Beyond livid with Zipcar right now. I've been a customer of theirs without incident since 2007 when they were just a startup, and their own insurance carrier confirmed the accident wasn't my fault, but they've still canceled my membership anyway. I picked my apartment specifically because there were ten Zipcars parked downstairs in the garage. Luckily I have other options, but it's still a major pain in the ass. I may end up looking for a new apartment and doing some car shopping sooner than planned.
Everyday, sorry to get all sane on that "garden hall" thread. I just wasn't up for the brutality.
I finished reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower over the weekend and, damn. It's a post-apocalyptic novel based in 2026 but it was written in 1993 and it is SO EASY to see how its reality could become our reality shortly: informal survivalist societies hiding behind their walled suburban enclaves, under siege from the drug-addicted homeless hoards beyond the walls in central Los Angeles, and no water so everyone is trying to move north to Oregon and Washington, but there are no jobs except for company towns set up behind walled compounds with security forces, and those workers only get paid in company scrip and so eventually become debt slaves to the corporation employer and can't leave anyway because of the armed guards....oh man. I see this reality happening so easliy...
Which is to say, David, buy that land with water access in the PNW! The apocalypse prepper in me (it's only a small voice, but it's there) says that's a better idea.
I'd seriously consider it if I could get myself into a position where I'm not commuting into downtown Seattle everyday. It's about 1.5 hours into the city from the Stevens Pass area with very limited public transit, so that puts it a bit out of daily commuting range.
More realistically, I'm eventually hoping to buy a townhouse in this complex out in Redmond. It's not too far from a future light rail stop, I love the 1970s PNW "shed" style of design, and it's a huge complex with about 700 units, so there's usually at least a couple on the market at any given time.
I love that 70s Modern shed style, David. Soft spot for it. That exercise room makes me smile, it's lovely.
Aug 16, 16 8:55 pm ·
·
There's a fence with gates and a security patrol. I'll make sure they have his photo on their wall with a big red X through it.
Besides, Balkins making the trip from Astoria to Redmond would require far more initiative than he's capable of.
Not really but the bigger question is not what I am capable of. After all, I been to Eugene.
The bigger question is why? I like shed style buildings in the PNW but it doesn't mean I'm necessarily heading to Redmond because you are there. The big question is why?
I wouldn't mind seeing the building in person but I'm not just going to go there without some good reason or otherwise to spend the money. If there is a good reason for me to see you, maybe but until then, it is unlikely that I am going to go see you wherever you live unless you are like a short walk away or something.
Ricky the stalker is being very stalker right now.
Aug 16, 16 10:00 pm ·
·
Olaf,
I'll take a look at it. I do note that the book was copyrighted in 1916 (from the copy I have downloaded) which is a year after New York began its architectural licensing law.
I'm not sure how much that in itself influenced the writing. I think it would be principally relevant to me albeit non-licensed as it would you.
Aug 16, 16 10:08 pm ·
·
Olaf,
I'll be waiting for your quiz questions with regards to this book.
Donna, I absolutely love the 1970s shed style. Pretty sure I decided to become an architect after seeing one of those houses in my neighborhood in middle school, in rural South Carolina of all places. You can still purchase the plans from some of the stock house plans sites, but I'm particularly enthralled with the ink renderings. These renderings speak to me so much more than today's dime-a-dozen renderings from Revit or Sketchup.
I wish I knew how to draw like this. The houses just seem like a perfect fit for the Pacific Northwest, and the renderings reflect that. Probably no wonder that I nearly creamed my pants when I was first exposed to Sea Ranch as an undergrad. I'd love to buy a shed-style house near Seattle and give it some TLC.
I dragged my spouse along on a giant trip to see Sea Ranch a few years back :-) I love 70s shed style too, but then I'm a west-coaster so to me it just feels like home. Those renderings are so seductive, David. I miss architectural illustration. I was just ruminating to a friend the other day that a large part of the reason I became an architect was my love of drawing, and now I never do it anymore. I think I've probably gone an entire year by now without ever having drawn something.
I think those kinds of drawings --when done well-- can be so much more evocative and seductive than computer renderings, because they somehow communicate more emotion than a rendering does. It's as though a part of the creator's passion is drawn out into the ink and illuminates the final product. Kind of like how a monk's illustrated scripture somehow ends up being more than the sum of its parts...
