crumple drawing

PB plein aire

the last exam standing

I'm putting on my battle armor for the last Architects Registration Exam: Structural Systems. That armor includes a good supply of coffee beans, a moleskin notebook dedicated to my study scribbles and notes, daily affirmations that I shall not fear shear and moment calculations, many xeroxes and printouts of study guides and structural articles (the world-renowned FEMA 454 for example) and most importantly, the will to conquer!

Fill Me Up

Tonight Dr. Ross and I went to Anthology to hear Shawn Colvin. She got up on stage in a very decisively understated way, just her and her guitar and an opening song. The outfit she had on was part Pharoah, with a bejeweled like bibb, and part Ballerina, with her dress concluding in a shimmery pleated halo around her waist. Shawn Colvin is an epically old soul in a year 2009 body. One of my favorite songs by her is "Fill Me Up" because being a long way from home requires a different sort of fulfillment. When you're a long way from home there's no history to re=visit, you can't just stop by an old neighbor's or grandma's house for a piece of pie (but i like cake) and a good chat. That doesn't exist here. I have to make up my own, write-as-I go story and when it's fresh ink, it's uncomfortable. Oh, but eventually, this ink dries and one ends up with a definitive tale behind them that can be re-told and chalked up to the history books.

A House of a Hundred K's

Moose and I have been shopping for a house and so far so BAD. There's a lot of both new and old, broken down, poorly kept, expensive crunk out there on the market that I can't afford. There's also a lot of good stuff in the good neighborhoods that I definitely can't afford. Every time I go through a property I get the overwhelming urge to move walls, change facades, add additions, place new windows. This urge exists even without the foil of awkward overpriced houses. This urge to make and re-make things is the reason I've stuck to the profession of Architecture and why I'll always be in it in some way.

When I was lamenting the poor conditions of houses I'd seen for $300k and that I just need to take matters into my own hands and build, my realtor's attitude was one of skepticism. When anyone says "You Can't Do It" I flip the "on" switch to the "Oh Yeah I Will" factory. I've got a couple books on order from the library "The 100K House" by Dwell Editor Karrie Jacobs and "Modern Shoestring". These two books document efforts by contemporary architects to build with materials and labor in the 100k ballpark. Below is one such effort by a developer called Postgreen and Interface Architects in philadelphia. I'm going to keep my search open for an urban infill lot in San Diego - I'm taking land donations! And then I'm going to build my 100k house.


http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2421267374214289556

Las Vegas on the Rocks

I had a Swiss visitor for two weeks and the picture above is one of our weekend moments in Las Vegas. I expected Sin City to be a 24 hour circus of revelry and it certainly was. It's an all night Disneyland for 21-99 year olds who want to drink, eat and gamble as much as their bodies and wallets will allow. Our version of Las Vegas was not so extreme.

I'd only met this Swiss visitor last summer, most of our time spent together was soaked in salt water, flipping off surfboards. We also had one fun night at Showmeo & Sushi's house which has been documented forever on Facebook. I was excited to play host to our guest's 2nd visit to San Diego. Right now, she's speeding over the Atlantic at several thousand feet.

A Mobile Home Made for the Outback

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5869/picture/24948/

http://www.robgray.com/graynomad/wothahellizat/wot1/index.php