News
Caela J. McKeever a self-described "young architect" penned How the economy upended young architects' hopes. The piece looks at how  frustrated architecture grads of her generation are dropping out of the profession leading to a "renaissance happening among young architects — and it’s not in architecture". Fred Scharmen argued "The concerns the author highlights are real, but IMO, not traceable directly back to the economy, rather to the failure of many offices to respond to the opportunities laid out by the current crisis. Models of office hierarchy, project delivery, marketing, and client relations need to change. ...I was lucky enough to have experience with one office that recognized this, and is in the process of adapting" while Given replied "I have to say of all the complaints I have against the profession, the ones she makes aren't really the ones I care about...Id much rather fix the growing trend towards the field being divided between rich young people doing high design for rich old people and everyone else doing work for huge corporations in large firms"

ovalle was "100% with Donna that the author comes off as whiny. I think I would be whiny too if I was designing Nordstrom remodel interiors  all day. However, writing a two page op-ed piece to articulate your frustrations, comes off as selfish, indulgent, and entitled."

The general tone of the comments section led to a discussion regarding Archinects commenting/moderating system. Nicholas Cecchi proposed "Maybe archinect should block anonymous comments - I highly doubt any of you would have this sort of discourse with each other in person" and Dimitri Kim agreed. However, toasteroven completely disagreed "requiring people to use their real name is a form of oppression - being able to comment anonymously allows people like me to speak their mind without fear of repercussion in real-life - you're just trying to shut out voices you disagree with” a position that wurdan freo endorsed, claiming "we believe in the critical importance of anonymity and its role in dissident speech. like the economist magazine, we also believe that keeping authorship anonymous moves the focus of discussion to the content of speech and away from the speaker- as it should be. we believe not only that you should be comfortable with anonymous speech in such an environment, but that you should be suspicious of any speech that isn't".

This week, SANAA released a proposal for its first building in the United States , located in New Canaan, Connecticut. The steel, concrete, and wood headquarters for the Grace Farms Foundation will wind its way along a piece of the 75-acre property owned by the nonprofit charitable organization. FRaC labeled it a "running fence" yet, AP simply "love(d) it".

The LA Times reported that last Tuesday California, followed Nevada, in passing a bill which legalizes driverless cars. Google, which has been building the cars, says they are safer because they nearly eliminate human error. They could also be more fuel-efficient, the company says, and place California and the United States at the forefront of automobile innovation. Thayer-D griped "So now not only will we be isolated in our own little gocarts, but we won't even get to control them.  How about designing communities that foster community rather than keeping up this fossil feul economy that's polluting our lungs...How will spontenaity survive yet another dolp of techno-convenience?".

This past Tues, Morpholio Project announced the launch of its second app, simply called Trace.  The app explores the role of technology in the conceptual phase of the design workflow through a digital version of trace paper, and fosters communication amongst a global design culture. The key function is the "New Trace Layer" button, which allows a user to take their sketch and add another sheet, then another, and another until the idea or sketch is built to its final stages. lletdownl was impressed "gd thats cool.... i wonder how long my contrarian apple discrimination can hold out..." and Donna Sink agreed noting "This is very cool, though full of skeuomorphs".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
While in Mumbai during his  thirteen-week train expedition across India amlocke visited Antilla. Found in the Cumballa Hill area of Mumbai the world’s most expensive single family home was built fMukesh Ambani, the billionaire business tycoon, who commissioned Perkins + Will to design the 27 story home.

He provided the following critique "She is of the ribbon family. That point in one’s design career when it is decide the time is right to take one elongated plane, fold it over itself repeatedly and fill the void with glass and steel. Its execution here, I must say, is adequate, administering a proper and varying narrative. A colossal slanting hypostyle hall, a terraced patio, enclosed by the ribbon, terraced again, but open to the sea; a shielded and dark cantilever, the full block, shielded again, and finally a grand terrace".

Jorge Avila recently worked on a Gym and Theatre Facility while Douglas Heaton recently worked on An Adaptive Reuse & Live/Work Project in Downtown Los Angeles.

