onemorething -- what material is the writing made of? i love the way it extends beyond the black field

Super high-tech, state-of-the-art, lovingly-crafted, archivally infallible....um....expandable foam. Fine art ;)

lb, just keep on ol gus about staying on the blanket. tell him how wonderful he is when goes to/is on the blanket, and correct him if trys to lay anywhere else. he'll get it.

unfortunately i have no words of wisdom for keeping dogs off couches. my two pretty much get to go where ever the hell they want.

PS rationalist, sorry I totally got going on my own pics and ignored yours of Denver! That commentary re: the art musems and the wierd fortress original one made me laugh, it does definitely look like one big jumbled pile of bad!

I do love that bear though - do you remember the artist? I could prolly google it I guess "big bear denver art museum", huh? Love it. Glad you had fun.

complexity vs simplicity...simplicity by a landslide!!

...sorry, had to beat the dead horse once again.

oops...slow post response = loss of context

my last post was re: lb's fine art

i think it also applies to lb's last comment on rationalist's denver photo.

lb- actually, the bear is at the convention center... I've got no clue who did it though. I just wandered around taking pictures. And the construction trailers and lack of landscape/hardscape surrounding the Leibeskind project don't help it out, either. It was just too much stuff competing for your attention with nothing to unite it... The Leibeskind condos are a bit trippy. Every one on each floor has a different plan, all angles, completely unfurnishable. They'll look really cool when they're done though. I stopped in the sales trailer to peek at the model.

Does anyone else think that Leibeskind(sp, I know) is becoming an angular version of Gehry?

And e and ether and lb, you've all got adorable pups! I miss having animals SOOOOO much.

Oh, and does my 16/915 ratio mean that I need to ask more questions?

wait a second...are you guys saying that there's a new feist album? or are you still talking about let it die?

and in case you haven't already heard it, i'd highly recommend checking out her guest vocals on two tracks from the kings of convenience riot on an empty street album, the 5th & 12th tracks, know how and the build up respectively...these are a real treat if you haven't already heard them.

...and does my 7:750 ratio make me look fat?

hehe

what the hell has happened here? Have you all lost your minds, what is with this vs. crap?

Who gave you hacks internet connection?

thanks rationalist. i love all dogs. i'll be the first on my hands and knees playing with any dog in the room. gawd, i want another one now.

lol - yeah, rationalist...get crackin'! Perhaps your ratio makes you look like you have all the answers?

but she does broccolijet.

no puddles...just more of you to love

puddles we saw feist in February, so I'm guessing it's the same album. I think it is called let it die. She's amazing live.

e, I can't help but giggle about trying to "train" Gus to stay off the couch. Bull terriers are incredibly bull-headed and tenacious. They approach life with a "What's in it for me?" attitude that makes them both utterly adorable and a huge pain in the ass. But I'll do my best - he's had free reign of the former (ikea) couch and trying to keep him off the couch entirely is just a battle that can only be lost - so a designated blanket it is. I hope.

And yes I too thought broccoli's comment re: simplicity applied quite well to the photo of Denver's art complex.

only on the internet, e, only on the internet. In real life, I'm a mess. I could keep 'dear abra' occupied for years just sorting me out...

I hate living in an apartment for two big reasons- 1)no furry friends allowed, 2)no garden. I never realized how much I loved these things until I couldn't have them. I miss playing with my Lady Bug (R.I.P. old girl), and miss my roses. This is why I scrimp and save, so that someday I'll have a place of my own without these damn rules, and a little patch of dirt for my own.

what part of the world are you in rationalist?

LA

i hear you lb. my dog, lula, is also too smart for her own good. when she is bad, we have a time out. she goes to lay down in her bed for a little while. sometimes she gets up right after i tell her to lay down, but she's only walking on the pads of her feet with her claws retracted. she know that she shouldn't be up yet, but also knows i'll hear her claws hitting the wood floor. i can do nothing but laugh when i see her.

just be persistent with gus. and who doesn't like a nice soft blanket? if he is motivated by food, maybe reward gus with small treats everytime he goes to the blanket.

