is everything connected to a particular foreigner or must we suffer from an insufferable prick on nearly every design thread? if there is any reason i hate blob-i-tecture it's because it uses some kind of lattice structure in order to create complex surfaces, and thus gives a reason for a certain douche a forum to claim authorship.

independent food joints within walking distance of my indy crib...

urban element
elbow room
canary cafe
living room lounge
mac nivens
old pointe tap
hoaglin's to go
bazbeaux pizza
place next to bazbeaux pizza
new english pub cant think of name of
henry's
r bistro
new coffee shop next to the yoga place by the place where i get my haircut
BAR celona
indian garden

yats

Interesting discussion. I was going to blog about independent restaurants today actually.

I'm at work and have nothing to do. I rather enjoy these times.

Good list vado. Too bad those are all jammed downtown and not to be found that think on the ground in any other region of the city.

But please - Old Pointe is good for a beer - I think that's the place Steven is thinking of - but their food sucks.

Also, that place BARcelona brings up another point: are they afraid people are too stupid to realize a place called Barcelona might serve alcohol?

My partner calls Cheesecake Factory "another trough restaurant" because their portion sizes are grossly enormous.

I've never eaten there, but I do eat at Steak n' Shake almost weekly, and they're a cool local company!

Local AIA is having a meet and greet with local politicians tonight - should I put on a suit, or the Superman belt and jeans? It's supposed to rain...

treekiller: Yay!! Should we start writing positive reviews on Amazon for you?! Honestly, congrats, that's great news.

Please read "thick" on the ground, not "think", above.

wear the arch sucks shirt under your suit again, lb. it'll make you smile when you have to listen to boring stories.

old point(e) sounds right. it's a pointy building in plan. good beer, good times, don't remember the food.

Huge pipe just broke in the ceiling above my desk, and Niagara Falls is now two feet away from me. Does this mean I get to go home early?

wow. that's big. i might go home too.

Holy Crap Gin!
And I thought the leaks at my desk were bad! I think that's a sign that you should book it out of there as fast as you can.

Okay, upstairs water is shut off, so the immediate crisis is over. Now I'm sitting under about 20 square feet of soggy drywall ceiling, which will all be ripped out tomorrow when the plumber arrives to find the source of the leak.

The upstairs tenant has been doing some sort of renovation work for the past few weeks, and the building's old-as-dirt plumbing system apparently didn't react very well to the work being performed.

This might be a good time to ask when I get to move to my long-promised new workstation.

Go Gin! Go now!

the old pointe has good chili!

I concur Gin... this is definitely the time to ask about your long term spot. Esp. considering your current spot could be underneath a layer of soggy gyp by morning.

oh man, LIG, that is insane! karma gots to be pointing things in a new direction from now on.

treekiller, way way coolio! congrats!!!

damn, blew my quota of exclamation points all in one shot.

gin stay their long enough and you should qualify for workmans compensation, when the wet drywall falls from the ceiling....you know plead it has had a tramatic effect on your life cause your a fragile individual....grad school could be paid for....lol..

Well I tried - and apparently failed - to revive Green Thread Central. I know it's one of those threads that has to kind of ramble along on its own, but no one's posted to it for ages, which makes me sad.

:o( <-----me, sad

However, Archinect Paul just created an "official" Archinect group on Facebook, which makes me happy. All of you who are in the unofficial group, come on over!

reviews and purchases are welcome- I'll sign any books that you want (not only that one). More on the book here & search vernelis.net for more tidbits...

this springs from my UPenn thesis project that proposed an alternate dust control infrastructure for owens lake that I had kazys's help on as an informal adviser. So two years after graduation and many, many drafts later, the final draft was submitted in september. Titles for the essay drifted from Until Los Angeles, Infrastructure of the Void, to Artificial Ecology, finally ending up with Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake.

Now I need something else to write about during my spare time- any suggestions? I've been thinking about 'carbon neutral landscapes', but that is just to dry a topic right now. Any other landscape urbanism ideas? Anybody want to collaborate on something?

I'll be manning the ASLA booth during set up over lunch tommorow at the MN-AIA convention. I may start blogging from there now that my greenbuild stint is wrapped up (except for the pictures I still need to upload)...



Gin- Bring an umbrella to work and submit it as an expense for reimbursement.

