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    Wednesday
    10Mar2010

    Why I, as an architect, don’t WANT to design my own home, but MUST.

    I remember the first time I heard of this concept.  I was a young (naïve?) architecture student with stars in my eyes, when attending a lecture by architect Bart Prince.  In his slide show of past projects was a home he designed – and in passing he mentioned, “my client was an architect, and…”

    The ripples of surprise and confusion radiated across the lecture hall!  At the end of the presentation, one of my fellow students was brave enough to ask aloud the question we all were asking ourselves:  “why would an architect hire another architect to design their home?”  Since the fourth grade I had been keeping a folder of all the dream house sketches I could possibly imagine.  Don’t architects by their very nature have a burning desire to create a custom home for themselves?

    I have learned that the old saying is true:  the cobbler’s children have no shoes.  As many of my friends are fellow architects, I find that as a rule our homes are all in various stages of disrepair and deconstruction.  Projects started and stopped abound, and we will guide our guests on tours that consist of “and here’s where I’m planning to build a _____,” or “this is where I’m working on turning this into a _____.”  But what have we done?  Well, not as much as we’d like… and unfortunately there’s always more.

    On the flip side, when a cousin (non-architect) had a housewarming party, she took me on a tour and described the recent several weekends of rigorous work projects.  Hanging pictures, putting in a landscape, adding shelves… everything was now in its place.  “We’re done,” she said.  Done?  DONE?  How could anyone ever possibly be DONE with home?  It was a foreign concept to me.

    Mr. Prince answered the student’s question by pointing out that in any project, there are mistakes, shortcomings, and of course that pesky 20-20 hindsight vision.  His client, like all architects, couldn’t walk through a space without being confronted by all those mistakes, all that potential, without seeing how it “could have been better.”  So who wants to be surrounded by all of their own shortcomings in their own home?  At home, his client wanted to be able to turn that all off.

    At the end of the day, wouldn’t it be nice to leave work at work?  But it is possible when work is more than just a job, it’s an obsession?  In the end, I think I don’t WANT to design my own home, but I NEED to.  It’s a compulsion.  Maybe someday I will overcome this madness, as did Mr. Prince’s client, but I can’t imagine getting there today. 

    Tuesday
    09Mar2010

    Overcoming the Odds – Surviving Two Days Without a Computer

    Two weeks ago, the unthinkable happened – my computer was stricken by a virus!  That this could happen at all is a blog post in and of itself.  I was heartily lectured and ridiculed by all.  Don’t you have antivirus software?  (yes.)  Were you surfing internet porn sites?  (no.)  I TOLD you Macs were better than PCs!  (ugh.)

    Fortunately, the office next door has the most helpful IT manager I’ve ever met, and he took pity on me.  It wasn’t the first time, and it likely won’t be the last.

    All I can say is this:  always be friendly to those who know more about computers than you do!  I am forever in debt to this kind gentleman, but nevertheless, repairs left me for two days without my most critical business tool.  Up until this point, I don’t know if I had realized how utterly dependent I am upon this glorious machine.  What happened to the days when all an architect needed was a pencil?  And what will we do when our international (or interstellar) enemies use an electromagnetic pulse to disable all of our electronics?   I shudder to think.

    The week was ending and I was woefully behind on my current project by the time “my precious” was back in full working order.  Luckily the deadline wasn’t until Monday, and this meant I could play catch up over the weekend.  Unluckily, this meant I could play catch up over the weekend…

    My client was willing to work with me in the face of this utter calamity, and made herself available during the downtime to answer my string of last-minute questions.  (What color did you want the trims to be?  What do you think of this solution for lighting the skylight?)  The product was finished to her satisfaction, and that week we visited the building department together with positive results.  And let me tell you, after that, I made two more backups of my computer’s hard drive.

    Now I need to send a thank-you gift to my IT savior.  Any ideas?

    Thursday
    11Feb2010

    High Voltage: Fuel Efficiency and the Auto Market

    by Gary Struthers

    I read an interesting article last week which suggested that high voltage charging stations could make the future of electric cars much more viable. The premise is that long charging times have been one of the many hurdles to the mass production of electric cars. The idea of 480 volt charging stations certainly raises some safety concerns, and there is always a question of how much energy goes into creating the electricity in the first place; but the idea seems to have merit.

    I have always been skeptical of hybrid vehicles that average 40 miles to the gallon or less; so I am optimistic of the high voltage charging stations. But, this also got me thinking about fuel efficiency on the whole.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that new vehicles sold in the US averaged 23.1 miles per gallon in 1980 and 24.7 in 2004.  A 1984 Ford Escort is listed as 35mpg city and 47 highway where a 2010 Prius is listed as 51mpg city and 48 highway.  I’d like to think that over a 26 year period we would have seen a much better improvement than this!  It’s hard to look at just the numbers, though; certainly the features, comfort level, power, safety and amenities have all vastly improved in that time span...  So, what does the average consumer want? More comfort features or better fuel efficiency? I wonder why we can’t have both?

    Thursday
    04Feb2010

    The Color Red? ...Difficult by Design

    by Gary Struthers

    Some time ago I was shopping at the local home improvement center (nope, I am not going to name names) for some red paint for a project I was working on. Being very inspired by the modernist art movement, I was looking for primary red. Standing in front of a wall of color samples, I must have looked something like a deer caught in headlights. The sheer amount of color samples is simply overwhelming, and to some extent amazing. Anyway, looking bewildered in a home improvement store is one way to get a sales associate to help you, and sure enough I was approached by someone who was indeed trying to be helpful when they asked if they could help me find anything. I said yes, I would like red paint, to which the (trying to be) helpful associate responded “what color red?”  I found this question to be a bit odd, you see I always assumed that red was a color, so I responded that I simply wanted red, period. Again I was asked “yes, but what color red?” I am pretty sure at this point I went into some diatribe about red as a primary color, nothing more, and nothing less. The long and short of it is that at the home improvement center there is no such paint with the label “red”. In our efforts to give ourselves more choices, better selections, more options to keep up with our busy lives we have overcomplicated our world to the extent that red no longer exists. Simple is not always a bad thing…..

    Tuesday
    02Feb2010

    Building Green in California

    The California Building Standards Commission recently voted to adopt changes to the state building code that will put CA at the forefront of green design.  While the measures adopted are by no means cutting-edge by themselves, it is an incredible precedent to incorporate this level of sustainability as a statewide regulation affecting all new construction.  This recent article from the Chronicle suggests that some supporters of sustainability are worried this represents a step backward for some municipalities that have stringent green regulations in place;  However, we think that is a non-issue as cities and counties will still have the right to use higher standards (as they always have).  The difference is that now green standards will be required in towns where no hardware store even offers low-VOC paints.  As of 2011, the California marketplace will have no choice but to offer materials that meet the new regulation, and builders will adopt new practices such as landfill waste diversion.  There will be a steep learning curve across the state.

    For our firm, this represents little change.  Most of our projects have been subject to special green regulations for the past decade.  Local jurisdictions and public/private funding usually require these measures already – reduced water use, recycled-content carpets, and efficient energy use have been par for the course.  Alameda County Waste Management created the green standards which eventually became the statewide GreenPoint Rated program, and cities like Oakland have always asked recipients of city funding to follow this checklist.

    We’re excited to witness California’s adoption of the greenest building standards in the US, and look forward to seeing sustainability become business-as-usual in the construction marketplace.