ICYMI the latest Working out of the Box: featured Emily Hunt Turner, a Twin Cities-based architect, turned lawyer, turned restaurateur with an admirable social mission. 

Kisha Patterson was impressed "Hat's off to you sister! I've always believed that a solid  architecture education isn't just about designing buildings but rather a project-based problem-solving curriculum with that somehow  speaks to both the concrete challenges of our communities while retaining the blue-sky utopian vision it will take to make our world just and sustainable."

Plus, Barcelona-based photographer Simón García, was placed In Focus.

News
AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. issued a warning, as the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) posted two consecutive months of a decline in demand for design services, for the first time since summer 2012.

While at the same time The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Business Quarterly survey, found a decrease in billable hours and inquiries for new work, with plans to hire also softening from the previous quarter.

Tom Wiscombe Architecture proposed new digital, vertically aligned, two-sided billboards for LA. Orhan Ayyüce offered up this critique "The idea around the public space is good and I'd like to see a few of these designs, but, what's wrong with billboards? They are part of our culture." quondam.../Rita Novel was inspired to post some great images along with this thought "Maybe that's what doesn't quite sit right--the support system for the advertisements is calling too much attention to itself, where really only the advertisements should be calling for attention."

The artist and designer Maya Lin, revealed her plans for a redesign Neilson Library at Smith College. Based on the initial plans FRaC was pumped "oculus = awesumnus!".

The Los Angeles Times published, Christopher Hawthorne’s review of SOM's design for the now-completed Los Angeles U.S. Courthouse. Neither Erik Evens (EKE), citizen nor gwharton liked what they saw. EKE quipped "Nothing reinforces the public's belief in civic justice like a serrated glass cube hovering over a concrete plaza."

Firms/Work Updates
Everyday Intern decided to use their blog to start calling attention to Archinect job postings found to be confusing and/or contradictory. Explaining;

"I've posted about some of these job postings before in the forums (you can sift through my post history if you're really interested in finding them), but I thought I'd post a little more in the good ol' blog here rather than having it get lost in Thread Central."

Energy Positive Relocatable Classroom in Ewa Beach, HI by Anderson Anderson Architecture and a School in Montpellier, France by Dominique Coulon & associés, are just two projects from the latest Ten Top Images on Archinect's NEW "Learning Spaces" Pinterest Board.

Olaf Design Ninja_ penned a bit of speculative fiction which references; ‘The Stack’ by Benjamin Bratton, a future Liberland, space elevator cab cruise ships, cloudgängers and makes the case "Kids if you want to be an architect, learn to draw a floor plan."

Over at her blog 'Insane Cities' adityaghosh13 continued exploring The Theatrics of Daily Life.

School/Blogs
The Clemson University School of Architecture is looking to hire for The Homer Curtis Mickel and Leola Carter Mickel Endowed Chair in Architecture and Director of the Clemson University Institute for Intelligent Materials, Systems and Environments (CU-IMSE), a position starting August 15, 2017.

kaleyoverstreet affiliated with the Knowlton School at Ohio State University, relayed how at a recent lecture Paul Lewis, Associate Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University, and Principal of New York-based LTL Architects argued "that sectional drawings are fundamental to good design".

The University of Tokyo Advanced Design Studies program reminded folks that admission for the 2017/2018 academic year is now open. In order to complete your application, it is necessary to complete both online and postal submission of documents.

Pascale Vonier announced that due to a surfeit of responses volume 70 of the JAE is split. Issue 70:1, edited by Amy Kulper, features Design as Scholarship and introduces a new design framework: Discursive Images. Issue 70:2, edited by AnnMarie Brennan and Saundra Weddle, includes Scholarship of Design.
 

Discussions/Threads
Ben Hensel enjoys model making, is considering career options and wants to know about the "demand for model makers in architecture, whether the work is in-house or privately contracted?" Janosh responded "The market is tiny” also noting “More and more, this work is being commissioned by developers and clients wishing to fundraise, as architects have turned to renderings". A.I., also confirmed "The demand comes almost exclusively from developers…" and that it can be lucrative.

Larchinect’s office is getting busy and they are Considering first hire.,., so is looking for tips on hiring. gruen recommended hiring "people with hands on experience. Ie: construction." won and done williams lamented the administrative pain that comes from
"doing it right". Yet, while "It would be much, much easier to just hand them a 1099 at the end of the year, but the truth is they are not true 1099 contractors".

On the flip-side, Donna Sink was looking for spectacular quitting stories. Most posters cautioned against burning bridges, though as David Cole reminded readers, that goes both ways. Sometimes it is the employer that can be the jerk/child not the employee. HotelSphinx proposed that Archinect add commenting to Job Postings, to help highlight bad (or good) employers. Sort of like Glassdoor. A few also shared stories of "ghosting".

Finally, moeamaya started a thread to discuss "the best designed firm websites you have seen recently?" Contrary to some, gwharton felt "That NADAA site is horrible. It has some serious readability and navigation problems. And is it using Flash? LOL". Many commenters nominated the site for their own firms. For his part natematt’s nomination "isn't good" as much as he finds "it entertaining".
 

Additionally
From 1999 to the present, professional architecture has been preoccupied with punctual responses to punctual emergencies like those that faced incoming refugees to Gihembe. The exemplars of ‘humanity’ that ‘humanitarian architecture’ has recognized and responded to occupy situations of abjection and distress amidst wars, disasters, and displacements, rather than the conditions of abjection and distress that characterize everyday life for the vast majority of humans on the planet.

To put it differently, one could ask: "is it possible to design a ‘better’ refugee camp?" ... More of Andrew Herscher at e-flux architecture