Abomination

Some architect should be ashamed of him/her/themselves...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/us/19ozarks.html?_r=1&hp

The Department of Public Design: Announcement #9_ Response to Hacking/Unauthorized ...

The Department of Public Design: Announcement #9_ Response to Hacking/Unauthorized ...: "Two recent statements appearing on the project website, issued ostensibly from its director have been deemed by the Department to be the wo..."

Design = wash, rinse & repeat

This post by Stefan Boublil extends a conversation we have around here a lot about the limits - or the limitlessness- of design. As a way of thinking and working it only makes sense that you would extend this attitude toward everything you do. We're always talking around here about "designing the business", and treating it as an integrated extension of designing our lives. The essence of design is getting the elements of some medium clearly out in front of you and then bringing those elements into an speculative dialogue with each other. There's always a research phase in which you identify and articulate those elements, a phase of triage and bracketing in which the those elements are sorted and ranked in a preliminary hierarchy relative to a given objective, and then the play begins, or continues, in which these elements are brought together like a bunch of puzzle pieces with no predetermined way of going together, out of which will emerge a variety of configurations that become provisionally the most fruitful and potentially generative of more movement toward ever greater resolution, or ever greater generative capacity.

The risk is that you may discover something along the way that obligates you to change your life. But that's also the hope...

...rinse and repeat.

Metadata for Architectural Exploration

Something for the architecture geeks amongst you (Even among architects, some stand out...)

Check out this real time unfolding interactive data tree organizing European architectural data.

Video Madness

We've currently been experimenting with video technology here in the office, both as a discovery and presentation tool. Acting as a moving documentary to chronicle place, movement, textures, emotions, and feeling, we've also begun to discover how "simple touches" can truly change the experience.

Here's a sample of what we mean

Also, check out new things on our website. We've added some soon-to-be-completed pictures of the Whiting Clinic, off of 394 in St. Louis Park, as well as some updated imagery of the temple in Roseville, MN

Times Square Revisited

I've always been fascinated with Architecture and Photography. This was a great feature by the NY times on the rebirth of 42nd street near Times Square. Once a dismal, eclectic grouping of peep shows, stingy shops and "personable" people (a la those memorable street scenes from Taxi Driver), its now a re-vamped smorgasbord of corporate advertising and shopping. Also, a lot of cool architecture has now been covered up unfortunately...maybe in 20 years we'll see another type of (de) transformation

Enjoy!

Visual Interest

In a recession that effects architects to no end, there' s been some unique discussion as to new ways to interject our passions for creativity into a very sterile business model. We've tried to come up with ways of giving clients incentive to build by incorporating extra "value" into our ideas. This is not necessarily a new idea. In fact, both architects and developers have been trying to find ways to add new value and interest to all sorts of property types. One thing you will find in most major cities these days is a plethora of advertisements in all sorts of locations. Some designed, some added on after the fact. Here are some traditional, and maybe non-traditional examples I've come across lately:

As you can see, there's lots of variation to how advertising not only visually effects a urban (or rural) landscape, but also how it adds value to a piece of land or property. Some of these might be a little extreme, but consider the relationships between those who live in the buildings, those who own the buildings and those who want to advertise. Balancing these three parties' interests can lead to not only increased property value, but the possibility of the physical advertisement providing an increased comfort level for the occupants (such as shading by a large billboard during long, summer afternoons, decreasing air conditioning costs) The key in all this is discovering where there is opportunity for increased revenue.

Another example can be found in baseball stadiums with the advertising most of us probably just assume is necessary for keeping them afloat. This financial relationship is true, but I found it cool to take a look at the evolution of the advertising and, more generally, how visual icons have adapted to specific scenarios.

Most of you probably know Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. If you take a look at the plan of the stadium, it's odd shape is a direct result of its land constraints, with three large boulevards bordering the structure (Here's a google map image of the park.)

