great minds think...

This morning I woke up to a NYTimes architecture alert: A Concrete-and-Glass Town House in Barcelona.  I secretly love when the alerts take me to the Great Homes and Destinations section...it's always something pretty fabulous.

Anyway, I was struck by the glass flooring in this house, which is exactly what I had designed in my studio project, but have recently had to remove due to structural restrictions. This photo makes me want to bring it back and figure out an alternative solution to the fact my building would instantly fail in compression and buckling. this is, if it were even possible to construct. oops.

The architect describes this as an open-air "internal terrace" - which was exactly my motivation for the unique flooring material too.  Bummer. I've got to make it work!! Maybe if I add those cable suspensions, my critics would believe it to be structurally sound? Would be a great rendering!

See more of this "Great Home and Destination" here.  Please note "large wine library" in the kitchen?! nice, nice.

Ok. Blogging during finals week??

bye!! see you on the flip side.

for boston, for boston

YAY BC Hockey! National Champions! Loved watching victory...especially in the company of a trash talking Wisco Alum (sorry Per) matched by Foster's commentary throughout the game...mostly imitating Jerry York's typically polite put-downs. Cripes!!

town & country

Maybe it's because I'm rooted in upstate New York, but I often feel slightly...what's the word...depressed? on the weekends in the city.  Cliche? Yes...but I really miss...what's the word... trees? grass? clean air? open space? This weekend we're heading up to beautiful Vermont to visit our bestest friends Emily and Perry in their gorgeous home in Burlington.  I'm so looking forward to seeing them -- and also feeling the restorative energy of a drive through the countryside and waking up to the babbling brook outside of their guest room (I'm not making this up for literary effect - there REALLY is a babbling brook).

Ryan and I have been dreaming about purchasing a weekend house in upstate New York since the day we moved to New York City.  We had our eye on a stone house with porch built in the 1840s, complete with chicken coup.  On the market for 400+ days, we just found out that it was just sold. Tear! Hope is not lost though - upstate NY is rich with beautiful country homes, waiting for me...someday?!

 Won't be needing this.

Originally settled by Dutch colonists in the 1600's (as was New York City), I love noting the style similarities between these country homes in the Hudson Valley and their homes on the canal in "old world" Amsterdam. Whether we purchase a "fixer-up-er" or (dare I say!) design our own, I most definitely want to keep in the authentic Dutch colonial style.

Amsterdam - photos from our trip in March!

 

orange roof. like.

the "dancing ladies" houses - a structural engineering 911. 

sidenote: i do not recommend googling "dancing ladies + amsterdam."

 shutters - a must.

"New Amsterdam" - National Historic Landmark Dutch Homes in Upstate NY

Lendeert Bronck House in Coxsackie, NY. It does not get any more Dutch than this - in style or name.

please, can i have you?

"our" house looked just like this one. beaut! 

shutters, check.

With the loss of my 1840s farm house complete with chicken coup, I've been forced to find a new property to dream about on NYC weekends.  Minus a serious lack of front lawn and low ceilings (part of it's authenticity, so I suppose I'll let it slide), this one could perhaps be just as good? And, it's also on the National Historic Landmarks list. Please reduce your price and stay on the market until we're ready??

blueprints as art

I  think architectural drawings are gorgeous and I'm supremely bummed I wasn't smart enough to think of this first (darn you, Kevin Busta) - collage on vintage blueprint drawings seen here. Brilliant. Am in love. Now I'm definitely going to be on search for old and beautiful blueprints.  Would love to find one large print, cut into 9 smaller pieces and frame individually in a series. Or just DIY collage.  Silhouette collage, might I add! Would certainly be the affordable option to this piece (@ $5200...art or rent? art or rent?).

Birds on Wire, Acrylic on Vintage Blue Print - 30"H x 84"W

n.b. spring break travel and beginning the decent into the black hole of finals have limited my posts.  yet - post finals black hole, I have grand plans for 4 months of summer break to fill with lots of blogging.  thanks for bearing with my increasingly crazy sched until then :)

burj kh-AH!-lifa

Tomorrow, William F. Baker, the engineer of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is giving a lecture at Pratt.  While I have great respect for this tremendous feat of architectural design and engineering, this place scares the living daylights out of me. The thought of the restaurant on level 122 or the observation deck on level 124 is terrifying.  My heart goes out for the window-washing crew of Burj Khalifa.

 

Looking down. AH!

 Looking up. Ooooo!

