a programmable information membrane. The surface has become a pixelated skin, capable of furnishing the city and its inhabitants with information and entertainment. Salient examples of this phenomenon include the well-known NASDAQ Building on Times Square in New York and the Galleria Department Store built by UN Studio in Seoul.

The German group Realities:United and the Dutch lighting designer and director of Arup Lighting, Rogier van der Heide, are both pioneers in this field. Van der Heide collaborated with UN Studio on the design and execution of the Galleria Mall. Realities:United have been involved in among other things the development of the "communicative display skin" for Peter Cook's Kunsthaus in Graz.

The participants in this lecture will talk about their projects and about developments that await us in this field.

pixel housing

2007-02-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

archinect hoodie

2007-02-17T12:08:00.000-05:00

now available from archinect, this hoodie, an extension of their popular t-shirt line, represents their first foray into outerwear. the graphic, created by archinect's chief editor john jourden, is reflective gold foil printed on a unisex american apparel fleece pull-over. the cost is 42 usd.

pixel house

2007-02-15T12:51:00.000-05:00

our proposal for the salone satellite will be a multi-family housing complex with a pixelated skin composed of fractured glass, perforated copper, diaphanous acrylic, and organic panels. pixels on the interior skin can be organized by the occupant to select views and specify programmatic functions in the interior spaces.

salone satellite

2007-02-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

Students studying at the Charles E. Daniel Center for Architecture have been selected as 1 of 22 schools from around the world to exhibit work at Salone Satellite in Milan, Italy.

SaloneSatellite, it it's 10th year, is a link between the world of creativity and the international design industry that has always been cloned, spied on, copied outright. It remains, however, the first, unique unleading talent-scout event for young designers' creativity. SaloneSatellite is an incomparable opportunity for young designers from every corner of the world to make a major contribution to strengthening the common culture of design in the city of its heart and soul: Milan.

pixel house collage

2007-02-01T14:01:00.000-05:00

this generative collage is the initial graphic design statement for the pixel house. it was composed of several images taken in genova of public and private spaces through which the camera perceives a layering of spaces. the "vestig" typeface is derived from a latin inscription on a local palazzo block and refers the the vestigial nature of genovese architecture. the project will address the transitory nature of the reflection in architecture, and will allow a personalization of space that will be reflected in the building facade.

coa goa - week one

2007-01-15T06:47:00.000-05:00

we started classes on wednesday morning: architecture history with stephano, field studies with virginia, and studio with stephano. our project will be a mixed-use housing facility and our site is a mountain side on the city's edge with a view down to the valley and into the harbor. the horizon is an infinite ocean. we had to hike up the mountain via a paved road to be able to appreciate the views from the site, but it was worthwhile. the graffiti on the retaining walls was vivid and brilliant, energizing the roadway which would otherwise be bordered by a massive concrete sheer wall.

i have a primo spot in the studio by a window with a view de la mere. my back is against the wall and my desk faces everyone else, so no one can see what i am working on unless they are standing right next to me. privacy is a luxury in this place and i will savor what little isolation i can find.

i plugged my computer power strip into the outlet wed night and tripped several circuits in the villa. there was popping and then no illumination - on two floors. the internet went out, too. we got the problem fixed - that is, my computer would remain without power for the time being. i needed to track down several more adapters to accommodate the monitor, cpu, and external harddrive. ron suggested an electronics store at the bottom of the funicular, so clint, averett, and I took the mountain-bus down into the city. the path from the villa to the funicular is lovingly called the "stairway to heaven" because the stairs are an almost straight run of about 250 treads. i will post a picture of this cruelty, but you can not feel my pain unless you actually climb these damn things. we joke that we will all have calves of steel by semester's end. at the bottom of the train ride, we exited and found the store, which didn't have a damn thing we needed. the only adapter he could offer me was from a german plug to and italian one. i refuse to play a game of telephone with my computer's power supply, so i declined the german adapter. he gave me an address for another electronics store that might carry the proper equipment.

