archiandy

out of date

2011-01-30T18:04:00.001-05:00

Dear Reader(s) -

Please follow Andy's current blog here:

http://www.aoarchitect.com/conversation.html

. . . also on Facebook and Twitter.

Another book for the stick

2008-09-07T20:59:00.004-04:00

Our "Community Group" (i.e. Bible Study) finished up a book tonight. I always have high hopes for new books. This one wasn't great. Mediocrity is nothing less than a plague in Christian bookstores. A friend and I have been encouraging each other to fight that mediocrity in our own writing. In this era of consumer driven manufactured entertainment, a reader has a lot of opportunity to tell publishers what we think. Here's a spot I posted to my Facebook bookshelf:

---

When I pick up a small, compact book like this, I hope it will be packed with truth. I want it to read like "Practice of the Presence of God" or "My Utmost for His Highest." I want a small book to be the 100th re-write of a bigger, fluffier book - condensed to a simple, wonderful, pure truth. Or, I want it to be one experienced truth, retold.

This wasn't that. I wanted to know about Humility. Humility is profound, elusive, divine, paradoxical, and miraculous. This book was another generalized lecture on vague "Christian Living." Every chapter was a different subject, with a generalized connection to being humble - being humble while disciplining your children for example, or while trying your best at work.

Perhaps it was the irony that got me: writing about humility is instantly convicting, and yet the author had no problem offering a series of sermons on right living. None of the sermons got to the deep conflicts of the issues, and it cruelly left its readers with more questions than answers.

Critiques are difficult - see chapter 9. Here's my point: If we (Christians) are going to pursue humility as God commands us, let's sort this out! Let's pursue it! What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? What does it mean to lay down your life for your friends? What does it mean to serve your earthly masters? When God commands His people to humble themselves and pray, that their land may be healed, what does He mean? Our people, our nation NEEDS that healing. Our people don't have time for another generalized sermon series like this.

A Reading Anniversary

2008-08-15T15:55:00.002-04:00

We just returned last night from a fantastic vacation up North with our family. We gave a little party for my folks' 50th wedding anniversary. We were each asked to give a 5 minute speech. It was a sweet opportunity for a family with good parents, but I knew my other siblings would say most of the mushy stuff. Here was my script:

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If you know my parents, you know that they’re always reading. When I think about my parents, about growing up in their home, about their marriage, about seeing them together now, that’s a major picture in my mind. I see Dad reading in his recliner and Mom beside him.

I heard a statistic recently that children’s performance in school can be directly related to the number of books in their house. According to the study, it didn’t necessarily make a difference if the parents read directly to their children or if their children simply saw their parents reading. If that statistic is true, I should have been a valedictorian. I saw my parents read a lot.

They read the newspaper: they get the local paper every day, and the New York Times because one paper wasn’t enough

They read magazines: their coffee table has strong legs, which is good, because the coffee table books on the table are covered in magazines.

And, books, always books. Mom keeps an enormous dictionary, atlas, and several bibles in her cabinet by the kitchen table. Dad has a bookshelf behind his recliner in the livingroom, and always one or two books on the side tables and on his bedstand.

When my parents visit, they devour anything printed that we have in the house. They read the parts of the newspaper I never get to, and they skim all our magazines. One time before they came to visit, I bought single issues of a variety of magazines I thought they would enjoy during their stay. I still think it was a nice gesture, but those magazines evaporated within minutes.

Recently, Mom looked at my bookshelves and asked what my favorite books were and what they were about. I named a few, but also had to admit that many books on our shelves are there for show.

Let me make a few main points:

1) When I started writing this speech, I was afraid that the topic wouldn’t come across as very romantic, for an anniversary speech after all. However, reading the newspaper together every morning, and sitting in the livingroom together every evening for fifty years, while children look on, is a romance I look forward to catching up to with my wife and my own family.

2) My Dad has always read enormous biographies about profoundly important people: presidents, statesmen, entrepreneurs. Some books have taken him years to digest. Only occasionally has he told me what he learns about those individuals. However, his habit of reading has taught me that people can do great things that are worthy of writing in books that are big enough to read for a very long time.

3) I’ve often seen my parents read the Bible. My mom with her reading schedule and all her pens, and my dad secretly in his study on Sunday mornings. This has been a persistent reminder for me of the habit of faith, and the wonder of never tiring of the one true Book.

4) Another literary habit my parents share is writing – Mom with her commentaries and Dad with his journaling. Their writing is very private – I’ve never read it. Their private writing reminds me that their marriage is still personal and intimate, with meaning that only they know between them.

I’ve heard it said that reading books allows you to live more than one life, as you share in the experiences of others. My parents have lived more experiences than most people I know, and the books have always been trying to catch up. Now their books are leading them on new experiences, from visiting Anne of Green Gables in Prince Edward Island to the world of CS Lewis in Cotswold, England.

I’ve been able to experience my parents and their marriage while they read their books. Sometimes, I secretly think the books merely provide a way for my parents to be together. Reading allows them time to not say all the things that after fifty years don’t need to be said. And, I also know that reading is a recreation they built through years of economy and responsibility, from times when going out was too expensive and when four kids were kept at home.

So, Mom and Dad, happy anniversary! Thanks for teaching us to read and for letting us watch you read. Thanks for teaching us about the world and faith and about others, as you learned yourselves. More than that, and this is my point, thanks for letting us see you always together.

Multitasking

2008-07-28T23:43:00.003-04:00

[This post was originally delivered by email to our local Toastmasters Club.]

I enjoy multi-tasking. Almost always, I work with music in the background. At home, I have two computer monitors which allows me to pay bills and watch a little nonsense on youtube. Over the past few nights, I’ve been a little more deliberate about my multi-tasking. If you’re like me, and have an opportunity, I encourage you to do the same. Here are a few opportunities I’ve taken:

1) Catch up on politics – watch their speeches and compare:
This year’s election feels like it’s the most important one in which I’ve had the opportunity to vote. Maybe it’s an increased awareness with age, or because the world seems to be coming a little looser at the seams. However, I’ve lost track of what my presumptive candidates’ proponents are. Watching their speeches and interviews has been hugely helpful. I can learn about the issues and also admire or wince at their rhetorical achievemrnts.

McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Multimedia/Archive.aspx?gallery=07919950-D725-4C5A-B953-B192D9A547B4
http://www.youtube.com/johnmccaindotcom

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/tv/speeches.php
http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom

In my opinion, nobody interviews as effectively as David Letterman. Do a search for your candidate with Dave.

2) Be inspired – watch the really great speeches on really great subjects
Martin turned me on to this site. Don’t miss this phenomenal resource: www.americanrhetoric.com.

“Top 100”: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html
Starts with “I Have a Dream.” Don’t miss Kennedy, Malcolm X, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Faulkner.

Tonight, I was blown away by Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” A professor’s last lecture, knowing he had three months to live. Entertaining, and fantastically inspiring. Definitely qualifies for speech #10.

Use the Speech Index to look up any of your heroes, secular or religious. If they said anything that was recorded, it’s probably here. Back to politics, I used this resource to listen to McCain’s Republican Nominee Address back to back with Obama’s Democratic Nomination Victory Speech. The difference in rhetoric and audience connection is staggering.

3) Be entertained and informed – Comedy Central seems to have the corner on cutting through the bologna.

Full episodes of the Daily Show with John Stewart and the Colbert Report are available free.

Watch Letterman take on Bill O’Reilly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKftpGB03vU

And of course, this Caravan Race on TopGear is about the funniest car episode I have ever seen.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7897406168274581724

That’s it. Remember, watch these WHILE YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING ELSE! And, probably, never watch them at work.

Another Guest Spot

2008-07-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

I've been invited to post on another blog, a new one, a political one. Politics is not my gig. I know nothing about the players. I have opinions like anyone else, but I have no statistics to back them up. But, in this season of what feels like real-deal issues, I'm thankful for an opportunity to say my piece, to explore my opinions through writing.

If you're interested, the new blog is here: resoundingtruth.blogspot.com

In other news, I had a fantastic lunch with my pastor this afternoon. We talked about architecture and how to relate to the six architects in our tiny church.

Look Ma! I'm on TLHH!

2008-06-05T23:11:00.003-04:00

Got a surprising email today - I've been asked to "websit" one of my favorite blogs while the author is away. I made my first post tonight - it was a little dry, but fun to put up. I'm one of two sitters who were asked to contribute.

Tonight's post and Pastor Jones' insightful blog is here: http://twosons.blogspot.com/

andy's face

2008-05-05T22:36:00.004-04:00

I've been a Facebook junkie for the last several nights. It's terse, and compelling. I have learned much about myself - significant things. According to my facebook profile, the following scores are true:

I have (18) friends - varies.
I have read 5 books.
I was at home at 8:29pm.
I am Truly Reformed.

Back from Calvin

2008-04-20T18:36:00.001-04:00

With the generous persuasion of my good friend Steve, and sponsorship from our church, and from said friend Steve, I spent the last three days at a writing conference at Calvin College.

We're back in town. Just up from a nap. What a trip - I'm stuffed. I just read through Steve's blog posts, his sentence summaries of the sessions. It's going to take me months to digest and unpack what was so gracefully fed to us last week with a bulldozer.

I got a taste, as it were, of that digestion process Friday night when Steve and I stayed up late at our respective mobile keyboards. I tried to chew apart the very first talk we heard as we arrived Thursday. This was a speech neither of us really liked, so a little reflux came in the analysis. My summary is longer than the speech, and much more confusing. Rewrite #1.

A few quick points I remember, without going to my notes:

Art isn't moral. Several authors, including the first one, made this primary point. As we talk about Christian writing, this cuts especially to the heart. I'll be processing this for a long time. It's something about how art is only confessional, or that the morality comes in the interpretation of art. Like I said, it'll take some time.
Writing is work. Except for one beautiful example of an [autobiographical] novelist who published his first draft, what I heard was rewrite rewrite rewrite rewrite rewrite. In an editing lesson, we heard, "Editing is more like reconstructive surgery than painting your toenails."
Write specifically. The specific will get you to the universals. Be direct, be conversational, tell a story.
Pray for Yann Martel. He's made the unreasonable leap of faith; he just doesn't believe yet.
Set aside an invulnerable time to write. Then, write like you have all the time in the world. Learn to write on command, vocationally - unless you're that guy who published his first draft: if so, then prepare for some long nights.
Trust your idiosyncrasies. Write what you and only you love.
There are no rules to poetry.

Okay, I'm peaking at my notes now, so I'll stop. Would you mind if I keep gnawing on all this with my mouth open? I know it's terribly impolite, but we're all friends. My goal is to kind of nibble through each of these sessions, reviewing my notes. I hope this will get my fingers going, help me get into a habit. This blog will be a good place to chew. It'll take a long time.

Thanks for reading.

Yard Art Books

2008-03-15T19:08:00.006-04:00

"It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed." Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

For the last, oh, three months, probably more, I've driven my car with a trunk full of books. Plastic grocery bags briefly held the books, until they shifted and the books flooded out of the bags and settled themselves.

On one winter night, my wife and I reorganized our bookshelves, and purged a set we were sure we didn't need, and placed them in said grocery bags. I brought them optimistically to the local book re-seller, who lightened the bag by two or three which he considered re-sellable, leaving me to return the grocery bags, mostly unchanged, to my trunk, where they sat until today.

- - -

". . . that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever." Joshua 4:6-7

We've had a lot of blessings, especially over the past few years - obvious things we don't want to forget. I've thought often of making a pile of [something], just so we could remember how God has provided. The Israelites' stones were placed by the tribes, taken from the scene of their trials and God's providence. The stones weren't significant in themselves, but were significant because of who placed them and where they originated, and because of the stories that would be told.

- - -

I had to get these books out of my trunk. It's been embarrassing. I carry boxes in my back seat because I don't want to open the trunk. One morning, my wife went to open the hatch, and I shouted, "No! Don't look in there!" I've never said that to her before. I've never kept a secret like this. It's embarrassing.

For a while, I tried to think of a redeeming metaphor for carrying books in one's trunk that no one wants. I tried. I thought of it almost every day when I went to work. I'm carrying these books around, like Coleridge's albatross, like DeNiro's suit of armor in The Mission - no, it's not like either of those. These are terrible books, they mean nothing to me, no regret, no guilt, no potential, no metaphor. These books were wasting my gas.

I've thought of tossing them in the recycling bin. That's not bad. Almost did it this week. But I didn't. After all, these are books. You can't throw them away.

I starting trying to think of other uses for them. Storing secret things by hollowing the cores, shellac effects, etc. This week, I got an idea. Ran the idea by my wife, she confirmed it was plausible, and had a chance to mean something. That was enough, and today I did it.

A 4' #4 rebar at Lowe's costs $2. Large galvanized washers are 45 cents. I drove the rebar vertically into a rotting stump in our backyard, secured a stop at about 8" above the stump, dropped on the washers.

I brought the plastic grocery book bags to the shop in our basement. I sorted them, to be sure, and marked an "X" in pencil on the exact center of the back cover, and drilled straight through.

Drilling through a book is more challenging than I expected. I started with a 7/8" hole saw. This worked well - the pilot bit pulled the sheets up a fair amount, but the saw pushed the books back together easily. The trouble came after drilling each book, when I had to drive out the cores of sheets packed up inside the bit. I tried a spade bit for a few books, but that really chewed up the pages and the soft covers. For the larger books, I had to drill half way through, from each side, cleaning out the bit in between sides.

And, there was a risk of fire. I often saw smoke and had to slow the process. The flits of print would make easy kindling, and there was a kind of fear of some retribution for the act, by forces unknown.

Some of the books were gifts of one kind or another. These were gifts from very special people, on special occasions. Some titles: Love for a Lifetime, Heart Centered Marriage, Stories for a Kindred Heart. Some were devotionals: Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. One book, The Art of Natural Family Planning, with its unmentionable charts, seamed like a good idea at the time, but now seems so profoundly irrelevant. One was a gift from a missions organization, which I'll never read. Anything with discussion questions was apropos. There was a book titled How to Talk to Your Cat.

We did rescue a few books from the plastic grocery bags: Ice Bound, about the lady who had cancer at the South Pole, because it was interesting and true; a copy of the New Testament, which we were giving away because we had so many already; and, we found a book with an inscription, which meant we had to keep it.

Even as I set the last of these books on the stake, the sky started to rain. These stones, these inanimate objects are piled up now. Maybe it's a memorial, maybe it's a marker, maybe it's a way to get something out of my trunk. The colors in the yard are vivid now, but the books will weather and fade away, like prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. But, we remember the loved ones who gave us these books, and the occasions they represent, and the study groups who prayed with us: that memory and those gifts remain. We'll watch and see what happens to the rest!

A Weekend in VA

2008-01-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

We spent the past weekend with family in south-west Virginia, in a house that was bought to be a project-house. The house has good "bones", open and connected spaces, plenty of rooms and a luxurious garage. It's convenient to the interstate and convenient to the gorgeous surrounding hills. The neighborhood is quiet and improving.

But the house is a project. The last time we were there, I drew this sketch (above): two floors. I crossed out all the rooms we couldn't use. An office was finished and functional. However, two small chairs set at a cafe-style table in a non-functional kitchen. A single sofa in a living room faced a television. Upstairs, bedrooms and baths were in any one of the following states: newly finished and shining, storage, or demolition.

At that time, we visited within a paradox, within the contrasts of that project house. We were welcomed and happy to visit, yet no room had chairs enough for four. We ate wonderful food, yet we didn't have a table to share. We rested peacefully, yet we awoke onto bare plywood floors. The kitchen was the center of the home, but an oven was removed, flickering tube bulbs were bare, "white" cabinets were in shadow and dirtied with age and style. The unfinished spaces crowded into the useful spaces. Piles of debris filled the rooms where we wanted to live. We had a happy time with our family, but a difficult time with the architecture.

