On the occasion of the release of Around the Bay: Man-Made Sites of Interest in the San Francisco Bay Region, a new photobook from the Center for Land Use Interpretation Amelia Taylor-Hochberg sat down for a Discussion.

News

Archinect implemented the ability to click next to a person's name (or username) on posts and comments  and click "history" to view the user's post and comment history, or "contact" to privately message the user. For users that don't want to be contacted, there is an option in the "edit settings" page to block others from contacting you.

Over at Metropolis Magazine’s POV blog, Andrew Caruso AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, CDT, spoke with Thom Mayne re:  his early years working at Pasadena redevelopment agency and Gruen, starting Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) with his friends and colleagues from Pomona and working with clients like the GSA or "innovation" seeking clients in China. One quote that jumped out was this "I divide architects that teach and don’t teach. There’s a line. I can see it immediately".

Orhan Ayyüce had a quibble, "Not a very good interview. Asking for the beginnings and operative years of Morphosis and not once inquiring about Michael Rotondi? He was pretty much one of the most important component of Morphosis development and its image. Architectural journalism on its knees at best". Thayer-D though was impressed with another passage "‘I’d be the first one to say it, and I guess I’m an icon maker. It’s not always appropriate. There are times when you need buildings with power, buildings that have a voice and talk optimistically about the potential of what architecture can be. But only certain projects demand that, and they’re mostly public projects.’...Now if one of the great object makers admits this, how can we translate this value into archtitectural education without descending into another ideological battle”?

PublicInterestDesign.org reported the news that Australian/British architect and public interest designer Ross Langdon, 32, was among those killed in the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. He was killed alongside his partner, Elif Yavuz, who worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Kenya, and was just two weeks from her due date to give birth to their first child. Yaw Tony commented "Just sad... God bless her family".

Earlier this summer Alessia Andreotti spoke with Dr. Rachel Armstrong about living buildings, Venice’s foundations, millennial nature and how to improve our future. The two also discussed Dr. Armstrong's involvement in the Persephone Project, which is "charged with the design and implementation of a giant natural computer that will form the ‘living’ interior to the Icarus Interstellar worldship, which constitutes a kind of ‘space’ Nature". Fred Scharmen was reminded "of Greg Lynn's Embryological House http://www.artbyte.com/mag/nov_dec_00/lynn_content.shtml"

SCPR’s Take Two focused on the work of architect John Parkinson designer of some of L.A.'s most iconic buildings. Author Stephen Gee's latest book, "Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles" takes a look at Parkinson's life and how he maintained a low profile despite being the creator of so many iconic L.A. structures. design commented that the image of LA's City Hall building was "ugly" however citizen argued "This is one of the best buildings in Los Angeles...Awesome architecture!"

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Last week was Alec Perkin's last week as an intern working for Tatiana Bilbao's office in Mexico City. Describing the experience he wrote "Overall, I have loved working here. The office is small, only about a dozen people, and most of them have only been a few years out of school. Apart from the partners, who are still considered to be ‘young, emerging’ architects, I'm one of the older people in the office. (Another reason that it's time to hang up the ‘trainee’ hat)".

In Leaving Toronto the first post of his new blog YawTony a designer from Toronto, CA, wrote "Leaving home was bitter sweet. But the anticipation of the next chapter in Cardiff"

Jeffrey Eyster recently worked on West Hollywood Residences while Attillio Teragni recently worked on REMAC - residential building.

Meanwhile Stallan-Brand highlighted a "well executed project that we designed and led in our previous studio now complete and fully occupied...’Heriot-Watt Universities Riccarton campus is composed of massive, masonry walled elevations facing directly onto open countryside, identifiable from a distance as a modern interpretation of a castle or fort. This walled architecture opens up at the corners to reveal a courtyard garden environment’." The project completed by the former Paul Stallan Studio at RMJM and delivered by Pat Wilson.

Lester Tobias author of blog Malibu Architecture + Design provocatively titled his post Why it's so difficult to build in Malibu.

Schools/Blogs
Christopher Perrodin currently chronicling his "design research and (MArch) degree project" at Washington University, explained "I am neither a populist nor a revolutionary.  I am an American citizen.  And I am/was very concerned about the health of public interaction in America.  On that note, I highly, highly recommend everyone to read Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition and On Revolution.  Really great works on the political life of humans and the different roles humans work within".

design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech announced they will be partnering with Clifton Forge Little League on the design and construction of a new field house, including concessions and restrooms, during the 2013/2014 academic year.

With dematerializedTERRITORIES, Harold-Sprague Solie a now graduated, graduate student and entrepreneur of the University of Michigan Taubman College, published the first of a 3-part series to finally) presents his thesis work, which concluded this past May. He offers an apology for the tardiness "I have been planning this out for a while, however since I graduated and starting working full-time I have found it extremely hard to motivate myself  to do anything after work except sit on my couch and catch up on 6 years of TV shows on Netflix. You think reading Foucault is mind blowing? Try binge watching Breaking Bad and Lost at the same time....BOOM!"

Discussions

razan fayad started a thread asking "i'm freshmen in architecture student . i'm taking architecture drafting ( hand drawing )...i'm really not a good drawer i don't have really good hand . do you have any advices for me ?...do you think if i practice a lot . i may be an excellent :) ? thank you".

grued agreed "Yes practice. Go to the library and read books about drawing technique. Read Ching books. Try different lead weights. Get good paper, vellum and tools. Keep it clean. Rotate the lead holder while you make a line. Don't smudge the lines. Place the lines exactly where they should be. Take your time". curtkram chimed in "doodle in other classes.  just draw a bunch of straight lines really close to each other, kind of like hatching, over and over and over again".

swegin is looking for tips regarding the Most affordable residential metal windows for a modern design. gwharton suggested "Aluminum, thermally broken, nail-on. Steel will be very expensive and probably won't meet energy code. A commercial aluminum storefront will also be expensive" to which gruen added "Steel is mad expensive and no thermal break...If you want mod and cheap then it is storefront. Install quality is on the contractor".

Finally zaaa needs help finding a book on Tokyo, "with specific interest in the period from WWII up through 1964 Olympic Games...Yes, there is Project Japan, but this is already too design-y for me. I'm looking for a more Tafuri-esque, didactic historical and theoretical reading of the city after WWII" anybody?