Erik Ost, B. Arch.

Habitat for Humanity REstore-Spokane Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:46:00 PST

During these tough economic times a surplus and used architectural materials yard is a great find. If you are remodeling a house and need a door, window or vanity you can get one new or used. With a little thought you can reuse someones kitchen for a entertainment center or cabinets and workbench for the garage. Artisans love to repurpose architectural salvage to add a touch whimsy to their craft. Habitat REstore - Spokane Valley, Washington purchases also fund Habitat's home projects for families in need.

Whether you are looking for cheap or chic try an architectural salvage yards. Click on reuse at the bottom of this post or on the side bar for more surplus and salvage sources.

Conservation-How much can it save you?

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:30:00 PST

Conservation for little or no cost can save you a lot of money. A minor life style change like turning off a 100 watt light bulb can put $25.00/year back in your pocket. Switching to compact florescent can save $80.00/year for the typical household. Other ways to save are:

Seal cracks and gaps around windows, doors and corners with caulk and weather-strip.
Turning down the water heater to 120 degrees F saves 6-10% on your energy bill.
Low flow shower heads save 1/3-1/2 that an old style fixture uses.
Wash clothes in cold water and use hot water for only very dirty clothes.
Energy Star washing machines use less than 1/2 the water and energy that old machine.
Choose a front loading washing machine for cleaner and more water and efficiency over top loading styles.
Using your dishwasher can save 5,000 gallons of water each year and $40.00 in utilities.
Wash full loads dishes. It cost the same to wash one dish as it does to wash a full load.
Microwaves, convection ovens and crock pots use less energy than a stove or oven.
A clean Microwave is more efficient than a dirty one.
Use a fan first before you use air conditioning.
In summer take advantage of the cooler night temperatures to cool your home.
Set the thermostat to 78 degrees F in summer and 65 degrees in winter.
Set your mower higher. Longer grass loses less water to evaporation.
A shut-off nozzle saves water when watering plants.
Use lids to keep in steam in to cook more quickly to reduce cooking time and use less energy.
Check the refrigerator temperature it should be between 36 and 38 degrees.
Clean furnace filters monthly to maintain high airflow and efficiency.
Unplug power adapters and chargers when done charging cell phones, tablets, laptops, digital cameras, music players and other electrical devices to stop drawing phantom power.
Windows coverings should be closed on hot summer days to keep heat out and open in cold winter days to let the sun's warmth in.
Shut the fireplace flue when not using the fireplace.

Technology is constantly improving efficiency but even simple lifestyle changes are money in the bank.

SOM designs T4 at JFK for Delta Airline

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:59:00 PDT

SOM's Delta-T4 at JFK is not another TWA terminal but functional and not without its charm. I hope this is more of a success than Denver's fiasco. All the new Homeland Security functions are below the skin somewhere. This has got to be one of the first major terminals since the recent additions of scanners. This is only the tip of the iceberg that we can see.

It is great to see a presentation form one of the big offices. SOM's presentation incorporates fly around and walkthroughs. It has many animated people walking through the terminal. Cabbies unloading bags, agents at ticket counters and the dreaded TSA officers at the expansive security screening area. I would be interested to see what software this was rendered on. In the distant past I know SOM had their own software for CAD.

Solar Decathalon 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:47:00 PDT

This Solar Decathlon 2011 collaborative entry from Students from Parsons The New School for Design, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, and Stevens Institute of Technology is socially and environmentally aware. Teaming together to deliver design and technology for low cost housing in a Washington DC neighborhood. Donated land from the city in which 2 homes will be built. The Decathlon home will be relocated to the site one the competition is over. The other will be built on site. Habitat for Humanity will also benefit by receiving the design and technological developments to use in their future projects.

What does the fight between hybrids and plug-ins have to do with your home?

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:32:00 PDT

The fight between hybrid and plug-ins begins. Round one goes to the the Nissan Leaf. Watch the commercial on YouTube here.

