Shopping

I finally have internet at my house! My busy schedule, and the busy schedules of my roommates Tim and Jaime, have made the whole "moving in" process drag out over weeks. There is still art leaning against walls waiting to be hung, the odd random box in a corner. My room still seems half empty. I'm determined to be very picky about the rest of the things I put in my room. I've got my first big kid job, and my first big kid apartment, so I feel the need to be deliberate about the things with which I furnish my room. Shopping around for furniture and things, I can tell how much working for Tsao & McKown has influenced my thinking. I've got a vague notion about the type of things I like - antique lights, wingback chairs, anythings Eames or Wegner or Juhl,
heavy things made of metal, old wooden things, paper things - and I want my room to reflect my tastes. Its sort of a micro-project, a mini-commission for myself. Right now, the contents of my high-ceilinged room are all I can control. (Look out Cheapo Ikea Chair and Boring Ikea Bookcase, you're getting the boot as soon as I meet someone who I like better!) It'll be a slow journey.

But! Just up the road is a set of the metal shelves at the top of this post that Lydia and I tried to buy at the Brooklyn Flea a few weeks ago. Segue to a funny story! (Lydia, I actually haven't told you this yet.) So Lydia and I saw those awesome shelves, and we were totally sold, we wanted them whatever the cost. But the owner of the booth was nowhere in sight. We decided to keep browsing around the other booths, and circled back in 15 or 20 minutes...still nobody around to sell us the awesome shelves. We walked some more, browsed around, and came back a third

time. No owner! No joy! So Lydia and I leave the flea market and go have brunch. A week or so later, I was tlaking to my friend Georgia at work. She was telling me about the cool, huge metal mirror she had bought at the Brooklyn Flea. She was telling me what an ordeal it was, she bought the mirror from the vendor, and the guy helped her carry it to her car. But alas, it would not fit! So then the guy starts haggling with some random guy with a truck, and after ten or fifteen minutes of negotiation, they agree on a price to deliver it to Georgia. So now Georgia and the vendor have to follow this guy to his truck, and they finally get it loaded. By now, they've been at it a good half-hour. Georgia is telling me this story, and then shows me a picture of the mirror, and it suddenly hit me! The booth with MY metal shelves is the same one with the metal mirrors! Georgia had been off with the owner the entire time Lydia and I had been huffily stopping by the empty booth! Such a bizarre coincidence.

Lunar Geography

Yesterday I discovered one of the coolest Internet resources I have ever seen! Conner and I are researching for a competition to design a cultural center on the moon. In the course of our research, we started searching for any maps of the moon. I was expecting to only be able to find a few aerial maps made up of satellite flyover images. It's the moon, how well mapped can it be? Ha! I stumbled into a treasure trove of moon maps! Extremely high resolution, detailed maps at a huge range of scale. The coolest by far are the geological maps, with their incredible rainbows of rock types splashed out of impact craters and sprayed all over primordial moon oceans. Absolutely amazing maps! It is so cool to see such concrete evidence of our scientific exploration of the moon. There are also incredible aerial images of the moon landing sites from each of the Apollo missions, with detailed diagrams of where each photograph was taken. I find it so infuriating that conspiracy theorists can stare blindly into the face of such overwhelming, amazing evidence of man's greatest exploratory achievement.

Notable Contrasts

Talking to friends and family back in Texas, I keep noticing the differences between city life and Texas life. Maybe its part of being freshly removed from Texas and freshly planted in New York, but things are sticking out to me.

Talking to my friend who is in law school in Lubbock, I was telling him about my new place in Brooklyn: how fresh and nice it is with the remodeling, how close it is to work, how large it is, etc. When I mentioned that it was just one easy train ride from my house to work, he laughed and said it was just like the movies, getting on the subway and going wherever you want to go. And that is one huge change that struck me. In Texas, riding the train, much less the subway is completely foreign.

