I write THE CRIT, Archinect's new series on criticism. I also co-author CONTOURS, Archinect's featured column on the culture, politics, and business of architecture. I'm a frequent contributor to Metropolis Magazine, GOOD Magazine, Architectural Record, The Architect's Newspaper, and Architect Magazine. I sometimes blog about architecture and provide reviews and criticism for The Huffington Post.
Somehow, the book Sherin Wing and I co-authored, The Real Architect's Handbook, has found a cult following of sorts. The book was intended to be a humorous and honest look at the challenges of the profession. Sherin actually did all the illustrations--intentionally very non-architectural. We were thinking anonymous stick figures and little sketches of the sort you discard. It's not our fault, really.
I'm a husband and father to two daughters (one of whom is on the way). I'm still striving to become a licensed architect--as opposed to the unlicensed type--and work as an architectural designer when I'm not dreaming up stories or thinking of ways to provoke debate and challenge that status quo.
When someone is absolutely crazy enough, they invite me to be on design review juries. This usually happens to be some of the professors at SCI-Arc. Honestly, I don't know what they are thinking, but I consider it a great honor to rip student work to shreds and stomp on models like a toddler on too much sugar. No. Actually, I do that with fellow jurors more than with students. I remember what it was like to be on the receiving end of harsh criticism and to watch jurors fight personal battles that had nothing to do with my projects. No, but seriously, I really enjoy being on juries and sometimes have useful and constructive things to say. Sometimes I just say whatever I want. I'll just shut up now.
This is all a work in progress.
The CRIT: Thoughts on MoMA's Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, Mon, Jan 30 '12
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work." — Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912) “yes i was wondering how i go about not lossing my house it has been in my wifes ...
CONTOURS: The Divisions that Bind Us, Mon, Jan 16 '12
As if the narratives and infographics of Occupy weren’t loud enough by now, Catherine Rampell, an economics reporter for The New York Times, decided to bang the drum a little louder by writing “Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in Architecture”.
CONTOURS: EDD DE 1101 I - Part 2, Mon, Dec 5 '11
There are so many metaphors for being unemployed. My preference is a burial scenario. You are being buried and the earth keeps getting piled upon you deeper and deeper until you eventually stop trying to dig your way out. It becomes your early grave. Might as well just stay in there. When the ...
CONTOURS: EDD DE 1101 I, Mon, Nov 28 '11
Author’s Disclaimer Hello! Author here. Just interjecting at the onset of this article to make it clear that, yes, I am indeed biased and this is not intended to be purely objective in any sense. I’m also blatantly stealing this device from David Foster Wallace, who used this little ...
CONTOURS: Get a Job!, Mon, Nov 21 '11
Disconnects. There are disconnects. You become aware of them when you pass from one reality into another. From employed to unemployed is one such transition. It’s hard to understand unless you have gone through it. I would compare the experience to going to war…without all the ...
CONTOURS: What Should Architecture Occupy? Part Two, Mon, Nov 7 '11
Of course, we know why architects are quiet on these fundamental issues of wealth and inequality. On the one hand they are just too busy trying to run their businesses and chase after ever fewer projects for less and less money. The other reason is that architects depend on the wealthiest ...
CONTOURS: What Should Architecture Occupy? Part One, Mon, Oct 31 '11
Unless you’ve been living under a very remote rock, you know by now that the OWS, or Occupy Wall Street movement, with its many offshoots including Occupy the Hood, has been continued for over a month, now. And what’s more, unless you are independently wealthy or a trustfund baby (and ...
CONTOURS: The Real, Wed, Oct 5 '11
Let’s get real. What we generally call Reality is not something we should lose sight of at this juncture, when our economy is still faltering, protests are erupting in cities across the country (you have heard about this, right?), and conservatives are arguing that taxing the rich will ...
CONTOURS: Whither Goest Thou, Green Economy?, Mon, Sep 12 '11
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? --Jack Kerouac Did you tune into Obama’s jobs speech last Thursday night? Hopefully, you were too busy putting in unpaid overtime at your office. Or maybe you didn’t give a damn because you’ve been out there looking for ...
State of the Industry at the A+D Museum: A Panel on the Economy, Wed, Oct 13 '10
Loud music reverberated from speakers. The line at the sponsored free bar spilled out onto the sidewalk. The 2010 AIA/LA Design Award boards were perfectly leveled along the crisp white walls. With all the great design on display, the music, the mingling, the clinking of plastic glasses, one ...
Last Supper at SCI-ARC: A Night of Beauty and its Problems, Mon, Sep 20 '10
It was a SCI-ARC night. LAPD helicopters thumping overhead, spotlights sweeping down. The twinkle of downtown just beyond. Derelict shopping carts and garbage just outside the fence. I parked between a shipping container and sheets of plywood near the shop. As I looked in, I could see some ...
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), MArch, Architecture
My thesis evolved out of earlier studies of China at UCLA (see below). Entitled, "Beijing Grayscale", it investigated issues concerning the politics of development and contested identities communicated through architectural form, space, and place-making. The resultant architecture was a proposed series of new government offices stealthily inserted into the dense urban fabric of central Beijing. This was counter to official proposals to move the government outside the central city.
It was selected for inclusion in the 2006 juried Selected Thesis Exhibition.
Honestly, it's all still a blur!
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Asian Languages & Cultures
PhD studies in Chinese culture, literature, film, urbanism, history, critical theory, and politics. My research investigated the intersections of urban transformation and contemporary literature. Related interests included semi-colonialism, political movements and their attendant cultural expressions, dissident artists and writers, and the Cultural Revolution and it's legacy in the arts. This had absolutely nothing to do with formal architecture, per se, but concerned cultural production in China's rapidly evolving urban settings.
Mel Ferris Achievement Award, AIA California Council, Scholarship
The Mel Ferris Scholarship Program is named in honor of the late Mel Ferris, Hon. AIA, and former Executive Vice President of the AIA California Council. Funded by donations, the program grants scholarships to promising architectural students throughout California. All ten of the state’s accredited architectural schools participate in the Mel Ferris program, with 121 scholarships awarded since its launch in 1991.
AIA Pasadena-Foothill Design Award, Award
Mel Ferris Achievement Award, AIA California Council, Scholarship
AIA Pasadena-Foothill Design Award, Award