i had trouble going to sleep thursday night so i started to read "the architecture of happiness" by alain de botton ( thanks beezer ) and it was quite delightful. i am about two-thirds through the text and will finish it up sometime this weekend for sure. i am finding i have a lot of spare time when there isn't a television or radio around. ill post the highlights of the book upon completion.

my only complaint about the villa is that there are no comfortable chairs to curl up in and read. we have a couch, but it can hold only a couple of people. one or two leather chairs somewhere, especially in the library, would be much appreciated.

interview with kenneth frampton

2007-01-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

excerpts from architecture austrailia, september 2004 :

What is very interesting about [Glenn] Murcutt’s work is the extent to which it has an internal consistency and precise energy. The work engages a series of ideas and constructional tropes that are carried over from one project to another and are transformed in the process. So his language continually evolves. While it doesn’t evolve with every project to the same degree, this evolutionary aspect is extremely important.

Good criticism is hard to find and also hard to write. In the 1950s there was a habit of publishing buildings with a critical essay attached. This has also occurred more recently, in Italian magazines such as Domus or Casabella, and even in The Architectural Review under Peter Davey. But in general it’s regrettable that magazines are not very selective about the buildings they publish. In general today’s editors don’t seem to be very willing to commit themselves to the extensive publication of any building, not even when they think it’s worth publishing. They feel compelled to cover the entire field and you get the longstanding phenomenon of many different leading magazines publishing exactly the same material.

At some point, I stopped lecturing on critical regionalism because students in the US would respond by saying, there is no regionalism here. So, although that position could be argued with, I began to focus on the question of tectonics and on the “poetics of construction” in order to formulate a more specifically resistant attitude to the tendency for architecture to be dominated by fashion and spectacular images and by the spectacle in general. Through readdressing the specificity of the construction I thought one would be able to keep the fashionable image at a distance.

krob architectural delineation competition

2007-01-03T15:23:00.000-05:00

from clemson university website:

clemson graduate student michael ward was named a finalist in the 32nd annual ken roberts (krob) memorial delineation competition. open to architecture students and professionals, krob is the longest-running delineation competition in the world. ward's proposal for a swimming facility on the hudson river in new york city was done in a 5th year graduate level studio led by professor doug hecker and is available for viewing on the competition website at http://krob06.com/index.asp. the image was generated in rhino, rendered with flamingo and manipulated in adobe photoshop.

newsflash : ghost of adler is an obvious pyromaniac

2006-11-04T21:49:00.000-05:00

CHICAGO, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A fire early Saturday gutted a house in Chicago designed by the great architect Louis Sullivan.

The home in the city's Lakeview section was believed to be the last of Sullivan's wood-frame houses, the Web site Chicagoist said. Two Sullivan buildings were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last year.

The multiple-alarm blaze was reported at about 2 a.m., WMAQ-TV said. Firefighters said that by the time they arrived the entire building was burning, and the blaze threatened to spread to its neighbors.

The cause is under investigation.

The house, which had been empty for some time, was involved in a dispute between the current owner, who wanted to tear it down and replace it with condos, and preservationists who wanted it declared a landmark.

This was the third Sullivan building in Chicago to burn this year. The Pilgrim Baptist Church may be salvageable, but the Wirt Dexter Building, which was gutted last month, has been demolished.

Sullivan, who worked in Chicago, was best-known as a pioneer in the design of steel-frame high-rise buildings.

floating pool in new york

2006-10-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

this project - a quarter century in the making - is headed up the eastern seaboard from new orleans to new york. tonight, the barge is passing myrtle beach and steaming up the north carolina coast.

linear distortion - part ii

2006-10-19T12:43:00.000-04:00

Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory

baudrillard
simulacra and simulation

linear distortion

2006-10-18T22:32:00.000-04:00

since my project is dealing with lines and their distortions, it is critical to examine how people experience and perceive those distortions. as i began to research these perceptions, i stumbled across a site called radical cartography which examines the earth in different ways. below is a map and description from the author which illustrates how one form is perceived in a multitide of ways - none of the current mapping typologies agree on the exact form of south america. their perceptions, or more acurately, interpretations, of the data each yield a different result which is only evident when they are compared.