Is it possible to have restraining orders placed to keep people from keyboards? What about in Denmark? I'm starting an archinect pool for a plane ticket to Copenhagen for someone to investigate forcible psychiatric treatment. Or maybe to sink a boat.



But if I join archinect on facebook I'll have stop the creepy Internet stalking... or face humiliation here.... on second thought we're probably past worrying about that.

wait let me guess, that fucktard from daneland e-mailed you?

"...that fucktard from daneland..."

Now some people might take offense at this phrase, but I think it is hilarious, especially given the circumstances. This is why I adore you, beta!

treekiller: how 'bout something about green roofs that isn't just technical data, roof material or plant material sales propoganda, or just plain negative? i'm looking for somebody somewhere to support us in the idea that allowing the site design to continue right up on the roof - and actually designing it as a landscape, not just a carpet of green/brown sedum - isn't asinine. the l.a.'s haven't been that somebody so far.

i agree steven. that would be cool. out of curiousity is a green roof that is not accessable stupid? or a grey roof (you know those stony landscape versions that also pop up now and again) for that matter...?

fkuctard...hahahaha. poor per. i never come across someone so eager to destroy support fr himself...i thought self-destructive meant always some version of drunken brawling lost in las vegas sort of thing...but it can apparently be a dude on the computer too. he just invites antagonism...

ah well.

Speaking of antagonistic fucktards, I just spent 20 minutes on a crowded subway train with no A/C, sitting next to two religious nutcases who were babbling nonstop about Jesus, Satan, the flu, police brutality, and other profound topics of the day.

Did you know that you can spontaneously cure cancer with enough faith in Jesus? That should come as good news to my father, who is battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A bit too late for my three grandparents who have died from cancer, though. I guess their faith in Jesus just wasn't strong enough.

I'm starting to think the medieval Roman Catholic Church had the right idea by making the bible available only in Latin, and only allowing it to be read by properly trained and ordained priests during mass. Then maybe any slick-haired crackpot wouldn't be able to open his own storefront church and present his own warped biblical interpretation as infallible truth to a room full of gullible morons, while sucking them of their life savings. Such things should best be left to your bishop.

Although I remain active in my own church, I'm finding myself increasingly hostile toward religion in general. At least you never see a bunch of agnostics blowing up skyscrapers.

Okay, end of rant.... Plumbers are here to chop open my ceiling.

LIG- there are a few ecowarriors burning down ski resorts and suv dealerships. if you asked them what they believed in, agnostic might be the answer;-)

Wasn't the film fightclub about a bunch of lost-soul/agnostic/nihilistic /anti-capitalist guys blowing up skyscrapers?

keeping religion to the professionals is the cause of half of the problems- seems that most organized religions are more interested in perpetuating/enriching themselves then service to the community.




Steven- I love the idea of pulling the site up onto the roof/making the roof a usable space. I may not be the best author for this subject. I'd rather find something in a bldgblog/CLUI style subject of infrastructural weirdness/wonderfulness... like owens lake or other artificial rural/wilderness zones, hmm like rocky flats or other former nuclear/military zones that have gone back to the wolves right next to major cities.

ah one way the pope countered the ideas of martin luther was with a little strategy known as the inquisition.

I too like the idea of having the roof be useable space. By any chance can anyone tell me where I can do to look to see some examples on how to draft/draw out staircases? Is there anything out there? I've never done such a thing... Perhaps it's time to admit to you all, I'm actually an interior designer by degree. Please don't throw me off the forum b/c of this ;-)

LiG, from where is that image? Delicatessen?

German nihilists from The Big Lebowski.

if they can do it in the netherlands, why can't we do it here?

when i was there there were kid running up and down the hill... one of them was even trying to ride a bike down... maybe not the safest thing in the world, but hey, its still cool...

don't cut off my JOHNSON!!!

EMERGENCY - EMERGENCY - EMERGENCY

thread central has been infiltrated by an interior designer...

get her!!!!!

:)

You remember how towards the end of the movie E.T. when the entire house was covered in clear plastic, with workmen and heavy equipment all over the place? That's pretty much what my part of the office looks like right now. At the moment, they're using some sort of jackhammer to blast away the concrete slab above me in order to gain access to the broken waste pipe.

Not a happy camper right now.... I guess I should be thankful it wasn't a toilet stack that broke.

