Inbound : Houston

Using 13 billboards along the city's downtown freeways, Olivier has replaced the usual advertisements with images of the urban landscape that would be visible if the billboard did not exist - the sky, trees, and buildings obstructed by the ads will now be "revealed.

As a native Houston I find that this instillation strikes numerous chords with me. To begin with, the idea that there is one less billboard in the world brings peace to my day. Also, the idea that the average commuter might notice these and maybe question these objects that have become part of everyday life.

As a side note the artist recieved major funding to pay for the advertising space. This only perpetuates the idea that these advertising companies will do anything for a buck, even if it is a direct critique of how their business models have lead to an over saturation of clutter throughout the city.

SAFARI _ TOP SITES

I love the new function of TOP SITES that Safari offers in the newest editions. Using this as a quick link selector, I am able to quickly browse my job boards and frequently visited sites. On my TOP SITES board I have locked in: FB, Craigslist, AIA job board, AIASF job board, Archinect job board, BLNKT homesite [my new collaborative's homepage], Twitter, the BIG 4401, and the rest fill in with other most visited sites. LOVE IT

PeopleFund Center For Economic Opportunity

PeopleFund is a non profit organization "PeopleFund is a non-profit dedicated to creating economic opportunity." This weekend they held their Conference on Economic Opportunity - more can be found at their website.

This project is located in East Austin near the MLK rail stop. The developers of the site have planned to eventually incorporate mixed use occupancy as well as two other non profits, Austin Children's Museum and Sustainable Foods. I have been on this project from the schematic design phase, design development, construction documents and now into construction administration. Its a small 2 story facility, 10,000 SF, hope to attain LEED silver certification and it is to be completed by the end of summer 2010.

The rendering is from the SW corner looking NE, Clark Keitel from our St. Louis office does most of our watercolor renders for using as marketing for the client as well as showing clients an idea of the finished building. I'd like to model in sketchup and illustrate to give a different method of review for marketing. Give me ideas!!

Hope to keep the blog updated as we enter and continue through construction!

santa fe section sketches

drawn in moleskine sketch with cover by meghunt or here generous gifts from mr. j kyle - thank you

the books and the adventure to santa fe inspired these little babies ... kiva inspired, southwest, architectural sections ... light, sun, thinking smaller, differently, of hills and open air ... clean, simple, drawn...

All you find you keep

Something I cooked up last night

need comments

autodesk sketch book for i-phone

Not that we all have i-phones or whatever, but this app is really cool - and it's surprising that autodesk created it! It's user friendly and fun and has some cool functions: you can change brush size, type, layers, colors via color wheel or swatches and it all works on touch and an intuitive menu.

This is a perspective sketch i did in only few minutes with the mirror tool and a brush ... i can go in later and fill and add detail ... I hear there are apps on the market that can allow contractors in the field to take a picture and in real time architects back at the studio sketch over it to show the contractor what needs to change etc. SWEET!

pretty dolls!

oh the kitsch nature of window shopping ... look at all the pretty lil princesses, brides, crosses, grooms and dancers ... chicago window shopping. you need some porcelain dolls! where have windows gone? where are these little shops now? what up?

My Trip In the Desert

This is one of the sketches i did after a short trip to the town of Real de Catorce. We spent a weekend in and around the area exploring. We got pretty far from anything that one would call civilization. I bought gas that was poured into my jeep with a metal pail and a funnel. It was an enchanted place and i think that some of the energy from that adventure found its way onto my page. We ended up camping in a valley where the magic cactus grows. I would like to eventually add some color to the pages and maybe eventually redo it to clean up the overall composition a little better.

Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

I would like to nominate Bjarke Ingles' TED talk as possibly my favorite of all time. His 'evolutionary' approach to architecture is simple, intuitive and effective. Bjarke likens the lineage of architecture design and theory to the theory of evolution, complete with its own tree. He also explains how although an idea may be rejected in one situation may be perfect for another. His ideas seem so simple and straightforward that I feel inspired to see that still the best ideas can be the simple.

new work

sketches ... creation ... machines ... organic ... abstracts of fluid mechanics ... amalgamation ... transform ... kinetic ... cable ... shell ... plates ... form ... channeled ... scratch ... rough ... movement ... begin ... genesis