hehe, or maybe im just very easily amused...  the lady in the middle of the street is 1 story tall!

for lletdownl. This song has great scale shifts in every sense.;.) great song of my generation.

http://youtu.be/c2yQLXTuctA?t=13s

if you follow his link there are a few pictures that show where it started (lots of parking lot), then they added people and some buildings, then they added some more people.  it's kind of amusing in sequence.  maybe someone should turn it into an animated gif.  the architectural styles and scale of the buildings added aren't necessarily what you would call "wholesome."  or "wholeness."  i forgot what we were talking about.

LOL curtkram!

Actually the lady DOES look like a giant, I noticed that right away.  But this seems to be a "before" picture, and if you go to the website and look at the "after" you see that the green canopies next to her are on a store entry that is a few steps below sidewalk level.  So it's a little deceiving, but looks weird. The other amusing thing the "after" shot shows is that the old man front and center is gawking at a young girl in midriff top.

lletdownl, never apologize for showing funny scale figures! I love them.  I also have a cad file of scale figures - line drawings - that are drunk, or in a fistfight, or pole dancing, or vomiting...I got them here on Archinect years ago!

I was saying to a friend earlier that i think there is great potential for a fantastic (albeit demographically limited) internet meme regarding outrageous scale figures in drawings...  I am constantly harping in my office about bad scale figures... I tell everyone to just use silohetes!  Especially in photo montages, the sort of uncanny valley effect of an out of scale figure can take a useful image and make it a joke instantly!  anyway, let this be a lesson to all of us making presentation images... pay attention to your scale figures!

I didn't mean to flag that post. Please excuse; it was an iPhone blip.

re: hipsters. I recently shaved off my long worn mustache because of the annoying guy with a stache in a recent DQ commercial...

I look way too young without, though.

Haven't dipped into TC for a page or so. feels too long. Been on the road for last few weeks, vacation and then work.

Is the summer doldrums over for everyone else?

Finally Donna you got a link for that ADA req?

Found this website today called Discover Design and thought id share it since i am sure we have some mentors and teachers here.  Its a really interesting site which i feel does a really good job of breaking down architecture and design into graspable parts for kids interested in it.... 

here you go nam

is that just for chicago lletdownl?  i need a mentor.  i'm not a student though.  i'm more of a fairly well experienced professional.

curtkram thanks man. also i have come around to the idea that everyone (at every stage in career/industry/etc needs a mentor)....

curtkram, i dont think its specifically for any place... the projects used as examples are from all over the country.  The ideas and processes presented are about the general practice of design and architecture; how do you solve a design problem?  It seems like its an attempt by the Chicago Arch. Foundation to provide an online resource for any teacher, mentor or student who is interested in design.

for those of you who have had a hard time these past few years: between 2007 and 2011, architecture firms lost 28% of their staff due to the recession.

that makes me even more proud that we've been able to keep EVERYONE! we keep hoping (for everyone's sake) that we're on the verge of hiring, but that hasn't worked out yet. 

excited to see/hear michael kimmelman of the nyt talk this evening, together with former kentucky college of design dean david mohney and 21C museum/hotel (almost museum plaza) developer and art collector steve wilson. a discussion called 'quality in an age of quantity'. 

hola, TC.

I'm going to use "super-galactic" to describe everything to clients from now on.

also the drawings for that project are among the best drawings I've ever seen ... ever.  makes the nashville guitar building drawings look like f-ing amateur hour (and, mind you, those were quite exquisite).

it's a solid proposal.  I see absolutely no problems getting this through NYC zoning.

were those plans generated in WORD?! brilliant.

all i can say is wowser!

has anyone picked up the new building code on pdf?  we got 2006 and it was so crippled that we won't do it again.  anyone know if they fixed that and made it usable?

hey guys sooooooo sorry for being so quiet. August/September has been really busy for me and things have been quite tentative as well. As some of you may of heard I applied, and didn't get the fellowship I applied to in NC. The missus and I have been trying to make some long term plans and a 3 year fellowship would have easily helped us decide what the hell to do. But we are back to the drawing board. During all of that I am waiting to hear who the new head of the school of arch will be (yes midway through the 1st semester no decision has been made). Everyone is on pins and needles.  

oops - accidentally flagged curt's post - there's got to be an option to unflag something.

hey nam - are you completely car-free now?  I keep running into more and more people who are actively trying to forgo using their car to get around (although not give them up entirely) - even parents with small children - not quite like this crazy mom in portland, though:

source.

David, I know what you mean - I'm on pins and needles too. Sorry about the fellowship, but hope you're still enjoying newlywedded bliss!

has anyone else peeped one of Archinect's newish blogs Chic Travels? Quoting from the blog bio/: "Join me on my travels as I blog about the glamorous to the gritty, from the glistening shores of Saint Tropez to the rustic island beauty of Batanes in the Philippines". I thinks its great...

Gah, must be something in the air! Husband just quit his job, and opened his own race-shop. I'm on pins and needles, too! It's terrifying.

Seems Vado should pop in here with a song.

david, at least you're not going into year FIVE!!!!!!!!!! without a (non-interim) department chair like upenn is... i can't begin to express how outraged i am by this...

