D E S I G N /// ck

I listened to a really good radio show highlighting the Rural Studio this morning. Many of you who know me know what a huge influence the Rural Studio and Samuel Mockbee have had on me. I got to go visit the Studio twice (unfortunately right after Mockbee had passed away) and they were profound experiences for me in architecture school.

You can listen to it here. It's worth taking the time to listen to.

The Rural Studio has continued to thrive after Mockbee, and are fundamentally and philosophically changing architecture's attitude towards society, and society's attitude towards architecture. The lives that have been changed by buldings, of all things, shows how much the built environment shapes our lives.

I posted a cool song I found yesterday on my audio page. Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal redid an older song of his with new words to be on a kids album. It seems like a new trend is for legit musicians to make kids' songs that don't suck. Maybe this is because they're all having children and can't stand the music that's out there for kids. Good news for the rest of us. Kids Bop!

Alice and I are heading back to my third hometown. I lived down there the year after I got out of college. It was a was an interesting year, some of the best and worst experiences of my life. Bad and good, the city and my experiences there left a vivid impression on me. So I always go back with mixed feelings.

The reason for the trip is Tyler and Jenn's wedding. These guys were together through most of architecture school and have stayed together for 9 years. I'm glad their finally tying the knot (though it's just a formality at this point). They really are made for each other. We hung out a lot in college, and both of them studied in Europe with me (a very bonding experience). They moved down to Chattanooga a few months after me and Tyler ended up working for the same construction firm as me. We worked on a lot of stuff together as carpenters cruising around in my VW bus. Together with Winget, the four of us were the "colony" in Chattanooga.

This weekend will be a great time. Two of my favorite people will be there: my old roommate Jeremy and my partner-in-crime Matt Winget. Some other guys I haven't seen since college will be there too. There's going to be lots of shenanigans going on. And I don't have to be in the wedding. We get to hang out and enjoy it without any stress.
One other cool thing: both being architects, Tyler and Jenn got an amazing place to get married in. Above is the Hunter Museum of Art, or more accurately the new addition that's perched on the bluffs above the river by downtown. Chattanooga has one of the most spectacular settings of any river city I've ever been to, and this museum takes full advantage of the drama of its site. It's gonna be great!

Knoxville got it's first good snowfall of this winter last night. It didn't accumulate much, but it was nice waking up and seeing snow falling softly in the morning light. Of course all the school systems freaked out over half an inch, so Alice got the day off. I forget how much I miss having snow in the winter. I'm really tired of cold rain.

I met with a plumber yesterday at the house and he's going to get started on the rough in of the plumbing in a few days. I called KUB and they'll be hooking temporary power back up to the house (for tools, ect.) tomorrow.
It's really happening! After all this wait and anticipation, things are really going forward. It makes me very excited.
My first big project starts this weekend, after we get back Saturday morning from Chattanooga (Tyler and Jenn's wedding is Friday), fixing the roof leak at the chimney. The cricket behind the chimney was built wrong, so I'll have to rip it off and frame a new one. And the OSB around the chimney is completely soaked and will have to be ripped out and replaced.
The exterior doors will be here in two weeks. So once the roof is fixed, the doors installed, and the plumbers are finished, drywall can start to go up. Then it will really start to feel like things are moving forward.
In the photos link in the sidebar I'll be posting pictures of the progress over the next few months. And I'll keep you updated here.

Over at the Wigshop, there's been some strange and malevolent commenting going on. My post earlier this month about Cliff Clark has made someone very mad. You won't find the comments anymore, they've been deleted. But they were just nasty stuff. I don't know if it's Cliff himself or someone who has strong opinions on the matter. I chose to address this individual and try to talk to him/her. Alice (who does not like conflict) quoted Proverbs 26:4 at me:

"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself."

I've thought about this all afternoon and read through Proverbs. She's right, for the most part. I don't think you can reason with a mocker "according to his folly." Proverbs is pretty clear he won't understand and will despise you for it. However, 22:10 says:

"Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended."

Also, 19:25 says,

"Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence."

The latter proverb voiced my main feeling about all this. The commenter may never respond to kindness or reason, but other people who see it may learn something. I don't want to "flog" him/her, but I do want to expose their folly and malice, so that other readers can see it and gain knowledge. Blogging is more public than we think- we all put our opinions out here for literally the whole world to see. Sometimes we might draw hate from people we've never seen. I think it's good for others to see the pitfalls and snares of the blogosphere. Hopefully we can all learn something. I pray for wisdom in dealing with this situation, and for good things to come out of it.

Continuing the theme of Rare Sufjan Recordings, I posted the song "What Goes On" in the audio section of the site yesterday (click on "podcasts" in the side bar). It's a Beatles song from the UK release of Rubber Soul, performed by Sufjan Stevens. You got to hand it to the Beatles for structure- who starts with a chorus? Sufjan slows down the chorus and contrasts the rocking verses to it. The bridge builds up to a crescendo and then lands right into the soft grooving chorus breakdown 3/4 of the way into the song- it will definitely get stuck in your head.

Remember: hit the subscribe button and iTunes will automatically upload any new song I post into your computer. Now you have no excuse for not knowing what cool music is out there!

The obsession continues... Anyone reading here will start to notice many references to Sufjan Stevens on this blog. I love his music, I love what [I think] he stands for. Not merely content to just listen to his albums, I've started to search for his rare unreleased stuff (of which there is alot). Sufjan is such a prolific writer that he seems to just churn stuff out and constantly put it out there for everybody. Maybe he's abandoning the traditional album format, now that you can craft a little gem of a track and post it out on the web and get a lot of attention.
Or a video, as the case may be. I had a minor obsession with a Blogotheque video of Sufjan on a rooftop in Cincinnati covering The Innocence Mission's Lakes of Canada. On an NPR interview he was asked to pick a "perfect song" and this one was his choice.