David, Sorry to be Debbie Downer but every other 70's apartment complex I have ever seen look pretty much like that. They have not aged well. Also, how much will you be paying each month to the homeowner's association and how much can they increase it or have special "one-time" assessments??
Volunteer, I've been on this property and it seems to be in decent shape. It all comes down to how well it's maintained. There are plenty of much newer properties that have aged far worse. If I were to rule out older wood-framed condo building from consideration, that would eliminate 95% of the properties in my price range.
Ugh, I lived in an apartment that looked very similar (event he color looks the same) and I gag just about every time I see one now. David's right though, it really is all about maintenance. The apartment I lived in was not well maintained and that's probably why I have to suppress the urge to vomit every time I see one.
If the interior is planned well, and the grounds and exterior are all maintained well, I say go for it. One caution if you've never dealt with an HOA before: look into the management and how it is run (ask to see meeting minutes for the past couple of years). Find out what the association's financial situation is and what expected maintenance costs are coming up (roofs are nearing the end of their life, siding needs paint, parking lots need to be repaved, etc.). Just that alone will start to paint the picture of whether or not there will be special assessments or not that you'll get stuck with. If the HOA can't paint that picture, run.
David, I would look for an older, well-constructed home that needs cosmetic repairs. The old 'worst house in a nice neighborhood' story, or even a teardown in a nice neighborhood and design and build your own. I would be very wary of the HOA dues. Good luck in any event.
My respite from Overtime - 2 days of going home at 5:30. I worked 80 hrs last week, 60 the two weeks before that, and 45-50 for the last three months. I've worked three weeks straight without a day off at this point, and yet there is more overtime.
This is why the profession loses people. We need to get out of this whole use people until they burn out mentality.
The admins should install a script in the forum software that forces Balkins to correctly answer a question from an ARE practice exam before posting, and he gets banned for a week for each incorrect answer. (Thankfully the ARE is multiple-choice, and won't allow for lengthy essays about why he thinks his wrong answer is correct.) He has to pass a vignette to post on Thread Central.
Oh god the PPP exam was one of the ones I flunked and had to retake. I didn't manage my time well, but even if I had completed it I think I would have flunked.
I also flunked the PPP vignette on my first try. Same with SD. In each case it was because of a stupid mistake that I didn't catch in time. Ironically, those were the two divisions I spent the most amount of time studying for. (On the other hand, I spent years being terrified of Structural Systems, but passed it on my first try. That certainly would've come as a shock to my structures professor.)
I will wholeheartedly support the script that David suggests.
PPP is only a tough vignette because there is only one right answer. The others had some wiggle room because they are more subjective tests. One mistake on PPP though and you're done. Given the strict linear thought that is evident in Balkins' posts, PPP might be pretty easy and straightforward for him.
Give him the site planning vignette from SPD. A lot more wiggle room, but he'd be second-guessing himself with any inherent conflict in the requirements. He couldn't fathom doing a solution that might be "less correct" and so he'd just keep changing things until time ran out.
I also failed the PPP vignette. Actually, almost everyone I know did. It definitely is the one where there is only one right answer, and we all know that is not the case in architecture.
I don't think you'd need to make the forum-admission vignette as difficult as PPP. On the old areforum Balki was in fact successfully goaded into providing a schematic plan for a single family residence to prove his design abilities. The result? A lovely home in which the front entry was through a single-loaded corridor, entering at the end with the bedrooms and requiring travel past them to reach the more traditionally public areas of the home, including a cavernous "great room" which faced an ever deeper, darker 3-sided courtyard. The most prominent element of the street view? You guessed it: broad side of the garage. This home contained no bathrooms at all.
This of course was followed immediately with a string of excuses about time constraints, other commitments, better colored pencils packed away, size of paper hindering design, not wanting to give away his better ideas on the internet, and so forth. And then it disappeared, on the basis that he didn't want people violating his copyright - as if there was any danger.
Kjdt thanks for making my day with that story. I think his plan reflected the fact that he doesn't leave the basement so things like, travel path, views, and bathrooms are very far off his radar.
The garage on the front facade is one of my biggest pet peeves ever. Was Balkins making a machine for killing? We may need those if we keep living longer.
I don't think you'd need to make the forum-admission vignette as difficult as PPP. On the old areforum Balki was in fact successfully goaded into providing a schematic plan for a single family residence to prove his design abilities. The result? A lovely home in which the front entry was through a single-loaded corridor, entering at the end with the bedrooms and requiring travel past them to reach the more traditionally public areas of the home, including a cavernous "great room" which faced an ever deeper, darker 3-sided courtyard. The most prominent element of the street view? You guessed it: broad side of the garage. This home contained no bathrooms at all.
