I am a writer and college English instructor with a lifelong interest in art and architecture. Many of my essays and short stories have appeared in print and online. I am currently at work on a collection of essays and my third novel, which will be set in the future. One of the issues I want to consider is how our forward looking and futuristic buildings now might appear then, what will take their place.
Architecture, like music, the visual arts, and literature, reveals the thought and temper of the times, and I see many parallels and diversions. I have begun reading more about architecture as well as started making models of well known buildings, such as the Bauhaus at Dessau. The models give me close hand experience of a building’s form, structure, and expression as well as provide springboards for reflection. I have also made some tentative efforts at designing buildings myself and have written about my ideas in their construction.
My models along with description and thought can be found at Under Construction.
Stories, essays, and novels can be found at Fictions.
Building for Community
More and more, we need to think locally.
Centering a Town: St. Johns/First Efforts
This post describes site and program and begins rough design ideas. It's a virtual project, a cultural center in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. As I argue in this post, the site has potential to make a significant esthetic and social impact on the neighborhood that might be applied elsewhere. I would like to encourage others to give it a shot. The post also has links to resources.
As a conceptual project we might learn something about how communities work and what sustains them, what makes them vital, especially in the face of the major economic changes we’ve endured the last decades. There seem to be only two possibilities now: either stagnation that saps our resources and resolve or rapid growth that leads to overdevelopment and social congestion. What is learned here may pay off elsewhere.
Other designs, over twenty, can be found here.
I'm an amateur, of course. I build these models really as a way of gathering ideas. The models help me see them in concrete form. Also they are a way of learning about architecture.
Models
Louis Kahn, First Unitarian Church Rochester
Battersea Power Station/reflections
Muzharul Islam, Bangladesh National Library
Archeground, Dhaka International University Administrative Building
Metropolitan Storage Warehouse: Fire Proof
Reflections on the warehouse in Cambridge, its conversion for SA+P, MIT + a rough model.
Mies van der Rohe, an abstract model based on his early chalk drawings of Haus Esters
Mies van der Rohe, Haus Lange
Mies van der Rohe, Haus Esters
Ilya Golosov: Zuev Workers’ Club
Giuseppe Terragni, Casa del Fascio
Heart of Darkness, a narrative visualization of Conrad's novel
Publications
Short Stories
"Portland," Numéro Cinq, July 2017. A story about a retired architect, with a side trip to Boullée’s cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton.
“In the Garden,” Numéro Cinq, Vol. VI, No. 3 (March 2015)
“Mikrokosmos,” Numéro Cinq, Vol. I, No. 6 (July 2010)
“Pillar of Salt,” The South Carolina Review, 32, No. 2 (Spring 2000)
“Willy,” The Crescent Review, 16, No. 2
“Nocturne,” New Novel Review, 4.1 (Fall 1996)
“The Clinic,” Confrontation, 48/49 (Spring/summer 1992)
“At the Welfare Office,” the minnesota review, 26 (Spring 1986)
Essays
"Winter, 2017," 3:AM, September 2019. This essay uses Peter Eisenman's House II as a central metaphor for a host of reflections.
"Bill," Numéro Cinq, August 2017
"Heart of Darkness," Numéro Cinq, January 2017
"Housing for the Rest of Us, A Non-Manifesto," Numéro Cinq, October 2016
"Completing the Mies van der Rohe Brick Country House, An Odyssey," Numéro Cinq, May 2016. A literary essay that centers on this house.
"Hamlet," TriQuarterly, Winter/Spring 2016 (Issue 149)
"Autumn Rhythm," Conjunctions, November 17 2015
"Paris in Black in White / 1973-74," Numéro Cinq, November 2015
“Above the Roofs of Paris, a Non-Memoir,” Fourth Genre, (17:1, Spring 2015)
“Ridin’ the Rail: On the Ending of Huckleberry Finn,” Numéro Cinq, Vol. II, No. 2 (February 2011)
“The View from the Masthead: Moby Dick Cut in Half,” Numéro Cinq, Vol. 1, No. 3 (April 2010)
“Man in the Holocene: Point of View/point of view/Max Frisch,” Numéro Cinq, Vol. 1, No. 7 (August 2010)
"Gloriously Pointless," Numéro Cinq, Vol. 1, No. 2 (March 2010)
Quick Takes
A series of blog posts on a variety of subjects, including architecture, that combine text and images, found here at Numéro Cinq.
Completing Mies van der Rohe's Brick Country House, Fri, Aug 7 '15
There are small problems that vex as much as they intrigue us, whose answers only lead to larger questions.
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA, US, English Instructor
Teach composition, reading, critical thinking and research, introduction to literature.
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, US, English Instructor
Taught composition, critical thinking and research, guided writing, studies in American Literature, introduction to fiction, introduction to fiction writing.
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, US, English Instructor
Taught composition and research.
California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA, US, English Instructor
Taught composition.
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), Santa Cruz, CA, US, Core Course Instructor
Taught general course on writing and the humanities.
University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, US, Museum Preparator
Worked on lighting and installation of contemporary art exhibitions.
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT, US, MFA
MFA in creative writing
Creative writing thesis: a book length collection of short stories and novellas. Critical thesis: point of view in Max Frisch’s novel Man in the Holocene.
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, US, Masters, English
Creative writing thesis: short stories and critical analysis. General literature. Concentrated in modern fiction and creative writing.
Davidson College, Davidson, NC, US, Bachelors, English
Center for Honors Studies. Graduated cum laude. Majored in English, with concentrations in art, art studio, and philosophy.
