hi guys - here's my plan to get published:

redo an existing concrete space -  exposed mech painted white, sloppy floor refinish job, put in cheap linear florescent fixtures at jaunty angles, a supergraphic on one wall (preferably a rip-off of sagmeister circa 1995), a few overpriced classic chairs from DWR, maybe a plywood reception desk - and blurry bearded hipsters (or circus bears) riding dutch-style bikes.

and I'll list about 30 people on the "design team."

observant: I think you're wrong. Blackwater mercenaries were deployed there in '09. 

^

I was thinking the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 - of Louisiana and then some, and a whole bunch of alligators to sweeten the pot.

I guess everyone has a fried brain on the East  Coast.  I took extreme measures today and set up some temporary shading devices on the West wall of our house, being stone it absorbs a lot more heat when it is not in the shade.  I was out testing it today and to the touch of the hand it is significant.  Thinking with Global Warming, I'm going to go for a long term solution, I have been thinking about a portable  screening system for the summer cause during the winter the sun is most desirable  so don't want to exclude it. Of course this project is on a Architects income....so I have to be inventive.  Anyone have suggestions.

Panels need to be  around  6' tall.

Bang for the buck:

A tensioned tarp with grommeted holes roped to eye screws, stakes, etc.

trellis and virginia creeper.

you do need to keep tabs on it otherwise it'll overtake your house - but the leaves fall off in the winter and produces some stunning red foliage in the fall.  if you offset the trellis far enough you probably don't really need to do much.

it doesn't need a trellis on a masonry wall - but you do need to do something to prevent it from destroying your eaves - trellis is pretty clean and you can have it go up high and just trim at top before it hits the house.  also - cleaning masonry wall can be a pain after removing vines...

i have honeysuckle on my fence line.  some consider it evasive, but if you want to fill a trellis the size of your house fast in the spring, that's not a bad thing.  it's quite sturdy so it doesn't take any care.  i attack mine with a hedge trimmer or weed eater about 2 times a year so it keeps a decent shape.  it flowers, and the flowers smell nice, so i see that as a big plus over virginia creeper.

also you can grow a climbing rose on a trellis, but that would take forever to get established.

i wonder if "tensioned tarp with grommeted holes" means blue plastic tarp with bungee cords?

I have a trellis covered in vines  at the gable end of the house which has a large window facing directly west.  It is  12' wide and 12' tall  situated off the wall by about  3 feet.  So I know all about having to keep it under control.  I'm not sure of the vines name but it grows quickly and flowers for a long period of time.   We also have a Wisteria (SP) Vine which is no were close to the house it over a a trellis that spans a gate into our back yard.  It is a monster so we trim it all summer long.  It will send shoots that will grow a foot a day. We have a nice self starting   15'-0' maple in a good location so it will in a couple of years be a real god send when it comes to shading the west side of the house roof.  We have a line of "Rose of Sharon"  bushes along the south side of the house which do a great job of providing  shade on the wall yet allow enough summer light to enter  our office.  

I was just curious how much temp difference there would be between a shaded wall and and unshaded wall when  it was hovering around 100 degrees outside in the middle of the afternoon.  I have concluded,  something has to be done.

Depending of course on the wall material, angle of incidence, etc., you could easily see more than 30 degrees difference.

http://www.treesforever.org/News/20100826/37/It-Really-IS-Cooler-in-the-Shade.aspx

Why not Bris soliel? (Fix THAT spelling, Donna)  I need to do the calculations, and build a few for my west and south facing windows.  You could angle the slats so they only block the summer sun.  Otherwise, trees.  I like trees.  I don't like vines on houses because I don't like bugs, and we have lots of those in Texas.  Now that I think about it, you could do what some Texans do, and just wash the wall with a sprinkler.  I've seen folks do this on top of trailer houses.  Not very green, though.

Or build a lean-to, then you could store stuff in your shading device!

You should start a thread.  Design my western wall shading device!

green curtains are super popular here now.  every school and lots of homes have them on balconies.  usually with some kind of vegetable like goya.  it works very well to reduce heat and sits off the building so no worries about it becoming evasive.

Sarah,  Water is extremely expensive where I live.  So you don't use it for the obvious reasons.  

My temporary solution  to provide partial shading was 1/2" 3'X' 5 sheets of  Hardi tile backer board.  I had three sheets left over from a project.  One good thing about it is you don't have to worry about it getting wet.  It seemed to do the trick.  Along with my  deck  umbrella in front of the window (providing shade for the window ac unit).   We have survived this go around of a heat wave, so now it is time to  make some long term changes, knowing how much difference it will make over the course of the summer.

