Rebels

For all of you who missed the New York City chapter's 4th of July get together (or for those of you who went home early), here's a taste of what you missed. This delightful Czech film includes romance, suspense, singing and dancing--and it's all set during the Prague Spring! Aren't you sorry you missed it?

Notes on Becoming a Famous Architect

An amusing blog.

Woman Architects / Ali Jeevanjee

No, Ali Jeevanji is not a woman architect.

But you can read about women architects here.
And about Ali here.

City Fonts

Funny how many fonts are named after places.

Has anyone seen Helvetica? Totally fun and worthwhile font movie.

Annoying Architect Websites

We've all seen them, those over-designed, all-too-snazzy architect websites that freeze your browser. Or in which you can't find their addresses because too many things move around, slip and slide, expand and contract, in a "cool" fashion.

What are your nominees for the most annoying architect websites?
Mine are Winka Dubbeldam / Archi-tectonics and Morphosis. Winka's website, she's had for a while, so at least it is a familiar annoying website. Just try to read through Thom Mayne's bio on his website using Firefox, I dare you.

Greg Lynn's website also deserves some consideration in this competition, but it is helped by the lack of actual work. There isn't much real work or information you might want, so it is less confusing. And he has those pretty flower animations.

Maybe this competition should be divided into two categories: looks and content, or the swimsuit competition and the essay portion of the exam. How horrible all the text on architects' websites is! And they all say the same thing! Some originality, please.

Other nominees?

Miss South Carolina

Design Observer article about whether design is the field of mindless prettiness.

everybody wants to be an architect...

How is it possible that more than one presidential candidate wishes they were an architect? candidate questions

red cross campaign

i think this campaign is fabulous. i missed the real thing (parked at the ferry building), but it makes me want to get an earthquake kit together (after all my years living here unprepared!) learn more at: be prepared there's also a metropolis article: metropolis

duck penetration

i'm sorry, but this cracks me up...

ICFF?

Anybody going to ICFF this weekend. I hear there is a bar this year... I think I'll go on Saturday if anyone is interested.

can we have wine club soon?

Skyfarming

New York Magazine has a feature on "skyfarming"—vertical urban farms. Since Agnes Denes's Wheatfield project in 1982, urban farming has been a romantic little dream of mine. MVRDV's Pig City was an almost comical take on the idea, and I'm glad serious scientists, environmentalists, and planners are pursuing the idea

winners

our boys monty and zac (known here as 'platform') were one of seven winners in the DMOD competition. see there entry here portfolio II

Architecture: Best career of 2007?

US News and World Reports lists architecture as one of the twenty-five best careers of 2007. For job market outlook, we get a "C." For quality of life, a "B" (I would think architect's quality of life would be a "D," but maybe that's just me). And for prestige, an "A." We're prestigious, folks, but paid less than actuaries, librarians, and speech-language therapists!

Too dumb for New York, Too ugly for LA

Mark Lee and Sharon Johnston are speaking tonight as part of the Architectural League's Emerging Voices series. "Too dumb for New York, too ugly for LA" is the title of their lecture. Also speaking tonight are Meejin Yoon and Eric Hoeweler.

6:30 pm
Scholastic Auditorium
557 Broadway

Guy's Op-Ed

Guy had an Op-Ed in the Times today about the Freedome Tower...

Freedom From Fear

Presidents Day wine club in Brooklyn

The Lighthouse
243 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope (between Carroll and Garfield Streets)
Monday, Feb 19, 5 pm

They have Happy Hour specials until 7 pm ($3 select draughts & bottled beers, house cocktails, and house wine) and damn good mozzarella sticks.

Boston Globe's "Stylish 25"

Check out where Toshiko says she is totally inspired by her students' style.

If you were making up the list, who is the one person you would include?
I would nominate my students at the GSD. Each one has individual style, sense of self, point of view, and a high energy level of intellectual curiosity and design sense.

And Sarah Williams Goldhagen reviews Skin + Bones in The New Republic.

my new job

so the building i'm doing ca for has a live construction webcam: webcam

it's pretty crazy! yesterday i reviewed the submittal for the 10" thick acrylic window!

Pecha Kucha

Sorry this is a bit late notice, but there is a Pecha Kucha tonight in Brooklyn.
Our own Joe McDonald will be presenting....

aiming to please

new blogger it is! meera's wish is my command - she's like the little man behind the curtain, while i'm just the floating green head of the wizard. i don't know what the new blogger version means for people without gmail, but jro - you should really get it anyway.

enjoy!

crackheaded game of extreme tetris

Here's a little buzz on our building in Chelsea

P/A awards

Aziza won. As did Office dA. Hashim received a citation (look for the mention of our own Chris White).
Still don't know what to think of Architect...

In other news, check out this book from CLUI.

CT

Yesterday the New Haven Coliseum was torn down at 7:30 am. When asked to comment, Kevin Roche's office said it was too painful. In other sad news, a Paul Rudolph house in Westport was destroyed last week.

comments?

Can we update this blog to the new blogger? I updated my account, and now I can't post comments anymore. And damnit there are lots of things I want to comment on, like Jason's eggs post from weeks back and, of course, Shannon's recent post...

red PENcils

how many people wish that someone would manufacture a red pencil that actually erases? the red col-r-ase pencils seem to be more "pen" and not enough "cil". hmph.

Sugimoto

Just thought I would share my favorite photographer of the moment: Sugimoto.

copyright law

Check out this article from the LA Times about architecture copyright law.

Architect Magazine

so the jury is still out on architect magazine, but now they published a house ali jeevanjee designed, so it can't be all bad: 1+3=1

(actually i think it might be quite good)

Second that.

I second that. Happy New Year to all. and I'd like to share this artist i'm newly obsessed with:
Ethan Murrow
if i made resolutions, one would be to draw more.