This time was different. The score of finished rooms increased. We celebrated together at a dining table in a dining room with walls painted a modern color. We again ate wonderful food, but mostly ate out, comfortably. The cramped, dark, shadowy kitchen was fully gutted: cabinets and awkward island chateau happily removed. In its place, a fresh setting of new floor tile was progressing hopefully. The unfinished spaces seemed to be in check - a tide had turned. What was unfinished now highlighted the wonderfully fresh, newly opened rooms. We sat in the comfortable dining room and looked at the contrast outside. It was as if snow was falling cold and heavy outside, but we were inside and we were warm. It was order within disorder; it was a better percentage of done to undone.

And there was more. We could think about other things than the house. We thought about family. We enjoyed the holiday. We rested. We enjoyed the outdoors and we explored the town.

I thought about art. In this newly opened dining room, in this comfortable space, a single work of original art set against the head wall. It was not hung, it was not pulled apart from the room, it was not an applique on a wall; it was set, on a buffet, leaning into the room. Art was in the room with us.

It was a painting of a seated nude, seen from behind, hair tied behind the head. Colors were pale and thin. It was an academic piece, the folds of fabric artfully done, the hair carefully articulated, the body represented with some blushing modesty. The painting surprised me, for example, as our family ate breakfast together. In the lulls of conversation, or in moments when I preferred not to be engaged, the painting was asking to be observed, starting a conversation. And the painting had a story - we learned about the day it was painted, and we discussed other family's reactions and suspicions, and we reacted together ourselves. Of course I could not be caught staring at the work, lest my intentions be misinterpretted, but I was thankful that the painting was there. The painting let me feel less unconfortable in some ways with my in-laws. It reminded me of school, of studying, of trying new things, of real personal expression on a canvas, of conveying what cannot be carried in words. Perhaps simply an image of someone unclothed reminded me that I was clothed, as a speaker might envision when in front of an auditorium of colleagues. To be certain, it did remind me of beauty, and beauty always lets me relax.

And, there was more art. Our hosts had set provocative and interesting books on our nightstand, to be enjoyed, and we did enjoy them. Kindness also leads to rest, and we were thankful for that.

green letters

2007-12-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon - in your future correspondence with me, please add a small handfull of additional letters to my official address: I am now Andy O, AIA, LEED AP .

I've spent the past several weeks experiencing the US Green Building Council's "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System". Spent a couple hours in a testing center, and am now, Dei Gratia, an accredited professional.

Go ahead, ask me a green question. Anything. Bring it on.

1717 Lessons Learned

2007-10-14T17:16:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to write this article for a long time, and have now had the opportunity. It's a lessons-learned article about building one's own house.

Ten Lessons from an Architect’s Home Building Experience

Over the course of four years, my wife and I bought land, designed our new home, hired a general contractor, and saw the home built and finished. We went through many interviews with contractors, learned how much we could afford, and scaled back the project scope to its current size and configuration.
The general contractor we hired was knowledgeable, but he showed little interest in managing our home. His subcontractors took weeks to arrive on site and attempted to overcharge us, consistently. As designers, my wife and I attempted every method we could to cut costs, including using common material dimensions and doing the finish work ourselves. The contractors took no note of our cost saving designs, and the work we did ourselves produced less than professional results.
We took some chances and used several progressive design materials and methods. We used Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for the walls and roof. We used pre-cast concrete stud panels for the basement. And we used several alternative finish materials, including stained concrete in the kitchen and living rooms, plywood flooring in the corridors and studio, and break-metal flashing for wall base.
We’re glad to be in our home, glad that it’s “ours,” and we learned a few lessons on the way:

LESSON #1 Go with your good ideas.
LESSON #2: Build where you want to live.
LESSON #3: Use real contracts.
LESSON #4: Remember how much this is costing you.
LESSON #5: Trust your engineers.
LESSON #6: Hang on to your friends.
LESSON #7: Watch your mouth.
LESSON #8 Don't feel sorry for the contractor.
LESSON #9: Keep track of the costs yourself.
LESSON #10: Don't do it yourself.

Part 1: DESIGN
The first day of design was the best. My wife and I sat across the kitchen table in our little apartment, with the dim overhead light. We set out a roll of architects' trace paper, "trash", and she drew on her side and I drew on mine. The concepts came quickly, we had the ideas already, we were ready to move ahead.

LESSON #1 Go with your good ideas.
My wife and I had a few design ideas that were important to us. One was having steps in significant places, another was having a two-story lit hallway, and a third was energy efficiency and innovative building systems. These were all quirky, personal ideas that, at one time or another, someone would try to talk us out of. We're thankful we followed them through.
First, steps. We have a step down from the entrance into the living area. We have a step up from the public area of the house to the bedrooms. The steps were an area of good compromise between my wife and myself. I've seen a few people trip on them, an elderly neighbor and friends' children, and that makes me re-evaluate their value-to-risk, but they gave us a good place to transition materials, and they're symbolic in some ways, and they're okay.
The two-story lit hallway was an idea that I could see in my mind, but that almost no one else could understand. As we cut rooms off the back of the house, the hallway turned into a dead end with a little library / reading nook at the end. Even those who sympathized with the idea thought it wouldn't be what we expected. That dead end hallway, with the windows and warm southern light, has become one of my favorite rooms in the house. My wife bought me a perfect Eames chair to put by the book shelves, and with a little rug, it's perfect. When I sit it that chair, I almost always think of quitting my job and becoming a poet. So, it's risky, but it's a good risky.
Energy efficiency is always a good idea, and one we enjoy every time the cooling bills come in. The SIPS were a good idea - they went up simply, gave us vaulted ceilings, and a very quiet, tight home.

Part 2: LAND
Finding the land came quickly too. We had simple goals: close to work, close to church, on a street with sidewalks and curbs. And we had a budget. Our first realtor thought our budget was useless, impossible, a waste of her time. She gave us some sites far outside the city limits, sites without water or sewer. She proceeded then to inform us that her son was an up and coming home builder, that he was very successful, that he had connections who may be helpful to our otherwise impossible goals, and that this could all turn out to be a profitable experience for all of us.
We left her office and found another realtor. I understand it would be helpful to readers to share how we found a better realtor, but honestly, I can't remember. However, I may never forget his face, because for the next two years, following our land purchase, we remained on his mailing list, and each envelope included another business card with his smiling portrait. We found the land we wanted. It was on an old, under-developed, dead-end street. It was quiet, but with plenty of activity. The architecture on the street was already widely varied: very small homes and large ones, some new, and most with the character of age. We met friendly people, it was near to the office, near to church, and the street had sidewalks and curbs.
Our realtor with the friendly photograph spent several months referring us to contractors and pressing us to finish our drawings. Despite his pressure, we knew we needed to press on. Our drawings had to be precise, so that our pricing would be fair. We standardized our dimensions - 4 foot and 8 foot increments, for efficiency of materials. We selected modern construction systems for simplicity of construction, for off-the-shelf accessibility, and for timely coordination. We were sure that these deliberate methods, along with detailed construction drawings, would allow any contractor to produce the home we wanted exactly, to give us a price we could both have confidence in without fear of change orders, and that that price would be lower than the market rate.

LESSON #2: Build where you want to live.
Of all the decisions we made in this process, I think we did this one right. This one goes to the nature of "home." A lot of people give a lot of reasons for buying a particular house. The most popular reasons are resale value, school systems, and safety. I won't deny the validity of these concerns, but I will say that they must take second place to concerns about living.
I didn't want to buy a house while thinking about selling it. I'm not an entrepreneur, not a developer or a realtor. Resale wasn't my goal. I wanted a place to grow my family, a sanctuary from the world, a home.
In our town, the school districts change every year. Demographics shift, politicians play their games, and bussing is unpredictable. There's no way to predict the status of the system when my children will be of age, it's my civil duty support whatever local system our family is in, and if we don't like it, private school is an option.
And safety - it's a myth. The way to improve crime statistics in any region is to support the law enforcement in those areas, to get to know your neighbors, and to live a better example. I'm over-simplifying several enormous social issues, but again, I didn't want to live paranoid, and I didn't want to live removed from true society.
Our neighborhood has the sidewalks and curbs we wanted. We enjoy walking the street. We're thankful to see so many kids playing so often. We have a park, a playground, and a grocery store a comfortable walking distance away. And, our son will grow up hearing no fewer than four different languages, meeting children of different races, with parents of different backgrounds and professions. It's the right way to live in the world, and I feel good about it.

Part 3: CONTRACTORS
We started meeting with contractors. The first meetings were in comfortable offices and restaurants. We met with our realtor's associates, we met with reputable professionals in our area, we met with friends of colleagues. They reviewed our floor plans, they didn't sit down. "$100 per square foot." It was like a contractor mantra. It was like they were unionized. It was like their finger was on the pulse of the market, and that market could be phenomenally quantified and averaged, in respect of materials and labor and all conceivable contingencies, and the universal answer was "$100 per square foot." Design didn't matter. Innovative materials and methods didn't matter. Standardized dimensions? That's just naïve. One contractor did have another way of pricing: it was a factor of the price of the land, the square footage of the footprint, and some engineered constant driven by market forces and mood. The more we tried to reason with this man, asking him to bill us for the materials and labor for the work, plus a reasonable overhead, the more we just got mad.
Finally, we called the phone number on a yard sign that we saw on a front lawn of a renovated home in a prominent neighborhood.

LESSON #3: Use real contracts.
We used A105-1993, “Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Contractor for a Small Project” from the American Institute of Architects. A standard contract can be customized to meet your project, and your specific needs. Much of the day-to-day agreements between you and your contractor will be simple, verbal, or scratched on notebook paper. However, having a real contract in place as a foundation will dramatically limit your liabilities and can help profoundly when the issues get tricky. Contact your local AIA chapter, or go to www.aia.org.

Part 4: THE BANK

Several of my angriest phone calls during this process were with the bank. They were doing their due diligence. With the sub-prime mortgage crisis now, it’s a good thing they did, but man did they give us a hard time.

10/30 Got a call from the bank's plans appraiser. "Your typical buyer is looking for:.." Apparently our house is not a typical house that a typical buyer would want to buy with the amount of money we're putting in. We don't have a coat closet and we don't have a palatial bathroom and so on. It's hard to build your own house. We'll see what happens next.

LESSON #4: Remember how much this is costing you.
Most of these lessons are related, but this is a big one. With all hope that your home is the investment you intend it to be, it will still cost you a lot of money. Your mortgage will very likely be the largest bill you pay every month, every month until you are a much older person.
I remind you of this because every time I make that mortgage payment, I am reminded of all the things around the house that the contractor didn't finish. I'm reminded of the places around the house, where the contractor used inferior products or methods that I will have to pay, again, to replace or have redone. My dad liked to say that you get what you pay for. Remember that you are paying a lot, and make sure you get what you need, in good materials and proven construction methods.

Part 5: PERMITS
Permits for most houses are . . . easy. If you read any municipality’s website, they require about 4 drawings, a site plot, and a couple hundred dollars. If you try to do something new, or anything prefabricated, it gets more complicated. In that case, you need engineers, with seals in your state. You’ll have to answer a lot of questions. We had a lot of engineers.

February and March Our builder called one day saying that our plot plan wasn't drawn just right. We made some changes and turned that in to the city. No progress, no progress - our plans got put back on the bottom of the pile. In early March, I went to the city myself and talked to a few friendly people. The plans were ready to pick up - with no permit,. They were marked up with several comments. Some were things on the plans that they missed, but most were comments that they needed seals for all the pre-fab parts . It took about three weeks to pull those together and three more engineers. This may be the most designers of record per square foot on the East coast.

LESSON #5: Trust your engineers.
As an architect, I have mixed feelings about the profession of engineering. I know that to my engineer friends, the feelings are mutual! Because of the multiple building systems we used on this house, we had a potpourri of engineers, just so we could get our plans through the city. Every time the house creaks and pops with a change in weather, I hope those engineers did their jobs.
The one engineer who really came through for us was our geotech. We had the soils tested many months before construction began. We had a sealed report about the bearing pressure of the soils, and that report became the basis for the foundation design.
On the first day of construction, the contractor called to say that the soils were no good, would have to be over-excavated, and wouldn’t we like to have a much larger basement anyway. When we notified our geotech, he immediately came out to the site, re-tested the soil, and restated his opinion that the soil was fine. He attended an ad hoc meeting with the contractor and our foundation engineer, and stated his opinion that the contractor should put the dirt back in the hole, and certainly should not charge for the work. He got us out of a lot of money, and gave us credibility that kept the contractor at bay when things got tough the next time.

Part 6: WAITING
Finding land can take an instant or years. Getting a loan can take weeks. Permits can take months. And contractors . . . contractors can take as long as they feel like taking, depending on the market. Be prepared to wait a lot.

4/10 No new news. Went out with some hugely supportive friends after work and had a good time. We drove by the lot on the way home and it was dark, but it looks like a good place for a house. We're wondering about when the crew will arrive and how many trucks will drive down our quiet little street over the next months.

LESSON #6: Hang on to your friends.
Every step of the way, you’ll be doubting yourself. And, you’ll have time to do it. You need your friends. You need them for reassurance, for listening ears to your ridiculous stories, for the voice of experience if you’re lucky, and you need them to remind you that you’re not in this adventure alone.

Part 7: CONSTRUCTION BEGINS

We ran to the site the first day we saw the crews arrive. The hole was dug in a day. The pre-fab concrete-stud foundation and basement panels came on a truck and were dropped in a place in a morning. The floor joists went on top of the basement panels, and then we waited.

7/1 Slab poured, sawcut. Wall panel sub says he'll be here before the end of July. Contractor says we'll have some slow weeks.

7/31 Wall panel sub says he'll be here next week.

8/15 Wall panel sub says he'll be here next week.

8/22 Wall panel sub says he'll be here next week without fail.

8/30 10:45pm Trucks fill street in front of our lot with panel blanks. Neighbors call the police because of the late-night disturbance.

LESSON #7: Watch your mouth.
After all the months of waiting for our turn in line, on the first day of construction, the day the digging began, I received a call at work from our contractor. He said, "The soil's no good. We have to dig out twice as much as we expected. It's going to cost $10,000 more. Is that okay?” Without thinking enough, and eager to get started, I said, "Yes." Those three letters haunted the rest of the job and the end result.
Also, it goes without saying that "a gentle answer turns away wrath." Your life savings are on the line, your contractor's work is called into question - your opinions will differ, but you'll be working together for several months at least. Keeping a careful reign on your tongue is critical for so many reasons.

LESSON #8 Don't feel sorry for the contractor. This is my worst regret.
Say "NO.": When he asks you for extra money for things that are already in the contract.
Say "NO.": When he tells you there's a problem that's going to change the whole job and he wants to do it without giving you time to think it through.
Say "NO.": When he tells you that that's the best he can do.
Say "NO.": When he wants to leave part unfinished because he has another job to get to.
Say "NO.": When he tells you his sub is going to be a few months later than expected.
Say "NO.": When he puts a window in a different place than the plans show and he wants to know if he can leave it because, "It doesn't really make a difference, does it?"
To be fair, when you make a change to the job, or when legitimate unforeseeable circumstances arise, make an agreement for a fair change in fee. And, be willing to accept reasonable delays, especially during busy or weather-prone building seasons. Your contract will help you understand what’s fair and what’s to be expected.

Part 8: MORE MONEY
The good news about construction money is that it’s cheap and easy to come by. You’ve already signed all the paperwork, and the bank is more than willing to do their part. A construction loan comes with very low interest, and for the first few draws, you don’t owe very much. The bad news is that you’re paying it out fast.

