Commentary on Architecture + Urbanism
I've seen a number of potentially great urban design projects stall or, in some cases, fail. In every case the cause was related to a deviation from a proven formula. Sometimes the developer chose to...
R. John Anderson - The Dark Art of Developing Small Projects 10/18/11 from UM School of Architecture on Vimeo. John Anderson of Anderson Kim has a fantastic presentation on what he terms the 'dark arts' of development. In fact what he is really providing is a detailed introduction to development. He offers his opinion from a unique perspective because his practice is "design and develop" as opposed to the normative "design and build". This presentation offers great insight for architects since it reveals what motivates...
In honor of Michael Graves' winning the Dreihaus Prize I'm publishing an essay I wrote close to seven years ago. I've made a few edits, but only for readability. I admit, it’s very hard to take...
When I was a child my parents would take us kids up to Vero Beach to visit their friends Doris & Harry. The Petersons were snow birds that would escape the Chicago winters by migrating to Florida after the leaves turned. They had quite a nice little setup in the Sunshine State that by today's standards would be considered a green community. All the residents of this eco-village rode around in electric vehicles, there were plenty of activities within walking distance, all the homes were single level yet there was...
I grew up in south Florida in the 1970's. Many of the "established" neighborhoods near me were built in the 1950's and the commercial buildings were textbook examples of modernist design. While the residential neighborhoods were maintained and remain desirable locations, the commercial structures fell into disrepair and became blight. These structures were either demolished or abandoned by the mid '80's and those that remained served as totems reminding others of the failed experiment that had taken place not that...
Many of us architects chose the profession because we wanted to participate in the act of creation, to give shape and form to the world, to develop our own vision to see it built, and to leave our mark on the world that will outlive us. At least those were the motives initially, sometimes followed by the impulse to develop our own style and create something new and fresh that has never been seen before. As we mature some of us change our vision and turn away from the myopic tendency to see the world as a blank canvas...
There is an open source initiative called Form Follows Finance over at the Incremental Sprawl Repair blog. They came up with a mixed-use building prototype that would be ideal for creating a Startup...
This house was a challenge. It was designed with the other template homes originally for The Waters in Alabama. This design address one of my biggest pet peeves; that many home plans take up the entire...
This is another house I designed a couple years back. A couple Classical Vernacular versions of this were built at The Waters in Alabama. These two elevations are the French Colonial and Victorian Vernacular...
Architect
Trumpet Player
Lover
Fighter
Traveler
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