YouTube - Nissan LEAF: Gas Powered Everything The Chevy Volt gets a bloody nose here. Pre-fight commentators give hybrids the edge because they can go the distance.
A little tongue in check description here. It is much a kin to the three way fight in home energy use. Passive solar is the lest expensive to implement but as with the plug-in car may need help to go the distance. Passive solar needs a professional to implement effectively and is subject to solar access issues. Building, growth of trees and cloudy days.
PV solar panels, wind turbines and hydro electric are expensive and need even more care in planning and rolling out. Paybacks are longer and are also dependent on natural ebb and flows.
Conservation is often a first step to alternative power projects. Reduction in in the over all load reduces the required energy to power the project. Reducing the overall square footage by combining room functions, open plans, convertibility and built-ins.
Energy efficiency reduces energy requirements but are not zero-emissions design. Insulation and envelope tightness cost a little extra but have great paybacks.
Hot water heaters provide an interesting example to compare the different approaches. A super insulated tank is the conservation approach. An on demand water heater is a energy efficient model. A solar hot water panel is a active solar model. Locating the water heater inside the building envelop is a passive design strategy to capture excess heat while reducing heat loss.
Low-tech design is a good solution. Like a bike instead of a car. Like thinking of outdoor space as additional rooms for the house. Even a sleeping porch, outdoor kitchen, patio/porch as living room diffuses the distinction between inside and outside. The experience of shelter is increased with no additional energy required.

Solyndra Cylinder Solar Panels

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:46:00 PDT

Solyndra panel collects direct, diffuse and reflected light and installs over a flat reflective roof surface. The 200 series as shown here is fast and requires no tools or ballast for installation. At 2.8 lbs/sf are light weight and need no roof penetrations. Mounts snap together lowering labor costs and setup time. Moving the system for future roofing and retrofit changes is a simple process. Tubes are lined with thin film solar membrane and collect in 360 degrees.

Plug-in Cars and Your Home.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:46:00 PDT

As plug-in cars are entering the market it is and opportune time to ask how will this effect home design. Several questions come to mind. What about charging? How can I use green power? How does cold effect batteries? What new possibilities do plug-ins afford to home design?

Charging is the most basic need of a plug-in. Ranges are about 100 miles requiring a full charge for most driving. True, charging stations are popping up in many metro areas with more being planned. So, how will you charge your car? A plug-in car can simply plug into a standard 110 v outlet. Long charging times will make many homeowners want an upgrade to 220 v or a dedicated charging station or two. Plug-in an expensive electric car to just any outlet maybe trigger some thoughts of computers frying in electrical storms or questions about miswired polarity and grounds. Surge protection and line conditioning should be considered. Nissan Leaf requires an approved specialist to design, install and check their charging station. Something to be considered for all plug-ins.

The plug-in car is one of the most compelling reasons to consider alternative power. PV solar, wind power and hydro-electric offer a sustainable source of power. Although the initial costs of these systems maybe high, early adopters will be driven by their eco-conscience to be trail blazers. As more people shift plug-in cars and alternative-energy will become more commercially viable.

Temperature has an effect on the ability of a battery to store power. With every degree drop, available power drops too. Hot climates may have the advantage of being more carefree for plug-in owners. A semi-heated garage in moderate and cold climates are a consideration.

Americans love their cars. Cruising up and down streets, going to the drive-in/thru (to combine eating with driving) and planning our communities around them. Parking for cars is a requirement at home, work, shopping and entertainment. At home you at the very lest have a parking space. A carport protect from the sun and snow. A garage offers even better protection and a place to work on your love the car.

The 80's show Vegas starring Bob Ulrich as a Vegas PI who parked his classic Corvette in his living room behind a short wall. Now this brought to mind one big building code violation which we happily overlooked in order to enjoy the show and to fantasize about the Vette. The flammability of gas and the carbon monoxide of our beloved kept us separated from our cars by a one hour separation wall. Will the microbus instired EV VW "Bulli" really be eco mannered enough for us to camp in our livingroom? What about a sexy Tesla next to the couch? We can dream can't we?