PROJECTION STUDY Bill Rankin, 1999

A simple overlay makes the point that even satellite views of the globe are projections like any other. And given that there is no undistorted two-dimensional representation of a curved three-dimensional surface, one should ask whether "distortion" is even a useful category.

And yet the shape of South America is stable; like letterforms, or the word "tree," it is not any one shape in particular, but a set of relationships.

philippe stark's house in a box

2006-10-17T23:23:00.000-04:00

Although this artifact was created over a decade ago, I think it is still very relevant to our recent discussions on the microhouse. Stark addresses how one can disseminate quality architecture to the general public at a price that is reasonable. A whole generation of houses were available by mail through the Sears Roebuck catalog in the early 20th century, and that paradigm is arguably just as relevant now at the beginning of the 21st century.

From a lecture by Stark to the GSD in October 1997:

The Starck House (3 Suisses) [1994] is the best architecture I ever made, definitely the most advanced architecture. It doesn't look like something by Jean Nouvel or Zaha Hadid - it looks a little classic for the most advanced prototype of the modern house. This is because sometimes the modernity is not in the design, but somewhere else, and it's in the "somewhere else" that it's interesting. Lots of good architects make lots of beautiful architecture. You can call them - they have all money problems, so they will be very happy to work for you. But a lot of these good architects will design only a big thing, beautiful and costly. But now, especially in Europe, you can buy a house that costs $100,000 that looks like bullshit. And a young couple will work all their lives to pay for this bullshit. Retired people will have worked all their lives to pay for this bullshit. That's why I have to find a way to say, "OK, every twenty minutes people buy a house like that at $100,000 with 1,500 square feet. Abomination."

And I said, "OK, I shall take the same budget, the same measurement, the same program, and I shall show that there can be something else." In the U.S. and in France you can make a cheap wood house with a strong image. This was intended to be the best design you can get by mail order; it was a solution to oblige the big companies to change their designs. This design caused a big scandal in Europe. I received pressure to not do it. That's why this house is not architecture but political action, not about architecture but about people. Now I am only interested in doing something like that. The main idea was just to make it different and more honest and more human than the bullshit they sell every twenty minutes. When you have a good idea, try in all ways to make the best things for the most people possible. If you succeed, that means the idea was good. Popular is elegant, and rare is vulgar.

Wooden box including hammer, Philippe Starck's notes, blueprints, notebook, flag, and videotape. For 3 Suisses. Stamped "Starck chez 3 Suisses 1994 NÂ° 501." Box: 3 ⅜ x 31 1⁄2 x 24 ⅜ in. (8.6 x 80 x 61.9 cm) Literature Bendedikt Taschen, ed., Starck, Cologne, 2000, pp. 28-33

microhouse

2006-10-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

progress model of convex / concave typology : second iteration

i feel as it the cap walls at either end and roof structure should both have a more muted geometry. the rails provided by the wall geometries will create a dynamic roof in of themselves. in the previous iteration, an entire wall was glass. now, i am more unsure of how to approach fenestration and glazing. maybe either as a discrete field pattern, or a voids punching through the exterior skin. if the exterior skin's outer layer was translucent with a plenum, then the form would have a cohesive appearance until the user turn on a light on the interior. That light could filter through the skin and reveal the location of the interior glazing.

not for the faint of heart

2006-10-12T18:19:00.000-04:00

as a very special treat for the weekend, i stumbled across something to appeal to the salacious nature of the clemson school of architecture. please, cover the eyes of your children.

i present : furniture porn.

all right ... get your minds out of the gutter and get back to your studio work.

cac-c : new site on meeting street

2006-10-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

University drops controversial location for architecture school
By JAMES T. HAMMOND
Excerpt from The State

Clemson University has abandoned a vacant lot in a historic Charleston residential neighborhood as the site to build an architecture school, and will pay $5.1 million for a different property on the more commercial Meeting Street for the new facility.

Last year, Clemson announced that it would build a $7 million modern building as a permanent home for its Charleston architecture program, which has been in Charleston since 1988. The site was in the middle of a block of George Street in the historic Ansonborough District.