At the top of the image, or in left field, you have the "Big Green Monster," a strange building anomaly which has gone from its origins to protect the buildings adjacent to the park from getting pummeled by baseballs to something of a legend in the sport. However, look at the advertising potential in this photograph, not only physically applied to it, but just in the view:

I count 6, but that doesn't include the profit driven seating ON the wall. This all adds up to taking what is essentially a wall, and turning it, and the airspace around it, into a profitable enterprise benefiting the team, the advertisers and the fans in those seats (not to mention continuing to protect the buildings behind, and sustaining their high property values.)

Flash forward to the new Target Field in downtown Minneapolis (a beautiful stadium I might add). One of the best features is the framing of the skyline in the background. While I am still getting to know which buildings are which, I believe its safe to say the view inside the stadium will no doubt start to have its own value as a Minneapolis Landmark.

But what if we saw a change in the next twenty years to that of the Green Monster? No doubt that the view could have its own advertising potential. With Target (and other minneapolis corporations) having interest in putting its logo in such a famous view, could the view inside the stadium change to something like this (a la Blade Runner?)

I'm guessing a fight over the airspace (and all the free advertising) might get ugly. But let's back up for a sec before we get carried away.

The reason I bring this up is in connection to our nearly completed project of the Whiting Clinic off of 394. This project has continued to evolve (as most projects do) over the course of design and construction. However, the unique part of this project has been the branding of the building, the business and the connection they they share. In a location where you have a high volume of traffic passing by (and potentially hundreds of clients a day), it was important to consider the visual impact of the building and how it would relate to the message the client wanted to convey about his business.

The idea of a really cool visual element became a central part of the design, that later ended up as a band of continually changing lighting embedded in an aluminum paneling system wrapped around the building (try to say it three times fast!). While it wouldn't detract from the thought and execution of the necessary advertising signage, its presence was intended to resonate with the progressive and modern nature of the marketed demographic. In other words, Lasik surgery geared toward cool, modern, progressive individuals. This, hopefully, would be something unique and profitable about a building that, before our renovations, wasn't doing all too much for the eye.

Proposed Whiting Clinic Design

The point of the discussing these examples of visuals applied to existing buildings is to show the relationship between the design and business aspects of architecture. While some of these places are purely adaptations of existing structures, it should be clear that Advertising, branding, marketing...these happen to be only some of the factors that can begin to drive design. In the long run, it may be that for architects to be truly profitable, more emphasis in design should be placed into how new buildings begin to reflect the business relationships shared by designers, developers, and clients, and hopefully preparing for changes that may occur down the road. After all, achieving a succinct and clear design would hopefully improve the longevity and usefulness of all aspects of a property.

Resurgence!

While we love to keep in touch with all of our loyal fans with our current work, sometimes we find ourselves a bit overloaded with decision making and design work. A number of people have recently approached us asking if this discussion would hopefully continue to be updated, and to that, we would like to announce that you can expect much more in the coming months from us.

Most of you may already know of our move to the new location ("New" being a relative term, as we've been well settled here for a year or so) . The space has been working out very nicely so far, minus some of the "visitors" that make the occasional appearance during the colder months. Never the less, we've also been able to keep busy with some interesting projects within the Twin Cities and beyond. If you take a look at our website (under "in progress"), some of these have been already been posted. We're hoping this blog will give a taste of some of the daily conversation and decisions that are integral into the completion of these projects.

In the mean time, check out this video. Some (including myself) would suggest that the essence of this represents a lot of the beauty and majesty of what good space can be. Regardless of whether you are as nerdy about buildings as we are, it is an impressive display of CG rendering (that is, done exclusively by computers), by a single person no less. Enjoy!

The Third And the Seventh - Alex Roman

Farewell sweet workspace...

It's been a great first 3 years in our space -- the cradle of our practice, the lunchroom of our salad days, the fledgling command center of future market domination -- and we'll miss it : the windows the light the old brick the neighborhood of trees the fire station and black-smocked Aveda girls diurnal migration and the no parking (won't miss that) and Vesper College downstairs and Brasa across the street and all the restaurants and the River right there and White Castle and Surdyk's everlasting tasting and oompa loompa deli workers and the mad collision of Central & Hennepin at the ragged edge of the last wave of development petering out..the insurance guy in the shack below the billboard on the shoal of curb & gutter...the mute dusty corpse of Totino's...