See the Bulli and other plug-ins at Electric Volkswagen Microbus Becomes Reality in New Concept PluginCars.com

Skip the CFL's and go right to the LED's.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:05:00 PDT

Skip the CFL's and go right to the LED's. CFL's have blueish casts, flicker and have mercury which is a hazardous waste. LED's are longer lasting, good color rendering, no annoying flicker and no special requirements for disposal.

Here are Phillips lighting choices for LED's that directly replace most common bulbs in your home. Advanced LED light bulbs for the home

Pella Windows Spring Savings Event - Pella Windows Discount | Pella.com

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:55:00 PDT

Save 25% on window installation. Pella Windows Spring Savings Event - Pella Windows Discount Pella.com Save now. Sale ends April 12.

Does it take more energy to make a Solar Panel than it produces?

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:07:00 PST

Here is a great article about the payback of various solar panels. Energy Payback of Roof Mounted Photovoltaic Cells | Energy Bulletin The payback of mc-Si thin film collectors are in the 1-3 year range. Paybacks in life cycle analysis (LCA) of anything less than 7 years is a favorable recomendation.

This helps fight the misinformation about solar panels. Politifact: solar panels make far more energy they require . This earned Florida Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales a truth rating of "Pants on Fire" on Politifact's Truth-O-Meter.

I love the "Truth-O-Meter" it encourages us to check the statements and the facts to back them up. Hopefully Senetor Alexander learns from his mistake and only gets burned once.

Note: This is a discussion of the energy to make vs. time to produce the same amount of energy. Not the time to offset the cost of the panel in dollars vs time it takes to save that many dollars.

Portfolio at Erik Ost B.Arch.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:13:00 PST

More home pictures for Erik Ost, B. Arch on Facebook

New product highlight- light gauge structural steel beam

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:57:00 PDT

LiteSteel Beam (LSB) is easy to carry and install.

New product watch. The LiteSteel beam (LSB) can be carried like a wood beam and can be cut, nailed, screwed, and drilled on site with no special tools. No heavy steel or glu-lam beams to carry. Cut to length on site. LSB from LiteSteel Technologies can provide significant time and cost advantages compared to hot rolled structural steel beams and engineered wood. The innovative, patented cold forming process gives LSB a unique profile with the torsional rigidity you would normally expect from hot rolled steel. LSB has design software to size beams.

LSB's are approved for use with 2006 and 2009 International Building Code, and the 2006 and 2009 International Residential Code. Compliance Research Report (CCRR#0123)

Comparing a center beam supporting on floor 40 live/15 dead load 10' span with a 8' tributate requires (3) 2x12's, (2) 1 3/4x9 1/4 LVL's, W8x13 Steel I-Beam or 800LSB250-59 LSB. A 800LSB250-59 dimensions are 7.9in depth 2.36 in. flange 0.059 in. metal thickness 3.67#'s/ft weight. For more information see LiteSteelbeam™ - light structural beam with the strength of steel.

New House of the New Economy.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:40:00 PDT

New regional home, design by Erik Ost
for the "New Economy."

Do you have rooms you rarely use? Did you buy as many square feet as you could afford? Do you have to get into your car to go to the "big box" store? What if you could walk to the corner-store and hang out awhile? What if your home fit you like a glove? What if you had had a smaller mortgage and more money at the end of the month. What would you do?

Here is a great article about the new economics of housing. New urban network article by Philip Langdon. Buyers are so much happier with their custom home and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.

This is the time to consider a new home. Technologies like solar panels and tank-less water heaters are coming of age and are more affordable than ever. Land prices have adjusted downward. Builder's bids are more competitive than ever. Find out more about a custom designed home that fits you.

