ReBirth?

Thinking of resurrecting this blog...

High School Auditorium Window Replacement

I've been working on a pretty small job lately (but hey, I'm grateful to be working): six windows need replacing in the high school's auditorium. The windows are about 8'-8" x 12'-0" and have one single-hung sash surrounded by fixed windows. The old wooden sashes are in poor shape, but most of the trim inside is salvageable.

More to come on this project as well...

Old Library Renovation (Intervention)

At work lately, I have been working on documenting the existing conditions as well as the necessary work required to salvage this old schoolhouse building. The first floor of the building had been being used as the town's library (it has HVAC, the upstairs does not) until recently. There are periodicals dated April 2009 inside. The town is currently only using it to store fake garland - municipal Christmas decorations.

I need to go back and read the history of the building and site more thoroughly, but I think I recall that the building was initially built in the first quarter of the 20thC. - there have been multiple adjacent buildings built both before and after this one that have been used as school buildings. One of the ladies at work (the administrative assistant in the office, who is a grandmother of two and probably in her sixties) said her mother went to school in this building.

Problems:

-There is asbestos wrap on a pipe in the crawlspace

-There is lead-based paint in presumably every room in the building

-The roof is leaking - apparently only at the transition from shallow to steep pitch of the mansard

-Plaster (water damaged from the roof leaks) is caving in in multiple locations

-The floors, not designed or built to support rows of books are sagging big-time on the first floor

-Many of the exterior wall inside the building are badly damaged by moisture which has seeped in through the solid masonry load-bearing walls

-Most of masonry joints outside are deteriorating (we are going to have the entire exterior repointed - the joints will be ground down to an inch deep then refilled with new mortar)

[this post sat in my 'draft' queue for far too long - just need to get this off my list of things to do since construction is starting this weekend - I'll update this soon. In the meantime, there is an album of photo of the Library up on my flickr page.]

Adjaye | Freelon

A few weeks ago I went to an event at North Carolina A & T State University - a speech by two architects, David Adjaye and Phil Freelon, about their work both separately and in collaboration on a National Museum of African American History and Culture for the Smithsonian on the National Mall in Washington DC. Read more about the collaboration here in Dezeen, LATimes, NYTimes, ArchRecord, etc.

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Above: Phil Freelon and David Adjaye on the stage on January 6, 2010 taking questions at the end of their joint lecture at UNC A&T; last in the Triad Design Leadershop.

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Among the other projects of the Freelon Group's that Phil presented were other African American Museums in Baltimore, San Francisco, and two here in North Carolina: the Harvey B. Gannt Center for African American Arts & Culture which had just opened a month or two before and The International Civil Rights Center & Museum which just opened this week in Greensboro, NC's old Woolworth's where the lunch-counter sit-in protest occurred in the 1950s. Read more in the NYTimes.

Gannt Center, Charlotte:

Civil Rights Museum, Greensboro:

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Phil Freelon (Freelon Group)
David Adjaye (Adjaye Associates)

Christmas Archigifts 2009 (wishlist)

As the holidays approach, I've begun a short wishlist of some architecture-related gifts.

There will always be Architecture books (highest priority):
Bldgblog, one of the most-respected architecture blogs, written by Geoff Mannaugh, has now been published in book form.

Yes is More, the comicbook/monograph by BIG

On a practical note, I have been wanting to pick up one of the thorough how-to books on Revit Architecture, such as Mastering Revit Architecture 2010, or Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 (two different books, same title, different authors).

You could make a donation in my name to Architecture for Humanity.

By making a donation today you are supporting a grassroots network of architects, designers and building professionals to lend their talents and expertise in communities where there services are most needed and can least be afforded. You know design matters. Help us use the power of design to build a more sustainable future in communities around the world.

(Also, watch AFH's Cameron Sinclair's lecture at TED; it'll make you feel like you can do more...)

T-shirts:
Archinect has a couple t-shirts and should have some new designs coming out anyday now...

(FYI - I'd also take this one in black on black)

ArchiCULTURE also has a few t-shirts I like...

New (to me) Architecture Website

link to Architizer.

includes lots of projects...

...people...

...firms...

Architizer is on Facebook (Become a fan) and can be followed on Twitter.

BIG Follow up

Mountain Dwellings by BIG

I can't resist this brilliantly different approach to apartment dwelling. Ran across it in my latest issue of dwell. The architect is BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) from Denmark.

Link to the photo slideshow on dwell.

The accompanying article.

Here is BIG's own web presentation of the project, including diagrammatic animations.

And if you are thinking of relocating to "Orestad--Copenhagen's tiny but buzzing new hub of urban development"--you can look at floorplans here.

An interview with Bjarke Ingels from Archinect, Oct. 2007.

Pritzker Prize Goes to Peter Zumthor

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from NYTimes:

He is not a celebrity architect, not one of the names that show up on shortlists for museums and concert hall projects or known beyond architecture circles. He hasn’t designed many buildings; the one he is best known for is a thermal spa in an Alpine commune. And he has toiled in relative obscurity for the last 30 years in a remote village in the Swiss mountains.

via The Pritzker...