LA likewise rationalist. i didn't appreciate having pets until i had them again (3 cats) and now i can't imagine how i dealt without 'em. although with 3, the hair thing gets pretty tough to manage on the couches.

nice place lb, I especially dig the couch.

rationalist, I'd love to see more of Denver...

happy belated b-day, Steven...

happy birthday steven. i took a leak with feists drummer. the bathroom mirrors didnt look at either of us. everything looks great lb. especially the counters. gus needs a snack. i got that cd for you. i forgot to give it to you the other day as i got distracted and forgot to bring it with me.

happy birth day steve

thanks all for the bday wishes. our indy friend's little 2 yr old girl just left a birthday message for me. it's not so bad getting old i suppose.

oa, is that getaway house for me? a birthday present? where do i go to pick it up? you guys are great.

Happy Birthday Steve.
Nice House Orhan, and thanks about the image.

its a news item.
yea that one for river front where steven lives he goes ove' there and goes to fishing and stuff on his birthdays and everything.

you guys were busy today.

I was in DC for the day doing some punchlisting.....gosh, I do love me some capitol city but DAMN their signage is bad there. I even used to live in DC myself and I got lost. It's those confounded angled streets that lay waste to any kind of rational traffic management.

I don't have anything thread-related to add. Sorry. Happy birthday Steven. Love your couch lb. Rationalist, I love that bear too! Today is a good day for great design in blue.....

spring is coming spring is coming...

happy dog.

wonder k, i hear you. i used to live in dc too. got lost all the time.

I found DC pretty straightforward, but it was the first city I ever knew. Numbers one way, letters the other, then letters turn to one syllable A-Z, 2 syllable A-Z, 3 syllable A-Z, then trees and flowers A-Z. Anything named after a state is diagonal and intersects everything else at circles.

& a turn signal doesn't mean 'I'd like to change lanes' it means 'I've begun to change lanes, govern yourself accordingly.'

I am ready for spring, but it's snowing to beat the band here.....

isn't it funny how turn signals mean different things in different places? [somebody should do a study.]

in ky a turn signal means 'i'm stupid enough to tell you what i'm doing so that you can accelerate and shut me out.' and, yes, i am stupid enough on a regular basis.

i like the fishing on my birthday idea. unfortunately i had to measure a hospital instead.

i'm jealous of your house, lb. the sofa's cool, but opening up the space below the windows (assuming that's what you did) is even cooler. nice. i have to come visit.

Has archinect destroyed the architecture students ability to do research at his/her university library? is this site the first place people turn to find the answer to sometimes very obvious questions? do people not go to the library anymore? perhaps archinect needs "an answer man". carry on...

vado for answer man!

happy belated birthday Steven, what a lovely homely thread, I havent really dipped into it before, and i now feel guilty for the all things british thread...This is the virtual house that archinect built

and all the vs vs vs.
what to do?

I have also now learned about the entry to comment ratio, and will refrain from entrying until i have floated around commenting for a while...

and going back to the original purpose of the thread a little, isnt it strang how a zumthor book can become such a fetishized object. I have not yet seen a copy, but It seems to have almost taken on the quality of a religious relic- perhaps buildings are bein built to house certain pages of the first edition as we speak......

Chariman Mao, your ratio is fine. Actually 16/169 has a nice quality of threes about it. I know what you mean about the fetish-object thing - and while I think architects are especially materialistic - for good reason! - we are not the only ones who fetishize objects like this: for architects, it's books, and for music fans, it's guitar pics or guitar scraps or the playlist from a legendary concert....

I should note that in my house pics the floor is original from 1954 Arnstrong rubber tiles - they still look amazing 50 years later!!!! (Kitchen floor is bamboo - which I put in but I'm not crazy about. What I AM crazy about is the cork I put in the bedrooms. I can talk flooring all day long.)

And vado retro does, indeed, have all the answers.