LESSON #9: Keep track of the costs yourself.
Tracking the allowances, draws, and change orders is critical. If your contractor is like ours, he may have little interest in actually tracking the financials himself, despite your expectations. Our contractor seemed to have some vague idea of a barter system. He continued to remind us that he took the cost of the "hole" on the chin, despite our explanation that it was his sub that was taking him for a ride, and he expected us to take the cost of the other issues as they came up. We maintained a spreadsheet of the agreed price, the allowances, the draws, and the change orders. This became our best resource in the ever-present money conversations. By the middle of the job, our contractor was asking us for copies of our spreadsheets.

Part 9: DOING IT YOURSELF

LESSON #10: Don't do it yourself.
Money is a constant point of decision - what do I want, what am I paying for, and what can I do myself for free? In order to save money, we thought, we opted to do most of the finishes by ourselves. Thus this lesson: Don’t Do It – keep your day job.
1) Paint - we had one bold work day with our best friends. We put on the primer coat. The whole house was whitewashed. We reached as far as we could into the highest points of the ceilings. We wore ourselves out, and realized we had yet to put on the color coats. For what seemed like a very reasonable sum, we hired the painter to finish the job. Since then, I've done some painting around the house and have learned that I'm not the artist I thought I could be - spots on the carpet, spots on the ceiling, wavy cut lines, and no one to blame.
2) Tile: When we worked on the house, it was winter, and we had no heat. Instead, we had a propane heater that looked, sounded, and smelled like an indoor jet engine. My wife did much of the hands-on tile work, I did the cutting. We chose some wonderful tile, which meant that it was extraordinarily hard to cut. My wife's hands were frozen and dried and cracked by mortar for weeks. And despite our noblest efforts, we could not deny the truth that we had never done this before, and we learned this was an art requiring some skill. The freezing conditions begat haste. I hate that we put ourselves through that ordeal, and the finished product leaves some to be desired.
3) Cabinets: This was something I just wanted to do. Perhaps the tile was like that for my wife. I wanted to try to build a part of my own house with my own hands, and I'm glad I did it. I built the cabinet boxes for our kitchen and around the house. They're quirky to say the least, but they're ours. We hired a cabinet shop to make the cherry doors - that was a good decision, to give us a good finish. And after months of “somedays,” we hired a woodworker to fix our drawers so that they actually worked. This has been a wonderful breakthrough, and another good decision. So, when I say I built our cabinets, I must clarify that I didn't build the parts that showed, and the functional parts I built didn't function the first time around. When you decide to do your own work, for whatever reason, it's important to at least know what you're getting into.

Part 10: HOME AT LAST

We’ll never forget our first night in our new house. It was surprisingly quiet after so many months of noisy construction. It was our home. We opened the window and heard the night sounds that are familiar now, but which we were discovering for the first time. Our home is the sanctuary we hoped for. It’s a perfect place to raise our son and future children. It came with memories the day we moved in, and plenty of reminders that nobody’s perfect. And, we learned a lot to pass on to the next generation of home builders.

© 2007 Andy Osterlund, AIA

August's Baptism

2007-09-02T16:42:00.001-04:00

Our boy was baptised today! For those who missed it, here's the testimony I gave:

Kristen and I were both raised in Christian homes. Our parents taught us the Bible and lived out their faith, and we were both brought to church consistently for worship and Sunday school. We’re very thankful for that gift from our parents, and we’re also thankful that our family could be here with us today, for August.

I believed in Jesus when I was very young. I remember praying in bed and thanking God for everything I could remember. As I got older, at several points, I remember having to take a stand for Jesus and committing to obey Him. One of those points was my own baptism, when I was about 13.

I learned to trust God more deeply, starting in college, when I was on my own, away from home, learning about school and schedules and bills, and God was faithful then.

Kristen and I met in college. The story is that I noticed that she had a Bible on her desk, and I asked her about it, and that’s how we met.

Since we’ve been married, we’ve learned to trust God together: learning about work and, again, about schedules and bills. We’ve seen him provide for our needs every year.

The most challenging times have been the past several years, hoping and praying for a family and wondering why it was taking so long. We’re now thankful to know that the time spent waiting was so that we would be all lined up to meet and receive August. We’ve seen God now answer, so sweetly, all those many prayers for him.

“August” is a family name – I wanted him to have a reminder that he’s connected to our family and to all the routes that God took to bring these immigrants together. However, at his adoption, we were also amazed to hear the verses that were read over him – many verses taken from the book of Jeremiah, which is his second name.

We heard Jeremiah 1:4:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Again, we’re learning to trust God about bottles and schedules and bills, August reminds us of God’s faithfulness. His first name reminds us of God’s providence, for generations, even to our own family, and his second name reminds us of the promises and hope God has for his future.

On the porch with a secret - writing exercise #2

2007-05-05T22:50:00.001-04:00

Here's our second writing exercise of the day: "Imagine a character sitting on a front porch. Create a first person monologue in which the character reveals a secret about himself/herself that no one has ever known. Give us a sense of setting." We didn't have enough time to have more than one idea. Beware, I told you I was in a funky mood.

A Seat on the Porch
5/5/07
(c) Andy Osterlund, 2007

As a day for a seat on the porch, this isn’t a bad one. The air is clear and comfortable. The season’s too early for bugs. It’s quiet, most of the neighbors away or in their routines. It’s a surprise to be here, but surprises can be okay. It’s very quiet, and warm. It’s okay to rest, to sit and to “be.” We don’t take enough time to reflect, do we? Never enough time to sit on a porch on a quiet day and reflect, until sometimes you just have to sit.

I’ll have to finish up the lawn later, maybe when it’s cooler. Or, maybe we can hire a neighbor this time to finish up. Have to put the mower away then, maybe she’ll get a neighbor to do that too. I hate to put so much on her. She’ll have time. She’ll be okay too.

It’s funny what we fear, thinking about it now. We’re afraid of others so often, but perhaps not when we need to be. Remember last year, the plant closing, the fears we had then? The town is moving on, isn’t it now, new grocery stores and the book store there, and the Cappuccino Café. Some people have moved on, it’s okay to move on. New plant opening on the other side of the hill, that’ll be a good thing for some people. People thought I was the bad guy, but they didn’t really see what I went through, what we all went through in the office - same pressures as everyone else. Same pressures and fears. Everyone’s afraid, but you just have to make it work, make your decisions and move on.

Now, looking back, it’s easy to look at things and realize that it was a good thing. The town is going to be much better after this – much better after this. Look at us now, we’ve already got the Cappuccino Café – I hear other stores are coming into town, and that will bring new people to town. That will really bring this place around. It’ll be a good thing. People will see in time. It takes patience, but people will see this town turn around. And the plant, of course, it was just what we had to do. Times are changing, the products change. We have to adapt. It’s all cycles, and it’s really a good change. Looks like the plant will be opening again in a few months, and we’ll be able to start new. It’s always a good thing to start new – to take what you learned from the past, to remember those hard lessons and the choices you had to make and the sacrifices, but then you get to start new, and this town will be a better place for it.

And so much at home. She and I, we just had to go through this. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we made it through and things are looking up. So much warmth. She was always supportive. She was always sympathetic. She always understood. Even when the reporters came and accused us of so many things, she understood. And now, things are looking up.

I’ve heard stories of feeling like this, wondered what it would be like, in some lonely, desperate way. I feel the warmth; of course my shirt is soaked, that’s uncomfortable. The pain is there, but it’s so deep, deeper than anything I’ve ever felt, there’s really nothing I can do about it. The ambulance should be on its way. My daughter made me buy this phone, “At least for emergencies,” she said, “And to call me!” She said, I remember that. The ambulance should be on its way. It can take a while to get around in this town. The paper’s had some articles about that recently, with all the violence. It’s just something we’re not used to, not completely prepared for. But, it just takes time. Like that snow we had a few years back, biggest ever – we weren’t prepared for it then, but now we’re more prepared. We just need to learn from these things, and it makes the town a better place. But, the ambulance should be here any minute. Actually, she should be here any minute too. I hope she doesn’t see me like this – it would be better, I think, if she didn’t. Maybe I should call the ambulance again, just to make sure they know I’m here and know how to find me. I don’t know what’s taking them so long. It would be good if she didn’t see me like this.

Remember last time she found me like this? Well, not exactly like this of course, but remember when I was working on the lawnmower, and I hadn’t tightened the, well, there’s no need to remember everything, but that was quite a day too. She must have yelled at me for an hour, remember? I mean, yelled! Other people don’t get to see her that way, that’s reserved just for me. We’ve been through a lot, she and me. I think this is the happiest we’ve ever been. We probably say that every year, and I think it’s true every time. This time it definitely is. So many things that we’ve waited for all these years, so many things coming true. The hardships? Sure, we’ve been through our share or more than our share, but I think we’re the happiest we’ve ever been. It’s just that things change, and sometimes you have to adapt, and you work through it again, and you’re better for it, every time.

Did I know the man in the car? Was he in the plant some time? It’s impossible to know everyone. I just couldn’t recognize him. Maybe if I thought about it harder for a while. I suppose I should try to remember his face. I just don’t know if I could recognize him if I saw his picture, maybe saw it in a company photo. It happened so fast. They always say that in the newspaper. Maybe he was there for barbeque that Saturday, but I just didn’t recognize him. Maybe I would recognize his voice, maybe he called, last week, was that the man who called last week? It could have been. It’s just hard to remember in different circumstances, and it’s hard to really be prepared for the unexpected – especially things like this. Nobody’s prepared for this. There was no way to know. Maybe someone knew, but, well, we got a lot of calls like that last week, and the week before. It’s just so hard to be prepared or to know what to expect, especially when you have so many people. It’s impossible to know everyone.

I hope we can still make the wedding next weekend. Shouldn’t be a problem. He’s a good man – not rich like I hoped, but he’s fine, and he’s smart. I love seeing her around him – she looks different, and I like that. Their new town will be fine too – she’ll have to adapt some, I think, it’ll be different for her, and it’ll be different for us, not having her here. But that’s the way of things, and really, we’ve never been happier. We couldn’t be happier for her. That’ll be a beautiful day, and I can’t wait. She’ll look so beautiful, I’m sure.

He’s fine and he’s smart. He has plans, and that’s good, and he got the job in the new town, so that’s fine. It’s just fear again, you just don’t know. And now, I can’t control everything anymore – they’re out of my hands, and I have to accept that. We hope and we’ve prayed for the best, and you just don’t always know what’s next.

(c) Andy Osterlund, 2007

Ginger root - writing exercise #1

2007-05-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

Our teacher handed out writing starters. She asked us to use similies and metaphors to describe it. I got a ginger root. I was in a little bit of a funk today, so my writing came out a little weird.

Ginger root
An object I would not have known premaritally.
An object I would not associate with the sweetness
Or the spiciness (a matter of measure), the drama of a sauce
Before my new wife brought it into our little apartment home from the
Grocery store. I wondered if she had gone to some new age shop,
Some retailer that sold crystals and herbs and bits or root and foreign dirt.
It’s skin like nothing. Its edges like brokenness. Textures of dirt, color of air and emptiness. Scent of an absorbent sponge.
This thing that sneaks into our grocery bags. This thing profoundly discovered now in the shelves with beans and leeks and once living vegetation.
- - -
It looks like it has a face. I can see eyes looking over my shoulder, to the corner of the room.
A horn, or a bad wart, or a millionaire’s parted hair.
Knowing the smells when caught with a knife. Afraid to bring a knife into the memory of this thing and the first days with my wife the gourmet chef.
Dirt like a bruise, like a tear, like an eye open too long without enough sleep.

Writers' Workshop Day

2007-05-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

Spent much of the day in a writers' workshop today at church . It was interesting and helpful. The best part was the writing exercises, and hearing other people's writing. The writing today had an openness and authenticity that's been rare in our church's arts conversations so far.

However, again, I was left with the question of "what do I do with this thing, now that I've made it?" What good is a collection of short stories or poems sitting on my own hard drive or in my own notebooks? As always, we were encouraged to refine our work, to expand upon today's exercises. But, again, I'm left in this lonely question of "why?"

The habitual writer will say, "I can't NOT write." And that's true for me. Writing is like exhaling, like blinking, like leaving the artifact of a footprint in a forest. It can't be helped, so we should do it well. But my habits aren't that disciplined.

The casual writer will say, "I enjoy writing." And, I do. But I enjoy a lot of things. I enjoy TV. I'm easily entertained. That's not a good enough reason for much.

The prophetic writer will say, "I must write for others." And I want others to know and feel what I do. But, I'm shy.

Yes, writing should be shared. And writing shouldn't exist to be sold. And that's why I blog - blog into the depths of anonymity, into the sea of other bloggers sharing their wares, hoping for the random possibility of forming community.

But that's also why I go to writing conferences - a community for a weekend. That, and I'm always hoping to be discovered.

Poems and Places

2007-02-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

Have a speach again this week - I have to read a poem to the group. It's been a lot of fun browsing through anthologies, trying to find a theme or something to connect with. I was surprised (it's been a while since I've really dug into poetry) to remember how heavy most of it is! (Maybe it's just the anthologies on my shelves.) But, with this Valentine's week et al, I was expecting to find a few happy, beautiful bits that would be easy to read and make us all feel warm.

Going through the Romantics, found all this extremely heavy work like "Ozymandius" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" - references to Greek gods and this insanely complex sentence structure. I thought Shakespeare's sonnets would be sweet, but, (and maybe I'm not as smart as I used to be, or maybe I'm just more honest), I just wasn't sure what he was saying! If the woman was wooed by the first lines, I think she would be confused by the end, which probably was Shakespeare's intention.

And then, the modern poetry, so much is either 1) morbid eg about death and suicide and black things, or 2) ironic and cynical and hopeless, or 3) nonsense and meaningless, or 4) just kind of dry, or 4) bizarrely exagerated. What happened to all the pretty poetry?

I think I really was looking for something as beautiful as Song of Songs. I've been reading Psalms for a while, but that's heavy too. Song of Songs is just glorious and lovely. It was edifying to have that experience too, to know that besides being Truth, the Bible includes the most beautiful text I could find on my shelf.

But, without further ado - here's my first draft of the 8 minute speech for Wednesday:

What a privilege to get to read poetry to this group! I’ll be reading four short poems about places. I enjoy thinking about spaces and really experiencing where I am. These are poems about experiencing where you are.

The first is the most abstract. This is by EE Cummings, written from the perspective of a man sitting in a booth in a busy bar in New York. You can hear the sounds of the bar around him, the bits of conversations, and you get to feel some of his experience as he sits in that room.

The second is by Carl Sandberg about being on Clark Street Bridge in Chicago at night.

The third is by my friend Steve West, written during a business trip to Milwaukee. It’s directed to Solomon Juneau, the founder of the city. You can see him walk down the street, encountering people as he passes the street signs.

Finally, a short piece by me. For a while on Sundays, my wife had to get to church earlier than I did, so I would sit in front of this baseball field in Cary in my car and think and write. This is one episode from that series.

Here goes . . .

[i was sitting in mcsorley’s]
E. E. Cummings
1925

i was sitting in mcsorley's. outside it was New York and beautifully snowing.

