Spencer's moments in the woodsSpencer's moments in the woods - LiveJournal.comAbsence makes the blog grow quiet- May 30, 2008 I&8217;ve been out of town for the past two weeks and had nary a moment to read architecture stories, let alone compose a post of my own criticism or comments. Sometimes the real world seems to not want to let me get back to the virtual one. So instead, as my welcome back post, I thought I would post a link to Eikongraphia&8217;s Most Popular Architecture Blogs of 2008. This is really a best of the best list, look for future articles to be sourced from these blogs (and their coming addition...http://werecub.livejournal.com/168399.html Urban Parkland- May 14, 2008 So I&8217;ve been digging through the archive of articles that I have meant to write about, but have not had the chance and came across this article from boston.com which discusses Green Roofs, specifically the the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in Washington DC, and discusses their popularity in Europe and compares them to standard roofs. Green roofs are one of the areas where building design in the US lags behind the rest of the developed world. In Europe, green roofs are...http://werecub.livejournal.com/168130.html Solar Stickers - Now by LISA FRANK!- May 13, 2008 Image via DRI Energy So I have been studying for my LEED AP exam lately, so my interest was peaked when I came across this article online. Apparently, DRI Energy has come out with a product called Lumeta PowerPly which adheres directly to the roofing membrane instead of being mounted on an expensive and heavy roof structure, which is one of the prohibitive cost factors in the implementation Photovoltaic Panels. I imagine that this application will have less of a yield because it is fixed to..http://werecub.livejournal.com/167683.html Article: As seen at the Apple Store &8230;- May 10, 2008 The New York Times ran an article about an architect who used a glass stair in his home to open it up and create more light. Glass stairs are nothing new to commercial architecture - they&8217;ve been around for many years before Apple built one in their iconic SoHo store in NYC, but they are relatively new in residential construction. Part of the reason for this is that the structural components for a glass stair like the one in the article (a concealed steel structure) are not commonly used.http://werecub.livejournal.com/167458.html In defense of Architects- May 7, 2008 This past weekend the Washington Post ran an article in their magazine describing one man&8217;s trauma renovating his kitchen. It has some very negative things to say about the architect, the contractor, and the building process as a whole. It is obvious that there is blame to go around. Yes, the architect made poor design decisions and the contractor had his errors as well; but speaking as a member of the profession, I feel that the greatest problem here is with the public conception of...http://werecub.livejournal.com/167195.html She&8217;ll be riding on the Metro when she lands &8230;- May 1, 2008 Today The Washington Post reported that the rumors of the demise of the Dulles Metro Extension were greatly exaggerated. Of course, this does not mean that the funding is free and clear, it just means that the project has not been scrapped and it will continue, with certain requirements to be met. For those unfamiliar, this project is a rail extension for the WMATA run METRO&8217;s Orange Line. The new line would run out to Dulles Airport, the main international terminal for DC, which is...http://werecub.livejournal.com/166972.html Organic Planning- May 1, 2008 Recently I have made a number of posts regarding green buildings and the paradigm shift which will be necessary if we are even going to have a truly green architecture (see posts here and here). I bring this up again because i recently read two different articles online from two different architectural professionals from two different cultures, Martha Schwartz a Boston &038; London based landscape architect and Harald Bodenschatz a professor of Sociology and Planning in at the Technische...http://werecub.livejournal.com/166709.html |