Have you ever spent a day, or portions of several days, just tearing up paper - accumulated junk mail and paperwork you really didn't need to hang on to?  Cathartic, huh?  It made me wonder if I was a hoarder, anal-retentive, or a little of both.

Sarah:

How are you feeling about not doing architecture anymore? Do you miss it? I had a moment today, looking at Houzz, that I just feel like I can't stand another frigging' day of this profession.  Like every homemowner, real estate agent, developer, cabinetmaker, and gay man in the world feels like we're useless, so why bother any more?

Ugh, existential angst.  But seriously: if I could earn a decent living doing something else, lately I feel like I'd leap at the opportunity.

^ Only a moment?

I wish people, in general, would qualify their bitching about architecture.  I'm talking about everyone who bitches about it, here and everywhere else.  And everyone complains - everywhere I talk to architects.  Friends' parents who were architects advised me to go into something else, since some of them were no longer in traditional practice.

I doubt anyone dislikes the work itself.  I think most people dislike the milieu.  Granted, it is not possible to separate the two.  However, the work, even the most mundane, is interesting.  The milieu (obtuse or cheap clients, dysfunctional offices, pricing jobs, billings and cash flow, people in-house who require babysitting, and people on the team who also need babysitting) is the problem.  Sometimes, you run into clients, coworkers, consultants, and contractors (all "c"s, coincidentally) who have a sense of humor, and it takes off the edge.

started from the bottom now we here

I think I'd enjoy this profession a lot more if there weren't so many frustrated howard roark wannabes.

Although - after spending a couple hours last week designing a parking lot that was 4 times as big as the building next to it - I really wished we all weren't so dependent on our cars...  but I guess trying to change policy is far more frustrating than following it.

Donna, I hear the town of Aspen is short on sex therapists.

i remember that conversation.

I think that position has been filled. 

I wish I remembered a conversation about Donna as a sex therapist.

To answer your question, Donna, I miss parts of it.  I miss the discussions with people about design; conversations that I'm not up-to-speed enough now to really have.  I miss the creation of spaces, and the feeling that provides, and I miss the field trips.

Just the same, I love teaching my students, especially my cricket boys.  But teaching in the public system sucks, too.  I'm constantly fighting powers at the district office over what I teach, and what is helpful to the students.  I am being forced to take a certification test in Illustrator, and another in Photoshop because district thinks my students should be certified in the programs.  Instead of teaching the art of something, I'm being forced to teach the software.  It's maddening.

So at times I'm just as annoyed at my new profession as you are with yours, Donna.  The difference for me is that my new one gets me fighting-mad when it's not going right, and it's an uphill, hopeless battle.

Will, houzz is a website with lots of sexy pictures of projects.  I was looking at it this weekend because the historic house here at the IMA needs a handrail and I was looking for typical relationships of railing to bottom step in similar situations to ours.

But so many of the images on houzz are of super-wealthy people's houses.  It's just depressing to think how wealth in this country is so unequally divided - everyone I work with on a daily basis is scraping by, while some people can truly spend anything they want.  Maybe I should have balanced half an hour on houzz with half an hour on Open Architecture Network. Beauty in non-excess.

Sarah, so many things in the world of education seem like hopeless uphill battles!  I think that's why I'm drawn to engineering: there's generally one best answer, not a lot of prevaricating. Forget being a sex therapist in Aspen; being a mechanical engineer in Aspen would probably be more satisfying!  Except: Aspen, therefore lots of rich people always taking up the prettiest views. Ugh.

I miss the discussions with people about design; conversations that I'm not up-to-speed enough now to really have.  I miss the creation of spaces, and the feeling that provides...

Still in the profession, but miss these things just as much, I'll bet. Post-recession, the work that's coming back first seems to be lowest-common-denominator work - cheap and profitable for developers. We do get an annual field trip, though, so that's something.

I've had the interesting experience this week of having most of a development team assembled - motivated, interesting people with successful restaurants and other businesses - who want a multi-use project to happen. We've got an interested contractor who also wants to invest, an architecture firm, and multiple potential operators. The project is a situation in which the local municipality will *give* a locally landmarked building to the most compelling proposal. The problem? No one with big enough money is interested. It's unusual, so it's a risk. Argh. 

I think sex therapists probably have more issues in this aspect of their lives than their very clients.  I think that's true of therapists in all niche areas, in general.  Many go into the field to work through their own issues concurrently while getting an education and a professional sheepskin.

i think you missed the point obvservant.

