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Donna, sometimes....I find myself agreeing with you.

I think the "right hand man" is equally literal, as in right-winged. a right wing architectural avant garde, if it could be said that way.

Aug 25, 14 1:14 am  · 
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Seriously, look at what she's wearing here:

It's devastatingly perfect. The world is swooning over Beyonce's performance and general existence but Zaha does it for me. Just wish she would use her powers - such incredible powers! - for good.

Aug 25, 14 12:17 pm  · 
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archanonymous

Donna- I am hesitant to call her style good or bad, but it is certainly unique and memorable, which is a good thing to be within the profession. She obviously "gives no fucks" and it comes through in her work, dress, and (unfortunately) political leanings, but it is (at least for me) all part of a larger whole. 

 

 

I have always preferred taste over style....

http://irenebrination.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55290e7c48833019101dbeff4970c-800wi

Although a messed-up face like Kahn's makes for a memorable visage as well...

Aug 25, 14 12:49 pm  · 
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There's tasteful style, and tasteless style, and I think room for both.  Sometimes some things should be unrestrained. 

Kahn's face is also beautiful, and memorable.  I've said this before but will repeat: the novel Geek Love deeply affected how I view what we'd call normalized (boring) beauty as opposed to distinctive appearance.

I feel embarrassed and like a cultural appropriation-er whenever my yoga teacher asks us all to say "namaste" to one another but the notion of seeing the beauty of all others is definitely resonant.

Aug 25, 14 12:59 pm  · 
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Is that giant scorpion around her neck a favored pet, a bodyguard, an alien symbiot or just an endangered species? Or maybe it's a previously hidden appendage exposed for the first time?

That feathered thing looks like it's made from the plumage of the rare ruby albatross.

Aug 25, 14 1:28 pm  · 
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Guys, the Oakwood Modern house trial is in closing arguments right now, following it on twitter - way more exciting than the World Cup (but with a potentially serious outcome).

Aug 26, 14 11:48 am  · 
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gruen
Saw Zaha speak once. So rude that I've dismissed her ever since. There's "will to power" and there is just plain rudeness. I'm amazed she gets clients.
Aug 26, 14 9:36 pm  · 
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Some rich people are so used to getting their asses kissed that they kiss the asses of those who don't. Weird, huh? Treat 'em like shit and they lap it up. Amazing. 

Aug 26, 14 9:58 pm  · 
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Zaha was absolutely great, cocky, confident and talented in 1985 when I first saw her at SCI-ARC. I vividly remember she was condescendingly asked why she'd use an Arab engineer on her Hong Kong Peak project and she defiantly said "why not, afterall they are the best engineers coming from the culture who developed the modern calculus." At that point she made me very proud coming from that part of the world and I knew she was going to go far with her talent.

Watch

Aug 26, 14 10:06 pm  · 
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Orhan my best friend and former business partner saw Zaha speak in Tokyo in 1988, he said the same thing.  She was making all her own clothing then.  I admit I have had a soft spot for her ever since, even when I'm repulsed by her behavior.

Aug 26, 14 11:06 pm  · 
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Primate Studies

One can only wonder how we've managed to get on for as long as we have.

Aug 27, 14 10:32 am  · 
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archanonymous

Orhan-

Right, because reinforcing cultural, racial, and ethnic divisions is a good thing when one is practicing architecture at a global scale. 

If the only jobs left were at ZHA i would become a hippie and hang out with the ape from Miles' post.

Aug 27, 14 12:09 pm  · 
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archanonymous, do keep in mind that the lecture Orhan references was almost 30 years ago.  The world was very different then - it was nowhere near as "global" as it is now.

Aug 27, 14 1:34 pm  · 
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curtkram

i wouldn't mind becoming a hippie and hanging out with a chimp.  i might dress the chimp like zaha though.  then i would yell at the chimp about post-fordist neoliberalism too. 

Aug 27, 14 3:14 pm  · 
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toasteroven

In 1985 she had exactly ZERO built projects - even during her brief stint at OMA (who also didn't build anything until the mid 80s, btw).  I'm imaging that question orhan references (not on the video, btw) was more about exposing her naivety of architectural practice (i.e. why wouldn't you hire someone who was familiar with local codes and construction practices?) than it was about the superiority of structural engineers.  I'm guessing If she were answering honestly she probably would have said ARUP - but I think the answer was more "it doesn't matter."  She does act obnoxious toward someone who said her drawings were difficult for them to understand...  but I guess that's par for the course...