Answers to Under-performing Mall Developments

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:58:00 PDT

Have you seen how empty parking lots are surrounding dying malls, empty big box stores and strip malls. The answer is redevelopment, re-inhabiting and greening these pedestrian exclusive zones. Redevelopment bringing museums, arts, libraries, churches, motels and restaurants. Re-inhabiting by offering more urban living choices for those who desire living in a vital walkable communities. Greening by rediscovering hidden assets like wetlands and creeks and developing outdoor recreation opportunities. Please take a minute to see Ellen Dunham-Jones' presentation on Retrofitting Suburbia.

Complaints Board | Home & Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:13:00 PDT

Here is a online resource to check consumer complaints about service or product you are considering purchasing.
Complaints Board Home & Garden
This website does not have moderation or resolution services like the BBB. Maybe it will evolve in time. It is a great place to air your complaints and to research your purchases.

A home built in 2 hours 54 minutes.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:40:00 PDT

Everyone who watches ABC Extreme Make Over Home Edition marvels at the speed the new homes are built. In a week an old home is demolished, a new home constructed, decorated and landscaped. Many groups have taken this to the next level. Habitat for Humanity has a home they completed in under 4 hours. Conway Homes completed a home in 2 hours 54 minutes. See the video below.

To complete this it takes a team all doing their part and then some.

A residential designer/architect's bible is the blueprints.
A construction manager's schedule is the compass.
A contractor's crew is the engine.

Extra coordination is required between this team. For instance a residential designer/architect may produce wall stud layout plans for the contractor. The construction manager will tell stage the contractor trades start and end time in minutes rather than days. Contractors will rehearse the dance of multiple crews and trades.

Technical issues like curing time for concrete. Drying time for sheetrock mud and paint. Calculating material strength in minutes instead of days requires very high early strength concrete to support construction loads. Designing truss lift points for craning roof system on to house.

Management must identify the critical path in sequence to estimate long the project will take and where to put more workers to save time. Other tasks must keep pace with the tasks on the critical path.

Here is the 2 Hour House schedule.

Records and "Rules" broken with the 2Hour House process:

The rules say :                                                                        2 Hour House:

• It takes a day to set the forms, dig footings and set steel.                   8 min
• It takes a half a day to rough-in the plumbing.                                    7 min
• It takes a day to pour and finish concrete.                                        40 min
• It takes several hours to pop the lines before setting walls.                10 min
• It takes at least a day to frame the walls.                                          15 min
• It takes a day to rough-in the electrical.                                            15 min
• It takes a day to put in the wall plumbing.                                         15 min
• It takes a day to shingle the roof.                                                      30 min
• It takes a half a day to insulate the walls and attic.                             10 min
• It takes at least a day to sheetrock.                                                   15 min
• It takes at least four days to tape, bed, and texture the walls.             20 min
• It takes two days to paint.                                                                 10 min
• It takes a half a day to install the flower beds and trees.                      10 min
• It takes a day to do the final grade.                                                    10 min
• It takes a day to lay the grass.                                                            10 min
• It takes a day to set the kitchen cabinets.                                            15 min
• It takes a day to set the bathroom cabinets.                                        10 min
• It takes a day to install the heating and cooling.                                   10 min
• It takes a day to do the interior doors and base boards.                      15 min
• It takes a half a day to install the garage door.                                       3 min
• It takes a half a day to put in the countertops.                                      10 min

The 2 Hour Home website tells more about the construction management techniques to set this record.

Textbook Rental: College Textbook Rentals | Cheap Textbook Rentals at NW

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:17:00 PDT

Here is a way to save some ca$h on books for school.
Textbook Rental: College Textbook Rentals Cheap Textbook Rentals at NW
Buy new or used or even rent your college textbooks here. Renting saves you up to 75% on buying new books. If you spend $500.00 you could save $375.00 on books. That is $125.00 only. Great for getting the lastest technical books. Try it now and save big.