This of course was followed immediately with a string of excuses about time constraints, other commitments, better colored pencils packed away, size of paper hindering design, not wanting to give away his better ideas on the internet, and so forth. And then it disappeared, on the basis that he didn't want people violating his copyright - as if there was any danger.
There was different complaints but also given the example that you are talking about, you are also being disingenuous in that it was to be designed and drawn up, scanned and uploaded in something like 1 hour. That was what you guys were demanding.
Then you guys complained about the color pencil work. I literally did that design and drawing in the 1 hour considering I had to go to the Lawrence Hall's library to scan it and upload it. I had to go from the dorm which was a good 5+ minutes walk to Lawrence Hall's library and get to a computer with a scanner.
My responses were to the various complaints you guys made.
Don't forget the disingenuous nature of the whole damn exercise in the first place.
Aug 18, 16 5:31 pm ·
·
Kjdt thanks for making my day with that story. I think his plan reflected the fact that he doesn't leave the basement so things like, travel path, views, and bathrooms are very far off his radar.
There wasn't anything like a project program or a site context with a viewing vista. There was none of that so what is the view? The street or a distant hillside?
The exercise has no defined site context so guess what.... it was a disingenuous and yet a bullshit exercise to begin with so don't complain about getting bullshit results.
Thread Central
I never thought this day would come... but I'm about to submit my first big project for Design Review!!
Just in time to disappear into the woods tomorrow morning for 6 days of hiking. Later internet!
some exchanges in this forum could make for a bloody hilarious screenplay
Beyond livid with Zipcar right now. I've been a customer of theirs without incident since 2007 when they were just a startup, and their own insurance carrier confirmed the accident wasn't my fault, but they've still canceled my membership anyway. I picked my apartment specifically because there were ten Zipcars parked downstairs in the garage. Luckily I have other options, but it's still a major pain in the ass. I may end up looking for a new apartment and doing some car shopping sooner than planned.
Got my second license this week! I'm regional now...
Everyday, sorry to get all sane on that "garden hall" thread. I just wasn't up for the brutality.
I finished reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower over the weekend and, damn. It's a post-apocalyptic novel based in 2026 but it was written in 1993 and it is SO EASY to see how its reality could become our reality shortly: informal survivalist societies hiding behind their walled suburban enclaves, under siege from the drug-addicted homeless hoards beyond the walls in central Los Angeles, and no water so everyone is trying to move north to Oregon and Washington, but there are no jobs except for company towns set up behind walled compounds with security forces, and those workers only get paid in company scrip and so eventually become debt slaves to the corporation employer and can't leave anyway because of the armed guards....oh man. I see this reality happening so easliy...
Which is to say, David, buy that land with water access in the PNW! The apocalypse prepper in me (it's only a small voice, but it's there) says that's a better idea.
I'd seriously consider it if I could get myself into a position where I'm not commuting into downtown Seattle everyday. It's about 1.5 hours into the city from the Stevens Pass area with very limited public transit, so that puts it a bit out of daily commuting range.
More realistically, I'm eventually hoping to buy a townhouse in this complex out in Redmond. It's not too far from a future light rail stop, I love the 1970s PNW "shed" style of design, and it's a huge complex with about 700 units, so there's usually at least a couple on the market at any given time.
david, balkins now knows where you may live. nice place though.
There's a fence with gates and a security patrol. I'll make sure they have his photo on their wall with a big red X through it.
Besides, Balkins making the trip from Astoria to Redmond would require far more initiative than he's capable of.
Maybe his mom can drive him.
I love that 70s Modern shed style, David. Soft spot for it. That exercise room makes me smile, it's lovely.
There's a fence with gates and a security patrol. I'll make sure they have his photo on their wall with a big red X through it.
Besides, Balkins making the trip from Astoria to Redmond would require far more initiative than he's capable of.
Not really but the bigger question is not what I am capable of. After all, I been to Eugene.
The bigger question is why? I like shed style buildings in the PNW but it doesn't mean I'm necessarily heading to Redmond because you are there. The big question is why?