Inside snug and evil. the slobbering walls filthily push witless creases of screaming warmth chuck pillows are noise funnily swallows swallowing revolvingly pompous a the swallowed mottle with smooth or a but of rapidly goes gobs the and of flecks of and a chatter sobbings intersect with which distinct disks of graceful oath, upsoarings the break on ceiling-flatness

the Bar.tinking luscious jigs dint of ripe silver with warm-lyish wetflat splurging smells waltz the glush of squirting taps plus slush of foam knocked off and a faint piddle-of-drops she says I ploc spittle what the lands thaz me kid in no sir hopping sawdust you kiddo

he's a palping wreaths of badly Yep cigars who jim him why gluey grins topple together eyes pout gestures stickily point made glints squinting who's a wink bum-nothing and money fuzzily mouths take big wobbly foot

steps every goggle cent of it get out ears dribbles soft right old feller belch the chap hic summore eh chuckles skulch. . . .

and I was sitting in the din thinking drinking the ale, which never lets you grow old blinking at the low ceiling my being pleasantly was punctuated by the always retchings of a worthless lamp.

when With a minute terrif iceffort one dirty squeal of soiling light yanKing from bushy obscurity a bald greenish foetal head established It suddenly upon the huge neck around whose unwashed sonorous muscle the filth of a collar hung gently.

(spattered)by this instant of semiluminous nausea A vast wordless nondescript genie of trunk trickled firmly in to one exactly-mutilated ghost of a chair,

a;domeshaped interval of complete plasticity,shoulders, sprouted the extraordinary arms through an angle of ridiculous velocity commenting upon an unclean table.and, whose distended immense Both paws slowly loved a dinted mug

gone Darkness it was so near to me,i ask of shadow won't you have a drink?

(the eternal perpetual question)

Inside snugandevil. i was sitting in mcsorley's It,did not answer.

outside.(it was New York and beautifully, snowing. . . .

CLARK STREET BRIDGE
Carl Sandberg
1916

DUST of the feet
And dust of the wheels,
Wagons and people going,
All day feet and wheels.

Now. . .
. . Only stars and mist
A lonely policeman,
Two cabaret dancers,
Stars and mist again,
No more feet or wheels,
No more dust and wagons.
Voices of dollars
And drops of blood
. . . . .
Voices of broken hearts,
. . Voices singing, singing,
. . Silver voices, singing,
Softer than the stars,
Softer than the mist.

Poem-Walk
Steve West
c. 2000

Listen to me, Solomon Juneau.

I am on a mission from God.
I am an extra-terrestial,
a wide-eyed wanderer
on this
terrestrial ball.

See me there? Here comes
santa claus looking worn &
frail, an overdressed rabble of a
man, bearded, half-blind, under-
nourished, with a sack of treasure
on his back.

Yes, I just touched down, Soloman Juneau,
on this blue end of Milwaukee, only
visiting this planet. Call it

Terra firma. Earth.
I’m walking on the solid
flesh and dirt of life.

Lapham. Becher. Waukesha.
I dodge the word puddles, the
splash of image, tripping over
profundities and wonders.

Can you hear it Soloman Juneau?
Can you hear the hip hop bop, the
music of the poet thinking?

Van Buren. Marquette. Grand Avenue.

A black man peers from
behind a dirty screen.
(Hear the silence speaking?)

A woman sunbaths, workers
lounge, winos loll.
(Can you feel the wonder?)
In the Cafe Leon a
woman sips, motions, shrugs,
dismisses, her upturned laugh
rippling through the air.

The air is pompous-smelling,
magenta in all its hipness, the
people poised and sheek.

I am the meek and minding.
I eat.
I listen.
I spy.
In the cafe, on the street,
I gather the pearls of conversation,
laughing at my wealth.

I am king for the moment,
resplendent in my humaness,
carrying my sackful of words,
my rattles and my rhymnes.

I am accused of metaphoric dementia ---
diagnosis: too human, naked, unashamed
prognosis: animal skins and fig leaves

Are you watching, Soloman Juneau?
See me spill my words?
Watch me unwrap these packages.
I’ll fashion up some truth.

I am an extra-terrestrial ---
word-full
wacked-out &
wondered. A
meteoric, metaphoric, poet.
Don’t you know it?

Really, only human, Soloman Juneau.

An Empty Ballfied on a Sunday Morning
Andy Osterlund
2005

An empty ballfield on a Sunday morning
A rabbit and a squirrel and a scoreboard unlit
A fly comes through my open windows screaming a buzz

Boundaries and fences; markers and out of bounds
Jet overhead; brush underneath; and me in between
Electrical boxes waiting for a night game.

Coming to the limits of inspiration and provocation
Coming to the limits of what can be derived from a scene
But the creatures keep stirring and the sun is interrupted by the trees.

Reading Man

2007-02-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a record month or so for me, book-wise:

Finished Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler".
Started and finished Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".

I attribute this new reading success to three things:

Saturdays at the gym on the recumbant stationary bike.
Joining a newly formed book club with a deadline (Foer's book, March 30.)
Reading a best-selling novel by a still-living author in its original language (again, Foer's book.)

But now what?

Shall I return to Doestoyevsky? Has my new success renewed enough reading confidence, or should I pin a couple more titles to my chest first? But, is it really fair to start another book with this one still half-read? Cons: possibly too heavy for the recumbant stationary bike, 19th century russian author.
Shall I return to my college pattern of faith, architecture, fiction, culture, repeat? Is "culture" next or should I start back over with "faith" because I've been out of the cycle so long? Cons: what if my reading streak doesn't last?
And what about the novel I just bought because the movie it spawned looks so interesting? Is that too much fiction for two months time? What about my existentialist ideals? What if I just went to the movie instead?
Or the coffee table book I got for Christmas? Cons: definitely too heavy for the gym.
Or the "faith" book that everyone I know has read and likes. Cons: when was the last time I liked something that everyone else liked?

It's either the "movie" book or the popular "faith" book, or the coffee table "architecture" book with another book on the side.

Dillon Triptych

2007-01-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

I’m going through my photos this afternoon, and I found this one that I like. It’s of Dillon Supply, downtown Raleigh. It’s shot on 120 fujichrome film with a Holga. The Holga is a Chinese plastic camera with a plastic lens – you never quite know where the film is, so sometimes the shots bleed into each other, and you never quite know what the lens is going to do when the sun comes through it. I like the way the east and west views bleed into each other, I like the urbanity of course, I like the textures and materials. I like the new-city icons in the background of the old. I’ve shot these buildings each many times, but they seem to make more sense as a contextual triptych here than they do individually. That’s significant, I think.

One Step from "Competent" - Speech #10

2006-11-19T22:38:00.000-05:00

Here's my working draft for speech #10, the final speech in this first book for toastmasters. It's supposed to be "inspiring." What can be more inspiring than concrete? As usual, it's running a couple minutes long. Here goes:

Project #10 Inspire Your Audience

Foundations
November 22, 2006

Introduction:
Good afternoon. Today, I want to talk to you about foundations. Most foundations in our area are made out of concrete. This is a chunk of concrete. [Show concrete chunk.] You know me well enough by now to know that I do have an interest in foundations, and I like talking about concrete, I enjoy it. And, I hope you’ll enjoy my speech! But, I also hope you’ll learn pretty quickly that my speech is meant to be metaphorical. I’m talking about our personal foundations. And, we have a lot to learn from concrete.

1. Foundations come first.
First thing built
What we learned
Decisions now
Dreams for future

2. Foundations are a mixed bag.
Aggregates = resists pressure = family, education, home
Steel = resists tension = health, friends
Cement and water = glue = faith and love

3. Foundations suit the project.
Building limits
Soil bearing
Reach to bedrock
Ex: Brooklyn Bridge, John Roebling, son Washington, wife Emily; Brooklyn foundation at 44’, Manhattan foundation at 74’ on sand.

4. Foundations handle stress.
Daily routine
Big decisions / ethics
Major opportunities / risks
Calamity
Disaster

5. Foundations might need to be fixed.
i. It’s not too late for foundation repair
ii. Don’t try to do it on your own – you need a specialist
iii. It will be expensive
a. Home foundation repair = some cracks that come with experience = extra concrete or new piers = rethinking priorities and assumptions
b. Foundation not strong enough for dreams = Leaning tower of Pisa, 1000 year lean = pump out the bad soil = get rid of what’s bringing you down = enormously expensive = bad habits, fears, bad relationships
c. Foundation in the wrong location = Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, sea = moved to safer ground = extremely expensive and dangerous = new education, new city, new beliefs

6. Foundations are just a beginning.
Built our house – quick foundation, long time to get started
No good by itself – meant to be built upon
Limits, depth, strength – start building!

Conclusion
Take a look at this concrete, all the chunks and bits that make it strong. Remember the foundations you were given when you first started out. Remember everything that went into making you who you are. Remember that your foundation was laid for a reason – you were made to be somebody. When stress comes along, hang on to your foundation as tight as you can. Make sure to get your foundation fixed if you need to, but be prepared to pay for it. And finally, if all you’ve got is a foundation, you’ve got a lot of building to do.

Persuasive Brick Speech # 9 - final draft, blue ribbon winner

2006-10-31T22:02:00.000-05:00

Time for Bricks to Change Project # 9

As you look at Raleigh architecture, you see a lot of brick. Think of the Dillon Supply warehouses, huge brick warehouses. The turn-of-the-last-century storefronts on Wilmington, Fayetteville, and Martin Streets – all brick. You may have noticed the parking deck across the street from this building – it’s concrete, but covered in brick. Maybe your house is brick. Think of prestigious neighborhoods in town – the houses? All brick. As an architect, I draw bricks almost every day. But brick is not always what it appears to be. I’m going to convince you to think differently about brick, and I’m going to show you another option.

I. History of bricks
a. According to Britannica, brick has been in use since 4000 BC.
b. It’s a durable, convenient, attractive material. It’s fire-resistant and can support weight.
c. The bricks that are made today are very similar to the bricks made six thousand years ago. A brick is, simply, baked clay.

II. The perception. Brick has:
a. Integrity, stability, timeless style.
b. Weather resistance – durability in storms
c. Adds Value - higher sales value.

III. The deception.
a. The brick in the Dillon Supply warehouses and the storefronts I mentioned had integrity. The integrity of brick ended in the mid 20th century with the mass production of steel.
i. Brick doesn’t support weight anymore – it adds weight. Today, we call brick a “veneer.” It’s one wythe thick, suspended from the building by steel.
ii. The stability of a building has nothing to do with the brick on the outside.
iii. As to timeless style, frankly, brick buildings look old.
b. Weather – one wythe of brick will stop little more weather than vinyl siding, and it is much less water resistant.
i. Remember that brick is dried clay? Brick soaks up water, and mortar joints leak.
ii. Once the water gets in your wall, we have to keep it out of your house and find a way to get it out of your wall.
iii. Modern air conditioning makes the cavity of a brick wall an ideal habitat for mold – moist, warm, and dark.
c. No value – just more money.
i. According to the Brick Association, the labor to build a 10’ x 10’ brick wall costs 1½ times as much as the materials. $500 materials, $750 labor.
ii. In an age of automation and innovation, brick walls are an anachronism: they have to be built by a specialist, one small, mind-numbing piece at a time.

IV. Why you should care – the consumer
a. In a southern town, clay and bricks are as much a part of the culture as barbeque and tobacco. The clay comes easily out of the ground and nuclear power plants provide cheap heat to bake it.
b. Almost every client I’ve had has asked for brick on his building because that’s what he’s used to and that’s what he knows will sell.
c. Until you, the consumer, begin to demand something better, developers will keep building buildings with one layer of leaky, drafty, outdated, expensive brick, and I’ll have to keep drawing it.

V. The alternative
a. Rain screens - the exterior skin is just to look pretty and slow the rain down, not to keep it out. Let it be designed that way.
i. Terra Cotta – beautiful, very modern, low-labor cost, natural and durable material. Conceivably, our local plants could be retooled to make these panels from our same southern clay and nuclear energy.
ii. Keep the weather out with materials that do it best. Rainscreen materials will stop the wind and rain and will keep water from staying inside your walls. Rubber flashing and quality windows will keep the water from coming into your home.
b. Use brick like it wants to be used in our modern age; don’t waste it where something else would do a better job.
i. Arches and curves – Louis Kahn – elegant, expressive, honest.
ii. Detailing – take advantage of the small size and hand-crafted installation with various patterns, colors, and techniques.

VI. You may be surprised to hear that brick is anything worth thinking about, but it certainly is.
a. As Raleigh continues to plan for its future and think about what it wants to be, we need to think about what materials we want to use.
b. Brick shouldn’t be the same old option that it used to be. It’s not used the same way that it was a hundred years ago.
c. If we want to keep putting baked clay on our buildings, the brick needs to change to become something that works and looks better.

IM-ing about Architecture

2006-10-15T21:02:00.000-04:00

My lawyer friend and I decided to document one of our conversations on faith and the built environment. You can read it on our church Arts web site: Click Here. As a document, it's pretty free-form and untested, but it's nice to get to review a real conversation and try to assess what we each were trying to say.

What to Look for in a City - Speech #8

2006-10-02T23:50:00.000-04:00

Now that vacation is past, it's time to get back into the speeches. This one includes visual aids. This speech is my favorite yet - unfortunately, for a 5-7 minute speech, this one is running about 12-14 minutes. So here's the full preview. (Again, sorry about the lack of formatting.) The scissors come out tomorrow night:

Speech #8
What to Look for in a City
10/4/06

The city of Raleigh is involved in a captivating pursuit to become a recognizable city. Town officials, developers, business owners, and citizens are looking for ways to become a place that thrives and continues to draw people and new businesses.

But, what is a city? How will we know when we've accomplished our goals? What will it take to create the thriving place that we think we want?

Through this speech, I’ll give you a VERY brief outline of what a city needs. A city needs TIME, PEOPLE, and DIVERSITY.

I. Time
a. There’s no magic pill to make a good city. A city takes a lot of time. This is the ingredient that is most necessary to develop all the other ingredients.
i. SLIDE: Chartres
1. begun in 1145, surrounded by modern road construction
2. It’s a small village now, but what will it be in the future?
b. You can see time in the materials and methods of construction that we use. This develops the character of a city.
i. SLIDE: Fayetteville Street Mall
1. Obvious styles chosen in each era – not a good idea to put them all together at the same time.
2. Also note that this was taken before the mall was reopened – another sign of the time.
ii. SLIDE: ROSS store
1. The challenge today is that developers seem to want to design with materials that look old, but which fit their tight budgets.
2. A hundred years ago, this cornice might have been made of stone. Today it’s made of Styrofoam. What will this look like a hundred years from now?
iii. trees
c. Layers - Time creates layers and complexity in a city. One layer becomes obsolete and is overlapped by the new tenant. Property lines change.
i. SLIDE: Jewish Quarter in Cordoba, Spain
1. A 1000 year old fortress wall becomes the backdrop for 400 year old housing which becomes a backdrop for modern shopping and a two year old Vespa
ii. SLIDE: Mill Museum, Minneapolis
1. Even this flour mill that exploded in the 90’s has been renovated into super-modern offices, condominiums, and a museum.

II. People
a. A city needs people. A city needs to be a place where people want to be.
i. SLIDE: Las Ramblas, Barcelona
1. This is a beautiful street, packed with people, vendors, and performers. Tiny roads for auto traffic are on either side. The street is lined with shops.
b. People have to live there
i. SLIDE: Condos in Atlanta
1. You may be surprised by seeing so much housing construction in Raleigh. Housing is essential for a vibrant city. Our city is encouraging developers, and developers see a lot of opportunity.
c. Services have to be provided for the people that live there
i. SLIDE: Blank
1. This is a major problem for downtown Raleigh. With all our restaurants and coffee shops, we have almost no basic services like grocery stores, dry cleaners, bookstores, drugstores
d. Transportation
i. SLIDE: Irun Train
1. We don't have this yet either.
2. Trains connect cities.
3. We can’t rely on cars - cars prevent people from coming to the city: traffic, parking, pollution
e. Culture is local and perpetuating
i. SLIDE: Notre Dame
1. A city needs attractions. What will draw people downtown? What will draw people together?