The Royal Labor has begun! So I can at least distract myself with that for awhile.

i think you missed the point obvservant.

I actually didn't, curt.  I started the thread "what would you do other than architecture?"  and remember the response "sex therapist in Aspen CO."

it sounded to me like you thought the important part of that was that she was interested in studying the psychological issues associated with intercourse, probably as it relates to her own experience....

rather than just seeing sex in aspen as an enjoyable thing to do?

I think the joke is because rich people are frigid and they'll pay a bunch of money for someone to make up wacky shit for them to do.  pretty close to what we already do, except I've never been able to get a client to show up at a meeting wearing ass-less chaps.

(this is the point where bjarke logs in with his anonymous account and says, "challenge accepted!")

rather than just seeing sex in aspen as an enjoyable thing to do?

Studies show wealthy people have better sex so, theoretically, they would need less sex therapy services; however, being that they are more able to afford it, they might go seek those services to break up the monotony of skiing ... and sitting on their trust funds.

sometimes i can't get clients to show up at all

<prepares for meeting with bjarke>

I'm thinking sex therapy to be more like going to the spa - except with sex. sadly we'll never know since I'm pretty sure none of us are in that income bracket.  I imagine it's all very Roman.

"increasing partner income had a highly positive effect on women's self-reported frequency of orgasm"

The key term being "self-reported". Most of the rich people I know are absolutely miserable. The idea that they have better sex is laughable.

Which would explain very nicely the number of sex therapists per capita in a place like Aspen.

Most of the pictures of those ladies make them seem like they're cut from the same cloth.  The whole Rocky Mountain / Front Range mystique is kind of cultish.  Boulder is another jerky place, for many of the same reasons.  I can't see the allure of Aspen.  Who the f**k wants to live around movie stars? It is also so damn far from anything, including Denver and its big city amenities - and problems.  Prices are obviously driven by discretionary income.  There are lots of more interesting places to live for less money, IMO.

My pal is a sex therapist. Her focus is on open-relationships and polyamorous relationships. She has the.best.stories. Honestly, the best. She's my favorite happy hour friend.

I too miss design conversations that make me want to go to a roll of trace paper and have me sketching like mad. Fortunately, the majority of all my friends are in the design world so I still have an outlet outside of my 8-5 workplace.

Best thing to happen to me today: Sam Cooke's Pandora station

^

Well, I'm sure that whatever any therapist hears, as a minimum, ends up as fodder for discussion at their breakfast or dinner table.  As a minimum. 

As for open relationships or polyamorous relationships, they're not really relationships.  They're more like arrangements.  In my opinion.

i read that david lowery has received something like 18 dollars in royalties for over a million listens to Low on Pandora? wtf?

i've always wondered how one becomes a sex therapist, is it something you can go to school for?

@vado artists have recently really been making same point against new big disruptor, Spotify

re: talking outside of work, i wouldn't think there is a problem ethically/legally as long as you avoid identifiers/PHI...

observant.....my thoughts on sex  and the rich.....Most Rich guys have trophy wifes and so sex shouldn't be a problem....long as the earlier wives are receiving their monthly paycheck. Same is true from the other side...Most rich women have trophy husbands.  So why would the sex not be good.  There former husband was a rail rider or one who left her a bucket of money to play around with.

i've always wondered how one becomes a sex therapist, is it something you can go to school for?

Apparently you can do it online, but I'd prefer hands on.

I think Architecture will only  become a profession of admiration when our fees are equal to the cost of the project we are working on.  So you design a Barn Door that cost  $5,000.00 to build your fee should be the same as the cost.  So you design a  School and the  cost are $20,000,000.00 , your fee should be $20,000,000.00.  Then we could live in Aspen and have all the sex we ever wanted.   Liberty  would make a killing on all of us...cause we would be living there along with all the developers...ect.

She received her masters in psychology with a concentration in sexuality. Her thesis examined polyamory and had a hilariously long title (which I can't even try to replicate it). You know how architects just fill their thesis title with jargon?...well hers was like that too but replace 'urban juxtaposition' with 'polyamory behavioral patterns.' 

She's had a hard time finding herself a romantic partner. Many men were put off and assumed she wanted to be polyamorous because of her focus on it in her sex therapy practice. Over the years, she's found the best way to deal with it is to given an example of other therapist - 'just because a therapist studies children with anxiety disorders doesn't mean they are a child with anxiety disorders...'