MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Pecha Kucha Night Detroit will be held at the Atwater Block Brewery on August 21.

Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham Architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers, performers and artists to meet, network, and show their work in public.

The key to Pecha Kucha Night is its patented system -- each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds -- giving 6 minutes, 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people a chance to present.

Pecha Kucha (Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown. This is a demand that seems to be global, as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 120 cities across the world. For more information, visit www.pecha-kucha.org.


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October 25, 2007: DAN ROCKHILL Rockhill & Associates. Lecompton, Kansas. Lecture Title: "Design & Construction: Hand & Mind. The Work of Rockhill & Assoc. and Studio 804" November 8, 2007: SHANE & BETSY WILLIAMSON WilliamsonWilliamson. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Lecture Title... View full entry

This one is a can't miss, from www.cranbrookart.edu...THE WIRED SPEAKER SERIES At Cranbrook Academy of Art Cameron Sinclair Co-founder of Architecture for Humanity In conversation with Melanie Cornwell, Editorial Projects Director, WIRED magazine.Thursday, April 12 | 7:00 pm Cranbrook Art... View full entry

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I've just come from a David Adjaye lecture at the University of Detroit Mercy. I am quite fond of Adjaye's work, though the lecture didn't live up to expectations. I first heard of Adjaye from his Idea Store in Whitechapel, London. Though this may be one of his more published persuites, I was... View full entry

Randolph R. Croxton, FAIA: Moving from "Green" to Sustainable... Overlooked Assets & Opportunities Thursday, March 22, 2007, 7:00 pm, Architecture Auditorium, A200 See the full banner here. View full entry

Hey. Long time no see. I've been busy lately. I'm currently designing an addition to a museum and library, trying to save another library, building houses in Detroit, moving, planning a wedding, and trying to get 8 hours a sleep a night on top of all that. Some needs are met, others are ignored... View full entry

Spring semester officially began a week ago. I'm once again a full time student, taking 12 credit hours this semester, on top of working 40 hours a week. Looks like I'm going to be busy. My class line up is as follows: Integrated Design Studio 4 - Tod Stevens/Cornell Mays Structures 4 - Edmond... View full entry

On our final day in The Athens of America, the plan was to take the T to M.I.T. to see Frank Gehry's Stata Center, Eero Saarinen's M.I.T. Chapel, Alvar Alto's Baker House, and Steven Holl's Simmons Hall, then find the Genzyme Center. Next, hop the T to Harvard to visit the G.S.D., then to Allston... View full entry

We spent this morning walking around the Back Bay for a while, and then we visited the host campuses. It wasn't a well organized tour, as most of the buildings were locked. We did, however, get to see the studio spaces at Northeastern and Wentworth. The studio at Northeastern sits directly under... View full entry

This morning began with a tour of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Redsox. Fenway is the oldest ballpark in America, and is currently undergoing some major renovation work. The tour wouldn't have been the same if we wouldn't have had the best damn tourguide in all of Boston. This guy could have... View full entry

This morning marked the official opening of AIAS Forum 2006. Registration went fairly quickly, and we were greeted with a bag full of goodies, including a triangle and a nice notebook. I spent all day in a hands-on graphics and rendering workshop presented by Mike Lin, ASLA, ASAI, one of the most... View full entry

We arrived in Boston this morning via Logan International Airport. Our flight was delayed roughly an hour because of computer problems at Detroit Metro Airport. Most of that time was made up in flight, and we arrived only 15 minutes later than expected. After picking up our bags from the baggage... View full entry

No, I'm not talking about Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or even Festivus. I'm talking about the end of the academic semester. It's the time of year when all the good boys and girls finally go home after weeks and weeks of seemingly endless nights in the studio and, for the first time in... View full entry

New Laptop - $3000 New Flash Drive - $90 New External Hard Drive - $50 New Wireless Mouse - $40 New Laptop Bag - $60 New Sketchbook - $15 Having your laptop bag stolen with your laptop, flashdrive, external hard drive, wireless mouse, and sketchbook in it three weeks before the end of the semester... View full entry

As if the weight of the semester coming to a close wasn't enough, someone had to break into my truck and steal my laptop! What did I do to deserve this? They smashed my window and grabbed the computer. I came back to a pile of broken glass and a missing laptop. It's not as if I were careless. The... View full entry

For more information, click here. I will give a brief recap of the event in my school blog Friday morning following the lecture. This should be a good presentation and I encourage anyone in the area to attend. View full entry

Our studio held its midterm review this week. It went better than I had expected. The presentations went in alphabetical order, and due to an absence, I went first. My project was as far along as most in the class. There were a few that were quite a bit behind. I had a good idea who they would be... View full entry

Patty Johnson was our guest last night and the second speaker in our "Archilecture" series. Johnson is a Canadian-based designer who does a lot of work in furniture. Here is a brief bio:Working out of Toronto, Patty Johnson draws upon her training from the school of Crafts and Design at Sheridan... View full entry

As part of my semester studio project, I did a study of boundaries, both visible and invisible, near my site. From this study I was able to conclude that this was a useless study and taught me nothing that I wouldn't have learned by simply visiting the site. Oh, the joys of academia. Stay tuned... View full entry

Once upon a time, some guy in Cleveland decided the third Saturday in October would be known as "Sweetest Day." From then on, people would spend the day wondering why we needed another Valentines Day. Thus my trip to the cider mill... In 1863, the Yates family constructed a wooden dam across the... View full entry

This weekend, Lawrence Technological University played host to the 2006 Midwest Quad Conference of the American Institute of Architecture Students. The events included a deans pannel with the deans of three local schools of architecture, break out sessions on LEED, presentation, and the... View full entry

Blair Kamin, Architecture Critic for the Chicago Tribune, will give a lecture at the Lawrence Technological University College of Architecture and Design on Thursday, October 12, at 7:00 in room A200.Kamin is a native of Red Bank, New Jersey. He graduated from Amherst College in 1979 with a... View full entry

With studio weighing heavily on my mind, I still managed to take a weekend trip to visit my family. We spent some time at our property up north, getting out of the city and getting some fresh air. It's a great time of the year for it too, as the trees are changing color now. My dad has spent the... View full entry

Wednesday was the due date for the group projects in studio. We got to pick what we wanted to research, and I of course chose Detroit architecture. The other research areas were precedent study, Detroit history, site study, and a site model. It appeared Tuesday as I left the studio that we would... View full entry

More buildings from downtown Detroit. This time, it's the Guardian Building, located in the financial district. This building was designed in 1929 by Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls and renovated in 2000 by SmithGroup. It was originally the Union Trust Building. This Art Deco masterpiece combines... View full entry

We were required to complete a design proposal for our planned development in downtown Detroit. This was a very informal activity followed by a pin up. No one was exactly sure what to include in this proposal, because no one had ever done one before. We weren't given a lot of details from the... View full entry

In our latest assignment, we were given one studio session to design a loft floorplan that we would like to live in. I came up with three variations of my plan. The first is an open loft style apartment, found in many of the new lofts going up in this area. The second is a traditional apartment... View full entry

For our first assignment, and to get us adjusted to thinking in the urban context, we were told to select a building which we thought was a good example of urban architecture, and a building which we thought was a good example of suburban or non-urban architecture. We were then to record the... View full entry

'Transformers: The Movie' Transforms Detroit's Train Station Into A Hollywood Set It's true. One man's trash is another man's treasure. People have said that the old train station off of Michigan Avenue, once a glorious, unique, and fascinating place for movers and shakers on the go, has become a... View full entry