 

I don't know if people caught the little jab early in the questions: "is there a contract?"  "the contract has evaporated."

Aug 27, 14 3:48 pm  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

The Sumerians invented writing, and the Phoenicians invented money, and the word algebra is of arabic origin, and we all use arabian numerals, but I'm pretty sure it is Newton who is credited with inventing modern calculus and he was English - ???

Aug 27, 14 4:00 pm  · 
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You know how when you try to look directly at blue LED Christmas lights you can't really look AT them, they seem to vibrate out of focus and give you a headache from trying to SEE them? That's my experience with those lights, anyway.  It's similar, in a way, to Lewis Carroll's description in Through The Looking Glass of Alice trying to see things on shelves but whenever she tried to look closely at one shelf all the objects seemed to shift to all the shelves she wasn't looking directly at, so she could see interesting shapes but couldn't ever completely understand the objects she was trying to see.

That's what it felt like to look at The Peak renderings in 1985.  They were hard to SEE, hard to understand - my brain hadn't yet figured out how to process them as a building.  Now, of course, I can look at pretty much any tangled mess of slop and "see" a building. The visual language has expanded and caught up with where Zaha was 30 years ago.  One has to respect that.

Aug 27, 14 4:02 pm  · 
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Carrera

I was looking for an antonym for the word “Porn”…viewing that photo I think I’ve found it – “Zaha”.

Aug 27, 14 4:10 pm  · 
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Carrera what floats your boat might sink someone else's, and vice versa. 

Aug 27, 14 4:16 pm  · 
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In 1985 she had exactly ZERO built projects - even during her brief stint at OMA (who also didn't build anything until the mid 80s, btw).

Starchitecture is littered with academics.

academic adj. theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful

And now the built environment is littered with their droppings.

Aug 27, 14 5:28 pm  · 
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archanonymous

Tint- Along with Leibniz, who I think was German? And yes, Sir Isaac Newton was most definitely an Englishman.

The principles of algebra were gleaned from salvaged/ traded Egyptian and Greek texts by Arabic scholars (and improved upon) after the fall of Mediterranean civilization. I have been reading "Flattening the Earth" by John Snyder and it has a good 50 pages on the evolution of mathematics.

 

Donna- the context does help soften the argument. I can see the argument that she was ahead of the times, but that is much less true now that her buildings are "of the times" (excuse me while I vom) and her attitude and politics are 30 years or more in the past.

 

Some of you may remember I left my job. Well I finally accepted a new offer in Chicago, only took about a month of wranglin them to finalize everything. It is a hell of an offer.

Excitement. Panic. Moving.

Aug 27, 14 7:13 pm  · 
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From yoga class tonight, a paraphrased Robert Louis Stevenson quote: it's not about arrival, it's about journeying hopefully. Every yoga pose is a journey.

Seems applicable to you, archanonymous, good luck!
Aug 27, 14 8:56 pm  · 
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Carrera

Donna, just put another note up on my monitor “Don’t to try to be funny”, I won’t again and thanks for the warning shot.

Aug 27, 14 9:45 pm  · 
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toasteroven

miles - for the record - I'm a fan of "the peak" project - and much of her early paper architecture work - and a few of her realized projects (btw- my all-time favorite conceptual exploration is OMA's proposal for the parc de la villette).   I also don't really find any problems with conceptual explorations that exist only in drawings/renderings - and people who are pushing the realm of representation - I think this work serves an important purpose.  And if someone can make a living doing that, more power to them. What I can't stand is any sort of denial that the actual practice of architecture is somehow "above politics."

Aug 27, 14 10:59 pm  · 
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CD.Arch
I thought it was funny Carrera...
Aug 27, 14 11:35 pm  · 
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archanonymous

I will second Toaster. I like alot of paper architecture. I am working on some myself tonight. 

 

Eventually paper architecture becomes real. Not specific projects, but the ideas presented sometimes become part of the architectural "toolbox" whether it is figuring out how to represent certain spaces or figuring how how to fabricate complex facade panels. 

Aug 27, 14 11:52 pm  · 
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Stolen directly from Jezebel:

Holy crap Brad and Angelina got married!  Congratulations!!

Aug 28, 14 10:15 am  · 
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CD.Arch
What do you guys think of a thread about the separation of California into 6 states? I think it's an interesting topic with much deeper discussion than it recieved on the highlights.
Sep 1, 14 9:11 am  · 
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I'm wondering if there is big enough warehouse in Helsinki to put all the entries of Guggenheim Helsinki competition? !