ARCHCLUB trip 2009

We've begun plans for this year's Architecture Club trip at school to visit Philadelphia, PA. Among the possible destinations in/near: Vanna Venturi house - Robert Venturi Guild house - Rovert Venturi Esherick house - Louis Kahn Fisher house - Louis Kahn Richards Medical Research - Louis Kahn PA Academy of Art - Frank Furness Also a walking tour by the Center for Architecture. More details to follow. ARKTEK

Olympic Architecture

I know, I know...there is lots of controversy surrounding the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, China which get underway two days from this posting...human rights abuses, government censorship...and China has already had its share of mishaps with tainted toys and food products...

Set all that aside for a moment and marvel at some of the most innovative architecture happening right now. It is happening in China, and it is being officially unveiled to the world in two days through some 200 + hours of programming per day on NBC and its siblings.

I'll be at the beach with my family, so hopefully there'll be some down-time during which we can tune in to see some of the coverage.

Here is a great article from ArchRecord about the Architectural Technology of the aquatics center, aka the Water Cube.

Article also from ArchRecord: Record Reveals: Beijing

ArchRecord's Project Portfolio for July 2008 features 15 new structures in China.

More Photos...

...added to the sets: Downtown Winston-Salem, including West End Village, and Winston-Salem's Family Services Building.

Proximity Hotel

My ARC 230 Environmental Systems class took a field trip over to Greensboro this week to visit the Proximity Hotel, which is expected to be the first LEED Platinum hotel in the country.

It is modelled after typical textile mills found in the area--straightforward rectangular grid with large windows--and named after a specific mill just a mile or two down the road from this site. The bistro nextdoor is named after the Print Works which was situated directly nextdoor to the mill.

Here is a link to the set of pics on my flickr page.

The official Proximity website.

CU-ICAR

Visited the Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research this past seekend while staying with friends in Greenville, SC. It is a complex developed recently for (as the title suggests) car-ology. Apparently Clemson has the only Doctorate in Automotive Engineering in the country.

I don't have all the details about the buildings and could not go inside any of them other than the parking garage (the place was oddly empty), but I do know that Greenville firm Pazdan-Smith worked on at least one of the buildings (the one for Timken). Also quickly visited another LEED-seeking building designed by Pazdan-Smith in Greenville.

I've got a set of pictures from Greenville/ICAR on my flickr page.

Revit Architecture

Probably the biggest news for this summer semester is that we will be learning a second BIM (Building Information Modelling) software--Revit. BIM programs allow one to draw/design either in different ways, to edit in ways that make changes throughout the entire project--minimizing endless backtracking to fix little things that got changed in one drawing and overlooked in another. Revit allows one to produce the slick 3d photorealistic renderings as well as the construction documents, material lists, cost estimates, product specifications...all within the same program.

Last semester we started on ArchiCAD--a competing program. It will be interesting to see how different/similar the two programs are to each other.

Here is an example of a Revit rendering.

image credit: here

Archintent Louisville's set on flickr here has some great concept sketches as well as some Sketchup development. The renderings are done in Revit.

birthday book

Francis D.K. Ching's Building Construction Illustrated went from the wish list (to the right) to the list of books that are no longer on the wish list.

Thanks, Doug.

archiCULTURE

Here is a link to archiCULTURE site related to the film-in-progress that will document the studio-lives of architecture students at Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

pkb house

another cool house--and it is local!

pete's own site tells all about his design process in developing this home to meet the needs of his family as well as his eco-responsible goals, so i don't really need to say too much about the house here--just go get it from the source...

rick black

i like this home. i first saw it in dwell, but then it also showed up in the weekly email from eyecandy-webcandy. i really like the dialogue between the old original bungalow structure with the newer addition. love the wood wall treatment inside, near the kitchen.

all images from rick black website

the slow home 10-step process

1. GO INDEPENDENT
Avoid homes by big developers and large production builders. They are designed for profit not people. Work with independent designers and building contractors instead.

2. GO LOCAL
Avoid home finishing products from big box retailers. The standardized solutions they provide cannot fit the unique conditions of your home. Use local retailers, craftspeople, and manufacturers to get a locally appropriate response and support your community.

3. GO GREEN
Stop the conversion of nature into sprawl. Don’t buy in a new suburb. The environmental cost can no longer be justified. Re-invest in existing communities and use sustainable materials and technologies to reduce your environmental footprint.

4. GO NEAR
Reduce your commute. Driving is a waste of time and the new roads and services required to support low density development is a big contributor to climate change. Live close to where you work and play.

5. GO SMALL
Avoid the real estate game of bigger is always better. A properly designed smaller home can feel larger AND work better than a poorly designed big one. Spend your money on quality instead of quantity.

6. GO OPEN
Stop living in houses filled with little rooms. They are dark, inefficient, and don’t fit the complexity of our daily lives. Live in a flexible and adaptive open plan living space with great light and a connection to outdoors.

7. GO SIMPLE
Don’t buy a home that has space you won’t use and things you don’t need. Good design can reduce the clutter and confusion in your life. Create a home that fits the way you really want to live.

8. GO MODERN
Avoid fake materials and the re-creation of false historical styles. They are like advertising images and have little real depth. Create a home in which character comes from the quality of space, natural light and the careful use of good, sustainable materials.

9. GO HEALTHY
Avoid living in a public health concern. Houses built with cheap materials off gas noxious chemicals. Suburbs promote obesity because driving is the only option. Use natural, healthy home materials and building techniques. Live where you can walk to shop, school and work.

10. GO FOR IT
Stop procrastinating. The most important, and difficult, step in the slow home process is the first one that you take. Get informed and then get involved with your home. Every change, no matter how small, is important

[as seen here]