Ahhh --

Yeah, we'll miss it -- but the new space will be even cooler! Stay tuned...

(Many thanks to Scott Gilbertson for coming over on short notice to professionally document our fair and soon-to-be erstwhile workspace before we proceeded to start tearing it apart...for more of Scott's images as well as some portraits of a partnership in perpetual transition, walk this way...)

The Latest in Lake Homes

A RoehrSchmitt home in Northern Minnesota. Completed this fall. Stay tuned for more.

New Work

Something new we're working on. An aircraft museum developed in two days. Fast and fun.

Gotting Residence Featured in Star Tribune

RoehrSchmitt Architecture was pleased to be featured in the June 21st, 2009 issue of The Star Tribunes Sunday Home section with an article entitled "A One-Bedroom Wonder". The article profiled one of our most recent projects, the Gotting Residence in Northeast Minneapolis. Check it out here

Juliet House wins Home of the Month 2009-10

Last Wednesday we learned that our Juliet House project won one of twelve coveted spots for a monthly feature in the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. The 7th annual competition is co-sponsored by the AIA Minnesota & the Star Tribune. Look for it in the coming year, and check out all the winners at the AIA MN website http://www.aia-mn.org/hotm/09.cfm

A Design Process Explained

Three projects presented by Joshua Prince-Ramus of Rem Koolhaus' OMA.



A lengthy video but worth the time. The fundamental belief in the elegance of the diagram is inspiring.

Feasibility

From the British sketch comedy show SMACK THE PONY a critique. Is it feasible?



If this is what you think of the value of architects come let us change your minds.

More Parkour

Danish film maker Kaspar Astrup Schröder is currently finishing MY PLAYGROUND, a documentary on movement, tricking, freerunning and parkour, and its relation with urban spaces. The documentary will feature scenes with parkour masters Team Jiyo and interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophers.

The trailer uses the Mountain Dwellings by BIG as a playground for the traceurs. The film is expected to be premiered in the summer of 2009.

Juliet House to be featured in Fine Homebuilding Magazine

I just spent a long, exhausting day helping Fine Homebuilding itinerant editor and photographer Chuck Miller document our Juliet House for the '08 Spring/Summer "HOMES" issue of the magazine. The house was one of almost 300 submitted for the issue, and one of only eight to be selected. While the work typically represented in the magazine favors a more traditional aesthetic, they are working to broaden that approach to include a wider range of houses that embody innovative and sustainable solutions to the challenges of creating great houses. We look forward to this issue hitting the news stands April 29 of next year.

Burning Things

We’ve been doing some research about the pros and cons of fireplaces and stoves and the fuel choices of wood vs. gas. It's an interesting discussion and I thought I would make our research available. I apologize for the link intensive nature of this post. I attempted to categorize and sort. Enjoy.

The following links lay out the choice between gas and wood. Interestingly the consensus seems to be that wood is more environmentally friendly if you are in a location where wood is abundant. Both are quite efficient if you buy the right product. The smallest stoves and fireplaces will effectively heat a space of approximately 1,000 square feet. An efficient wood stove can be filled with wood and last up to 8 hours without having to add more fuel. The big trick seems to be purchasing an EPA approved product. This will ensure that you get a product rated for efficiency that can be compared to other models.

Article from the Portland Tribune comparing the advantages of wood vs. gas

Is burning wood greener than burning gas?

Stoves vs. Fireplaces

The Case for Wood

The governments opinion

Well designed modern stoves and fireplaces are limited. There are many more European manufacturers making modern stoves that aren't available in the U.S. The Franklin stove aesthetic still rules America. Of the modern designs available, many seem to be designed to compete with TV's. Odd.

Here are a few manufacturers that make interesting products.

Wittus - New York

AustroFlamm - Great Name

Morso - Tennessee

Malm - Old School

We're being watched

Do you see faces in buildings? Something in how we're all wired. It's likely related to some desire not to be eaten. Just a theory.

Looks a little like a moray eel. I have some experience on the subject. Ask me about it sometime. Check more out here. They're everywhere.