III. Diversity
a. Economic / Professional / Racial
i. SLIDE: East Cabarrus Street in view of downtown
ii. Diversity is one of Raleigh’s major strengths. Communities of all classes are very close and accessible to each other.
b. Mix of Uses – this is how we keep our cities lively, drawing interest from many areas of people.
i. SLIDE: Madrid at night
1. Mixed-use developments are active during various hours of the day:
a. business = 9-5
b. retail/cafes = 10-6
c. bars/restaurants = 5-9
d. residential = 6pm-9am
c. Better use of resources – streets and parking
i. SLIDE: Paris street

IV. CONCLUSION: Raleigh is on the way to becoming a great city. It will take:
a. TIME - It’s the right time to do it, but it will continue to take time to get where we want to be.
b. PEOPLE - We’re creating destinations for people, but we need places for people to live, more services like grocery stores and transportation, and we need to support culture through city churches and public art.
c. DIVERSITY - And we need to maintain our diversity, welcoming all classes and races, providing resources for a variety of needs.

Cities – Founded:
New York 1609
San Francisco 1776
Atlanta 1837
Raleigh 1788
Moscow 1147
Paris 200BC
Rome 500BC
Tokyo 1457
Shanghai AD400
Berlin 1244
Rio de Janeiro 1568
Sydney 1788
Barcelona AD700
Chicago 1837
Washington DC 1738
London AD43
Cairo / Alexandria AD641
NewDelhi 1400BC
Jerusalem 1800BC
Baghdad AD762

Transportation in New York

2006-09-11T19:24:00.000-04:00

9/3/06
So far, New York has been about the train, about transportation. Seems that tomorrow will be as well. The train can be a wonderful experience; it can be a pass through scenery and through forgotten towns. It can be a time and place to collect your thoughts. But so far, in New York, it has been neither. Tonight, I write on the train between Poughkeepsie and the city, but it is night, so there is no scenery. On the reverse trip earlier in the day, the scenery along the Hudson may have been magnificent and interesting, but the windows were so coated in film that the scenes were only marginally decipherable. The trains in the city of course are underground and hardly stimulate meditation.
Again today, we experienced contrasts. We walked from our hotel on 80th street west, down Broadway to 42nd street and to Grand Central station where we caught the train. The further south we went on Broadway, the more "New York" the street felt. We passed crowds waiting in line for tickets to Oprah's "Color Purple." We passed tour busses and streets filled only with limousines and taxi cabs. But from there, we spent the day with a friend in the rural town of New Paltz. Outside the modern city, we saw the first settlement houses of the Huguenots. Outside the noise and neon of the downtown, we had cheese sandwiches around an intimate dining room table. Outside our ultra-compact hotel room, we visited in a ranch home with basement and a generous yard.
So, again, we're moving. Perhaps that is the authentic experience of New York, of moving through places, of transportation among other people despite the moving scenery. Of not having opportunity to sit down. But, I'm still hoping for the experience of a tourist, of taking it all in while the locals bustle.

Architecture as Context - a start

2006-09-11T19:21:00.000-04:00

Architecture is context. It is relocated only in extreme exception and with great effort, and with great effect. Architecture in a museum becomes sculpture. In a city like New York, the context of architecture is an expression of layers of perpetual change. A building generation appears to be about 15 years. Since architecture is not moved with a change of owner or change of use, it is adapted. It is modified and recalculated. Aesthetics becomes not a moment of perfection, but a modifiable canvas of conformity or conversation. It is always interpreted in reaction: reaction to the architectural canvas that surrounds it; reaction to its success of usefulness or service to its owner and audience; reaction to its presence in its place and relevance to its time.
So, architecture is context. It cannot be interpreted individually. It cannot be interpreted in its success as a work of art. If it is interpreted functionally, the functions must be understood to perpetually adjust themselves. Its success then may be its relation to the context and significance of its work. If it is evaluated in its success as an aesthetic moment, that moment must be evaluated as one that lasts only over the time that the photographer snaps his frame: its aesthetics is perpetually modified by vegetation, traffic, signage, weather, decay, technological accessories, construction across the property lines.
Where touch in a museum is discouraged, touch in architecture becomes a validation. Patrons enter and manipulate the space.

Going to the Met on a Rainy Saturday afternoon

2006-09-11T19:17:00.000-04:00

The Metropolitan art museum in New York City, for a tourist on a rainy day, is an unsettling contradiction of context and content. The first impression is the enormous numbers of people. The streets had been generally quiet; the drizzly walk through Central Park had been almost solitaire. But as we entered that grand foyer and shook off our rain jackets, we saw what we imagined must be all of New York City. This is where they were hiding out. This is where they came to regroup on a drizzly weekend afternoon when there were no deals to pursue. Or, perhaps, these were all the tourists, like us, who had gotten there only hours before.
We took our first steps through the Egyptian artifact exhibit. And the numbers of others were there around us as well. We walked past spacious glass cases of 4000 year old statues and hieroglyphics, massive stone sarcophagi and tiny earthen burial urns, enormous ancient columns now become obelisks. The number of profound artifacts was alone staggering. But, the others brazed past us as if they already understood far more than the tiny wall descriptions could explain. They walked past as if they were in any other corridor on the planet, as if in part Egypt was another local borough on the way to a better knish. They didn't walk past as if they didn't care, nor as if they had studied these ancient works sufficiently in the past for their own tastes, but they walked past as if they had somewhere else to be, as if the industrious Egyptians would absolutely understand that this wasn't a time for remembering specifically but was rather a time to be living and moving freely in concert with the past, in concert with a place and time that was completely other. It was as if the exhibit was not only real and significant, but significantly real and mundane.
And then the corridor turned into a massive open atrium. Here the crowds stopped. I saw people sit, even recline. I saw couples ask strangers to take their picture. In the middle of this enormous greenhouse was, not another artifact, but a fully realized ancient stone temple. Within a city founded less than 400 years ago, stood a piece of architecture showing 2021 years of culture, culture change, weathering, use, and decay. The informational descriptions were extremely sparse, but they described how this temple had been chosen by New York as a gift from a country that couldn't afford its preservation.
It's a museum in a town so powerful and wealthy that it can recreate the accomplishments of whole civilizations and make them its own through acquisition and default. But it's a museum in a town so generous that it gives this history to its citizens with an astonishing level of access - these ancient stones could be touched and encountered and experienced in every way.
We moved on through this staggeringly enormous museum, through the "arms and armor" exhibit, showcasing more suits of horse and rider armor than almost all medieval kingdoms owned. Pistols and rifles were displayed in their extreme elegance and ornament as if to reclaim their notoriety from their intended use to some level of much more influence.
We passed by familiar exterior windows and awnings and entered a fully rebuilt living room rescued from a demolished home by Frank Lloyd Wright. The presentation was not dissimilar to the Egyptian temple in its anachronism. A McKim Mead & White stair and foyer was similarly displayed, as if the very experience of these rooms was the same as a painting that could be matted, framed, and hung on a wall in another, bigger, succeeding, more contemporary room.
The cafeteria had a displaced Episcopal pulpit, even a whole transplanted classical façade at the far end. A Greek garden was recreated with reclining statues and water features. Stained glass lit in windowless walls. Rooms were divided by enormous ancient iron gates.
So, it became a theme. A history of human civilization captured and encountered within the rooms and corridors of a state institution. Bizarre and profound. But even with this expectation, the American furniture exhibit was a surprise. Through rows and rows of glassed cases, the Met created an Ikea of antique furniture history. I expected to see price-check scanners at the centers of the aisles. There seemed to be some Darwinian progression of the species on display through the glass cases, one set next to the next. It was such a massive room, with the aesthetics of a Target store, and so uninteresting and so un-interactive that fortunately we were able to move on to the American painters gallery.
American painting galleries are always a surprise to me, and always entertaining. While some names are recognizable, I'm consistently encouraged by the number of unknown artists who produced so many pieces of work of comparable artistry and ingenuity, of such variety of subject, over such a narrow period of time. It gives me perspective that the handful of artists who are singled out as exceptional or popular today will be mingled in a retrospective in the future with dozens of their contemporaries for an exhibit that demonstrates their unknowing cooperation within the whole of an era.
So, an unsettling experience all around. An astounding way to spend a rainy vacation afternoon after the pop museums have closed and an astounding look at the lengths New York docents will go to capture their patrons' imaginations. What we did see is many people in conversations among the art. Perhaps they were conversations like this one, conversations beyond the art as artifact; I think many were. But maybe New Yorkers are used to that.

More Speeches

2006-08-15T22:21:00.000-04:00

Speech #7 tomorrow! Here's a rough draft. (I've still got a few hours!)

Project #7
Research Your Topic

“Who were the Huguenots?”

Do you know where you came from? Who were your grandparents? Where did they live? What did they believe? Can you go back further? Who were their grandparents? Where did they live? What did they believe? How far back can you go? And then, come back around to you: would you do what they did if you were in their shoes?

I. Introduction
a. Started researching my family history on January 1.
b. Two questions?
i. What are all my cousins’ names? (I have 36.)
ii. Why did we come to America?
c. Here’s what I’ve got so far –
i. [show Pedigree]
ii. Dad’s side – Dad, grandpa, August born in Sweden.
1. My dad’s family came from Sweden in 1900. I’ve found some descriptions of them and their homes: it appears that introversion goes way back. Even though I know all the names, I haven’t yet found out why they came to this country.
iii. Mom’s side
1. Grandpa (president of his Toastmasters organization, by the way.)
2. His grandfather born in New York – all were back to Abraham born 1670 in France, but married 1694 in New York. Sometime between 1670 and 1694, Abraham’s father Hugo moved their family to New York. (Remember those dates!)
d. I’d always heard that my French ancestors were Huguenots. This is what I’ve researched for this speech, and I’d like to tell you who they were and why my 9th great Grandfather likely came to New York.

II. Huguenots
a. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 discussion points to a church door and the German Reformation began – Paris reformation followed, with its first protestant martyr in 1523, and soon involved leaders like John Calvin.
b. The Huguenots were simply French Protestants or Reformers.
c. 1534, they protested with posters – created many refugees to Germany
d. Number of protestant churches quickly increased, Protestants became involved in politics.
e. Weren’t pacifists. They were known for their fiery criticisms of Catholic worship. They attacked Catholic icons and churches. They even had a plan to kidnap the king. This plot failed and led to a massacre of Protestants by soldiers of a powerful Roman Catholic family. The Protestant Reformers fought back. This War of Religion became a civil war in France and went on for forty years.
f. The Huguenots hoped for a Protestant king, but they fought for full religious freedoms. Finally, a Protestant heir became king in 1593, but he converted to Catholicism under pressure. But, he did issue the Edict of Nantes that gave religious freedom to the Protestants and ended the civil war.
g. 1640’s: there was more fighting, and the Huguenots were defeated. They kept their religious freedom, but lost their military.
h. The Roman Catholics continued to harass the Protestants with forcible conversions, dragonnades – particularly obnoxious soldiers were set up in Huguenot houses, just to wreak havoc.
i. Finally in 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, making Protestantism illegal.
j. 400,000 Protestants moved out of France – to England, Prussia, Netherlands, and America.

III. So, 1685. That’s about the same time my 9th great-grandfather came to New York.
a. Many of the Huguenots were city dwellers, industrious people. I like to think that he helped to found New York, and this country.
b. He was forced out of his home country because of his beliefs.
c. Lived in New York for at least 40 years – lost some of his children, but also saw grandchildren born.
d. In America, the Huguenots primarily merged with other reformed denominations like the Baptists and the Presbyterians.

IV. Do I feel related to them?
a. Related to my Dad’s side by personality, quiet religion
b. I have not been taught the Huguenot’s violent form of evangelism, though I’m honored to be part of a family that would rather fight or leave than give up their beliefs.
c. Ironic that I’ve returned to Calvinism, though my grandparents wouldn’t have approved.
d. Is there a religious conflict in America now?
i. We have a freedom of religion, though it’s still debated though issues of prayer in school and nativity displays at Christmas and whether a judge’s church religious views should affect his rulings.
ii. Bigger conflict against Postmodernism – a general discontent against anyone who believes anything.

V. Would I do what my 9th Great Grandfather did if I was in France?
a. I hope I would have kept my beliefs.
b. I may not have had his sense of adventure! (I might have gone to England instead.)

VI. So, do you know where you came from?
a. Some of you came to the United States yourself. Some of you have family members who immigrated to the United States who are still alive. Why did you come here? Make sure to write down your reasons and your hopes, and save them in a safe place.

Change of plans - speech #6 redux

2006-07-27T23:35:00.000-04:00

And, here's the speech I actually gave. I made the mistake of listening to the top seven speeches on American Rhetoric here, and I had to re-write it the night before to add a little more meat. I won another ribbon! (To be fair, I had no competitors.)

Project 6
Vocal Variety

“Stairs”
July 26, 2006

Intro:
Stairs have been on my mind lately. I’m drawing a seven story condominium with two levels of parking beneath. There are a lot of stairs.

I. But this is a luxury condominium with 4 elevators. The stairs are strictly utilitarian. They’re a product of the building codes. A building this tall needs at least two fire rated exits, and these are them. The dimensions in every direction are exact to the thousandth of an inch. They’re made to be functional. They’re so complicated to draw, with the handrails and guardrails at certain heights, criss-crossing the balusters as they go up and down, that there’s not enough time to make them beautiful or dramatic. And that’s not the point. They’re not meant to be seen. They’re not meant to be used. They’re only an escape.

II. Eight miles away, in a small church near the ground in downtown Raleigh, I meet with a pastor and a table full of leaders in his community. We’re also trying to design an escape. We look for an escape from poverty, from generations of need, from a lack of ambition, and a lack of ideas good enough to change people’s hearts.

III. Some might say that they need a stair. They need a fire escape up from the pit they’re in. And that’s not a bad metaphor.

IV. We can give them steps to take. We can show them the direction out. One step might be financial assistance for their needs at hand. One step might be jobs training and a connection to an employer. Another step might be after school programs to pick up where their integrated schools have still failed to inspire.

V. But how far will that get them? Three steps in the air? Four?
a. And why would they take that first step? Is there any incentive at the first landing?
b. And if they got to the second floor, where would they be? Who would they know? What reason would they have to stay?

VI. Stairs might be a strange metaphor, but it’s not a new one. You’ve heard Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in all its contorted forms. But, do you remember the source? In Genesis, Jacob went to sleep in the Promised Land and he had a dream. He saw angels ascending and descending the stairs between earth and heaven. God has come down to man. Man doesn’t have to climb the stairs on his own.

VII. So, in some ways, poverty is a pit. It’s an impossible hole to scale. To get out takes a miracle. It takes an elevator! Or better, it takes a rocket ship to jump higher than anyone can climb.

VIII. However, we must not confuse the community of this tiny church on the ground with the poverty that surrounds it. Just as we must not confuse my luxury condo in the sky with any height of perfection or attainment. We must not confuse the altitude with the metaphor. Both spiritual poverty and wealth may be present at the same time, just as both poverty and spiritual wealth may be present at the same time.

IX. If we build new stairs for the poor, they should be stairs of family, rebuilding so many broken homes. Stairs of a just education, above the betrayal of the system. They should be stairs of new local business and enterprise to bring funds into the community instead of frittering funds constantly outside the community.

X. When I visit my friends in the small church on the ground, the only stairs I use are the few steps going up to their church door. We sit around the same table in the same room. We're on the same level. We build the stairs together, but more importantly, we all watch for the stairs that have come down to us.