I have one friend in Dallas who used to ride the DART, but other than him, no one I know has ever ridden a train in Texas. I remember it being so strange to walk into Grand Central Station for the first time and see the tunnels leading off to the LIRR, the Amtrak trains, all the subways, and seeing a huge message board listing the dozens of places that you could reach from this one huge terminal. I love going into those big hubs, it makes me feel like I'm back in the grand old age of train travel, back before cars, when trains were the fastest things in the world! I like to picture the tunnels and tracks spreading out in a gnarly web, diving underground, popping up above-ground, dipping into stations, cars emptying and filling back up.

The drawings in this post are some of my favorite section drawings ever, I love the idea of all these different levels interacting. To me there is something utopian and thrilling about the idea that all these levels can be so harmonious and happy together.

Back in New York City, cont'd

Week one, in short.

Sunday, flew in, dropped bags at friends house, went to meet potential roommates. Interview/speed-dating went great, arranged to meet second roommate next night. Exhausted from a day of travel and passed out early.

Monday, up at 5:00 to catch three trains to meet coworkers, drove upstate, had meeting, drove back. Went into office about 2:30, hugs and smiles and greetings all around. It was great to see everyone. Looking forward to seeing Colette and the boss-men when they return from their respective vacations.

Tuesday, onto a new project, familiarizing myself with a new set of drawings. I read the contract documents, client interviews, etc., which was a tad dull. These are some of the overlooked parts of being an architect. And an earthquake at lunch! The building was gently swaying, we ran to the window to look out, (I feared it was an explosion) and then we went back to work. About an hour later, two coworkers who had been out of the office came back and asked why we didn't evacuate with the rest of the building! Whoops.

Wednesday, anxious about finding an apartment, hoping to hear back from potentials. Then I got a wonderful text from one of the brothers who I'd met last weekend telling me they wanted me as a roommate! Very very exciting!

Thursday flew by, it was quickly happy hour time! Because Shane was moving back to Texas, it was a Hoedown-themed happy hour: chips, pickles, flannel shirts and country music.

Friday was the day I moved into the new place (which meant simply throwing my meager possessions in a pack). But before that, the whole office was nervously watching the progress of Irene all day. Several people who lived in the flood zones left early to try to prepare, and I went searching through filing cabinets finding crank-powered emergency flashlights (with radio and alarm functions) and distributing them to people in the office.

Saturday morning I bought some last-minute provisions from the newly-opened supermarket just up the street (talk about a grand opening) and sat around reading and chatting with Jaime and Tim most of the day. Waiting for the storm to hit was pretty dull, and all of Irene's might that we witnessed was a bit of wind and bit of rain. I woke up Sunday morning with the power still on and the sun shining between clouds.

A pretty packed week: First week of work, a new apartment, my first earthquake, and my first hurricane! Hopefully this week will be peaceful.

Back in New York City

Its as if I never left! Long line at the cab stand at LaGuardia, surly driver who didn't want to drive to Bushwick, great Chinese food in Williamsburg!

I woke up extremely early Monday, yesterday, to take the train to Jonathan's house so that we could pick up Shane and drive upstate a ways to visit the house I worked on last fall. It was such a beautiful drive up, about an hour and a half north of the city. Things turned green and idyllic really quickly once we left the city. Parkways are my new favorite road system; no commercial vehicles, just cars!

The site of the house was beautiful, forested and green. We got out of the car and it was so fantastically cool, it couldn't have been 60 degrees! It was great to jump back into work with a field trip, and it was edifying to see all the things I'd been drawing last fall starting to emerge from the ground. The project was not as far along as I'd thought; delays with the permitting had pushed back the start date. They told us the foundation walls will be poured Wednesday. It sounds like I might get a chance to go see the progress a few more times too! Shane is leaving this week, so I am going to be taking over his role on the house, which at this point is basically to just troubleshoot any questions the GC sends us. (Thats some architecture/building industry jargon right there, GC=General Contractor. Clever, eh?)

This is going to have to be a post in two parts, as it is now time for my second day of work. More to come later, my followers few!

Cheap seats for fashion

Even though there are months left in my residency here in the city, I've started thinking back on the other half of my time here. I sort of regret taking advantage of some of the free weekends I've had when I've stayed in my apartment instead of exploring the city and immersing myself deeper in the various bits of culture available to me. But I am pleased to have seen a few very neat things.