As much as I am petrified of heights, I am incredibly excited to hear the engineer's first hand account of the structural design and construction of this building.

ps, more to come in the Spring 2010 Pratt Lecture Series... Santiago Calatrava, Sir Peter Cook, Daniel Libeskind.  Steven Holl and David Adjaye presented over the past two weeks. preeeeeettty good.

cityscape: geek or chic?

When I saw this dress at Anthropologie my first reaction was, "As an architect, I must have this."  With the description "City skylines rise with grandeur and purpose," how could I say no to this most perfect piece? I imagined wearing it to my final review and making a bold statement to my professor, jurors and classmates: not only do I eat, sleep and breathe architecture, I WEAR it too...get it?! And then I realized...I'd likely become the laughing stock of Pratt. The laid back luxe, hippie-chic school in Brooklyn would definitely not see the pure genius of this themed dress. So, I put it out of my mind and moved on to more important things like the new Union Square location of Baked by Melissa.

But then, just yesterday, I ran into this article Architecture in Dinnerware in the NYTimes home section (pictured above)  Jackpot!! If city scape themes are good enough for the NYTimes, then they are good enough for me (really cool Brooklyn grad school or not).  Watch out Spring semester final review...

I must admit that I am a fan of the cityline graphics. Some variations on a theme:

New York, New York wallpaper from Schumacher. 

Shower Curtain, City Style from CB2.

 

CB2, part 2. 

 

  

Perhaps break into the cityscape fashion scene with a NYC scarf from Lily and Lionel? (via Lucky Mag)

kudos Zatista!

Much of my studio work this semester is based on the idea of vector lines and trajectory.  My building, an incubator/shared office space for new bio-tech companies sited in Dumbo, Brooklyn (just a few blocks from our former apt) takes the structural and ornamental lines from the surrounding buildings and projects vector lines onto our site (more ideas/images to come, don't you worry).

I recently came across the artist Joshua Huyser on Zatista, a website to view and purchase original art (which I have found ranges from under $50 up to $10,000+).  I found a similarity in the abstract linework of Huyser's artwork and my driving vector line concept. Cool! I love love love this yellow painting called "Wander/Wonder." 

...very computer-programmer meets NASA

Kudos to Zatista, because I also found another really cool artist, Katrine Hildebrandt, who does cut paper (hello ofgreengables!) collage and sculpture. I believe laser cut paper is incredibly striking and the real life effect is hard to portray through digital images.  I'm sure these are stunning!  So inspirational for a hopeful cut paper designer like myself... :)

 

 Gorge...and affordable art! $175

  

 

 

george & martha

It's the perfect day to honor the art of the silhouette...President's Day! I had my eye on a pair of framed George & Martha Washington silhouettes from a friend's fabulous antique & vintage shop: & found (she also has an etsy shop). Sadly, they've already sold, but I'm always on the lookout for a pair as great.

I'm also developing a silhouette series of framed artwork for Of Green Gables.  It's really the perfect scheme for laser cut designs, which is concerned first and foremost with the design of negative space cut outs...perfecto. 

The original President's Day inspiration from & found:

Carter Kustera's (via Jonathan Adler) kitchy take:

 

Savvy Silhouette in New Canaan, CT has come chic options...this is the perfect family series option.

Being a brand new Etsy shop owner (yippee!), I have to support my fellow Etsians.  Luckymebeads are temporarily closed for vacation, but these custom tiny silhouette charms are precious!

As seen as graphic punch in bookshelf styling in the Feb/March Lonny Magazine.

Finally -great gift idea from Jessica Rust Designs...

an Architect...indulge me

I recently came across this print series 100 Abandoned Houses by photographer Kevin Bauman.  In the mid 90s, he began photographing abandoned houses in Detroit and over the last 10 years has edited the collection down to a portfolio of 100 images (n.b. there are around 12,000 abandoned homes in the city today).

While I think these images are incredibly beautiful, they are also a haunting reminder of fragility and impermanence, most especially to an architect (please indulge me).  I believe many architects feel a satisfaction in well, many things, but most especially the physical permanence and lasting influence their work has on a street, a neighborhood, a city, a nation....you get my point.  This is something I have been reminded of while working on the design of the opposite extreme: greeting cards!

Anyway, I think they are incredible images and at $35 a pop, I can't say no!!  I'd love a series of four...or six.  Here are some of the contenders! 

 

Sneak Preview

Even though I'm busy busy with school work for a desk critique this afternoon, I'd hate to disappoint my thousands (hundreds? tens? let's be honest, Hi Mom) of readers today.  I leave you with a quick sneak preview of two of my postcard designs - soon for sale on Etsy.