Stairs - Speach #6

2006-07-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

I'm returning to my roots for speach number 6. Again, thankfully, I've got a couple days to clean this up:

Project 6
Vocal Variety

“Stairs”
July 26, 2006

Stairs have been on my mind a lot lately. Designing a seven-story condominium with two levels of parking beneath, there are lots of stairs. In architecture, stairs are arguably one of the most significant elements. They’re dramatic and elegant, they’re metaphorical, they’re necessary and very code sensitive.

I. My stairs right now:
a. The stairs I’m drawing now are only utilitarian – this building has four elevators, we don’t expect the tenants to take the stairs except in an emergency.
b. Stairs are the most code sensitive parts of a building
i. They’re required exits – you can’t rely on the elevators in an emergency.
ii. Walls around stairs have to hold up to fire for two hours.
iii. They have to be a minimum width – at least 44 inches.
iv. Treads have to be at least 11 inches, the risers can’t be more than 7”, and they have to be consistent. The nose of a tread has to be 1”.
v. The handrails have to be at 36” above the nose of the tread and have to extend 12” beyond the top step and one tread plus 12” beyond the bottom step. An open stair has to have guardrails at 42”
vi. Balusters can’t be more than 4” apart.
vii. Landings have to be at every 12’ of rise, and have to match the width of the stair.
c. Stairs are a pain to draw!
i. Have to draw at exactly the right dimensions so you know how many steps you need and make sure you meet code.
ii. Have to think in three dimensions –
1. Draw in plan and in section.
2. Is there enough room in the plan?
3. Is there enough headroom underneath?
4. Do all the stairs line up vertically?
iii. Despite our best Computer Aided Drafting software, we still have to draw stairs line by line – the handrails and the guardrails crossing each other, turning, going up the next flight beyond.
iv. If anything changes (and things always change), you have to start all over with new calculations!

II. But while I’m drawing these, I’m thinking about everything a stair could be:
a. Memories –
i. Sesame Street: Cookie Monster as Alistair Cookie for Monsterpiece Theater presents “Upstairs, Downstairs,” starring Grover.
ii. House growing up – Mom did laundry downstairs.
1. Scar on my forehead from falling down the stairs as a baby, wanting to show her something.
iii. Sitting on the South Carolina statehouse stairs after prom with my friends and a couple bottles of Sparkling Cider.
iv. Climbing the stairs up the Eiffel Tower in Paris, all the way up, not wanting to look down.

b. Stairs can be extremely grand and dramatic
i. Think of beautiful Victorian houses with a grand staircase in the foyer, with a woman in a beautiful dress descending.
ii. Remember the Fiddler on the Roof? “If I Were a Rich Man”:
1. There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show.
iii. Think of all the steps on the national capital building.
iv. Or a stadium surrounded by stairs and seats
v. Or, in the “Lord of the Rings,” stairs cut into the rock on a treacherous mountain pass

c. Stairs can be inventive and creative.
i. Look at stairs in modern home magazines – metals, glass, cable rails
ii. Thomas Jefferson brought from European monasteries: alternating tread / monk’s stairs, to save floor space

d. Stairs can be a metaphor for something much bigger
i. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”
1. Reference to Jacob’s dream in Genesis of a ladder or stair (depending on the translation) with angels ascending and descending between Heaven and Earth
ii. Madeline L’Engle (children’s author of “A Wrinkle in Time” and lecturer on art and faith) talks her memories of going down stairs without touching them, and wanting to reclaim that freedom of childhood.
1. I used to have dreams about flying down those stairs to our basement and flying around the family room. (What did that mean?)
iii. For someone disabled or in a wheelchair, stairs can be a barrier and a reminder of an insensitive world.
1. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, requiring access ramps at any change of level.
iv. Or for someone in a fire in a tall building, this is the only safe place and the only way out.
1. Brings us back to the code and my utilitarian stair sections.

So, remember me next time you climb the stairs to your office building or home. Remember what a stair can be. By now, my stairs had better be done. I have a presentation on Friday, even if the condominium tenants will probably almost always take the elevator.

World's Best Way to End a Chapter

2006-07-10T12:29:00.000-04:00

These are the last few short paragraphs of chapter 3 of "If on a winter's night a traveler" by Italo Calvino:

In that moment of harmony and fullness, a creak made me look down. Huddled between the steps of the platform and the supporting poles of the shed was a bearded man, dressed in a rough, striped tunic, soaked with rain. He was looking at me with pale, steady eyes.

"I have escaped," he said. "Do not betray me. You must go and inform someone. Will you? This person is at the Hotel of the Sea Lily."

I sensed at once that in the perfect order of the universe a breach had opened, an irreparable rent.

Borrowing from a blog

2006-07-07T21:33:00.000-04:00

A friend's blog posted what turned out to be a quite existential article on interstates. I was proud of him, so I posted this response: (reprinted here because I liked my response too and I'm not entirely sure that my post went through . . .)

In response to The Last Homely House: Interstate Memories

Thanks Pastor. Excellent essay. Thanks for sharing.

Where to start a reaction to this? (But, of course, to leave it alone would be inappropriate.)
Reading through the second time, seeing the photos now, the first thing I notice is Philip Johnson's PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) building - a psuedo-gothic cathedral tower of glass, play-acting the part of something ancient with its spires in a modern setting for a modern corporation, with all glass, overlooking the river(s), overlooking the interstate.

Maybe what struck me first was how many memories you have of interstates and how you were able to form such significant opinions about them. It's this rush of emotions and opinions, spurred by a hundred voices of critics and cynics, all contradicting each other into the fact of your memories. For example - "So much spent on fossil fuels!" or "If only he had lived and worked in the city." Or the preservationist - "If it wasn't for interstates, we wouldn't have the problems with sprawl that we have today." Or the historical allegorist - "The interstates of today are what the railroads were to the settlers of yesteryear." Or the phlebotimist - "They're the veins and arteries of our standard of living." Or the college grad "I want to see the country before I have to get a real job." Or the salesman - "My territory stretches from Virginia to Georgia and most of Tennessee." Or the realist - "How much time WASTED inside an automobile." Or the automotive manufacturer - "God bless America!" Or Kevin Costner - "This here is a time machine: in the rear is the past, in the front window, why, that's the future."

You mention the mostly ugly landscape, in contrast to the "commercially devloped." But isn't this what the interstates really show us? Isn't this what the first locomotive passengers saw or the first astronauts who orbitted the earth? In all our moments of land planning and consumption and enterprise, we're just developing dots of land on an unimaginably long line. This is as much as we can do, and we all know that the developers are trying as hard as they can. (I pull the conversation this direction in lieu of the obvious reaction that many may consider flat pastoral land more lovely than the Wilco's and cigarette emporiums that also flower interstate exits.)

But you tried. You gave a flat run of land 3 years of your life and made no connection. Thoreau ached to have come to that kind of a disagreement with the landscape.

I confess I am a little sad that you had to drive so much to get where you are today. I also confess that I can't entirely relate. I've also been across the country, more than once, in an automobile, but I wasn't driving most of the way. And, I wasn't doing it for work. And I think commuting is a violent thing, in LA. But I also know that not much time in life feels more "real" than the time in a car, on an interstate. It's freedom at its most contemporarily literal. It's you and your thoughts and your prayers and your reaction time, committed to a machine for your destination and your best guess at a plan for the moment. Sometimes it's shared with company, and what an intimate relationship that is - one that's not easily forgotten. Oh, I'm slipping into my own memories, and this is your blog, so I'd better quit before I get to the story of the Indians I met on the ride-share board, "Turn on the indicator . . ."

Diversity, Freedom, and Evergreen Avenue

2006-07-04T22:37:00.000-04:00

Another fortnight is upon us. Here's speech #5. Why do I pick such complicated subjects?! If you're in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by around lunch time. My wife says this is running long - still have a half hour before bedtime to trim it down.

Project #5 Your Body Speaks

Diversity, Freedom, and Evergreen Avenue
July 5, 2006

I. Intro
a. I’ve been thinking about freedom lately. We all have; it’s July 5th. Holidays remind us of the important things we might otherwise forget. I like Christmas because it makes me remember my family that lives far away when I have to go buy their presents. The 4th reminds us of our freedom.
b. But I’ve also been thinking about freedom because I’m president of our neighborhood association. When I try to remember why we decided to live on our street and why we like it, it’s not always an easy question. Our street reminds me of freedom, and I want to help keep it that way.

II. The declaration of independence
a. All men are created equal – what’s implied here is that not all men are the same – definitely true on our street
i. Look at the people
1. White, black, Latino, Russian with her head covered
2. Ages – kids, young families, grown families, elderly
3. Listen to the languages and music – late night battle of the subwoofers
ii. Look at the houses – I read a lot into what houses say about people
1. Top of the street - Browns – perfect lawn
2. Mexican house with mysterious shrine in their garage.
3. Fence house with bushes – extreme privacy
4. Safewrights – cinderblock house, hasn’t even changed paint color in 50 years
5. Pittmans – cinderblock house – all kinds of additions
6. New, eccentric houses – ours and the doctor’s
7. Small houses far away from the street, natural wild lawns
8. Developer houses – small, maintenance free, affordable
b. Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable
i. Theme of live and let live
c. Form a new government – not for light and transient causes – we had some causes
i. Started this neighborhood association
ii. Causes
1. Crime
2. Danger
a. Worry about violence, a safe place for kids
b. Break-ins
c. Traffic – a perfect quarter mile drag strip
3. Property values
a. Bad development – old houses brought in, broken back rooflines, landlords who don’t care, tenants who don’t care.
d. Provide new Guards for their future security
i. The neighborhood association
1. Reminds all of us that all of us do care about our neighborhood
2. Neighborhood watch, communicating with police to combat crime
3. Communicating with developers, meeting them in city counsel when they try to bend the rules
ii. Considering covenants for better property value
1. Some way of tying our property to a commitment to see our community improve
2. A challenge in such a diverse neighborhood

III. So, the colonists declared independence against their tyrants.
a. They knew the risks
b. The imagined the benefits – could they have guessed their declaration would go so far?
c. Living on our street, I have a good idea of why they did it. It might have been easier to move to Cary, drive a minivan, and own a home only distinguishable by its number. But I’m thankful to be able to celebrate our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Helping the Poor Should be an Ordinary Thing

2006-06-19T23:39:00.000-04:00

It's time for another Toastmaster's speach. Here's a draft of #4. I've still got a day to clean it up:

Project #4 How to Say It

Helping the Poor Should be an Ordinary Thing
June 21, 2006

I. Helping the poor should be an ordinary thing.
a. It shouldn’t be a political soapbox.
b. It shouldn’t be the job of the few, the brave.
c. It shouldn’t be the subject of a startling speech.

II. “In the depths of darkest Raleigh . . .”
a. Wrong. The poor in Raleigh are our neighbors
i. The difference between a poor neighborhood and a trendy neighborhood can be just around a corner or opposite ends of a street.
1. Example – West South Street to Boylan Avenue
2. Example – North Bloodworth Street to South Bloodworth Street
3. Example – Oakwood Neighborhood to Boyer Street
ii. Especially in Raleigh, the lines between the Rich and Poor neighborhoods are blurred – we drive through these communities every day.

III. “They’re people with needs we can’t understand.”
a. Wrong. Their needs are the same as ours.
i. Progress Energy electric bills, efficient housing, safe neighborhoods, transportation to jobs, local education
b. They have the same beliefs – we never debate theology;
c. The same priorities – caring for their children.
d. Difference in the number of economic choices.

IV. “Only a few brave souls can reach them.”
a. Wrong. Anyone can help another person.
b. It takes listening
i. What are the real needs?
ii. What need can you help now?
iii. How can you address the causes?
c. It takes matching resources
i. What can you give to match what they need?
1. Can you give Money? Leadership? Expertise?

V. “So, you’re saying poverty is easy to solve?”
a. No. It’s generations deep, but we can still help each other.
b. Don’t forget the big issues –
i. Education reform – equal education without busing,
ii. Property incentives – for wealth building
iii. Good policing and speedy justice – for safe communities

VI. Stop thinking it’s Us and Them. It’s all Us
a. Start by lending tools to your neighbor
b. Join an organization that helps people who you wouldn’t get to meet.
c. Then, when you get a chance, try out the soap box or the startling speech.

Good Art Isn't Safe - Take 2

2006-06-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

My Toastmasters mentor said my speech didn't quite make sense yet. Here's the final draft:

Project #2 Get to the Point
Good Art Isn’t Safe

I. Introduction
a. Good art isn’t safe. Good art changes things. Good art can leave a lasting impact.
b. You’ve seen safe art – décor in hotel rooms, music in elevators. It matches the furniture. It doesn’t make you uncomfortable. It doesn’t need a second glance.
c. My goal is to highlight several forms of good art and describe its effects.

II. Literature
a. First time I was affected by good art was Senior year of High School - “The Stranger” by Albert Camus
b. A book about a character dealing with his place in the world
c. I was a lonely kid who thought the world was irrelevant – discovered I’m not alone being lonely and that I am a part of the world. This introduced me to existentialism – have been wondering if I’m an existentialist ever since!

III. Sculpture
a. One of the most famous sculptural icons is Auguste Rodin’s “thinker.”
b. You’ve seen him in commercials, cartoons, imitated by friends. Saw a store that had a foam “Thinker” on a stick, very safe.
c. Saw the work at the NC Museum of Art in context. The thinker is part of a much larger piece, a huge black door call the “Gates of Hell”
d. The character is thinking about his eternity – certainly not a safe question!

IV. Painting
a. Abstract painting can be safe if you don’t understand it – Picasso – “interesting”
b. Saw “Guernica” in Spain, about the Spanish Civil War
c. Unlike what you see in books, this was 25’ x 11’, fills the room, black, sprawling forms, a lightbulb, a flower on the ground, a broken sword
d. I’m a Republican, generally in support of just war, but the piece made me realize the atrocity of war in a more personal way than ever before.

V. Architecture
a. We are surrounded by architecture – we live in it, work in it, drive by it. Form follows function. It has to be safe, by code.
b. First year in college – Glass House by Philip Johnson
c. A shoebox of glass and steel
d. The definition of perfect proportions. Perfect placement of minimal elements – furniture, kitchen counter
e. Coincidence of indoor and outdoor – experience of nature blending with experience of being indoors
f. I found out what architecture could be and have fought with that in my profession.

VI. Music
a. Music is very familiar – especially for me – I grew up around it, I like it.
b. We had free tickets to the symphony recently on a Friday night
i. We were tired from work, had a hard week, considered staying home
ii. Classical music can be boring, especially when it’s unfamiliar
c. The piece was “Resurrection” by Gustav Mahler
i. The opening chords filled the hall, broke through my shell
ii. Wide range of emotions and experiences through the piece
iii. Still wondering about the meaning of the piece and how it could have been so powerful.

VII. Conclusion
a. Good art isn’t safe. It can affect you for years to come. It can affect whole cultures, across generations. Think twice before you visit a museum or put in that CD. You might get changed.

Experiencing Commuting

2006-05-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

Now a competing member of Toastmasters, following is an outline for tomorrow's speech:

Project #2 Organize your speech

Experiencing Commuting
May 24, 2006

I. Introduction
a. In my four mile commute from home to work, I’m astounded by the contrast and variety of life in Raleigh. Because of the stoplights and turns, I rarely get above third gear, and this gives me the opportunity to interact with the experience between points A and B.
b. To tie into today’s topic, I’ll highlight some of the restaurants to help illustrate the contrast.

II. The first quarter mile is Evergreen Avenue.
a. Evergreen is a world in itself – a profound mix of races, collars, ages, and backgrounds.
b. The houses range from the 1958 cinderblock 1-story with its original owners to the up and coming 3000sf traditional with its wraparound porch.
c. This street is enough for a speech of its own.