One of my favorites so far has been Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic. Just a beautiful, fantastic, insert-superfluous-adjective-here, performance. So cool. But unlike the Mahler symphony from the week before, my seat was way, way, way up in the third tier. (For the majority of people in the world who haven't been to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, that means in the rafters, sharing a seat with the pigeons, looking through a hole in the skylight.) The sound was still good, and it was still a very worthwhile experience.

ButI started thinking about the other things I'm experiencing in a third-tier kind of way. One of the big ones is fashion. I've never been so conscious of fashion as I've been these last few months. Its easy to not care at all what you wear in Austin, especially since its over 90° over 90% of the time. Shorts and t-shirt, done.

But here, fashion is something about which I am much more conscious. I'm sure this is heightened by the fact that I am in a design field. I'm becoming more and more certain that presenting yourself in a fashionable manner is essential to being taken seriously in my field. I used to think it was enough to just be professional in dress when the occasion justified, but something Calvin, the principle, said to my team a few weeks ago really made me rethink that. I paraphrase, but it was something like this: How can we expect a client to believe that we can design something for them that is current and beautiful and fashionable if we are wearing last year's look?

This might seem incredibly vain. I'm trying to put myself outside the issue, but I now agree so strongly with him that I am having a tough time playing devil's advocate. Sure, you can say "the beauty and power of my design speaks for itself," but I think everyone knows that is bullshit. There is no way Le Corbusier sat back in his out-of-style suit and said, "my Villa Savoy speaks for itself." He was a shameless self-promoter, and was definitely very conscious of the image he presented to the public. Why else would he have chosen a pseudonym?

So in this round-about way, I'm getting around to saying that I think I'm going to try to include some 'fashion observations for the frugal-minded' in this blog. I hesitate to say fashion tips exactly, because I really, really don't know much. But just the same, I'd like to offer my observations, partly as a way to codify my own likes and dislikes, and also as a way to incentivize me into paying more attention to fashion. So keep them eyeballs peeled.

Fresh fresh pretty pretty

This weekend I'm going to start a new project. It's going to be pretty ambitious, and it's going to be very cool. I feel like this has been simmering at the back of my mind for a few weeks, and I think its finally time for it to be realized.

No details yet; more Monday.

Danish chairs, 18th century cartography

Reading on the train home, browsing through Design of the 20th Century and saw some pretty excellent graphic design from Knoll Associates in the 50's. It was just a tiny blurb, but the text mentions the effect it had on the branding of the company. I can't wait to get to work with a graphic designer on the branding for my own firm! That's quite a ways down the river I reckon.

Its finally cold enough to wear a coat every day! Its been very pleasant, I enjoy getting to layer. Hopefully it will stay this nice for a few more weeks, at least until Lydia comes to visit. I've got a feeling New York doesn't jump from 80 to 40 in a day like Austin does, so I think we're safe.

I was exploring an incredible website at work today, OasisNYC. There's a tab in the sidebar with historical maps you can toggle on and off. Very cool, very nerdy. Maybe not as interesting if you don't know New York a bit. Its cool to realize that Spring Street used to actually have a spring on it. And Canal used to be a canal. And a new one for me, Broadway dates back to the pre-European inhabitants, the Lenape.

Ending with an incredible chair by the great Finn Juhl: the Chieftain, circa 1960s.

Tape measure

One of my coworkers gave me this tape measure yesterday. A rep from Oasiq, an outdoor furniture company, left it at the office this week. Its a neat little tape measure, and seems like quite a clever leave-behind for a furniture company, as architects and interior designers are constantly needing the dimensions of various pieces of furniture.

Its also a neat thing to have in your pocket when you're designing anything. I find that I can usually guess pretty closely an object's dimensions is if it is in front of me, but there are other things that are so perfectly dimensioned that its easiest to just measure them. For instance, right now, how far back from my screen is my face? How far from my keyboard is my body? How much clearance feels comfortable between my knees and the table top? I think to really be a good designer, you've got to be in touch with the human dimensions of space. That's something I need to think on.

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'...

I can't wait to come back to Texas for Thanksgiving! I really miss home sometimes. I can't wait to see my family when I go back, especially Jacob. We've got some catching up to do! I'm also looking forward to eating some good southern food! I really miss good salsa, soft tortillas and breakfast tacos! (Is it strange that I don't think of those as Mexican food?)

