OK, I'm a little buzzed/headed towards headachy from wine tonight. but I somehow derived from your paragraph above, manta, that you were thinking of naming your firm STUMPED. Which maybe could be kinda cool.

I had the pleasure of conversing tonight with Vito Acconci. He and I were the two featured "artists" at a fundraiser for the Cultural Trail, where my little bus stop project will be. I ut artists in quotes because I'm definitely NOT an artist, but for the purposes of this project that's my role, and Vito definitely IS an artist, but considers himself an architect. His project for the Trail is going to be super cool, and we had a really nice discussion about architecture and math and community and all kinds of neat stuff. Quite a broad-ranging mind and career this guy has.

Also, while I can hold my own in polite social chitchat with wealthy donors, talking seriously about art with an artist was far more engaging and satisfying.

jump, I also loved the platform collapse.

rationalist, that is fantastic news! I'm having more and more faith in social networking/web connections as ways to find work. And with that I need to go update my FB status.

Oh, and techno re: the columns: aww, honey, I'm so sorry!

WonderK-that would be the one that was with you only briefly before heading northward. I believe you found her through the 'nect.

Techno-actually I'd love to have a full-time gig. The freelance is a lot of work on scheduling and budgeting, that I bet I'd be much better at with a few years of agency experience under my belt.

Manta-maybe try checking out some books on branding from the graphic design section of the bookstore. There are a lot of firms that incorporate naming with a whole strategic design package, and I was going through this book the other day, and the worksheets by WOW design were quite good and helped generate a few ideas. Basically they take you through categories of things your name could come from (the founders, the location, conglomerate/made up words, etc) that were surprisingly helpful.

techno - why not convince them to go completely over the top?

I'm thinking rococo meets rattan meets liberace... You could try for a full spread in architectural digest.

or you could say it's intentionally "post-modern revival..."

did they put the columns in on their own?

thanks for comments on my brothers promo vid all. if you come visit i'll make him do a balloon hat for you. yes LB, is kool for my kids. oldest learned how to make balloon flower and thinks being performer is totally normal. now i think on it my kids are surrounded by slightly crazy adults. i wonder if that is going to be good or bad when they get older...?

i guess your wee lad has lots of fun with his da and you too lb?


rationalist that is totally awesome. fantastic that the awards make things better for you. and i agree. it does make a difference. those who say it doesn't probably are engaging in wishful thinking ;-)


coming up with firm name is HARD work. we nearly abandonded the idea altogether cuz we couldn't come up with anything that works.

yes jump the contractor/his dad put the columns on. 3 of them, 2 to the front 2 halves to the back. A dear friend suggested I plant heavy plants to the front - I'm thinking tnt. Lots of tnt

jump & Liberty I honestly don't think you have to worry about your kids. Having such creative outlets as both parents as well as adult influences makes them open to a much broader spectrum of what they can be

hellooooooo everyone?!?! been away for a while,,, i have no idea whats happening with you guys,, except for techno,, hows the teaching? and wonder seems to be back! yay!

Archi can't you have them taken down or is it a culture thing? My buddy from work ages ago in japan built an addition to his house and the builder put in a triangular window in his bedroom that he didnt want. He left it. He thought it would be rude to do otherwise. Something about the culture. I woulda made him change it.

Same deal?

Morning all,
LB, that is super fricking cool, that you had the opportunity to "chat" with Vito Acconci.
Wooho.

firm names are easy...i've already shared about a hundred brilliant ideas on the daydreaming thread.

in fact, here's an easy generator for manes...just pick a city and a year that you like oslo87, bangkok99, cannes55, etc. hmmm...short city names seem to work better; montevideo77 seems a tad cumbersome

thats funny puddles. i was thinking a cool name for some sort of "design" office woudl be Chelsea 77...

jump I guess you could say it's a cultural thing you can buy faux doric columns and fluted balustrades on the side of the highways. It serves no structural purpose and is held together with a bit of mortar. I could just remove them if I stick around to design the second phase.

There's a firm in Jamaica (formerly Chris Blackwell/Island Records personal architects) called Kingston10 but the number has to do with location more than anything.

rationalist - what's the award? what sort of freelance work are you doing?

right now I'm feeling like the kid who was placed in the remedial class because he just moved to the country and doesn't speak the language and people are impressed if he can wipe his own ass... and every time he tries to communicate that he doesn't belong in that class, he's ignored because he doesn't fit into whatever narrow criteria they've developed...

anyone else ever feel like this?

looks like time,inc was a step ahead in their purchase of a detroit house. maybe old media isn't dead just yet.

actually, this is probably a more useful link: [url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/magazine/assignment-detroit/assignment detroit[/url]

i'm retrded...

actually, this is probably a more useful link: assignment detroit

Lines drawn on streets, change in policy and lifestyle:

I thought I was going crazy lately when I noticed there were newly painted bike lanes drawn on Philadelphia streets. I thought 'Have they always been there, and I just never noticed?' As it turns out, they're new, and they replace a lane of vehicular traffic.