III. Lake Wheeler Road
a. Contrast of people who are all stuck in a way, but trying to get out
i. Cross over I-40 – professionals stuck in traffic, trying to get to work
ii. Students heading up Centennial Drive to NC State, stuck in school, trying to graduate. Do you remember that feeling?
iii. Transients cross the road to get to the Healing Place – stuck in a difficult life, but working for a better life
iv. Dorothea Dix – a beautiful piece of land stuck with an uncertain future, trying to stay beautiful
b. Food includes the booming Farmers Market and a Subway at the Exxon.

IV. Left on Saunders, left on South Street, Right onto Boylan Avenue
a. Watch the contrast with me as we turn this corner.
b. South Street
i. South Street is fronted by run-down businesses and storefront churches.
ii. People wander on the street corners or wait for work. Everyone on the street is appears to be Black or Latino.
iii. The city of Raleigh has recently designated portions of this area “blighted” which means that they are too dilapidated for repair.
iv. There’s a food shop here, the Smoked Turkey Grill, a three run-down convenience stores.
c. Boylan Avenue
i. The Wake County survey tells me that the property value quadruples.
ii. This is where the Mayor lives.
iii. These houses are profitable fixer-uppers.
iv. People on the street walk briskly to their cars or jog with their dogs. Everyone we see on the street is White.

V. As we cross the Boylan Street bridge, we look on an astounding view of the city. The contrast here is of the past and the future.
a. Into the past, we look across the sea of railroad tracks, the history of industry and intersection in this town.
i. The tracks come and go three different directions – North, South, West.
ii. We see the warehouses that form the edge of town, Dillon Supply.
b. And we see the future. The skyline already shows new condominiums and cranes for towers under construction. Plans on the books and in the papers show many more new structures to come.
c. We come to one of our favorite restaurants – Moonlight Pizza. Super-fresh ingredients, a braided crust, and Blue Moon on tap.

VI. Finally, we turn onto Dawson Street and Glenwood Avenue.
a. This is where much of the new redevelopment began, with Clearscape’s renovation of the Creamery Building in 1999 and Cline Davis’s construction of the seven-story 510 Glenwood later that year.
b. Within just a few years, developers have turned this street from a historical novelty to the busiest strip in town on a Saturday night.
c. Food includes two fine coffee shops, burger joints, more pizza, family restaurants, bars, a high-end steakhouse, Chinese, Japanese, Cincinnati chili, two wine bars, and one Turkish ice cream shop.

VII. Whether your commute is as short as mine, or if you spend most of your route above the speed limit, I hope you’ll consider the contrasts that you pass on your way.
a. Who are the people who live in these houses?
b. Who are the owners of these businesses and how did they get where they are?
c. Are the cars beside me different than mine or the same?
d. Why do I drive so far every day?
e. We live in exciting and deeply interesting city, even at the infinite points between A and B.

The Author Complex

2006-02-06T20:04:00.000-05:00

A friend encouraged me this week to write a book on a Christian perspective on Architecture. (As if I've never thought of writing a book on a Christian perspective on Architecture.) We tried to think of other similar titles - the only one I could think of was Ruskin's "Seven Lamps." It's probably about time for another one. And really, that's not fair - there are other Christian-Architecture books, and I haven't read them. However, this makes the point: perhaps the first challenge will be to write a book that someone will want to read.

My friend said he would help. The first thing is an outline. Then, make the book tell a story. Write a little bit at a time. What if you could write a page a day? In a year, it'd be a healthy size text.

But - a page. Have you ever tried to write a page? 8 1/2 x 11, or does 6x9 count, with 1" margins?

So, an outline:

1. Christian theory in architecture - creation, fall, redemption, creativity, environment. Get through this part quick.
2. Places - places we've been, what we see, what we feel, what we believe, what difference does it make?
3. Perhaps a tangent about elevators and commuter airplanes - what actually happens when that door closes and opens again into a new situation?
4. Something abstract - cf Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities."

. . . to be continued

Reading again at lunch.

2006-01-24T08:40:00.000-05:00

Having finished the architecture exams, having finished Libeskind's book (3 1/2 stars), having no one scheduled to meet for lunch, I resumed a happy habit yesterday of reading at lunch. The weather's gloomy, and the park is far away, but I found a corner in the back of the office that was quiet. I picked up Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, with its bookmark in the high 200's, and started diving in again.

And, with a book like this (not disimilar from Joyce's Ullysses in mass), "diving" is the right word. The "story" is so massive, so omnipresent, so existential and overtly narrative; the paragraphs are so enormous, that I find myself swimming in the words, foating in the middle of sentences, pondering the author's intent, wondering about the realities of life in america, comparing them to the proposed realities of life in russia, pondering faith and fiction. It's not as if my months away from the book leave me detached from the characters: in fact, I feel in many ways that I relate to them better, in a real-time sense, as if the characters have been living their lives as I have been living mine, and now we get back together for an hour at lunch.

To say I go back to work then, refreshed, may be an exageration. I did read about a duel yesterday, and that was exciting, until the dueler apologized and became a monk. I could do that - work feels more often like a duel.

Upcoming Photo Show

2005-11-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

I've been preparing prints for a small photo show in a local business office. Here's my write-up:

Raleigh in 6 Small Prints
Photography by Andy Osterlund

Downtown Raleigh continues to grow and change. If architecture can be read, Raleigh’s streetscapes are building a novel. Walking the sidewalks, a visitor finds chapters on warehouses and industry, moderately ornate turn-of-the-last-century storefronts, towers of a growing banking center, neighborhoods of eccentric affluence and communities of generations-old poverty. Dramatic chapters are being written now, and the suspense is building: a multi-modal transit hub, neighborhood redevelopment, a returning urban population.

These photos are portraits of our moment in architecture. Remember the colors, remember the shadows, the perpetual changing of places.

1. Fashion Center of New York, Inc. Wilmington Street
No.2 in a series of 4 storefronts. The second floor windows are blacked; daylight is visible at the first floor – the rear wall and roof are absent.

2. Reliable Loan Wilmington Street
Closed on Sundays, the best place in town to get a used diamond ring. Who can miss this color?

3. Smoked Turkey Grill South Street
A new business on a desperate block. Blocks around the corner from the Mayor’s house. Pegged a “gateway corridor;” pending wholesale community rehabilitation.

4. Dillon Supply Steel and Pipe Products Harrington Street
The solid brick warehouse edge of the downtown. Now being emptied to make way for a colossal transit hub. Three silver SUV's.

5. Audio Buys Glenwood Avenue, near Fairview
An experiment in the International Style, just like Mies. Set across a wasteland of an intersection, flanked by BP and trimmed with power lines.

6. Firestone at Dusk Dawson Street
The sun catches this tire shop and the city on the crest of a hill, on a one-way street out of town.

All 5x7 Cibachrome prints, non-digital; all available for purchase.

Liking Libeskind More

2005-11-10T12:42:00.000-05:00

I passed the half-way mark today in Libeskind's Breaking Ground - almost up to page 500 on my PDA. My opinions have shifted several times.

Before reading, my asumption was that this would be an eccentric explanation of life or archi-theory, detached in too many ways from actual living or construction. Instead, within the first few pages, Libeskind describes his family and his heritage, his warm partnership with his wife, and then the experiences of touching the foundations below what was the world trade center in NYC.

Second, because of the conversational style, I thought it would be too overtly ghost-written, and wouldn't likely describe anything architecturally significant. However, the next chapters describe profound experience and metaphor and architecture that goes beyond form-follows-function.

He describes a relationship between a building and the public that is rare and extraordinarily significant for a city. Stories are about the cultural need for certain projects, the public's aesthetic and functional desires, and then the very one-on-one bureaucracy that attempts to divert the people's attention.

The word "democracy" comes up often, related to architecture in the interest of the people.

Breaking Ground with Daniel

2005-10-25T12:58:00.000-04:00

Spurred by a non-architect's comments, I bought and started reading Daniel Libeskind's Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture last night. An entirely theoretical architect until the last few years, this name has always been an intriguing mystery to me, and I'm excited to read his book - it looks actually pretty light for such an enigmatic character: I hope it's authentic. Of course, Libeskind has been in the news as the named champion of the New York WTC design competitions.

If anyone is interested in reading this with me, I guarantee you'll have no trouble keeping up. Let me know.

Is Art Un-Presbyterian?

2005-10-16T17:12:00.000-04:00

I've begun a study of Presbyterian thoughts about art. This started when I bumped into the Westminster Larger Catechism's explanation of the Second Commandment:

". . . the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever."

Our associate pastor has gotten me going on this too with some articles about the absense of Puritan art and general discussions of art in the church.

Reading Calvin's commentary today on the second commandment was very helpful. A few points: 1) All representational art is not wrong. 2) Representations of God are wrong because they insult God - so there's the bite to chew on. 3) Calvin and Westminster might not be saying the same thing.

Anyway - here's a link to Calvin on Commandment #2: http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol04/htm/iii.htm

Some comments from our associate pastor:
http://twosons.blogspot.com/2005/02/packer-pictures-of-christ.html#comments

If Calvin is right, what should we do with the Sistine Chapel? I can do without El Greco, and I still haven't seen Mel Gibson's Passion, and Monte Python's "Brian" was already blaspheme, and those laquered Jesus pictures always weirded me out, but Giotto and the Pietà Rondanini will be harder to let go.

This discussion will be continued on Peace Arts - www.peacepca.org/arts

samples that sing

2005-10-12T09:39:00.000-04:00

A quick qualifier in choosing materials -
I ordered some samples last week for a project: glass block and acrylic "glass" block. I tapped the glass one with my pen and it rang out this happy note - the tone changes depending where you hit it on the block. The acrylic block makes more of a "thud" tone. A famous quote says that, "architecture is frozen music." So . . . maybe I'll tell our client that we should use glass block instead of acrylic because in a hailstorm it would sing a nicer song. It might be easier to find another excuse.

A perpetuation of things

2005-09-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

After visiting my parents recently, we came home with a set of goblets that had belonged to my grandparents. They're not extravagant, but they're heavy with an authentic art deco style that's a relief in our buy-stylish-merchandise-at-Target era. My grandparents used them for water glasses. Tonight, some time after dinner, I noticed the glasses still on the counter with a drop of pinot noir remaining in their bowls. I had a terrifying flash of guilt, considering (maybe naively), that this is the first time they've been used for alchohol in my conservative family, that somehow they had been desecrated.

The guilt passed quickly. But, it reminded me that these glass things had survived when the mood swings of families and mores had not. My wife and I discovered wine after college. At first it was a kind of elitist academic thing, being ushered in by eccentric connoisseurs who didn't mind buying so their company could experience the craft. Then, on a vacation to Spain, we ordered house wines with our dinner and enjoyed the taste and the happy experience and the absolute appropriateness of it. Now, you can throw in that connection with Jesus' first miracle and the communion table, and add to it many more enjoyable dinners with friends, and a glass of wine has become a wonderful gift, and a discovery.

So, it's nice to finally have some stemware, but I hope my grandparents aren't offended.

Welcome to Wilson

2005-08-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

My buddy at work lives in Wilson. He commutes 45 minutes daily to Raleigh. His world has recently changed by the opening of a new bypass around Knightdale directly to the 440 loop. When we ask him why he does it, he talks about his 19th century house with 11' ceilings and the value of his dollar in a small town.

I've shot a lot of small towns, and Wilson reminds me of a couple of them. It reminds me of Duluth, MN - a town that used to be busier. It reminds me of most every town between here and Columbia on Rt. 1 - towns where the conversation about "revitalizing the town center" is a couple generations too late.

Within the dozen blocks I walked on a Sunday afternoon, an easy majority of storefronts were empty. If a town can be judged by the storefronts on its mainstreets, the primary industry of Wilson must be pentecostal evangelism, with barbering a quick second.

Photography inevitably betrays my emotion of the moment. Somehow in the collage of light and color and composition, a critic can deduce an accidental intent. Walking these streets on this Sunday afternoon, I was unprepared to be alone (my colleague was unable to meet me in town.) I was confused by the mash of ornament and styles (when exactly was Wilson's heyday?) I was confronted by another question of faith (why don't I believe that the depth of these ubiquitous storefront chapels goes beyond the catch-phrase in its window signage? Where are the believable churches and what could they do about the emptiness?)

(This was originially posted on Peace Arts OnLine)

Southern Village and the Rest of the World

2005-04-16T23:08:00.000-04:00

(Our servers are down today, so I'm getting some time to write.)
We met on site Tuesday in Southern Village, a planned community near Chapel Hill. Our site was a market square area - a horseshoe surrounding a small green with retail and office. The topography puts the square on a kind of sloping plateau, overlooking rolling residential streets with private homes on small lots. I noted to my supervisor that this square felt isolated - disconnected from any major city or thoroughfare. He responded that it was actually quite a large community.

This is a moment in history when developments, even whole towns are created, ex nihilo. Sprouting en masse, as if planted in entirely miscellaneous locations. In the past, development was traceable and predictable. It was at ports and points of trade, along rail corridors, or bounded by hills. Development now is selected, as if by darts on a map. Connection is not necessary (isolation is preferred.) Landscape is irrelevant. Natural resources are unleasable, redundant to public services, or undiscovered. A master plan is concocted in a half-week of meetings and late night brilliance while the grades are cleared. Construction is already behind schedule and delays are costing everyone money.

The master plan is too small.

North and South Bloodworth

2005-04-16T22:17:00.000-04:00

Class lines in Raleigh are obscure. Where some towns have lines drawn by railroad tracks or school districts, Raleigh's seem to be drawn by developers and the limits of intention. These two storefronts are along South and North Bloodworth Street. The transition is over about four blocks of schoolyards, ball fields, and undeveloped land. Property values transition from mid 5 figures to mid 6. More telling are the portraits of homes - dilapidated two bedrooms to Victorian sixes. Driving through this Sunday, people were out on their streets, porches and yards - more in the South than the North. The shop owner on South Bloodworth approached us asking who we were and what the pictures were for. He was, to our surprise, white, mid-thirties, with a cell phone wired to his ear. He leaned against a telephone pole while we shot his store. The landcruiser was probably his. No one approached us on North Bloodworth, except for a man asking for money for food.

As a note - these shots were my first attempt at large format film (4x5). (!)

Vertigo on McDowell Street

2004-11-24T22:38:00.000-05:00

Since taking its picture last year, this diner has changed hands. “The Vertigo” didn’t even have time to take down the sign of the last tenant, but simply put their logo over top. This façade is extraordinarily simple, but it’s the accessories that create identity. Red benches where people could sit – they’re not the same, but they match, like a couple married for many years. The rows of newsstands like a lineup for dodgeball – pick your free paper, to the exclusion of all others. The colors are creative. The façade can be broken into very simple facets – color, proportion, signage, canopy, accessories. It’s a collage of parts, a happy collision of intent.

Farnsworth House

2004-10-31T17:32:00.000-05:00

The best thing for me about the Arts Conference lecture was the chance to put some of this into words - some of how I relate to Architecture, and some of why I think the built world matters to me as a citizen and as a believer in a Creative God.

This year, our church held its Second Annual Ping-Pong Tournament.Despite the obvious gratification of the contest at hand, it had the benefit of a perpetuity and tradition that the First Annual Ping-Pong Tournament only hoped toward. Tonight, as a matter of discipline, I'm beginning what I hope will be the first in a series of descriptions of images, images of Architecture.

This photo is from 1995, in Plano, Illinois, looking across the Fox River toward what I knew from school as Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House. There's some recent news about this house, that it's been purchased for posterity by the National Trust. In school, it was touted as one of the pinnacles of Modernism. For me, it is a favorite second to Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut.

This photo shows the closest I ever got to this house. We actually drove by once in the summer, but the leafy trees entirely obscured any view.