Liberty- is the kitchen floor compressed bamboo? I saw a sort of ply bamboo in a magazine once that is compressed, so very stong and hardwearing but with a fibrous grain that sort of looks like the side of ply- is that what you have ? how is it? I was thinking about using it...

And 2046 comments- now we could have a whole discussion within a discussion about wong kar wai fabulousness......

lb: I've been dying to try a bamboo floor out in some client's house just so I can see one installed in situ. I keep being intrigued by it but then being wierded out that I can't really visualize what it would look like in large-scale. Looks like you picked the wide grain? What don't you like about it?

We've put a few cork floors in recently--I like them a lot but one that we had in a house built about 4 years ago has since faded pretty bad. We went in recently just after the couple moved out and there was a big rug spot on the floor. Guess you run that risk anywhere, though. Also I'm not sure what it was finished with--didn't work on that project.

speaking of ratios 3:399 is a pretty good one

...although by mentioning this i will fuck it up

lb: could you post a pic of the cork floor? curious to see what that looks like.

[also posting because i'd like to see what my ratio is. there must be another way but i don't know it]

Here are two pics of the cork. It is engineered pre-finished plank, 12x24 planks, glued down.





I love the cork because it is noticeably warmer than wood in cold weather, it is noticeably softer underfoot than wood, it is much more comfortable when laying on it playing with your kid, and it holds up to hotwheel and toy tractor abuse. The joints are nearly invisible. We picked a pattern that is non-directional but bigger than standard tack surface grain, and it is warm and lovely. (Interestingly, when we pulled up the carpet when we bought the house we found that the architect who owned/renovated it in 1954 had also installed cork! Square tiles on concrete slab, not salvageable but we left them as underlayment.)

The bamboo is the horizontal grain, so you can see the growth joints of the plant. The other option is vertical joint, which looks more like the laminations of plywood. What I don't like about the bamboo is it feels more similar to Pergo (ugh! The worst material ever invented!!) than to natural wood. We ordered a crate of the engineered bamboo and it was just way too clacky and plastic looking, so we ended up doing a risky installation of solid bamboo over cork underlayment over slab on grade. The few places without sufficient glue are popping. All cork is engineered and prefinished, as far as I know, and the prefinishing means a tiny V-groove where food and dirt get stuck, and the plane of the floor doesn't look as tight as with field finished wood of course. Also, when you drop something that leaves an impression, the bamboo looks damaged whereas solid wood with a wider grain looks patina'd. That's my opinion. If I could do it over I'd do cork in the entire house, though perhaps in a few years if it has all faded I will have changed my mind! Our installation is 9 months old and still looks brand new.

Oh, and let's let that male architects thread just die, agreed? But I will post here that male architects tend to have great hands.

vado -- don't know who originally said this, but:

"man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than in his body; he may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates to stand alone in his opinions."

through laziness or insecurity, most people would rather ask a question of someone they deem an expert than bravely (or assiduously) take on finding the answer for themselves.

Also: closet comedians + archinect = X vs Y threads

...safely padding my ratio

Ok lb just got the cork scoop from the boss. In that application, a sunny upper room, the cork floor was stained slightly to produce a rich dark brown (it really is quite beautiful and comfortable as you say). Boss says the finish was wax ony, as any kind of hard finish (polyurethane) would have cracked as the cork flexed (as opposed to a finish on say, white oak, which doesn't give like cork does). Made sense to me. He says you can get it with some kind of plastic coating for people who don't want to bother with wax. So, I asked him if the lack of a finish was the reason it faded so badly; he said it was probably partly to blame, but he felt that more to blame was probably the dark stain that was applied.

So, some background info for your flooring discussion desires. ;)

Also, great points about the bamboo, I've been dying to talk to someone who had it installed. The pre-finish is precisely the reason no client has installed it yet. That would drive me nuts, too, also the "plasticky" pergo look and feel. Good to know.

By the way I really like a waxed finish on concrete floors, too.