Absence

Sometime in 2014 I just stopped writing. Actually, I started to fizzle out a few years before. I started to lose my focus I think. When I started this blog I was not in the best place. I had lost my job. I was floundering to find my way in a new economic climate. I was still idealistic about my … Read More

Evil Lairs

  New plan. From now on I will ONLY design evil lairs. Because all the best architecture is designed for the evil. My work will have moats, and concrete, and glass and steel. I will design 16-story one-bedroom homes, with helipads, and lots of electronics. There will be a retractable roof, maybe lasers. I will completely ignore the building code, … Read More

We, the architects

We the architects,

in order to form a more perfect union of rectilinear forms and orderly plans, do, on this day, collectively (and sometimes individually) declare our independence from the scourge of thoughtless design.

Today, we, the tired few…

Remembering who I am

  Every few months (or years) I find myself digging through old sketchbooks and dusty portfolios trying to remember something that meant something to me a some point. As I flip through the drawings, I remember the sense of elation I had when I designed them. At the time the work seemed so prescient; it seemed so revelationary. Inevitably, these … Read More

Pull the rip chord

. Ok. Let’s recap. We’re three years into a recession, and how’s the profession of architecture doing? Wait. Don’t answer yet. First let me paint a mental image for you: Picture a long metal table with an uninflated plastic life boat on it. There’s a group of architects surrounding the table, all darkly clad and exhausted looking. The table is … Read More

Leaving Marks

. Have you ever felt like you did something well? That, just for once, your efforts to make something worthwhile had worked, and you’d made something to be proud of? Or at least something that represented what you were striving for in the first place? I’m not sure if I have or not. So, I spent a few minutes tonight … Read More

I was probably in a kitchen somewhere in Kansas

George turned 13 today.   If you think about the spaces that had the strongest impact on your life, the places that shaped who you became? I bet you’ll try to think of the spaces that filled you with a sense of awe. You’ll try to think of the spaces that made you feel small in the world, and you’ll … Read More

What architects do doesn’t count

  Yesterday, a good friend of mine wrote “It doesn’t count, unless it’s built.” I read this, and thought. “I completely agree with this”. And, then my head began to hurt. More. Because, what does that say about my work? (I don’t mean the obvious reference to my lack of built work the last few years). No, I mean in … Read More

I think I like my new office

  I think I like my new office. At the beginning of this year I had a minor meltdown. By the end of 2011, work was slow, which is nothing new really, but, it was slow enough to make me reconsider what I’m doing. I stopped really caring about architecture for a while. I just pushed through the jobs I … Read More

Architecture is a dialogue

. If I asked you to describe what architecture is. What would you say? Would you launch into a diatribe about space and function and economy? Would you mention light? Texture, materials? Construction? Commodity? Emotion? Is architecture about creativity? Is it about individual expression? Is it about design? Passion? Is it an art? Maybe. But maybe not. When I was … Read More

Important Places

. Important places In 1969, when my father was at war overseas, my mother and I were on the front porch of our 1910 Bungalow in Kansas. The wind pushed my toys over the edge and into the grass. My mother was leaning on the railing, talking quietly to our neighbor. I crawled across the painted wood and reached through … Read More

10 reasons Architects can fix it

  . 1. Architects broke it It’s probably our fault to begin with. I don’t really know the exact numbers, but buildings use more fossil fuels than cars, construction debris makes up the highest percentage of our landfills, building roofs and parking lots account for the majority of storm water run-out issues, and Market driven greed for greater and greater … Read More