Most of Mies' other work is highly public - either skyscrapers in Chicago and New York or academic. The absolute clarity of the structure, that is the definition of Modern in these buildings, is obvious and unobscured. It sits exactly on the right-of-way of a city block, perceived by countless commuters in its full statement on order.

There was no way for me to get a clear shot of the Farnsworth House without climbing a barbed fence or swimming a frozen river. But, the order of this piece of modern elegance is still obvious as it sits in surprisingly harmonious contrast to the natural order of the overgrowth around it. In the gray of winter (and this was almost Spring!), the white of the steel even mimics the white on the water.

Trying to write more about this masterpiece gets a little more academic than I mean to go, so I'll stop there with simple associations. How cool to see steel speak the same language as old woods and water?

Peace Architecture Class Outline

2004-09-25T15:04:00.000-04:00

Intro:
Goals – notice your environment
Principles for any profession

I. A Theory of Christian Architecture (or “No Pictures Part 1”)
a. It’s okay to disagree – please use your comment card.
i. Acts 28:25
b. The earth is important; Everything God Created is Good – Be Thankful.
i. 1 Timothy 4:4
c. Notice your built environment.
i. Romans 1:20
d. Do not judge.
i. Luke 6:37
e. Nature longs for redemption,
i. Romans 8:18-21
f. Materials
i. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15
ii. Revelation 21:17-21
g. Craft
i. Exodus 31:1-11

II. XL, L, M, S (or “Pictures”)
a. XL – Maps
b. L – Streets
c. M – Shops
d. S – People and their houses

III. Response (or “No Pictures Part 2”)
a. Conversation
i. Philippians 4:8
ii. What do you remember enough to talk about?
1. Do you only remember the ugly?
b. Activism
i. Matthew 18:15-18
1. Sins against us: irresponsible clearing and leveling of land, excessive lighting (power waste, light pollution), dangerous traffic patterns (Crossroads), lack of innovation ("Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth" Isaiah 42:10), oppressive signage.
2. Who do we talk to?
a. Developers
b. Governments, but ordinances generally backfire.
c. Evangelism
i. Ezekiel 43:10 – 11
1. There is such a thing as a redemptive plan
ii. Romans 8:18-22
1. Through prayerful design, we begin to redeem nature - it's our job.
iii. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel, relate it to your environment and the people there. Preach on the street corners - preach about the street corners. Pray for the street corners. Pray for businesses. Pray for planners.
d. The Cure for Modernism = love
i. Exodus 20: Ten Commandments
1. No other gods – whatever you do, work for the Lord – Colosians 3:23
2. No idols – Frank Gehry isn’t perfect
3. Not misuse the name of the Lord – be a professional Christian
4. Remember the Sabbath – make a place for the sacred
5. Honor your father and mother – remember history
6. Shall not murder – be safe; don’t hate your neighborhood
7. Shall not commit adultery - overindulgence
8. Shall not steal – thoughtless repetition
9. Shall not give false testimony – honest materials
10. Shall not covet – simple signage
ii. Luke 6:31: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
1. Don’t support buildings you don’t like
iii. Romans 13:9-10: Love your neighbor, not rules

Vaudevillian Horizontalism

2004-08-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

Scanned through one of these xeroxed articles passed on to me en masse, "Christian Worship in Consecrated Space and Time." It took me too long to realize that the relevant section of the article was a two-paragraph bit near the end. "Finally, we come to the architectural articulation of the place of solemn assembly."

"Since the Jesus Christ is the temple of God, there remains no particular geographic place or space that is essentially sacred or rendered sacred by particular rites or specially designated officers, for the people of God is consecrated in Christ. Consequently, it is possible to gather anywhere and use any kind of building for worship. . . it is not true that the design of worship space has been rendered secondary or unneccessary by Christ's coming. Rather such design should symbolically evoke the ordered world revealed through the lens of redemption and experienced in the life of the church."
Arie C. Leder - Calvin Theological Journal

I'm not in a hurry to discuss the necessities in church Architecture. This article describes the modern church building as "vaudevillian horizontalism," meaning, my dictionaries tell me, theaters for entertaining our neighbors with little expression of our vertical relationship between God and man of praise, worship, prayer, holiness, symbolism, revelation, and the sacred. I don't deny this threat, and as a deacon board member with a budget, I won't pretend to know the answer.
In the urban context, this is a reminder to look for the sacred streetcorners. To start, is the church in the town center? No? Is there a town center? No? Is there anywhere that cars have to slow down and recognize a moment in space and time? Only at stop lights and accidents and drive-thru's. Vaudevillian horizontalism seems about right.

Learning from Fuquay Varina

2004-08-28T14:05:00.000-04:00

Started going through slides last night to prepare for the conference. I started with Fuquay-Varina, since those slides are the most recent.

The points to make from these tiny towns are probably enough for an hour course themselves, maybe a semester.

These points are from Fuquay's mainstreet alone:

1. What is the role of the individual shop owner? Is there any moral imperative for supporting him? Isn't it better to have the selection, low prices, bulk shipping, accountability that wholesale department stores offer? Is there a compromise option? Is there a Biblical model for the individual retailer, or just an American one?

2. Building elements survey: door, sales window, signage, facade, canopy, parapet (Genesis 1:6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.") What is a canopy really for? What does it do to a storefront?

3. Gas stations: no hiding the gas station in a small town. They become a feature. They are polished and orderly. They fill their site well. They look like elegant modern furniture.

4. "Expect a Miracle Christian Bookstore" What is the nature of explicitly Christian retail? Is it pretending to be something else - this store looks like a country porch? Is that marketing, or a reaction of the hearts at peace inside? Contrast with "Family Bookstore" at the urban mall.

5. Catastrophic signage. How do we respond to the retailer of random goods? There are some moral issues here and isolation, but the change likely has to come from the inside. Who will have the patience to befriend this man?

6. Perfect signage, perfect proportions, detailed brickwork. What, no canopy? How is a storeowner compelled to be so rational in his design? What went right here?

7. Aha! It's his house! That's what went right - personal responsibility and care.

8. The urban courtyard. It may be space for infill, but it adds depth and complexity to a streetfront. Outdoor malls have similar configurations, but the open space is reserved for parking, not for people. Note the picnic table.

9. Rear signage - take responsibility for your backyard - makes the potential for other uses of the service aisles.

10. National retail chains on their day off = empty parking lots and ugly architecture. This Hudson Belk is offensive in its minimalism. If I were to write a letter to the store owner, what could I say? Empty space cannot be ignored. My guess is that its the sin of sloth, maybe adultery.

11. Grace Presbyterian Church. The most beautiful featureless storefront I've ever seen. Maybe the cure for modernism is love.

12. Studies on signage and color and mixed use.

Everything I need to know about Architecture I learned from Fuquay.

The Cure for Modernism

2004-08-25T12:59:00.000-04:00

A few points here, but mainly a reference to the irrelevance of the title. Modernism in architecture generally refers to the minimalism of decoration, clarity of forms, economy in structure and function. The conversation on modular construction began here with high hopes for low-income housing and expedient build times.

The disease of modernism came when the only words the developers heard were "cheap," "fast," and "build-to-suit."

The most elegant expressions of modernism came with Mies Van Der Rohe with his steel and glass apartment buildings, institutional halls, and houses (Chicago +/-). While these were modular with their proportions and general in their function, they were not fast and certainly not cheap.

The most devastating expressions of modernism came in the mass-housing facilities of every major urbanity, based on part of Le Corbusier's Unites d'Habitation, the part where a lot of people can fit on a small footprint of land.

While post-modernism certainly has its own crises, it offers some opportunity for the developer / planner / owner to take responsibility for his actions while coming closer than ever to his goals of cheap, fast, and modular. This is done largely through cheaper, more functional, more available, more environmentally beneficial, more easily worked materials.

So, part of the "pill" is new materials and methods. But it means that the designers have to go back to work. Innovation has to be in our vocabulary again. Where the citizen was voiceless against the modernist economy, today he can make demands on those who build his environment. He can demand beauty and functionality without expecting the inconvenience of lead-times and price increases.

Manipulated by Camus

2004-08-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

I finished "The Fall" today. According to my marks in the margins, I've actually read this before, at least to within the last 10 pages, but I didn't remember a word of it. In grammar school, we learned that you can't write a story in 2nd person. The reason for this now I understand isn't that it's impossible, but that it's cruel. I became the character to whom the author was speaking. Even when I wasn't reading the book, during the day, I was that 2nd person. And to learn that I had driven the protagonist to his provacative end, what kind of man am I? "It's always too late. Fortunately." Oh dreadful, so revealing.

Evangelism

2004-08-24T12:49:00.001-04:00

Ezekiel 43:10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple-its arrangement, its exits and entrances-its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.

- There is such a thing as a redemptive plan.

Romans 8:18 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

- Through prayerful design, we begin to redeem nature - it's our job. I don't want to exagerrate this reference, but the connection is clear, that sin does not only affect our souls, but it has affected nature and the built environment.

- What is "Christian" design? What would Jesus do? Follow the 10 commandments and the golden rule: make no idols (no showy buildings), do not covet (simple signage), do not bear false witness (honest materials), love your neighbor (relate to your context), do unto others as you would have done to you (don't build buildings you don't like).

- But, how do we make the connection to Jesus? How do we preach the gospel through design? The surface answer is probably the best - communicate with developers and planners and builders and shopowners and tell them what the Bible says about what they're doing. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel, relate it to your environment and the people there. Preach on the street corners - preach about the street corners. Pray for the street corners. Pray for businesses. Pray for planners.

Activism

2004-08-23T13:23:00.000-04:00

Matthew 18:15-18 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

How do we decide what the sins against us are?
A few ideas: irresponsible clearing and leveling of land, excessive lighting (power waste, light pollution), dangerous traffic patterns (Crossroads), lack of innovation ("Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth" Isaiah 42:10), oppresive signage (Can we use the 4th ammendment? Maybe it's a stretch, maybe not.)

Who do we talk to?
Developers
Town ordinances often backfire and create loopholes. Make it a point of personal responsibility instead.

Go alone, then go with friends, go with your church, boycott.

Conversation

2004-08-23T13:02:00.001-04:00

A first part of reading a downtown is talking about it. When you get home to your family, what do you remember? What can you mention? The first things I hear when people talk to me about architecture - within seconds - is that strip malls are ugly and that Walmart has taken over. Yes, there are 4 Walmarts within 10 miles of my house, but if Walmart is the only building we remember in that 20 mile diameter, they're doing something that no other building has been able to do. Do we only remember the ugly? Why has our perspective become so dim? Or, is there something more insidious about Walmart than its landscape that causes us to remember it. In that case, we haven't remembered anything at all about the built environment within 10 miles from our home.

Can you name the nearest strip mall? Where is it? What is ugly about it? Is it a service to you? My guess is that our memories point to the 1965 modern shell with empty storefronts. Thankfully, this model appears to have failed and is being replaced. What is different about the replacements? More careful materials? Colors? Was the solution to the ugly problem of the strip mall that simple?

As an exercise for the class, we could try to have people list ten buildings they remember between their house and the church. Which of these would you like to talk about?

Materials

2004-08-23T12:42:00.001-04:00

Common urban building materials:

Brick and mortar: earthy, locally available in red-orange, permanent, labor intensive, non-structural, detailing is rare and expensive, readily transmits water, no insulating value, potential for mold if not insulated properly.

EIFS: manmade, available in any color, cheap, fast, any detailing is possible, water barrier, insulating, looks plain in large fields, dirties quickly

Glass Storefront: welcoming, advertising value, sheds water, cleanable, some insulating value (not much), simple installation

Glass Curtainwall: Opportunity for proportions, showy, produces glare and heat gain to other buildings, marginal interest level, expensive, dishonest at floor levels, generally inoperable and offer no ventilation and bulk heat gain and cooling loss.

Exposed steel structure: honest and demonstrative, very difficult to do well, difficult to seal for water and climate

CIP Concrete: honest and demonstrative, durable, expensive, difficult to detail, no insulating value - some mass value, condensation problems without proper insulation techniques

Pre-cast concrete: for show only, expensive

Wood: warm, welcoming, natural, honest - seldom used commercially because it burns and rots.

Course Format

2004-08-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

As a nod to Koolhaas' book, a helpful outline for the Peace Arts workshop may be XL, L, M, S.

XL will be very short, but may highlight idas by Calthorpe and DPZ.

L can talk about strip malls, Crossroads Plaze, SouthPoint, and Poyner Place. L is also the place to reference "downtown Cary and the Maynard Road photos.

M can reference specific downtown storefronts.

S could be houses, but may be better to move directly to the person: the shop keeper, the developer, the commuter, the employee, the consumer, the town planner, the hearer. S could be the car and the pedestrian.

Reference Material

2004-08-22T19:51:00.000-04:00

Currently, I'm reading "The Fall" by Camus and "Learning from Las Vegas" by Venturi. The former will keep me humble, I expect, and the latter, well, we'll see. Pastor Jones last week gave me a stack of reference material: "The Culture of Time and Space" by Kern, "The Condition of Postmodernity" by Harv, along with a stack of photocopied articles.

A recent "Mars Hill" article described the decision of a large urban church congregation to remain in the city, despite it's growing need for parking. The decision to stay was based on its significant ministry opportunities by being located within an urban environment. It also mentioned the importance of churches to retain their own real estate as the city grows around them. This was the most hopeful article I have heard about the contemporary church and / or architecture.

Except for classical and neo-classical writers, I've found very little of depth on Christians and Architecture. It's just as well since I read so slowly.

Arts Conference First Thoughts

2004-08-22T17:56:00.000-04:00

For the Arts Conference at Peace Presbyterian Church, I'll be doing a short workshop on Architecture - "Faith and Your Daily Commute." Following are some loose thoughts:

1. Isaiah describes a new heavens and a new earth. We're not escaping the world. We're not removed from the world. Our communities deserve more than to be ignored. The earth isn't bad, though it's fallen.

2. I've been studying mercy, but practicing Architecture. What is the relationship? How does one affect another?

3. Many parts of the this talk will be contraversial. Most of my colleagues won't agree with me. My pastor agrees with me, so we'll be encouraged by that. [I plan to have a response card for people to describe where they disagree before they walk out. It could have three strikes that people could write down as I talk. We could talk about some afterwords, but mostly it's for me to develop my thoughts better.]

4. "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." 1 Timothy 4:4; MT 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

When we start to look at our communities and our highways, we need first to be thankful. Second, we need to remember that people are involved. We can see character in the uniquities and eccentricities caused by materials, limits, and time.

5. Read Your Downtown:
Architecture, Faith, and Your Daily Commute
Connect these dots: - God’s qualities are understood from what has been made and men are without excuse; - God creates man in His image; - Man creates Crossroads Shopping Center.
In the same way we can know God through His word and His creation, do we reflect our image of God in the environment we create around us? This workshop encourages you to watch the built environment that surrounds you. How do structures and roadways reflect our community? What is the nature of brick, EIFS, and shrubbery? Best case, this workshop spurs conversation, activism, evangelism, and the cure for modernism. Worst case, we all get to watch a lot of slides with no people and go home. Either way, we may step into a brave old world of Beauty on an urban scale.

6. Show photos of downtowns - have people guess where they are and give them points: 1 point for guessing the city, two points for naming the street.

7. Show photos of Cary - what is happening at these intersections? Why are the buildings being hid? Why are gas stations being hid? What is this about?

Page One

2004-08-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

Good afternoon. Obviously, this site is blank for now, but I have some plans. What a great opportunity to post into the ether. What a great time we live in to print so freely and wonder if anyone will read. My interests are writing, architecture, and music, and I'd love comments on each. We'll see what the site lets us do. Thanks for stopping by.