@toasteroven to answer your question. no not completely. I do use my car as little as i can though. since work relocated my new commute is more like 7 miles one way and during summer heat (without shower) of FL haven't been riding so been driving. my hope is that once fall/winter is here i can get a few months of all bike commute. should only take like 30-35 mins.

also too clarify i think that new blog is great but hilarious! the tone/style/focus just seems so unusual for an Archinect blog. or not..

Well thank God I remembered my password.  It's been months since I had to type it.

In any case, sorry to hear the fellowship didn't come through David.  I hope you two are able to figure out your long term plans soon.  Limbo totally gets old after a while and wears on the nerves. 

Donna - pins and needles?  Hope they dissapate soon as well.

SH - Crossing fingers for Husband's new endeavor.  Though terrifying, it sounds pretty cool.  As a shameless plug: Mr. unofficial Melt is a web designer if Husband finds himeself needing those kinds of services.  He is trying to get business up and running.

I have a case of the Mondays, but some Mexican food and a margarita with my girls should alleviate that. Toodles

i was on pins and needles on thursday in anticipation of seeing my great friend LB for the first time in two years! Love you!

Way to rub it in, Vado.

morning all! i pulled/pinched something in my upper back/neck the other day. don't even know how....

Hi melt!

Nam, did it make you feel old? I'm imagining you in a scene from a sitcom.

My students make me feel so old. We were discussing various computer cards, such as video, sound, ect, when we came to modem cards. They were confused by the use of a telephone line to connect to the bet, and so I asked "have you guys ever seen a phone line?". Only half the class said yes!!!!

Hi Nam!!! I did that last week. I usually wake up with my back all funky which leads me to believe I must be some crazy sleeper. Hope you feel better soon. HI VADO!!! Wish I would have been able to see you when you were in town. Hope life is treating you well.

Sarah that is actually not too far from truth.

melt yes i am a crazy sleeper or so my SO always tells me. its why she prefers sleeping in a california king.

vado & LB meet up - amazing. If only I could of been a fly on the wall. Two of the most amazing 'necters I've ever met (well actually all the 'necters I've been fortunate enough to meet are awesome!) 

thanks for the well wishes guys... I'm sure I'll figure something out. 

vado & LB meet up - amazing.

rainbows and sparkles coming down from heaven.  actually I think it mostly devolves into giggling uncontrollably upon seeing a well executed "caulk joint."

toasteroven you have no idea how right you are.

wondering if the meetup has happened.. lots of single malt whiskey.....and not a peep

Yes the meetup happened last week - we just had lunch and not even a single adult beverage as we both were on little sleep!  It was too brief a visit.

Bump.  Makes me nervous when TC drops to second to last on the first page.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  The weather was absolutely beautiful here.  Finally sucked it up and bought an edger and a lawnmower this weekend.  Fought the idea for years, but the manual push mower couldn't handle the weeds that make up my "lawn" and Mr. Unofficial Melt put his foot down and asserted his reign over the lawn. I'm happy though, my lawn is no longer the eyesore of the street.  Even my neighbor smiled at the outcome.

hi melt!

I put in a new kitchen sink/faucet/sprayer, re-grouted my tub and relaxed. also ate at new downtown branch of great local restaurant that has been needing to expand for years....

sadly - this sort of shit goes down in youngish arch firms as well...

via

I hope this guy wins a huge settlement.

I couldnt get the link to work.

ya, it looks like the guy took down everything he could because he's thinking of suing.  it looks like it has something to do with attire at a video game company?  can you tell us what happened toaster?

UK Government bans curved school buildings

seriously, did you guys see this?  i have never heard anything like this...how interesting that we (architects) are now a part of the bourgeois along with our work...

huh - looks like he took it down - basically it was about an african american working for a software company with too many young white men - he describes atmosphere where racism was rampant, but people didn't want to believe they were actually racist .

letdown - I get the reaction to curtainwall and etfe roofs - that shit is way too expensive to install and expensive to maintain.  the ban on curved forms I don't understand.

anyway - this is interesting:

strategic urbanism

Yeah i dont disagree with you, public schools might not be the right forum for material investigation... the "were not here to make architects rich" quote from the local politician though stings a bit.

The best Halloween costume this year, by far.

You know, I kinda feel bad for the lady. I picture her as the little old woman that was just trying to help. Poor thing.

the "were not here to make architects rich" quote from the local politician though stings a bit.

same stupid mentality that thinks that teachers get paid too much.  I think maybe it has to do with how school projects are funded there - in the states there are set budgets and if the district wants more money for the project they have to sell it to the local residents (usually through voter-approved increase in municipal millage rates).  this process is unfortunately unfair for students in poorer districts, but at least there's no restrictions on form and material - just cost.

anyway - my point is that if you create policies that enable people to needlessly spend a lot of money, they're going to spend a lot of money.  making the architect (and forms??) out to be the bad-guy is completely unproductive.  what architect isn't going to keep pushing the client for bigger budgets and higher fees?  how the hell do we make any money?  the government has to push back - that's how it works with any client.  contract negotiation 101.