the church block

On previous meetings with Architect B (creative, modern, residential designer), I've passed this church in the dark and felt outright cheated. Finally, with daylight savings, I could pull over after a meeting and at last collect the erstwhile-sought-after block.

Note: You can see this block in many, many cement walls in Palm Springs.

Ocean Beach, 40 mph winds

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Lean On

(click on images to enlarge)

This is a protoype design I'm working on for Leaning Night Stands constructed of 1/4" thick powder-coated steel sheets fused to 1/2" thick lexan (a.k.a plexiglass) panels. The panels are embedded with white led's and the shelves are moveable magnetic "wedges" clad in orange-enameled metal.

Note: the rendering was done in Google SketchUp which is easy and fun to use and free to download.

Technology, Art and Urban Space

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video
This is a must-see video of extreme urban communication (a.k.a graffiti) that uses technology to construct an astounding connection of hand-to-light-to-building.

It's amazing what can grow out of a cactus.
(right outside my doorstep in the courtyard)

Parents week in San Diego

My parents landed in San Diego and in 6 days they have toured:
1. Annie Liebovitz @ San Diego Museum of Art
2. Eva Zeisel @ the Mingei Museum
3. Museum of Man
4. Father Junipero Serra Museum in Old Town
5. Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma
6. Geisel Library @ UCSD La Jolla
7. Ocean Beach antique shops
8. Fry's Electronic Superstore

On top of all that, on the 3rd day, while I went to work I sent them off to breakfast and they called me 2 hrs later from a Honda dealership telling me I was getting a new car to replace the 15 yr old car (w/missing exhaust system and no a/c) that I've been driving since my junior year in college.
My mom is retiring this year after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. She's not sure what she'll do next...but I really think she's got a good eye for photography. She took this photo of me in a pepper tree on Presidio Hill.

Architecturally Challenged Part III

The NCARB has taken my money so that must meen my Council Record is being initialized. Since moving to San Diego I have logged 6.19 units out of 700 in 4 of 16 categories so far. One of my weekend projects will be compiling retro-active units from past work. Maybe I can come out with at least a 100 units to make the process feel less daunting. The NCARB gives you a 90 page excel workbook to log all of your hours in. I'm going to back up this file in 6 ways including hardcopies in a fireproof box until IDP is over, then I guess I'll save it for my grandchildren.

The technical health care remodeling has been balanced by equally technical but much more fun projects at San Diego's most famous hotel (Marilyn Monroe and Some Like it Hot). Doing field verifying or site visits to the hotel is kind've like taking a 2-hour weekday vacation. I can't complain about having to go to the beach in the afternoon once in a while.

There is falling in love and then there is what I call, “falling in wonder”.
Both involve the butterflies of connection. Both involve a sudden shift in what is on ones’ mind. Both involve the mixing of fiction and fact. But the difference is one can be done many times a day, with several people and without disaster. The difference is one can be remixed, replayed and repeated. In the past, I couldn’t tell the two apart and it caused me a lot of confusion. I had a sense of difference but no words of distinction. How can I get so pre-occupied with certain things? Why do I get so encompassingly enamored with certain people? And why does my sense of time bend so much when this happens? Falling in love is beautiful but there’s an emotional limit to it: one person at one time. I needed an alternative concept with no limit (and also not limited to humans). So falling in wonder is what I do; in my car, on my bike, on the street, in the alleys, in galleries, in friend’s living rooms, at the end of a song, in the middle of a word, in front of people and behind their backs. I’ll do a hundred hours of web design for someone I’ve fallen in wonder with. I’ll pull off the road at any time of the day for an object, building or situation I’ve fallen in wonder with. I’ll be wonder-struck by someone’s words for weeks until I remix them into images and new words.

Apartment building on Texas St.

facelift

the view from 3 ft

On my weekend hike around Fortuna I met my first snake. Prior to going my boss had mentioned that it's Rattle Snake season so Saturday morning the first thing I did was research the local venomous snake population. Apparently it's very rare to actually die from a Rattlesnake bite but it's sounds like it hurts like h*ll if it happens. So wouldn't you know about 10 min into my hike I was startled by the hasty departure of a snake into the brush but I'm 100% positive it was not a Rattlesnake. I also tried a different, easier trail on Saturday which exited onto the park road via very "rustic" wide and chunky stairs. A dad and his 3 ft. tall son were walking up as I was going down. The little boy was using his hands to get up the taller steps and as part of his effort he vigorously stated the question, "Dad! Why are these stairs so messy!". What a great observation!

On my bike ride today I came to a screeching halt because I found a new cement-screen-block that I haven't seen before. I've driven past the turn onto this street many times never noticing the building. You can get away with so much more 'seeing' on a bicycle. You can ride up onto the sidewalks, pull U-turns with no consequences and park practically anywhere! It's an indespensable part of an urban explorer's activities.