Thanks for the support architphil. One of my co-workers was actually able to help me out. My assumptions on how to draft them in plan were correct. I got a little gun shy when I was asked what I was doing yesterday as I was attempting to draft them out the first time. Started second guessing myself. I gotta stop doing that, dag nabbit. Now all I have to do it figure out the sections. GAH!!!!! Damn! I guess my plans to infiltrate TC with interior designers has been thwarted by my hasty decision to inquire for help.

LiG you are an adventure. Sorry about the leaking roof...change your scale of perception and consider it your personal internal fountain. Also I share the thought that pre-vatican and held faith had some cues about it, limiting nut-jobs from seeing something in the bible and running with it. Granted by all accounts, if I add to the conversation evangelical bunny will re-appear thanking us for mentioning anything religious.

so to add my own rant, never to leave a friend alone. I get a call from a co-worker who has heard that I'm dating XX and makes a jab, telling me be careful she doesn't break your heart - wtf? Are we still in high school?

Sigh

And now I am waiting for a meeting to start...they are 15 minutes late. This after begging me to have this meeting today. What is wrong with people...I should be home...arghhh

but the sun is shining and there is a naval vessel and a 250ft yacht parked outside my window...

LIG

just caught up with thread central...
not only is the TGI Fridays in Times Square a....TGI Fridays...but
it's also twice as expensive as a normal one and the food really
isn't good. And the atmosphere shockingly sucks. if you have to
stay in times square why not go to the espn zone or planet hollywood
or something..at least they're semi unique to the area.

I used to walk through times square a lot when i first moved here
until i found walking through times square to be really, really
annoying.

have fun.

things like this make it worthwhile

'techno... what would really make it fun would be to see the navy ship open up a can of whupass on the yacht...



i said to fire a warning shot over their bow!!!!

Actually, the organizer of the meet-up (who happens to live in Montreal) is open to suggestions. TGI Friday's apparently wasn't his first choice, either.

Here's the criteria:

1) Takes reservations (I'm not sure how many will be in our group; I'm guessing a maybe dozen or so at the most).

2) Is reasonably-priced, at least no more expensive than TGI Friday's.

3) Preferably located Midtown-ish.

4) There will be one or two people in our group who use wheelchairs, so the place needs to be ADA-compliant.

5) Nothing too exotic. "Normal" American or Italian food is probably fine; boiled Argentinian yak probably isn't. (I'll usually try anything once, but other people in the group may not be so adventurous.)

6) Has a bar.

Any ideas?

you're always welcome here tuna... hell, we let a landscape architect (treekilla) in... :) glad that you figured out the plans and good luck with the sections...

tuna's representing in Cincy for me ever since I left. In fact my friends back there might get her to do some design work for them....that I would love to help out with if I were still around :o/

Speaking of Per, did anyone notice he gave us a new insult? So now in addition to "silli romans" we are also "evil Clowns"? Freaking awesome.

At least the Romans, unlike Per, knew how to build.

yeah, love the delft library, archtiphil. but we're thinking an EXTENSIVE rather than an INTENSIVE roof. won't be grass but other plant materials (yes, like sedum) to maintain reasonable roof loads and less soil depth. the whole thing wouldn't be walkable so much as it would all be accessible: paved terraces interwoven with planted areas. thus the need for some support from the l.a.

general overview:

if that comes out crappy because of the resizing, it's here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archintentlouisville/2004633285/

as much as i would love to comment on chain restaurants, i can't: my wife talked me into ca pizza kitchen for lunch.

Brian's Chicago students are doing a unit on public art; one of their current assignments is, as part of a site analysis of various Chicago neighborhoods, to go to a local, non-chain neighborhood restaurant for dinner and supply proof that they did.

architphil that image made me laugh out loud!

LIG

I suck at midtown recommendations, but i'll ask around and
see what i can find out for you...I don't get up above 14th st
all that much.

My head is starting to swim with this stringer stuff. I'm much better at figuring out the layout of restrooms. Can't I just layout some restrooms for you? Seriously though by the time I'm done with this project I'll be able to build a staircase. I heart sedum Steven and that photo architphil was hilarious. I can just visualize the daze and confused looks on the yacht people's faces. OK - back to work.

at over 100 thread central has so much momentum...it will probably outlive us...who will be the first to die?

i'm still alive

its difficult to do anything for the next hour after field measuring for the bulk of the afternoon and then eating some chocolate cake.