Inside a Responder Village

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:48:00 PDT

Responders deserve a hotel and per diem. That way there is no delay and you don't have to remove infrastructure when BP leaves. Less to clean up. I am sure at this point BP can see the wisdom in that. It would also help midigate the hit that the hospitality industry has taken. I am sure you could even work a deal on large blocks of rooms from the hotels that are effected.

Kevin Costner Testifies Before House Sci and Tech Commitee

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:42:00 PDT

BP and the other oil companies should have been more proactive in accident readiness. 12 years ago, oil companies could have deployed OTS's technology.

I want to thank OTS for their foresight and environmental entrepreneurship. OTS has done what the oil companies would not. The UN should pass a resolution requiring worldwide readiness for oil spill clean up and testing and monitoring active and capped oil wells.

Architect's Quotes H-Z

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:05:00 PDT

Because over and over again, the times that I've done really good things is because I've had a wonderful client of some kind, and a lot of it depended on me to induce them to be creative.

Lawrence Halprin

When we dream alone it is only a dream, but when many dream together it is the beginning of a new reality.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions - although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one.

Arne Jacobsen

Higher ceilings allow the use indirect lighting, which is much healthier and reduces glare.

Helmut Jahn

It's my goal to make a building as immaterial as possible. Architecture is a very material thing. It takes a lot of resources, so why not eliminate what you don't need as long as you're able to achieve the same result?

Helmut Jahn

Transparency is not the same as looking straight through a building: it's not just a physical idea, it's also an intellectual one.

Helmut Jahn

When I think of some of my earlier work, it really seems a fortunate coincidence that I succeeded.

Helmut Jahn

You'd never think of taking a cab if you had to walk a mile down Chicago's Michigan Avenue. But in a bad city you take a cab just to go around the corner.

Helmut Jahn

All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.

Philip Johnson

I'm about four skyscrapers behind.

Philip Johnson

A good book written for children can be read by adults.

Norton Juster

I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth.

Norton Juster

A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.

Louis Kahn

Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.

Louis Kahn

Consider the momentous event in architecture when the wall parted and the column became.

Louis Kahn

Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges from selection, affinities, integration, love.

Louis Kahn

Every time a student walks past a really urgent, expressive piece of architecture that belongs to his college, it can help reassure him that he does have that mind, does have that soul.

Louis Kahn

A garden is to be a world unto itself, it had better make room for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones.

William Kent

Garden as though you will live forever.

William Kent

We live in an almost perfect stillness and work with incredible urgency.

Rem Koolhaas

And it is very moving because one has to see the site not as just another site of development but it is a very special site. It is a site that souls and hearts of all Americans.

Daniel Libeskind

Cities are the greatest creations of humanity.

Daniel Libeskind

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings.

Daniel Libeskind

We all came to see that site. We all walked around it. It is already sacred.

Daniel Libeskind

Well, I think one doesn't really have to invent this memorial space, because it is already there. And it is speaking with a voice and, you know, 4 million of us came to see the site.

Daniel Libeskind

A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time.

Maya Lin

All my work is much more peaceful than I am.

Maya Lin

Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.

Maya Lin

Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.

Maya Lin

Every memorial in its time has a different goal.

Maya Lin

For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn.

Maya Lin

I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.

Maya Lin

It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.

Maya Lin

Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.

Maya Lin

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.

Maya Lin

You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.

Maya Lin

Be not afraid of being called un-fashionable.

Adolf Loos

Be truthful, nature only sides with truth.

Adolf Loos

The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.

Adolf Loos

There will never be great architects or great architecture without great patrons.

Edwin Lutyens

Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down.

Thom Mayne

For me the meaning of my work is much more fluid.

Thom Mayne

I'm often called an old-fashioned modernist. But the modernists had the absurd idea that architecture could heal the world. That's impossible. And today nobody expects architects to have these grand visions any more.