I wouldn't mind seeing the building in person but I'm not just going to go there without some good reason or otherwise to spend the money. If there is a good reason for me to see you, maybe but until then, it is unlikely that I am going to go see you wherever you live unless you are like a short walk away or something.
tduds,
I been to Olympia and Tacoma before.
read this ricky
Olaf,
I'll take a look at it. I do note that the book was copyrighted in 1916 (from the copy I have downloaded) which is a year after New York began its architectural licensing law.
I'm not sure how much that in itself influenced the writing. I think it would be principally relevant to me albeit non-licensed as it would you.
Olaf,
I'll be waiting for your quiz questions with regards to this book.
Donna, I absolutely love the 1970s shed style. Pretty sure I decided to become an architect after seeing one of those houses in my neighborhood in middle school, in rural South Carolina of all places. You can still purchase the plans from some of the stock house plans sites, but I'm particularly enthralled with the ink renderings. These renderings speak to me so much more than today's dime-a-dozen renderings from Revit or Sketchup.
I wish I knew how to draw like this. The houses just seem like a perfect fit for the Pacific Northwest, and the renderings reflect that. Probably no wonder that I nearly creamed my pants when I was first exposed to Sea Ranch as an undergrad. I'd love to buy a shed-style house near Seattle and give it some TLC.
I dragged my spouse along on a giant trip to see Sea Ranch a few years back :-) I love 70s shed style too, but then I'm a west-coaster so to me it just feels like home. Those renderings are so seductive, David. I miss architectural illustration. I was just ruminating to a friend the other day that a large part of the reason I became an architect was my love of drawing, and now I never do it anymore. I think I've probably gone an entire year by now without ever having drawn something.
I think those kinds of drawings --when done well-- can be so much more evocative and seductive than computer renderings, because they somehow communicate more emotion than a rendering does. It's as though a part of the creator's passion is drawn out into the ink and illuminates the final product. Kind of like how a monk's illustrated scripture somehow ends up being more than the sum of its parts...
David, Sorry to be Debbie Downer but every other 70's apartment complex I have ever seen look pretty much like that. They have not aged well. Also, how much will you be paying each month to the homeowner's association and how much can they increase it or have special "one-time" assessments??
Volunteer, I've been on this property and it seems to be in decent shape. It all comes down to how well it's maintained. There are plenty of much newer properties that have aged far worse. If I were to rule out older wood-framed condo building from consideration, that would eliminate 95% of the properties in my price range.
I particularly love the Shed style when its covered in T1-11 plywood siding. Very evocative of a time... ;)
Ugh, I lived in an apartment that looked very similar (event he color looks the same) and I gag just about every time I see one now. David's right though, it really is all about maintenance. The apartment I lived in was not well maintained and that's probably why I have to suppress the urge to vomit every time I see one.
If the interior is planned well, and the grounds and exterior are all maintained well, I say go for it. One caution if you've never dealt with an HOA before: look into the management and how it is run (ask to see meeting minutes for the past couple of years). Find out what the association's financial situation is and what expected maintenance costs are coming up (roofs are nearing the end of their life, siding needs paint, parking lots need to be repaved, etc.). Just that alone will start to paint the picture of whether or not there will be special assessments or not that you'll get stuck with. If the HOA can't paint that picture, run.
David, I would look for an older, well-constructed home that needs cosmetic repairs. The old 'worst house in a nice neighborhood' story, or even a teardown in a nice neighborhood and design and build your own. I would be very wary of the HOA dues. Good luck in any event.
I'm aware of how HOA dues work. I've also done my research and I have a pretty good idea of what I want and what's realistic in my price range.
My respite from Overtime - 2 days of going home at 5:30. I worked 80 hrs last week, 60 the two weeks before that, and 45-50 for the last three months. I've worked three weeks straight without a day off at this point, and yet there is more overtime.
This is why the profession loses people. We need to get out of this whole use people until they burn out mentality.
End rant.
Crunch time..... ha ha ha !
how many hours you do this week Bilbo?
What do you do when a contractors work is subpar to what is called for in the contract documents?
How much separation do you need between assembly and residential areas?
What's the difference between an Accessible, Type A, and Type B unit?
The admins should install a script in the forum software that forces Balkins to correctly answer a question from an ARE practice exam before posting, and he gets banned for a week for each incorrect answer. (Thankfully the ARE is multiple-choice, and won't allow for lengthy essays about why he thinks his wrong answer is correct.) He has to pass a vignette to post on Thread Central.
Not just any vignette, the PPP one. No way he is passing that.
Oh god the PPP exam was one of the ones I flunked and had to retake. I didn't manage my time well, but even if I had completed it I think I would have flunked.