Tip of the Day: search with Google Blog Search when looking for rare mp3s. you find more stuff in the blogosphere than on the general web.

I found a blog that did exactly what I wanted to do: rip an mp3 off of the video. I've posted it so that you, dear readers, can enjoy this beautiful song on your ipods. Go to "podcasts" in the side bar and you can listen/download the song. Don't worry, it hasn't been commercially released so it's legal.
While searching for the song I found a treasure trove of Sufjan's covers of other artists' material. There's even a Beatles cover. I'll be posting these this week, so check it out.

This blog is just one part of a larger site that covers the life of Alice and I. The design of it has been evolving (I never seem to stay content) but it was more my site and the look reflected it. It looked like an architect's site- a little too clean, trying to be too cool. So I'm trying to make it more personable and something that Alice will like too. I experimented around with the pet sketches last week and she liked it. I didn't like the colors or the rigidness of it, but the site was heading in the right direction. I've liked the unfolding box logo on this site and the transparent greens... Now I think I've got something that will hit a good middle ground:
I should be loading it all up tonight, so check it out and let me know what you guys think.

Priceless...
This goes out to my friend Sam (even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog) who is now part of North Atlanta's Finest.

Alice and I are making our way through the second season of Battlestar Galactica this weekend. It's the reimagined version of the old 1978 series, which I watched as reruns on the Sci-Fi channel back in the 90s. The old Battlestar was kind of hokey, but I really liked it and watched it all the time. The new series takes all the best elements of the old one and adds new depth and scope. But at its core, its the story of a space battleship/aircraft carrier trying to lead the remnants of a post-apocalyptic mankind to a new home, while being pursued by a race of killer robots who caused the aforementioned apocalypse. Now that's great television! 

This morning riding into work, I had a big teal bus riding on my tail up Gay St. I didn't know how close he was until he squeaked his brakes to slow down. With engine 30 feet back, you can't even hear those things. You could get hit before you ever heard it coming.
It definitely got my adrenaline going. I'm all for public transportation, but the bus drivers need to give bikers a little room, especially downtown.

I love this show.

This is the other big project I'm working on. It's the face lift of a 60s apartment building in Bearden. It represents the worst that modern architecture churned out in the mid 20th century (a big reason for the current general revulsion of modern architecture).

The "Carlton Arms" is going from a quasi-retirement home to a hip "New York style" high-end apartment building. We'll see if we can achieve something like that.

The client wants historicist architecture, rather than make it a good example of updated modern design. So I'm doing the best I can. I typically try to want to stay away from historic imitation, but it can be done right with someone who skillfully understands the underlying principles of historic styles. I'm trying to make the Carlton the best it can be, given the circumstances. There's plenty of horrible "historic" stuff going up everywhere (try going to Turkey Creek). Modern or historic, both need elegance and balance- which is sadly in short supply here in Knoxville.

This project went out today: Camelot for Kids, a rehabilitation camp for mentally disturbed kids. The site is rural near the Cumberland plateau. Originally a farm, it still has a barn that is used for maintenance. Originally the client had wanted to rehab the barn, but the cost prompted us to suggest a new building with a "barn-like" feel on a more prominent part of the site. Above is my first swipe at it. I tried for a modern reinterpretation of the barn vernacular without resorting to kitsch. Some of you who familiar with the Cowen Dining Hall might see this as a progression of my "rustic modern" thesis. Mockbee was definitely a huge influence here.
Let me know what you think...

Imagining the Tenth Dimension
Take the time to watch the whole video- it's worth it. The only point of contention I see is the assumption that Big Bang was the start of the universe. Of course, how this might explain the structure of an intelligently designed universe isn't discussed. The tenth dimension, the end of the dimensional structure where all places, all time, and all possibilities coexist: sounds like God, doesn't it?

I've been listening to this album since em posted a review over at the wig shop. For Emma, Forever Ago has that haunting wintry feel that I like (a la a certain musician who writes songs about states). He's coming to Knoxville March 9th, so all the indie kids are getting excited. I, for one, am becoming a fan of Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon). So check it out- you can listen to the whole album here.

A new PBF comic:
I wish I had a pastor as "awesome" as this. Check out his hand holding the Bible while he's doing the grab. Gnarly!
Thank you, Will, for the gift that keeps on giving.

I'm at the Apple Store killing time waiting for my appointment at the Genius Bar. The screen on my MacBook Pro isn't working. So I'm fooling around with the new MacBook Air.
It's cool. Apple has really let design take a front seat with this model. It has all the best features that all the previous models hinted at. The solid state flash hard drive is awesome, much faster than a standard hard drive. While I won't be shelling out $3000 anytime soon, I can see that this is where all computers are heading. Soon we'll see the HP and Dell versions of this breakthrough, until it will be hard to remember when laptops were more than an inch thick.

Saturday marked 19 years since Dad died. And I just remembered it this morning. I feel like crap.
I was busy on Saturday finishing the budget for the new house, which is in limbo. It may not work out. So I was a little depressed, which is usual for me on Groundhog's Day. But for the wrong reason...
I need to slow down if I'm forgetting important stuff like Feb. 2.

Andrew Bird has joined that hallowed pantheon in my life called "Famous People I'd Like to Meet and Become Friends With" whose only other member, by the way, is Sufjan Stevens. I admire this dude and his sheer amount of talent and craft.
Check out the way he layers the violin in the intro to the song.
Thanks to Shauna for the heads up on the video.