Thomas J. Johnson

Just get a job with major projects and tight deadlines. After a few months of 70 hr weeks you should have a solid, if rudimentary, understanding of AutoCAD…
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the best way to learn is to do.

sometimes it’s hard to turn it off…

My main concern is that a concrete patio with a 4-6″ concrete fire ring sounds institutional, cold and unattractive. Are you giving the concrete any kind of finish to make it unique? I.E. Polish/grind the fire-ring and sand-blast the field to create a different texture while exposing the aggregate in both elements?
Also, with gas, you will need…[Read more]

Does your family business employ a RLA that you have been working for all this time? 😉

I don’t think protesters should be inside the capital building. Being in a confined space like that creates too many opportunities for things to get out of hand and for injuries to result. Yes, it is the public’s building but every building has an intended purpose and carrying capacity.
The bottom line is that the government has gotten too big and…[Read more]

More tax dollars well spent… but really, can you blame them? Have you ever been to Kansas City? I’d want to get out of there too…

Oh, darn, I thought this thread was really about hunting… I’m excited because I just tracked down my hunter safety card, from a class I took when I was 11 but now I need to get my FOID card from Illinois in order to get a hunting license. I think I might just have to move to another state that isn’t interested in trampling my 2nd amendment…[Read more]

Don’t forget SLO and UCLA…
 

I have a difficult time with pricing also. A basic planting plan is a no brainer but if you want something special, it takes time. Same thing for hard scape and site amenities. Plop and drop from a catalog vs. custom is a huge difference in time and skill.

You’re starting from a very broad view, which is where you should start when you don’t know where you’re going but you need to narrow your focus. You mention rebuilding but you also mention areas that have been deemed unsafe to build upon. Which one do you want to focus on? Maybe integrate the two. I.E. How to incorporate previously built/now…[Read more]

I like Trace Ones answer. The North arrow is always up, unless it isn’t.

Based on your bike theif example, all of the “powerful white men” should be helping her implement her design ideas (cut the chain), no?
Discrimination/prejudice exists in different forms within different industries, except maybe the 9 o’clock news where every race and gender is represented in the cast. If I had to make a sweeping generalization,…[Read more]

Since when is b-u-t-c-h-e-r paper a swear!? Land8’s automatic editing is so P.C. you can’t even use proper English. Ridiculous.

I would love to take one of Mike Linn’s workshops!
At Colorado State I had the pleasure of spending two days with Christopher Grubbs and it changed the way I perceive and draw the world. I’m by no means great but it made me leaps better. We also had two very talented professors at school. One had a more architectural style, the other was more…[Read more]

+1 for drawing it… colored pencil on butcher shop paper can create some really nice results…

Apparently I’ve derailed the thread… suffice it to say that all lines are fabrications of the mind. They don’t exist outside of our collective heads. Remove humans and the lines disappear. Some lines are agreed upon in a group consensus while other lines are imposed upon others in the best interest of the imposers but the success of the…[Read more]

 
NOT SAFE FOR WORK (F-Bombs) But may shed some light on “the line”…
 
 

NOT SAFE FOR WORK – But may shed light on “drawing the line”…

Studiometry looks pretty legit. It seems to cover all the bases in a clear, intuitive format. My only question would be, can multiple people contribute information to a project? It seems like a good tool for a project manager but I wonder how it would interact with the rest of the team. I.E. Can you assign tasks and have people check them off when…[Read more]

Then the 2.2 Trillion dollar question is, “what the hell has the government been doing with our tax dollars since the 1940’s?”. Are you telling us that there hasn’t been an Infrustructure Fund this entire time? Are you seriously just thinking about this now, when the US is at an all time financial low? There is absolutely no reason for the United…[Read more]

Legoland? (Sorry, I couldn’t help it…)
http://california.legoland.com/explore/
 
Irvine, CA? Well, it’s 40 years old but is an interesting study none the less…
http://www.cityofirvine.org/cityhall/cd/planningactivities/general_…
 
Shenzhen – China
Dubai – U…[Read more]