Trace One

actually I just like to practice my insult chops..
It is knowledge of civics classes that seems to me most lacking in society today – Sandra Day O’Connor is spending her retirement on trying to ameliorate that lack, you have probably read.
I would add to that lack of knowledge or espect for  ecology..
I am not a liscensed LA, by the way, just a p…[Read more]

Heather, I have found, in recent visits to new landscapes, that I STILL like the sign-boards that tell you something historical/environmental, whatever..It is the simplest and most temporarily enduring way for us LA’s to convey information..Otherwise you got nothing – altho there IS the museum tour internet connection that has been…[Read more]

Is the only measure of a park how many people use it? Can you count a natural area, where we don’t spend any money at all, as a great site, even  if only the occaisional person comes to find a bit of nature and peace? Or does such a space not deserve to live – would it be better as a Wal-mart?  I have found one or two bay-side spots left in San Di…[Read more]

U of penn is a private school – you are thinking of Penn state..and these are concepts one learns in grade school, and learns to respect..

Sara, the huge anti-intellectual bias on this site  is shocking and I think it is one of the reasons LA can’t compete with architects..Architects respect learning, respect theory and history..and respect new ideas..LA’s like on this site, are imbued with anti-learning that is prevalent in our society.
An MLA can hire a BLA (with several years of…[Read more]

Greece, the greek islands, (Hydra has no cars, it is gorgeous!) and Beirut, best weather in the world, packed with antiquities as well as night life – the cradle of civilization!
 

Fran Lebowitz, notorious writer and social critic,  moved away from Times Square recently with some caustic comments about commercialization..But she may have been more influenced by the smoking ban..
 

“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf.” Aldo Leopold, “Thinking like a Mountain”

The Hotel Del Coronado. Salk Institute in La Jolla. Drive up to LA to see the Getty. Balboa Park and Old Town are pretty yawn-inducing, IMHO. The Zoo is a pretty  famous horticultural collection, aside from the animals..

ps, Heather, you can also pay me back for the environmental impact you have caused by reproducing – teach your children well, don’t eat meat, and work for the enviornment, where you can..
Ha..Now that will get ya going!

You can thank me while I am paying for your childrens schools!
Whether you see professional women as feeling victimized or not, the FACTS speak for themselves. It has taken some long hard fighting to get where we are now, after not having property rights with our husbands, etc.. But the fight isn’t over. Women always choose to have kids  – and I a…[Read more]

I think your paranoia about ‘people wondering why women want to stay home’ is misdirected. MOST women in our society stay home with kids. Our society encourages that, you join the bedrock of american social life (besides church) the public school system where you are asked to volunteer constantly and can sit on the sidelines of your daughters s…[Read more]

For the concealment of the Suez Canal, look up Jasper Maskelyne in Wikipedia, and then paragraph on Suez Canal, in middle of piece..
Don’t know why I can’t copy and paste sometimes, otherwise I would! That’s probably why I prefer low-tech solutions!
good luck with concept – sounds great.

Great idea, but how about working with reflected light rather than setting up more energy-use requirements? The Brits fooled the world in World War II with their use of reflected light and mirrors, obscuring the Suez Canal..I hope we can do even better now, fifty years later.
Community gardens are always good – in Philly my block had reclaimed a l…[Read more]

For the State of  California, a Master’s degree earns you an additional $30,000, right off the bat. If you then get certified, you garner another $20,000. Who knows when they will next be hiring, however, and I have not found this kind of deal anywhere else in the country except the land of fruits and nuts..
If you want to teach, you need a…[Read more]

Aside from the ‘focusing on grief’ aspects of this design, I think what bothers me most about it are two things (since I asked myself for my own opinion..!)
First is the functionality aspects, which is weird for me – I am the opposite of a technician. But I look at this and think how it is going to look when they have run out of money to run it,…[Read more]

Yes, Pat, but none of us got here without being children first, and I think the abilitly to keep in touch with your child side helps for good design..I just find those imagination playgrounds are MORE programmatic than the ones Quackenbush has posted, and also think they  quickly dissolve into something that looks like it belongs in the recycling…[Read more]

Man, I love those Jon! Thanks for posting..Really tired of the “imagination playground” stuff going on in Manhattan – Iike those a lot..

It was an incredibly sad ceremony, I agree Heather – Paul Simon singing “Sounds of Silence” was really something..
But it is making me think about photo-opportunity and design..How often does one think about the photo-opportunities in a design – or is it always inherent in one’s thinking, in some sense..
The San Diego Zoo has all these “Kodak…[Read more]

Deborah, all cynicism aside, the Memorial cerainly provided a very moving site for the memorial today..It has been  a daylong weeper, the names of the mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, those not found ever, those no-one else knows – the one girl I know who died there – her name was pronounced incorrectly..
But the nation is weeping,and the…[Read more]