Thom Mayne

I've been such an outsider my whole life.

Thom Mayne

I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.

Thom Mayne

Each new situation requires a new architecture.

Jean Nouvel

The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth.

Frederick Law Olmsted

Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves.

Julia Morgan

Never turn down a job because you think it's too small; you don't know where it can lead.

Julia Morgan

Architects in the past have tended to concentrate their attention on the building as a static object. I believe dynamics are more important: the dynamics of people, their interaction with spaces and environmental condition.

John Portman

Buildings should serve people, not the other way around.

John Portman

It is through accomplishment that man makes his contribution and contribution is life's greatest reward.

John Portman

We must learn to understand humanity better so that we can create an environment that is more beneficial to people, more rewarding, more pleasant to experience.

John Portman

It is quite interesting that whilst there are tremendous theories, in the 1960s when IT was born, everybody was supposedly going to their cottage in the countryside to work in a virtual way.

Richard Rogers

My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people.

Richard Rogers

The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.

Richard Rogers

This is a pivotal time for urban regeneration. We must take a long term view.

Richard Rogers

A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

God is in the details.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Less is more.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

After World War II great strides were made in modern Japanese architecture, not only in advanced technology, allowing earthquake resistant tall buildings, but expressing and infusing characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture in modern buildings.

Harry Seidler

Good design doesn't date.

Harry Seidler

The form language used by the ancient Egyptians in their structures is minimal.

Harry Seidler

The government only makes restrictive rules, they don't show you what to do so you know, OK, here's where we need this many apartments, with open space, playgrounds, kindergartens.

Harry Seidler

The Romans were not inventors of the supporting arch, but its extended use in vaults and intersecting barrel shapes and domes is theirs.

Harry Seidler

A small house must depend on its grouping with other houses for its beauty, and for the preservation of light air and the maximum of surrounding open space.

Clarence Stein

The house itself is of minor importance. Its relation to the community is the thing that really counts.

Clarence Stein

Our greatest responsibility is not to be pencils of the past.

Robert A. M. Stern

The dialogue between client and architect is about as intimate as any conversation you can have, because when you're talking about building a house, you're talking about dreams.

Robert A. M. Stern

There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea.

Gustav Stickley

The fault seems to me to have been that men have taken ancient country churches as their models and have failed to discover that between them and churches in towns there ought to be a most distinct and marked difference.

George Edmund Street

But the building's identity resided in the ornament.

Louis Sullivan

Form follows function.

Louis Sullivan

It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building.

Louis Sullivan

Architects today tend to depreciate themselves, to regard themselves as no more than just ordinary citizens without the power to reform the future.

Kenzo Tange

Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long.

Kenzo Tange

I feel however, that we architects have a special duty and mission... (to contribute) to the socio-cultural development of architecture and urban planning.

Kenzo Tange

Technological considerations are of great importance to architecture and cities in the informational society.

Kenzo Tange

Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.

Yoshio Taniguchi

It was very unusual to employ prettiness as part of a building.

Robert Venturi

Less is a bore.

Robert Venturi

Architecture aims at Eternity.

Christopher Wren

In things to be seen at once, much variety makes confusion, another vice of beauty. In things that are not seen at once, and have no respect one to another, great variety is commendable, provided this variety transgress not the rules of optics and geometry.

Christopher Wren

And a building must be like a human being. It must have a wholeness about it, something that is very important.

Minoru Yamasaki

And I think that the environment is one very strong way to counterbalance the chaotic nature of our life.

Minoru Yamasaki

And sometimes I'm criticized. But I think that if those who criticize us will look at the reason why the shape is this, well then, I think that they would not object so strenuously.

Minoru Yamasaki

Because, if we understand how a building is to be produced and we find a way that it can be more simply produced, then obviously we are contributing to building better buildings more easily.

