News
As of March 11, 2013 Farnsworth House is fully surrounded by river water, but neither the lower deck nor the upper deck had yet been breached.

Paul Petrunia noted that last time it happened "They even blogged the cleanup: http://archinect.com/news/article/80993/farnsworth-clean-up".

Reflecting on the site of Farnsworth House, an obvious floodplain, toasteroven wondered "who pushed siting the building where it is - the client or mies?". To which snooker-doodle-dandy replied "don't believe Mies would ever let a Client tell him what to do.  In fact if they tried,  he would most likely stuff out  his Cuban  cigar on their forehead"

For her part Donna Sink expressed the opinion "I think evilplatypus - whose presence here I miss - once noted that the 100 year flood level that Mies used to site the building has been radically changed due to the massive suburban development that has happened upstream in the intervening 60 years. I think the house should be moved".

AIA Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA: issued a statement in opposition to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Completion Act, introduced Wednesday by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). Among other things, the legislation would mandate an alternative to architect Frank Gehry's design for the Eisenhower Memorial and would eliminate further federal funding for the project. davvid pointedly suggested "This project seems to be revealing some interesting but unsurprising correlations between political ideology and aesthetics/architectural ideas".

Last week friend of Archinect, eVolo Magazine released the winners of the 2013 Skyscraper Competition. Plus, in order to commemorate the award, eVolo published a collector’s edition of its highly acclaimed book eVolo Skyscrapers. The book is a two-volume, 1300-page set with the best 300 projects received since 2006. 麦 诚

commented "eVolo的比赛个人觉得太肤浅了。" In response Spike Cyclone quipped "Im assuming that translates into ‘Im throwing away my computer now’.” but FRaC said "大聲笑出來了！"

On March 10th CBS News’ 60 Minutes broadcast God's Architect: Antoni Gaudi's glorious vision. In it Lara Logan visited Spain to examine how modern aeronautical design software, is aiding in the construction of this over 130 years years old church. Fred Scharmen commented "Kind of crazy that they are using reinforced concrete, when Gaudi was going to use stone”, of course as taz noted "manual labor these days is a bit more expensive...  precast (or cast stone) is probably the most economical way to git'er done".
  

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Make sure to check out Mckean Architecture’s Restored Farmhouse located in New York state. The 1848 farmhouse was restored and along with it, a new addition clad in recycled timber and FSC- certified cedar, was built.

Brooklyn Rowhouse II in Brooklyn, NY by Robinson + Grisaru Architecture PC and LOW3 in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain, a design and research project by Barcelona Tech (UPC) students  were just two of the projects featured in the latest post featuring the Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Interiors" Pinterest Board.

Anne-Sophie Rosseel is working on Roshandan House, a learning center in Bhubaneswar, India, currently under construction.

Schools/Blogs
For their entry in the 2013 Solar Decathlon Competition, SCI-Arc/Caltech propose D.A.L.E. (Dynamic Augmented Living Environment), a 600sf micro-home that literally moves on rails, expanding to create a mid-yard and multiplying the inhabitable space. In order to keep us informed with up todate information on DALE’s development, the team started a school-blog. To begin Nicole Violani let it be known the team had "completed and submitted our Construction Documents!".

Steven Ward loved it "not just for california, but also for more varied climates. i could see it working well in KY (where i am): closing up for heating season and opening up in our beautiful spring/summer".

The design/buildLAB students at Virginia Tech wrapped up their cultural immersion weekend, with presentations of their autism school designs to the Shenandoah Autism Center and the town of Clifton Forge.

Anthony Sunga at Columbia University has almost completed his academic portfolio but wants to add one important thing, namely "a layer of comments as  a way to support the images. So if you could please leave a comment in archinect, issuu, or e-mail" he would appreciate it!

Bustler.net announced: Cast Thicket, designed by Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy (the winner of the APPLIED: Research Through Fabrication Competition) is now installed at the University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Architecture.

Discussions
Like many others, tmston2 is out of work in the architecture field, and thus had time to start a thread to discuss whether to pursue a "Real estate lic., and how lucrative would that be to an employer in the future”...

jla-x answered "the RE market is tough right now.  Alot of investors and very little inventory.  I did RE years ago.  It can be a very lucrative field if you are in the right market.  Employers, from my limited experience, appreciate any extra knowledge you can bring to the table. ...The only downside is that the classes are kinda expensive.  I remember spending around 4k in total".

accesskb chimed in "sure it will add to your repertoire, give you an upper hand and better understanding in the industry for future work prospects.  Although if your plan is to go work in the real estate industry, I don't know how much or if the architecture background might help you move ahead of the others.  I think this industry is a lot like sales - you need to be able to talk, bs, and have good looks or else you'll be eaten alive xD".

toasteroven contended "We're at a point in the US where auto-centric infrastructure has become too expensive to maintain and fund.  Coupled with the increasing individual expense of owning and operating a car, I think the question is not IF privately owned cars will disappear, but a matter of when - and what will eventually replace them". To that end he asked for thoughts on a "technology that might come in to replace cars and it's infrastructure?". Also, "how might the bicycle and/or this unknown future technology end up changing our built environment?”.

L1 believes "smartcars will help, there will be ‘cartrains’ & better congestion management in the US in particular, as land use patterns cannot be changed enough to do without them. More transit of course, land use change including abandoning some areas, densification, that's what I see". Meanwhile IamGray felt "It's threads like this one that remind me how USA-centric this discussion forum is".

However, toasteroven countered "this is already a problem in other developed countries (which have already begun grappling with it) - and in a few decades, the same issues will face countries like china and india once they realize just how expensive it is to maintain all this new infrastructure ... if the world is increasingly becoming urbanized, car ownership in all these new hyper-dense cities won't make a lot of sense".

Finally, observant wanted others to share Interview "stories" - quirky ones and got things going with a total of seven of their own. observant summarized "The most NORMAL interview I had resulted in the worst job I had - about 3 years at an A/E firm".

med. noted "interviews are rough for me.  I have a foreign sounding name so people always asume that I would require sponsorship which is a big fat no-no in these kinds of economies. I was even asked up front once if I was ‘Legal.’”, while slippery pete had to endure a 5 month, 5 interview process that saw "a field of 150 candidates winnowed to 2 for a job with the local redevelopment agency. After weeks of waiting , and gently checking in, after being told yes, this week is when a decision would be reached, I receive a voicemail on a Saturday and am told I didn’t get the job. But first, this person had to complain to me, me who had been out of work one whole year, that she had to work on a Saturday. And the irony, as this is California, that had I gotten the job, I would now not have that job, as the agencies were eliminated".

One of the best was posted by poop876, "After my graduate school, I got hired by a temp agency to work for a very well known firm in Chicago. After few weeks HR manager called me in to offer a permanent position with the firm. Knowing my background, work ethics and recommendation from the senior principals I was working with, we immediately jumped into the money part. She asked me how much I wanted to make and I tell her. She shakes her head and says NO. At that point I'm thinking "shit, that's going to bite me" .....then she offers me about $15,000 more than what I asked. Confused, I accepted, walked out and went to the nearest bar to celebrate".