I also miss cheap beer, especially Lonestar! I might have to wait 'til I go back to Austin to get that, since Bowie County is in denial about being a true, beer-selling, Lonestar-drinking Texas county. One of these days they'll wise up...

I'm also really craving some time in the wilderness. My happy place, the place my mind visits when I'm too frustrated or tired to think about work, is a trail leading up into the mountains, just me and my pack and food for a few days.

Some things I do NOT miss. Driving is probably the top of the list! I have not once wished I had a car, or wished I was back in Texas so that I could drive. I also do not miss Olive Garden, Chili's, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, Johnny Carinos, Cracker Barrel, TaMolly's or any of the other chains in Texarkana. (Ok, I sort of miss Chick-Fil-A.)

dreaming about different futures

I saw this out the front window of the office the other day. The blimp was circling midtown and kept passing quite close to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. It made me wish that dirigibles and blimps were actually still viable transportation methods, and that I could book passage right now for a leisurely trip down to Texas.

Technology and stuff

Lydia shared a link with me today to Microsoft Surface. This sparked a really interesting conversation about the best ways to use this type of technology, specifically how it could be applied to architecture, interior design, product design and other related fields.

Her idea was that this type of touch technology would be an incredible design tool. You could draw and sketch onto this surface and have your creations immediately converted into 2D digital drawings, or even 3D drawings. She painted a mesmerizing picture of a free-flowing design experience, where the architect draws ideas onto the surface, which are quickly extruded into three dimensions, can be rapidly modified and rendered, and presented to a client. The designer can take hold of the building and guide the client through it, quickly changing colors, downloading furniture, lights, materials from the internet and instantly dropping them into the building.

As a designer, it is a very seductive idea. It is an incredible amount of power that we're talking about. Its a combination of the best parts of hand sketching, BIM drawings and 3D rendering.

I took a photo of the new Cooper Union building by Morphosis this evening after getting my hair cut (finally). Its pretty dang cool from the street. not sure what it is like from the user's perspective, but everything I've seen from Morphosis so far has been pretty cool. If anything could make me want to move to L.A., it would be that firm.

Got my hair cut in a "New York institution", Astor Place Hairs

tylists. Its located in a basement on Astor Place, a famous little street near NYU, the Cooper Union, Union Square, etc. The basement was packed with cutting stations, 30 or 40 grouped around the pillars of the building. I was pointed to an idle stylist, whose first words were, "talk to me." I told her what I wanted, she said, "yeah yeah blend no fade thin on top keep it long got it." She took me to the sink, back to the chair, five minutes later she's finished. I was honestly shocked. never has my hair been cut so quickly and effectively. Amazing. And cheap! The whole time I kept thinking about the place as a giant hair factory, with the scraps falling to the floor, being swept into giant vats further underground and being woven into quilts or tourist t-shirts by rooms of house elves. I like the place. I dig it.

Bah, here's a photo.

Weekends are for eating

This weekend was another weekend of laziness. I felt pretty unmotivated to leave my apartment. My new roommates and I watched a movie or two on the projector, had a couple of beers, and cooked some food. And by cook, I mean I ordered a sandwich from a deli down the street.

On Friday I went out with some friends to Roberta's in Brooklyn, at the Morgan Ave stop off the L train. The food was excellent, and they had one of my favorite beers, Lagunitas IPA, on tap! I was very pleased. We ordered several things to share between us, a scallop dish with black onion and watermelon, a pasta dish with mussels and oysters, and a couple of great thin-crust pizzas, one margherita and one something delicious with sausage. Everything was excellent and fresh and tasty. Apparently the restaurant grows a lot of their own ingredients in their own garden, which is pretty cool. Definitely worth a return trip.

