For the latest edition of Working out of the Box Archinect talked with Abraham Burickson, founder of Odyssey Works.

 He explained "Architecture school required total commitment, and in Odyssey Works that’s the case as well – absolute, total commitment. Because otherwise nothing new is possible, and it’s almost not worth it, that was the other thing I walked out of architecture with, that it’s not really worth it to go into any project without a total commitment."

Donna Sink commented "This was a great read, and I really appreciate the very close links to architecture and daily experience that somehow moves you out of a set mindframe and into a new one.  Mr. Burickson is an excellent example of how it can be beneficial to get degrees in (or learn a lot about) other disciplines and apply a more general knowledge to our experience of living in a built world."

News

Reacting to the latest iteration of Peter Zumthor's design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Evan Chakroff criticized "however insane the Tar Pit Blob was, at least there was a B-Movie clarity to the design. Now, the sugarcubes detract from that...It's shocking to see something so insensitive from Zumthor, however nice the details turn out...."

Justine Testado drew attention to FRCH Design Worldwide’s upgrade of Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Center lobby in Cincinnati. fineprint of fantasies was not impressed "it seems that whatever distinction the lobby may have originally had is now lost" Janosh agreed "The original lobby scheme was pretty unfunctional/bad, but nowhere near so bad that it deserved this".

Nicholas Korody reported in from the final address of SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss. Both Olaf Design Ninja_ and Thayer-D felt it an ​"excellent piece".

Airbnb has extended operations into Cuba. Orhan Ayyüce was hopeful that rather than big corporate hotel conglomerates, Airbnb would benefit the "local economy in more direct ways. Plus, the beautiful architecture of Havana would be appreciated by the visitors in direct use and making friends with the local population".
 

Firms/Work Updates
Mitch McEwen published the 2nd in a series of talks with non-architects about subjects discussed in architecture. She interviewed Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Southern California, Veronica Terriquez and they discussed, mapping, labor mobilization and radical potential.

For those looking for employment Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo And Associates LLC is seeking candidates with 3-5 years of experience. Or New York City Department of Parks & Recreation wants to hire a Consultant Project Manager for Architecture.

Recently Maria Purrinos Rodriguez worked on the Gävle competition while Crister Cantrell worked on an entry for the Chicago Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition.

Crossboundaries Architects  suggested their approx decade of work in China, for Aimer's Lingerie Factory, represents a new model of industrial architecture that embodies an economy in transition.

School/Blogs
Over at the SARUP affiliated blog, snatraj highlighted work from ‘Frozen Form-Finding’ a hands-on workshop by Professors Antonio Furgiuele and Whitney Moon. Nicole Doan shared that some of her fellow Cal Poly Pomona students had tried "a similar project, but due to the warm weather, they could not freeze the structures".

jp88 wrote about University of Miami School of Architecture's UServe, an event "where participants would dedicate a few hours from normal class time to providing community engagement and volunteer work". For the first one, students and faculty used ArcGis software on mobile phones to record the architectural fabric of East Little Havana.

Lian Chikako Chang managed to wiggle her "way up to the University of San Francisco for the first talk of the season in their Data Visualization Speaker Series, given by Cole Nussbaumer."

Students in the Advanced Design Studies Program at the University of Tokyo finished mid-term reviews and started spring break, almost two weeks ago. Kevin Clement’s "project continues with an idea similar to last year's STIK pavilion but with a different material. The concept is to use food waste as a building material."
 

Discussions/Threads
apure. karl loos started a thread Did you ever notice how few glamour shots of rooms show the ceiling? SneakyPete recommended looking "into techzone and flexzone by Armstrong. Then coordinate, coordinate, coordinate...Nobody likes acne." For his part Ken Koense posted two glamour shots of rooms specifically showing the ceiling.

EKE wanted to talk about The Architect as Totalitarian. Responding to the initial commentators EKE argued "What's interesting to me is how quickly many here rush to describe classical architecture as ‘the architecture of European colonial repression’ or Southern Colonal architecture as ‘the architecture of slavery’, but are prepared to stick their fingers in their ears and rationalize when Le Corbusier goes off on an antisemitic rant...his urban planning ideas were monstrous, and led unfortunately to a whole generation of planners destroying our cities". jla-x was confused  and didn't "understand the intent of this post". Perhaps, a bit tongue in cheek (?) Lye__Nerd____Sky__Nerd noted the post completely changed his opinion regarding classical architecture "now I see...both ends of the spectrum would use it for their state buildings".

Finally, two related threads were started; one about entry level work and Enjoying Architecture?.... in the other StarchitectAlpha asked Does anyone enjoy their job?

Stephanie Braconnier advised Hunter Pope, "If you don't want to work at a cubicle, don't take a job at a place that has cubicles". Miles Jaffe added "look for a small firm where you can be involved in every phase of the work."

Larchinect answered StarchitectAlpha affirmatively, but lamented that too many "budding architects get relegated to some shadowy corner". Many other respondents love their work though it may have taken some years to get there. Some like Steven Ward noted that caring can mean "every day is hell".