The acronyms in my life: IDP, CIDP, NCARB, ARE, CSE, CAB, AIA, TGIF

Acronym Chart
IDP=Intern Development Program
CIDP=California Intern Development Program
NCARB=National Council of Architecture Registration Boards
ARE=Architects Registration Exam
CSE= California Supplemental Exam for Architects
CAB=California Architects Board
AIA=American Institute of Architect

I officially submitted my NCARB application to begin IDP and CIDP and establish eligibility for the ARE so that I can pass and then take the CSE so that my license can be granted by the CAB and then I can join the AIA. Once I receive IDP materials in the mail and being documentation I will then have 1,095 days until Registered Licensed Architect status. By the time I'm licensed and have paid every last Acronym-induced-fee I'll have spent the equivalent of a first class trip to Switzerland including lift tickets and 5-star hotel stay at Zermatt (7,220 ft vertical drop according to GoSki). At this moment, I can keep the Acronyms straight in my head and the cost, time and infinitesimal record keeping is not too overwhelming...of course, I also haven't even started yet. If this doesn't work out I have 27 different backup plans. No. 25 is global ski-bum.

Neurons that smell have more to tell!

It's official. Memory recall is stronger when a scent is involved in the uptake of information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/science/09sleep.html?hp

I wonder what the smell of my coffee is doing for me right now...

The Seismic Life

So one of my duties as an aspiring Architect of California health care facilities is working with seismic codes and employing seismic design in hospitals. Due to professional practice, I've now become interested in seismic events both near and far. Today at 12:12:10pm PST a microquake occurred 12 miles from San Diego. I was in a hospital in La Jolla and did not feel a thing. Actually, microquakes occur at 2.0 or less on the Richter scale and are not supposed to be felt. It takes a 3.0 for humans to know something is wrong. There's talk and agreement among Seismologists that a large earthquake is inevitable for the southern San Andreas fault which runs through Palm Springs, San Bernadino, Riverside and the Imperial County. The southern end has not seen a major quake in 300 years. A 6.o - 6.9 quake will cause damage 100 miles from the epicenter. San Diego is 124 miles from Palm Springs so I hope that is far enough...otherwise I should be getting my emergency supplies together now. Actually, that's probably a good idea regardless of what my seismic future holds. The quake that just occurred in Indonesia was a 6.3 with aftershocks just as strong. The Pacific Ring of Fire is unforgiving and relentless. I wonder what kind of seismic codes (if any) Indonesia uses for homes and larger buildings. In the 2004 indonesian earthquake the USGS estimated 229,866 people displaced. That's a lot of homes destroyed. Many of these dwellings are unreinforced brick or concrete block making them heavy and easy to crumble by shearing forces and inhabitants are crushed-to-death. I did read of one architect in Indonesia who's trying to get people to adopt and use flexible materials in different ways like combining bamboo framing with block knee walls. With so many natural disasters in so many places there is a need for adaptive, short-term, rapidly deployed housing solutions or hyper-responsive architecture. There's got to be better solutions than FEMA trailers!

Big Bear Mountain

From goSki.com: Afton Alps, MN, vertical drop is 351 ft and no peak listed. Big Bear Mountain, CA, vertical drop is 1200 ft and the tallest peak is 8200 ft. Big Bear doesn't excite many people around here but when you go from the treacherous 351 ft mountains of Minnesota to 8200 ft terrain in California it's pretty exciting! Also, they don't have thai restaurants at the bottom of any ski places in Minnesota. We ate at Pong's...which looked like it could've been a questionable choice based on the kitsch of their signage but it was good! The picturesque drive up to Big Bear was worth the trip alone. The return trip in traffic would be an excellent test for Newlyweds...it also makes you want to not go more than once a year.

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/19321129@N00/DaD06U

Fortuna Mountain

I like going up Fortuna instead of Cowles because even though it's a shorter climb it's significantly more steep with strong potential for humans to synchronize with gravity. Fortunately UCSD and Scripps both have level 1 trauma centers, should a human go splat on a rock. Because it's tucked away about a 1/4 mile walk past the visitor only about 6 people are ever on the Fortuna climber's trail whereas Cowles seems to always be crowded. Today is the last time I'm climbing to the summit at Fortuna because I shouldn't be doing that kind of rock climbing without a helmet and gear. I don't want to end up on the San Diego evening news. The rest of the trail is just good hard steep hiking. I do like the climbing part. It's a physical set of decisions, a negotiation and you sense the consequences with every change in position. One time on my path of descent a cactus hidden under a rock overhang got stuck on my knee. There's no way I could've seen that coming. Sometimes even the best negotiations are ambushed.

Camera Phone's Greatest Hits

breakfast
Originally uploaded by iamonhold.

I finally got around to downloading these. Hubie's feet are not small.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/19321129@N00/R58S0O

palm tree nut, streetlight, courtyard : balboa park