I am really looking forward to being back in Texas during winter break, although I'm not sure how long my break will be. Yannik and I have been talking about another freezing cold camping trip, and I'm very excited! Nothing sounds better than a few cold days in the mountains right now. Except for walking over the Brooklyn Bridge with Lydia. That is going to be the highlight of the fall! (Not trying to build it up too much, but it will be very cool.)

new place

I found a place to live starting Friday, a converted loft space in Williamsburg, on Kent Ave, right by the water. Its definitely got an industrial vibe, also an "assembled from pieces and scraps" vibe, which is cool. It actually reminds me of my place in Austin in a way.

I drew another bag today, number 2. Picture below. This one is for you Steph. I think I'm going to order some more and keep the series going. Its slowly evolving. I think I need to more strictly follow a set of rules. Now the patterns are really only driven by aesthetics. If I think it looks good, I draw it. Although to be fair, I did start with distinctive wrinkles in each bag. This second one had some excellent wrinkles to trace.

I did something really, really stupid. I rode over to Brooklyn to see the new place, and was in a hurry and rode right past the bike lane over the bridge. I rode across the bridge in the auto lanes and got yelled at several times. I was really nervous about getting clipped, but to be honest, it was not as nerve-wracking as 360 in Austin can be. Oh, and my butt was sore today. Too long off the bike obviously. My burning legs say the same thing.

Oh, saw this excellent guy as I was walking to grab a sandwich today, just across 6th Ave. Really made my day. (He's wearing a kilt!)

Two in a row!

I am starting this post on Tuesday, so if it gets posted today as I intend, that will be two days in a row for the first time in weeks!

I rode my bike to work today! It was the most wonderful thing. It feels excellent to be riding again. My legs are weak (no surprise there) but the mile and a half cross town was a breeze. I'm hoping I can get off about 6:30 tonight so that I can go cruise around. Oh, and for all those who are worried about my safety, there are oodles of bike lanes around.

After the ride to and from work today, I've realized that riding here is not ALL that different from riding in Austin. I'm not going to get rundown because that means the cabbie who hits me is going to get points off their license. And the percentage of bike lanes to road is way higher.

So no worries. Also, if anyone has a room they want to sublet in Manhattan/Brooklyn, let me know!

Two WEEKS! Bah.

What a slacker I've been with this writing business.

Since last post: made friends, drank great beer, ate excellent tacos, dined on a roof with a skyline view, seen the Bambu' installation at the Met, visited the disappointing AMNH, got my bike, saw my family!

Yannik and I are also planning to collaborate on a contest over the next few weeks, although it is proving difficult to manage this over a 5-hour time difference. The project is the Fallen Heroes Memorial, south of Fort Worth, TX. I'm going to copy my thoughts from our first short conversation below.

"i think its an opportunity to play sculptor, architect, and landscape designer al at once. Briony cemetery + Holocaust memorial + something tall

its strange that each fallen warrior gets a photo. thats obviously a chance for a repeating element. maybe the photos are each hidden inside boxes or visible only from one very specific angle. Or you've got to walk through a landscape where each is revealed individually, so that you don't see the memoril as series of images, like a cemetery, but instead its more like a never-ending procession of images."

On an unrelated note, I have received several bizarre packages at work over the past couple of weeks. I can only imagine what my deskmate thinks when he sees me opening all these small, ticking packages. A couple of them are now perched above my desk, watching over me smugly. I get the feeling that they are quietly watching me, waiting for me to screw up and miss a deadline. On long days, they haunt my periphery, mocking me every time I glance up.

You blank-faced, pestilential chronographs, your days are numbered.

CAREER is almost CAREEN

I bought a book this evening, Gray's Anatomy. I do not intend to read it. I bought it specifically for the anatomical engravings by H.V. Carver. It is fascinating to me that the subjects of the drawings, though they have many layers of skin and muscle peeled away, are all quite calm and peaceful. It is fantastic to see the body neatly drawn into pieces, carefully dissected in black and white.

I have a deep nostalgia for things like this, drawn and engraved with a care and precision that has been erased by computers. It is the same sense of awe and loss I felt when I saw the drawings for the UT clock tower in the Architecture archive at school. The archivist was describing the way that the architects worked, the materials they used for these detailed, precise drawings. I can remember her telling us that the paper they used is no longer produced, and the pens can only be bought from one company.