You might be thinking, 'who cares, Slartibartfast, and its in philadelphia anyway. You are cluttering up thread central.' But it is pretty significant to replace vehicular traffic lanes with a bike lane in a conservative city like this. It is for two streets "Spruce" and "Pine" from river to river. Known for its row homes, neighborhood restaurants/businesses (i.e. antique row), and a couple neighborhood parks (one of them being the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Park).

It shows that the city is still changing, albeit slowly and in small steps. It shows that maybe we're rethinking the value of vehicular convenience in the big picture of the city and the urban fabric. And at the end of the day, all it took in a physical sense, were some lines drawn on the streets and a few signs on the sidewalk. Such minimal physical effort for such big impact.

ps - I find it interesting that within one day of its "official opening", I noticed three architects that I know riding on those lanes. From that, I've deduced that either I'm not the only aspiring architect excited about this change in lifestyle and policy reflecting it with such minimal physical effort, OR I need to meet more people outside the field.

slart, that is very cool. Maybe it just says something about architects being pro-urban(ism)?

also Assignment Detroit shit is rad. I something about it yesterday. I think it is pretty cool thing for (as puddles said) a dead media org to do. Especially as opposed to just flying reporters in for a quick oh shit Detroit article. Although that will likely continue to an extent.

also rationalist and any design poster lovers check this out link

At my firm in Philly, out of 25 people all but two walked/biked to work, and one of the two took transit. I think architects tend to be more urban.

nyc is changing in that same way as well... there are new bike lanes everywhere...and they're putting parking spots in between the lane and traffic wherever possible as well.. in some cases taking away a lane of traffic. there are still many streets though where it's more or less dangerous to ride..where there's no space at all for a bike...but it's gettin better.

been biking to work for about three years now..and i don't miss the subway at all.. even though my reading has waned.

we are no where close to having bike lanes, although we should as cyclists do make up a good number of road use. Interestingly enough is that there has been a spike in the places that have bicycle stands

although i'm not really sold on their 1 year exploration (or is it exploitation?) of detroit, at least they were smart enough to pick up a decent house in a nice part of town (5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths for $99K somewhere in the vicinity of Indian Village) rather than settling for a $1k money pit in the ghetto.

that is a curious tale archi. pity.

bicycle lanes not common in tokyo either, and this is serious city of cyclers. even chain-smokers ride here. we all ride on the sidewalk. works for me. i like things anarchy-ized so really quite fun. the fewer rules the better.

the real cyclists, with treetrunk legs and spandex body suits ride like bats out of hell on the roads. can't be good for anyone to ride behind trucks, but i guess that is the price we pay to live in a city, at least for now (i am looking forward to electric vehicle age).

Another significance in the new bike lanes is that they now become major East-West corridors for bicycles in a residential, neighborhoodie vibe. About 4 blocks north are major East-West corridors for vehicular traffic where the businesses are so its shifted. And now this connects with a major Recreational path for jogging/biking along the river that runs NS. The pieces were in place for a long time now, but finally they're connecting the dots.

The bicycle riders in Philly are anarchy-ized already anyway. They don't follow traffic rules and often ride on sidewalks and go the opposite way. But with the new bike lane, it might focus the bike traffic more into these lanes while decreasing the car traffic. It might be a temporary annoyance for cagers, but I think in the long run it will make it easier and safer for bicycle riders. And if it gets safer and easier, maybe more people will do it, and etc.

Our bike trails are for leisure riding....along the rivers and thru the woods...yet we have nothing intown or along the highways where serious riders ride....to commute to work or are training for the big ride of their life. I find myself fighting for sidewalks cause they save lives. Yet no one seems to listen.

Slart, that is awesome. I love Philly and I can picture those bike lanes. I'd love to ride river to river in them some day. Baby steps to the goal!

I learned yesterday that a girl I went to undergrad with got hit by a car (from behind) while biking in Brooklyn 5 years ago and has been paralyzed from the chest down ever since. I didn't know her very well, she was a couple years ahead of me and we haven't seen each other in at least 8 years, but I found this out by actually looking at her Facebook profile. She's very matter-of-fact about it, but I didn't even think to look until I saw a photo of her new service dog. I'm flabbergasted. It made me realize how truly lucky I am that I've been biking all this time and to think some a**hat could sneak up on me from behind and take away a lifestyle I take for granted, well... let's just say that I'm feeling very grateful today for my life, unemployment aside.