Schools/Blogs
SCI-Arc has launched a comprehensive media archive at sma.sciarc.edu The archive provides access to more than 3,000 topics in over 1,000-plus hours of recordings. The material covers the years from 1974 to the present. Eric Chavkin commented "I am sure this will be used extensively. The ones preserved in any form range from historic to nostalgia. The ones missing, if not decayed, are pure loss. Remember, this is old mag tape, notorious for decay. Off the top. Some of the missing  in action: early art lectures by JEFF WALL, MICHAEL ASHER, JOHN KNIGHT, DANIEL BUREN. Ester McCoys slide lectures on SCHINDLER, CASE STUDY HOUSES, IRVING GILL, NEUTRA".

In the last 11 days the Allied Studio 2012  blog which details the semester-long work of the Allied Studio, a cross-disciplinary effort to re-vision the Harlem School of the Arts in Manhattan presented their analysis of the HSA and have begun to design. They also explained how the teams "develop ideas by talking through drawings".

Harvard GSD school blogger Lian Chikako Chang, let us know that the working title of her thesis project is "unaccomplished performances", she also shared two videos, "which are the first things she has produced this semester: a time-lapse showing a process of inhabitation, and a stop-motion animated charcoal drawing based on it. Very much a work in progress, but that’s what this semester will be about". domestico helpfully offered "I'm in the middle of writing an article and the issue of performance is one of the topics of my research.  If you don't already have it in your working bibliography, i recommend 'The Well Tempered' environment by Reyner Banham - this whole book is an argument to lack of heed first wave modernism paid to the performance of their buildings, furniture, fixtures - Gropius, Corb....or the limited extent to which they actually pursued the idea of architecture as a machine". 

Later Lian Chikako Chang wanted to explain a bit about what she meant by "unaccomplished performances". She elaborated, "the unaccomplished performance is contingent, imperfect, and never optimized; it is also ongoing. By this, I mean to describe the continual processes of habituation that characterize the interaction, at a micro-scale, between inhabitants and their habitat". 

Discussions
Due89 asked Archinectors to provides opinions regarding the effectiveness of direct mailers. there is no there suggested "Direct mailings aren't TOO expensive. But agree that you would have to do it more than once or have 3-6 additional name-getting-out-there campaigns going over a period of a year or more, otherwise, you are wasting your time and money. Even then, you can't expect any results. Getting the word out is best done by word of mouth, aka referrals - it is hardest to do, but it is basically free" and dia pointed out "Melbourne practice Andrew Maynard had some success with fliers I believe in the early days. I'm sure that careful targeting of a certain demographic, with a key message in a thoughtful way would probably pay off". quizzical though definitely felt them to be "a colossal waste of your time and money. Any responses you do receive are likely to be from very unsophisticated individuals who don't understand what you do".

regulators highlighted the contrast between two surveys and wanted to discuss the past and future of the profession. The first is the 2012 AIA Firm Survey and the second is a survey recently conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction that came to the counterintuitive conclusion that some U.S. firms expect a shortage of qualified designers to meet their workloads by 2014. gwharton responded "Like thakopian above, I'm guardedly optimistic for the future of the profession in general. We're moving into what Jeff Conklin calls the ‘Age of Design,’ where creativity combined technical ability will be the key value position in the global economy".

protean queried "When doing an apartment renovation, we often design a kitchenette to have a 12" non-combustible smoke drop. Can anyone point me to where any law or codes specifically mandate this? I have looked through the MDL and the NYC Building Codes and I can't seem to find it"? sahar dropped the knowledge posting "It is in the Interior Environments Chapter of the Building Code. I think that is Chapter 12, towards the end". To which Apurimac added "Sahar caught it - although I think that part of the code only applies when there is more than one family occupying the dwelling unit (apartment)".

Finally, J. James R. wanted to know How does your firm feel about "fan mail?" rationalist authoritatively replied "On the website or project stuff, honestly if we don't know you and aren't necessarily going to get anything out of the fact that you love our stuff ...then the way this can work the best is if you post on the firm's facebook page or tweet something with them tagged in it, so that you liking it gets people talking about it... if you actually know the people involved, email's great and it's just a part of your regular communication with each other".

Steven Ward wondered "why wouldn't we do this for each other? good grief, we all hear enough crappy comments about the profession and about work that is less good.it's a hard business and there's not much positive reinforcement. let's give each other pats on the back when we do well!"

Additionally
For those in or near Baltimore on Oct. 5th, there will be an opening reception from 6-8pm, for the recently announced Baltimore Modernism Project. Exhibited at Dcenter Baltimore the show consists of renderings from the archives of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and includes drawings of Mies van der Rohe’s Highfield House, contemporary photography by Jeremy Kargon, and more. For more information.