Sep 3, 14 5:46 pm  · 
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@Donna they weren't already?

also - side note, loved that goofy ass character Brad played in this film.. Even Clooney's, with that DIY sybian thing... the whole movie was actually one of my fav recent Coen flicks.

Sep 4, 14 7:56 pm  · 
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Non Sequitur

Anyone care to chime in on this: Is it acceptable to open up the scotch at 9am on a saturday morning if you've already been in the office for a few hours?

Sep 6, 14 9:26 am  · 
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curtkram

yes

Sep 6, 14 9:34 am  · 
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Non Sequitur

thanks curt, that door schedule ain't going to make itself without some Scottish help

Sep 6, 14 9:54 am  · 
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I only have one rule about drinking. I learned it from my father, and it never fails. I only drink if I'm alone or with someone.

Sep 6, 14 10:36 am  · 
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Carrera

I can’t say – I don’t work on weekends, or any other day that ends in “Y” – But I do know that drinking after work is fine, but if you really want to enjoy working then drink before work.

Sep 6, 14 5:04 pm  · 
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So. I spent two hours Friday going over some renovations we have to do at one of our historic properties.  We are removing work done by a very well-known firm less than a decade ago because it does not work, it never did, and it was a terrible idea to begin with.  

The lesson I'm taking from this is: when you suggest something that you know will look better than the alternative aesthetically, but you have a nagging suspicion won't *actually* function in the way it should, just don't do it.  Don't make your client invest a lot of money in something very questionable, even if you're a well-respected professional.  Because you really should know better.

Sep 6, 14 9:30 pm  · 
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awaiting_deletion

drinking schedule AIA ABV 101 form

1 Scots = 1 bourbon = 1 vodka = 1 beer = 1 wine

Section I - Allowable Pre-Game

1.0  Door, Window, and Finish Schedule - 3 drinks

2.0 Existing Condition Drawings and Analysis - 2 drinks

3.0 Schematic Design - 4 drinks

4.0 Renderings - 6-12 drinks, unlimited

5.0 Detailing - 1 drink

6.0 Construction Admin - 0 drinks

7.0 Client Meetings - TBD

Section II - Allowable Post-Game

1.0 Client Meetings - Unlimited drinking

2.0 Detailing - 6 drinks

3.0 Construction Admin - 12 drinks to blackout

4.0 All other phases of design - at least 2 drinks

 

Hope this helps

Sep 6, 14 9:31 pm  · 
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toasteroven

If I have just one pint during lunch I'm asleep at my desk the rest of the day.

Sep 6, 14 10:08 pm  · 
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archanonymous

I can't drink and work. But a little toke before diving into 5 hours of CAD work is quite nice sometimes.

Sep 7, 14 1:12 am  · 
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Carrera

Donna, good advice. The #1 firm in my current town has reached too far numerous times, just three that I can think of off hand - an active solar array that went bust on a big medical building, an acoustic problem at my attorneys office building where they experimented with exposed structure/no ceiling and a prefabricated brick panel concept on a mid-rise that leaked like hell….on all three they got sued but what is probably worse is the owners had to stop in their tracks and redo the concepts then fight for a year to get reimbursed – don’t know how these guys have survived. Architecture is a brain with two sides that must function together – the right side is for the architecture and the left is for business – good architecture is a balance of both.

Sep 7, 14 11:02 am  · 
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archanonymous

Carrera - one of my favorite professors and practitioners always made the distinction in terms of architecture vs. Architecture. 

Architecture with a capital "A" being implied to include business practice, community engagement, etc...

Sep 7, 14 11:41 am  · 
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vado retro

Donna did I work at that very well known firm?

Sep 7, 14 1:22 pm  · 
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vado, no. This firm is nationally known.
Sep 8, 14 6:56 am  · 
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vado retro

damn.

Sep 8, 14 7:05 am  · 
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late to this but Non Sequitur, but I totally second curtkram on that one.

Hi TC!

Sep 9, 14 7:32 pm  · 
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A contractor just accused me of not knowing the difference between conduit and pipe, when I specifically asked if he wanted conduit or pipe. I *know* there's a difference, MF, that's why I asked.

Sep 12, 14 9:50 am  · 
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I will assume the contractor's name is not Mary Francis.

Sep 12, 14 10:27 am  · 
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You're correct, Miles.  MF stands for something else.

Sep 12, 14 11:14 am  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

tickle tickle...

Sep 16, 14 8:43 am  · 
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toasteroven

been having fun looking through here lately:

 

http://socks-studio.com/

Sep 16, 14 1:24 pm  · 
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