Slart, I completely skipped over posting how awesome the Spruce/Pine bike lanes are! Those are the perfect locations for them. I used to ride from 5th/Snyder up to 9th/Walnut for work, which was mainly fun but also often caused me to arrive at work/home angry because someone in a car had honked or yelled or whatever at me. I never rode much in Center City, but those E/W routes would have been perfect. Yay for Philly!

<awesome>

Update: I got the job. (!!!!!)

Yes, I got the job (pending a background check, LOL. I'm fairly certain I'll pass that). They just called a little bit ago.

Thank you all for being around, at all times of the day and night, and for being such a great community.

To those of you who are still looking, I am trying to send all my positive energy your way. Stay strong! As my Dad told me, perhaps this means that things are starting to look up a bit....

Time for my celebratory dinner with the dog :o)

</awesome>

Wow! WOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!! Fantastic. Can't wait to hear what the job actually is. Whatever you're doing, i am certain you will exceed all their expectations and they will love you as we all do. Yay!

Woooo!! for wonderk.

Also, sucks about your college friend.

Nite all.

Congrats WK!

Congrats!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY DubK!!!!!!!

On that topic I had a really good interview today. Unfortunately it's a solidly temp-to-hire situation, and they're a couple of weeks out from having their shit together enough to even hire for the temp phase of that.

congrats dubk!

Thanks everyone! I've been asked to join a local energy efficiency company here in Portland, as a manager... or something. I'm not quite clear on the title but I'm confident that my business cards will be fun, nonetheless. Sorry for the tight-lip-edness but you know, anonymity and what not. I'm really excited though, it seems like it's right up my alley.

congratulations Wonder K, I was sure this would happen.

following up on a conversation I thought I'd pose the question to TC. How do you format your project specifications? Granted this conversation was had amidst a few glasses of vodka tonic and talking about cruel design tutors with the students

Not sure what you mean archi.

Wk, that is bloody awesome!!!! Whoopwhoop!

Also great for you rationalist. Is the world getting less crazy?

Thanks jump (and techno :-) I sure hope the world is getting less crazy. Or maybe people are just getting their confidence back. I definitely think that some economic sectors are finally starting to benefit from stimulus money. Better late than never.

Also, I thought this was funny:

Matthew McConaughey Cannot Stand Up By Himself

Tee hee.

techno, we still use the old CSI format, with 16 (I think?) sections. But we only do little outline specs, not full-on specs, for residential work.

you'll never guess what i just did.

okay, i washed some dishes.

congrats, wonderk! What great news! Hopefully they'll give you a nice fat paycheck as well :)

WWTCD : if you are trying to figure out the extent of design services you can provide a client without a license in your state, where on earth would you go to look? Would it be... somewhere in the code reqmts? Should I call the licensing board? (In my experience they don't know very much, and also I'm reluctant to attract their attention in any way at all -- even though my whole goal is to do everything completely legally, I still have learned that it's usually better not to get on anyone's list anywhere for any reason)...

Has anyone around here figured this out in their state? Where did they find the info?

man....it usually is in the State Statues...which defines Architecture as a Profession. It says when he is required on a project.

Best of Luck ....but ....all ....in ......all it is best to get licensed.

thanks LB! Seems most folks in the US use the CSI - I'm curious what others use though. Jump I was referring to the specifications for your construction/bid documents. Previously we created general specs, then produced what I liked to call building specific specifications. I should be starting on Monday with a small practice getting some hours for my registration and it's one of the projects they've asked me to work on. I'm looking at presenting them options of how to do it, but aside from my own experience and the CSI I'm not finding much else.

Oh more kind of good news my head of school advised me that I'm to be appointed the editor of the school journal for the next academic year. But I have to assist in completing the one that's presently stalled. So anyone who wants to write for a Caribbean publication please let me know jump, tk, wk and other else with an inkling to write I expect to have a mail box with an abstract by December- I'm not kidding.

snook, don't worry, I'm working on that. It's hard to get the timing right when my state takes 8 weeks to return every exam result and I need money in my pocket NOW. Trying to see what I can get paid for before I get licensed -- so that I can earn money to pay for the exams! Which, by the way, ARE INCREASING IN COST BY $40 EACH NEXT WEEK. I am so pissed about that. Of all the times... this profession is often so needlessly dick-ish.

Techno, what is the theme of the edition? I have some stuff in the works, but probably nothing that could be ready by then.