Activity

I am in a similar climate zone as you are (Louisville, KY), and open pits (of any kind) can become sumps and/or get pretty damp.
If the walls/floor of the pit are premanufactured in one piece, they can be pretty watertight and the entire thing could float if the ground water is too much–you would need to put drainage around it (clean gravel and…[Read more]

In wood fireplaces we would use well casing sections. They were almost free and worked great. Also at home in my wood fire pit I made ring with Firebrick and dry laid stone on top of that. It has worked well. Again these are wood fireplaces not gas.

mission accomplished…
i have tried something very similar on my web page… when you are looking at my portfolio and select a different page, a huge hand comes up and slaps it on the screen… Monty Python-esque…

Top of pit is near ground level, and it will be gas…I have a pretty good idea of how we’re going to construct it, but just wanted to see if anybody had any suggestions for any particular scenarios we hadn’t considered.

Hi Chad,
What part of the pit is set near ground level–floor or top?  Wood burning, or gas?

I guess I am being intentionally vague to some degree.
 
I want the site to function as a extension of my portfolio/resume as well as marketing tool for independent design work.
 
My objective is to showcase design and visualization skill.
 
Thanks for the comments..

I dodnt put work experience up partially because I didnt think it was relevant if I was using the site to market myself as an independent designer/contractor, also I wanted that page to be pretty brief and I could only fit so much info on one slide. I may add a link like thebiography link at the bottom right that points to a separate ‘experience’…[Read more]

Thanks.
 
I have tooled around with flash off and on for a few months. I would say, dont get bogged down in really complex flash operations. The stuff I have on my site is really basic flash, slideshow with no controls, little animation.
 
I probably wouldnt even suggest messing around with flash controls too much as the coding starts getting p…[Read more]

Nick:
 
Very impressive stuff, the cocktail napkin sketches are more than a nice touch !! You probably are aware of the book of back of the napkin sketches from architects …..
 
I do not know flash at all and have hours and hours of tutorials that will help me get to some point of arrival in even designing and posting a digital portfolio like y…[Read more]

A different perspective:
 
Who is your client? To whom is this site speaking?
The opening flash seemed geared to marketing graphics skills more than anything else. Is that your intent?
Is this intended as a resume-linked portfolio or a business site/ It isn’t clear what business you’d be in or what job you want.
Some stuff to think about,…[Read more]

Looks good Nick.  The opening sequence really gets your attention.  Everyone seems to be up’ing their game when it comes to online portfolios lately.  I noticed you didn’t include past work experience in your resume.  Is this a security issue?  I’ve seen a lot of people place full resume’s on their public websites, and I just have to wonder how…[Read more]

Thanks all for the great feedback.
 
I agree that the timing on the homepage slideshow might need some tweaking. The idea was just what Nick mentioned..just glimpses or ‘teasers.’
 
The resume and about page certainly need some editing-duly noted.
 
Jon–Thats exactly what I wanted to be conveyed with the cocktail napkins..it’s a little corny bu…[Read more]

looks great nick!  i really liked the cocktail napkins… nice touch, simultaneously shows a constantly working mind and a sense of humor.
also, i really like the process animation on the home page…

Heather,
Here is another one:  http://www.landcarenetwork.org/.  There is also a design build group on land8.  Kind of small and inactive, but if you want to geek out on the contracting business or anything diesel powered…Ha!
I also sent Jon an email discussing some other things.
 

HI Nick!
I’m with Paul – flash intro moving just a tick too fast. The flash graphics are also very light/transparent. They don’t come across very stong. I do like how the sketch geometry turns into the final graphic. It just doesn’t read strongly. Maybe a black background on the home page? That way the flash graphics would really pop.
The ‘about’…[Read more]

looks great! though the flash intro is moving way too fast for me now, not sure what it was before but maybe a happy medium?
 

I sometimes get annoyed with flash intros and yours was moving slow.  I did like the images you showed, though, especially the lines to birch trees sequence.
 
I like the general layout and the way you’ve branded yourself.
 
I would drop all the non-LA education stuff on your resume.
 
Edit: I went back and it was moving much faster.

I really like the layout! The “ideas” on the napkins is a nice touch, some may see this as a little gimmicky. On your resume page on the River Charette it reads par (indent) ticipants. I think you need to add a dash or just drop that word down to the next line. I really like your work on the intro page, awesome design and graphics! I know you want…[Read more]

Well said Craig.
I hope some of the younger LAs’ will take heed to your wisdom.
And to Christie: to those of us self employed, there is no such thing as a small side job……

Here’s a nice little opinion piece a Delaware landscape architect wrote about McHarg’s proposals for Japan.  I think its notable in that he uses an internationally known event to publicize an aspect of landscape architecture that most laypeople don’t know about.  My Dad sent me a clipping and put a little note on it: “I thought this was a s…[Read more]