Tosh K

The Japanese education system post-WWII (semi-imposed by the US military occupation) encourages to follow and not lead, thereby discouraging “independent” thinkers that think outside-the-box (ie prevent another rise of expansionist policy). They like to have a plan A and not challenge it.

I think both sides as posed by this article has…[Read more]

At least Kimmelman seems to be more in tune with urban issues and landscape interests (so much more than some of his predecessors), let’s give him that.  And more press for a topic many of us have pushed for for so long is not a bad thing.  Would have liked for him to mention Buero Kiefer’s work (it’s published enough).

Now it’d be nice to a…[Read more]

I don’t think rafting and kayaking will degrade the river too badly so long as the numbers aren’t too many.  Presumably there is a change in the flow by season and water activities change around that.

some questions to ponder: Does extreme sporting on the Ganges conflict with it cultural/religious significance?  Does the opportunity to show it i…[Read more]

yes there is a difference btw base camp and resort, you may want to articulate why you chose one over the other in your brief; i would spend some time narrowing down your “extreme sport,” and the necessary infrastructure related to it.  Lay out your parameters (making sure they are not vague or too wide in scope) well, otherwise you’ll waste a…[Read more]

plenty of jobs in CE Arch surveying?  where do you live?  I know more folks looking for work in those fields than LAs on the east coast (note that there are a lot more CivEs and Archs out there, so the job listing/prospective may be worse).

i hope that’s a signing bonus, maybe we need agents to squeeze better fees from clients… Scott Boras for the LAs would be nice.

knew a welder in VA that did some amazing architectural work, craft skills and design skills are a great combo.

I understood it as overall unemployment – not employed in field of study.  For grad school degree holders it’s more understandable, but for college grads one has to ask “does the curriculum encourage tunnel vision and specialized knowledge?”  We had a studio course in architecture school for non-majors because deans from the other schools s…[Read more]

I looked into getting my insurance through ASCE at one point, wasn’t much cheaper than getting it privately at the time.  Granted they have a lot more members and therefore more financial and political clout (http://www.asceinsurance.com/). 

The state ASLA chapters for me have always been a strong connection to the national, providing seminars a…[Read more]

Any conclusions?  Findings?
 In my experience Revit is stills mostly 2D data entry with 3D information (you don’t build 3D models as in Rhino, Microstation, FormZ, sketchUp, etc); Civil 3D is lines with data associated with it and is terrible at terrain modeling (anything none-rectilinear is low quality and geometrically primitive); Land F/X is f…[Read more]

?  Is this supposed to be a criticism of modernism or post-modernism?  Art has traditionally pushed the bounds of a cultural “comfort zone,”  literature and afterwards architecture tends to take on their own take.  Foster’s point can seem valid in light of Bauhaus and it’s influences, but even then the art was informed by spatial composition (ev…[Read more]

chipboard (butterboard is easier to cut, but doesn’t photograph as nicely until it ages), picture wire for trees (unravel to get branching, other wires can work too but I like the twirl of picture wire and relative plasticity- it holds its form) and wire mesh to match for shrubs/groundcover.  Peeling/sanding/uniform scoring to add textures as…[Read more]

SFs stops by lundberg’s office is different.

Rhino is easy to learn, is nurbs-based allowing more rigorous free form modeling, and with V-Ray or Maxwell can provide a solid base rendering for photoshop.  3dsMax also has nice output.
 
In general, the model is useful as a base for digital renderings.  Rigorous use of adobe suite can save time and effort as getting great results from render en…[Read more]

Used them a fair amount in VA.  Everything comes engineered, so liability wise is nice.  The units were installed in urban/tight environments where there wasn’t enough area for above ground systems.  They can help with potentially larger units as well.  The maintenance schedule comes from the manufacturer and is a heck of a lot easier than a ful…[Read more]

One of the major failures of Modernist architecture was  its dogmatic faith in design being able to solve social issues by controlling behavior.  That being said, one could help facilitate community interaction, the design centers popping up in every large city seems to provide a forum for interaction relative to the built environment.  I would en…[Read more]

DeathbyArch
Bustler (should have most big ones)
OAN (Open Architecture Network)
some of the design magazines used to carry them in the “news” section too (A+U, Record, etc).

Looks like a stormwater retention basin to me.  Presumably it holds the first flush and any excess goes into the overflow (normally a catch basin or drain inlet), codes often require some kind of canopy cover, so that would explain the myrtles (though they seem a poor choice).  As to why they irrigated it, that’s weird, either for the first few y…[Read more]

I assume farming as opposed to gardening; you should probably define that and be able to articulate why farming as opposed to, say urban forestry or gardening.  Though for arguments sake, “small farming” is more like gardening than an agricultural endeavor; there’s enough terrain vague in cities to lean toward farming.
 
For more conceptual s…[Read more]

Nice post, will have to look up the wired magazine.  In Japan RR crossings blare out a distinctive sound, they’re everywhere and you here them almost constantly in the hum of the city.  I’m not sure I’d want everything pinging constantly, but I suppose a universal device that can “activate” public amenities would make sense.  Kind of similar to th…[Read more]