While the lot given to Clemson by the city of Charleston was vacant, most of the structures on the street were historic houses in use as residences.

In July 2005, when the city and Clemson officials announced the plans for the new school, neighbors already had mobilized to protest the plan. There followed a year of bitter opposition by residents.

On Monday, Clemson trustees voted to purchase property at 292-296 Meeting Street, at the corner of George and Meeting Streets. The property currently has a 5,600-square-foot brick building and a two-story wooden “single house” of 2,350 square feet. The Clemson University Foundation will purchase the property for the asking price of $5.6 million and sell it to the state university for the appraised value of $5.1 million.

The change of plans marks the end of a bitter fight between the university and the neighborhood .

“I can’t believe the way Clemson officials conducted themselves,” said Albert Weinrich, an electrical engineer who lives at 1 George Street. “They didn’t understand Charleston, its culture or its architectural heritage. It was like they were from another planet.”

Weinrich said the modern glass structure that had been planned for the school had nothing in common with the surroundings of a neighborhood that prizes its historic character.

Robin Denny, Clemson’s spokeswoman, said the new site was selected in part because of the community opposition to the original site. Plus, she said, the commercial Meeting Street site will offer better visibility for the architecture school. And the lot is larger and will better accommodate the needs of the school, she said.

Weinrich said he believes the new location will damp opposition from neighbors of the original site, “if they do a reasonable design, appropriate for Charleston in size, mass and style.”

The new site is about half a block from the original site.

“The city expects that Clemson will build something excellent,” said Michael Maher, director of the Charleston Civic Design Center. He did not know any details of Clemson’s plans for the new site.

Plans to construct the architecture school were made with great fanfare last year, including the news of a $1 million gift from the estate of Countess Alicia Spaulding Paolozzi, a founder of Charleston’s Spoleto Festival, and the gift of the property from Charleston.

Mayor Joe Riley said last year that the property he was conveying to Clemson was an ideal location for the architecture school.

“The dear people outside don’t yet understand that, but they will,” he said.

Riley could not be reached for comment on Monday.

north carolina musuem of art expansion

2006-10-07T00:11:00.000-04:00

This October, the North Carolina Musuem of Art will break ground for a $138 million expansion on its 164-acre campus in Raleigh, NC. New York City-based Thomas Phifer and Partners has designed a new 127,000-square-foot building to house the institution’s permanent collection.

When completed in 2009, the single-story Phifer pavilion will be a long, low rectangular volume clad in a seamless skin of satin finished stainless steel that appears to dematerialize into soft reflections of the landscape, topped by a “flying carpet”-like skylit roof plane.

The undulating roof line will echo the surrounding hills. A system of rhythmic vaults and coffers developed by the Phifer office in collaboration with lighting consultant Fisher Marantz Stone of New York and daylight engineers at Ove Arup of London, bring nature inside the entire building by capturing daylight through highly-engineered, glass-enclosed occuli. A unique system at the skylight glass in each oculus controls the light falling through the coffers. Elements within the glasswork can be dialed up or down to block, filter, and softly direct the light that is allowed into the galleries.

With white oak floors and pale, plastered, 16-foot walls throughout, more than 65,000 total square feet of exhibition galleries will be suffused with controlled natural light and supplemental artificial light as needed.

retire and return to college

2006-10-05T21:39:00.000-04:00

Retiring to the college life - World & Nation

wind shaped pavilion

2006-10-05T17:21:00.000-04:00

The Wind Shaped Pavilion is a design proposal for a large fabric structure that can be used as a public or private pavilion. As a lightweight fabric structure, the wind slowly and randomly rotates each of the six segments around a central open support frame. This continually alters the shape of the pavilion, while at the same time generating electrical power for its nighttime illumination.

army depot adopts camo roof?

2006-10-03T23:34:00.000-04:00

From the Pocono (Pennsylvania) Record
01 October 2006

Tobyhanna Army Depot environmentalists believe they are the first to plant a garden on the roof of a Department of Defense building. Funding from the Joint Services Initiative allowed depot officials to install a vegetative green roof on one wing of the headquarters building this summer.