It is incredible that such a deep and ancient skill is now almost completely lost. The architects I admire from the last century all possessed skill with a radiograph I will never have, nor will any of my peers. Now that computers can replicate the work of a draftsman in a fraction of the time, hand drafting is dead. My heart hurts thinking about it. It tears me up to think that the beauty of architectural drawings is now so dependent on a computer. Plotters cannot create beauty. They can only replicate unconvincingly what a hand does so naturally.

To my eyes, a huge part of the natural beauty of hand drawings is the mistakes. Errors, imperfections, tiny jumps in a line, smudges, little wrinkles, the way vellum stretches a little when you press too hard. The hand wants to do something perfectly, but there are always traces.

I was chatting with a fellow employee over dinner at work a few weeks ago, and we were talking about working as architects, and she said that had she known she would never get to draw, she wouldn't have entered the field. I actually agree with her very much. There is nothing that I enjoy about sitting in front of a computer all day, except for the satisfaction that I derive from doing something well and occasionally cleverly. I think it is only my obstinate optimism that keeps me convinced that I will not always have to work this way. Sure, I'll put in my years as an CAD-monkey, but that is not the end-game. I will get to design how I want to design. I will work in pencil and ink and charcoal and watercolor and trace paper and vellum! I will draw on yellow trace paper, and on vellum, and on heavy Stonehenge, and I will wad it up or tear it in half when I completely botch it up! I will spend all night drafting with a parallel bar, 'til my eyes burn and my hand shakes! And I will be happy!

Thinking about a career

I accomplished very little on Saturday. It was essentially an empty day. Sunday was much better. I met Aunt Lynn's friend Mary at her East Village apartment to talk about the possibility of house/tortoise sitting. Her apartment was excellent, big and spacious, great location, and filled with so much personality. It was exactly what the apartment of an artist should be: a plethora of collected objects and created things, layered throughout the apartment such that nothing seems to ever be in the exact same place. You might have a general idea where one thing is, but since you last saw it, it has traded spots with some of its friends. Everything invites closer inspection and wants to tell you a story, and it doesn't matter if it is a true story or not.

I think this is an excellent way for a career to be shaped. Projects like layers of ideas, telling many stories. And objects (both made and unmade), waiting for discovery. A career doesn't need to appear as a cohesive volume of work, like an encyclopedia of a life. I think it is better to be an apartment full of stories, with something new to find each time you look. I suppose this means that an architect whose career is presented in volumes of work is really being misrepresented. Or under-represented. Not sure if there is an answer here.

Another long week

My project is steaming along nicely this week. We almost have the plan locked down, at which point we can make sure the sections, elevations, etc. are all cohesive. The next step will be to move into nitty-gritty details, which will be excellent to my portfolio.

I took a picture of this excellent little stool that appeared in the office earlier this week. Its being used in another project, and I'm guessing the showroom sent it over for us to see. That is one of the incredible things about working here: when you want to use a piece of furniture or a light or a particular fabric or finish, its almost always just a few blocks away. A couple of weeks ago, I researched a German artist for a client, and after pricing several of his pieces, I realized that the only gallery that carried his work in the States was 6 blocks north of the office.

This is Oreo. He is some strange half-breed, possibly a dog. He is very quiet, yawns a lot, and moves at a sedate pace. He seems to possess some large degree of wisdom, or perhaps has experienced so much of the world that he is no longer surprised by anything. He is actually quite cat-like in his self-sufficiency and self-possessiveness. I would enjoy spending more time with him, but he is only around for a week or two while his owner is out of town.

Totes-my-goats

I left work early yesterday, after feeling like a zombie all day long. I think I had five cups of coffee, and was still feeling drowsy and dim. So I asked to leave at 10:30 instead of midnight, and managed to get a wonderful 7 hours of sleep!

My order of 3 tote bags from cheaptotes.com came yesterday too, and I spent about an hour drawing on one when I got back to my apartment. It was incredibly relaxing, and I think that littl bit of creativity helped me wind down after being stressed out all day. I wanted to make a geometric line pattern that has been in my head for a week or so, and is inspired by Sam Messenger's art, plus lots of other influences not so obvious (or even remembered).

I think I'll draw on another one this evening. And have a beer. And go to sleep early I hope!