The ARE really wasn't that difficult.
Which means that Josh's suggestion should be more than sufficient to reign in Ricky-boi.
Basically Balkins, you may think you are an architect but there is no way in hell you could handle what we have to take care of on a daily basis.
I also flunked the PPP vignette on my first try. Same with SD. In each case it was because of a stupid mistake that I didn't catch in time. Ironically, those were the two divisions I spent the most amount of time studying for. (On the other hand, I spent years being terrified of Structural Systems, but passed it on my first try. That certainly would've come as a shock to my structures professor.)
I will wholeheartedly support the script that David suggests.
PPP is only a tough vignette because there is only one right answer. The others had some wiggle room because they are more subjective tests. One mistake on PPP though and you're done. Given the strict linear thought that is evident in Balkins' posts, PPP might be pretty easy and straightforward for him.
Give him the site planning vignette from SPD. A lot more wiggle room, but he'd be second-guessing himself with any inherent conflict in the requirements. He couldn't fathom doing a solution that might be "less correct" and so he'd just keep changing things until time ran out.
I test on SPD next week.
I also failed the PPP vignette. Actually, almost everyone I know did. It definitely is the one where there is only one right answer, and we all know that is not the case in architecture.
I don't think you'd need to make the forum-admission vignette as difficult as PPP. On the old areforum Balki was in fact successfully goaded into providing a schematic plan for a single family residence to prove his design abilities. The result? A lovely home in which the front entry was through a single-loaded corridor, entering at the end with the bedrooms and requiring travel past them to reach the more traditionally public areas of the home, including a cavernous "great room" which faced an ever deeper, darker 3-sided courtyard. The most prominent element of the street view? You guessed it: broad side of the garage. This home contained no bathrooms at all.
This of course was followed immediately with a string of excuses about time constraints, other commitments, better colored pencils packed away, size of paper hindering design, not wanting to give away his better ideas on the internet, and so forth. And then it disappeared, on the basis that he didn't want people violating his copyright - as if there was any danger.
I failed CDS (building section) forgot the grade line, doh!
The garage on the front facade is one of my biggest pet peeves ever. Was Balkins making a machine for killing? We may need those if we keep living longer.
Historically, PPP always has one of the lowest pass rates: http://www.ncarb.org/ARE/ARE-Pass-Rates/DivisionPR.aspx.
Interestingly, the two divisions I took last year had the lowest pass rates, and I passed both. Maybe I should stop worrying about next week's test.
^ just more job security for me.
I don't think you'd need to make the forum-admission vignette as difficult as PPP. On the old areforum Balki was in fact successfully goaded into providing a schematic plan for a single family residence to prove his design abilities. The result? A lovely home in which the front entry was through a single-loaded corridor, entering at the end with the bedrooms and requiring travel past them to reach the more traditionally public areas of the home, including a cavernous "great room" which faced an ever deeper, darker 3-sided courtyard. The most prominent element of the street view? You guessed it: broad side of the garage. This home contained no bathrooms at all.
This of course was followed immediately with a string of excuses about time constraints, other commitments, better colored pencils packed away, size of paper hindering design, not wanting to give away his better ideas on the internet, and so forth. And then it disappeared, on the basis that he didn't want people violating his copyright - as if there was any danger.
There was different complaints but also given the example that you are talking about, you are also being disingenuous in that it was to be designed and drawn up, scanned and uploaded in something like 1 hour. That was what you guys were demanding.
Then you guys complained about the color pencil work. I literally did that design and drawing in the 1 hour considering I had to go to the Lawrence Hall's library to scan it and upload it. I had to go from the dorm which was a good 5+ minutes walk to Lawrence Hall's library and get to a computer with a scanner.
My responses were to the various complaints you guys made.
Don't forget the disingenuous nature of the whole damn exercise in the first place.
Kjdt thanks for making my day with that story. I think his plan reflected the fact that he doesn't leave the basement so things like, travel path, views, and bathrooms are very far off his radar.
There wasn't anything like a project program or a site context with a viewing vista. There was none of that so what is the view? The street or a distant hillside?
The exercise has no defined site context so guess what.... it was a disingenuous and yet a bullshit exercise to begin with so don't complain about getting bullshit results.
^
Also, I'm only responding to Rick in meme form from now on. I suggest others do the same.
#roos4lyfe
I need to rededicate myself to "The Pledge"
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.