The Joint Services Initiative provides funding for projects that would save money, positively impact the environment and be transferable across the services. The demonstration project is part of a plan to improve the energy performance of buildings, reduce storm water runoff, extend roof life and contribute to a healthier environment.

A green roof, as the name implies, is a roof covered in plants. Workers covered the 14,141-square-foot roof space with about 1,500 pre-planted modules — recycled black plastic trays measuring 4 feet long, 2 feet wide and 4 inches deep. Sixteen plants were placed in each module at the nursery and cared for until they were shipped here.

"We asked for sedum perennials because they are drought and flood resistant, retain water, and have shallow root systems. Sedum is a low-maintenance shrub that does well in this climate," said Mike Parrent, pollution prevention program manager, Industrial Risk Management Directorate.

The green roof technology offers a flexible and modular design that can be adjusted and rearranged after installation. Modules can be moved to deal with a maintenance issue and then put back in place.

"Anytime you can save the government money and cut back on energy consumption, especially in this day and age, it's a plus," Didier said. "Research suggests we can expect up to a 30-percent reduction in energy costs down the road."

Reports also claim a green roof will extend the life of the existing rubber roof covering. Didier indicated the rubber roof is reported to last up to three times longer than the stone ballast it replaced. The stone was removed and will be used in a variety of depot projects.

"Ultraviolet rays break down the rubber and sealants on ballast-type roofs," said Don Rusnak, engineering technician for the Public Works Directorate. The green roof modules should provide better protection once the plants spread out and cover the area, he said.

Shortly after the project was completed, Didier noticed a marked difference in temperature from the green roof and the control roof. At the time, he estimated it was 80 degrees on the green roof and close to 120 on the rock ballast [control] roof.

Soil and dense vegetation cover have a great insulation value, according to the Maryland Department of Environment Web site. Working together, the two elements enhance the energy efficiency of a building and reduce noise. Department documents also noted that the vegetation cover protects the roof from direct sun exposure and prevents the roof surface from heating up.The growing media, plants and layers of trapped air in a green roof system serve as sound insulators. The modular system can be installed on any new or existing roof surface in good condition with structural capacity.

EMD personnel worked closely with the Public Works Directorate's Engineering Division, which manages all depot facilities to include one million square feet of flat roofs.

death of ARCHITECTURE

2006-10-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

Hanley Wood has purchased Architecture and Architectural Lighting from VNU Business Media, Inc. Architecture will immediately be merged into Hanley Woods's newest launch, Architect, which debuts in October.

There will be some editorial shifts and changes in both publications if for no other reason than geography. Hanley Wood is based in DC while the VNU offices are headquartered in New York.

There will be some editorial shifts and changes in both publications if for no other reason than geography. Hanley Wood is based in Washington, DC, and VNU offices are headquartered in New York City. Architect's editor-in-chief Ned Cramer said that," the PA Awards will live on. The jury for this year's PA Awards will be meeting as planned, next week, and the results of their deliberations will appear in the January 2007 issue of Architect."

Designer Abbott Miller of Pentagram is creating the graphics. Hanley Wood will simultaneously launch Architect Online, a parallel web-based publication.

placemaking in the digital world

2006-10-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

Is MySpace a Place?

louis sullivan at one hundred and fifty

2006-10-02T20:22:00.000-04:00

c. 1899 stair baluster from from louis sullivan's schlesinger + mayer department store, now known as carson pirie scott. cast iron with traces of copper plating. thirty-nine inches in height , ten inches in width. available from michael fitzsimmons for sixty-five hundred dollars.

in commemoration of sullivan's sesquicentennial, fair oaks workshop is manufacturing reproductions from several of sullivan's buildings. the artifact is copper-plated cast aluminum, finished with an antique patina. they are available for about four hundred dollars.

it would be magnificent to own an artifact from a famous building, and it would be a centerpiece to be sure. but its tragic when you realize that the buildings of the modern movement and beyond are devoid of such artistic elements. there is nothing from the works of mies or johnson that you could hang on your wall as a centerpiece. the concept of architectural salvage will fade over the next thirty years as the craftmanship evident in the built environment is exhausted.