Minoru Yamasaki

Quotes-Architects A-G

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:50:00 PDT

Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art.

Alvar Aalto

We should concentrate our work not only to a separated housing problem but housing involved in our daily work and all the other functions of the city.

Alvar Aalto

My hand is the extension of the thinking process - the creative process.

Tadao Ando

People tend not to use this word beauty because it's not intellectual - but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect.

Tadao Ando

The computer offers another kind of creativity. You cannot ignore the creativity that computer technology can bring. But you need to be able to move between those two different worlds.

Tadao Ando

Beauty: the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.

Leon Battista Alberti

Complexity is one of the great problems in environmental design.

Christopher Alexander

Drawings help people to work out intricate relationships between parts.

Christopher Alexander

My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture, not a cold piece of convenience.

Luis Barragan

I don't divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one.

Luis Barragan

A garden must combine the poetic and he mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.

Luis Barragan

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.

Le Corbusier

Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.

Le Corbusier

Builders eventually took advantage of the look of modernism to build cheaply and carelessly.

Arthur Erickson

Bankers cannot afford to be concerned with only the economic aspects of projects. There may be serious implications on the natural environment, the urban environment, on human culture.

Arthur Erickson

Vitality is radiated from exceptional art and architecture.

Arthur Erickson

We are stymied by regulations, limited choice and the threat of litigation. Neither consultants nor industry itself provide research which takes architecture forward.

Arthur Erickson

You have to see a building to comprehend it. Photographs cannot convey the experience, nor film.

Arthur Erickson

Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.

Antonio Gaudi

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.

Frank Gehry

In any architecture, there is an equity between the pragmatic function and the symbolic function.

Michael Graves

Architecture begins where engineering ends.

Walter Gropius

Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning.

Walter Gropius

Specialists are people who always repeat the same mistakes.

Walter Gropius

Frank Lloyd Wright quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:46:00 PDT

A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.

A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.

All fine architectural values are human values, else not valuable.

An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board, and a wrecking bar at the site.

Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.

Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.

Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.

Freedom is from within.

Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.

I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too intimate contacts with my own furniture.

If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.

Less is only more where more is no good.

No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.

Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.

Organic architecture seeks superior sense of use and a finer sense of comfort, expressed in organic simplicity.

Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders' spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground.

Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.

Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now.

Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.

Space is the breath of art.

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

Television is chewing gum for the eyes.

The architect must be a prophet... a prophet in the true sense of the term... if he can't see at least ten years ahead don't call him an architect.

The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.

The Lincoln Memorial is related to the toga and the civilization that wore it.

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines - so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.

The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.

"Think simple" as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.

To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor.

Well, now that he's finished one building, he'll Le Corbusier go write four books about it.

Why, I just shake the buildings out of my sleeves.

The economics of non-renewable energy vs. renewable

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:51:00 PDT

The Heritage Foundation recently headline states renewable energy is not free. Obviously, renewables are not free and wind turbines have start up costs. Well so do coal and nuclear power plants.

It is short sighted to not invest and develop wind and solar energy. We have invested in the infrastructure of non-renewables for 50-100 years in some case. Non-renewables have a leg up that is difficult to overcome in the short term. We need to calculate renewable start up costs in the long term. Renewables can add redundancy to existing systems. Non-renewable resources should be conserved. Who would not like to go 100 miles on a gallon of gas. Renewables can stretch our non-renewables.

We need to take advantage of this resource. Wind systems in certain areas like Portland, Oregon area makes a lot of sense. Large scale solar concentrating collectors in the fringe area of LA and other major southern cities are another renewable resource.

Comparisons of the life cycle cost should be long term not just 7-10 years. The cost of decommissioning a nuclear plants should be considered as an upfront cost. Those in favor of nuclear are welcome to have it buried in their backyard. Hanford is still being cleaned up. Much of the clean up is left to super fund sites. The goes for mining as well. Lead and other hazardous materials have contaminated rivers, lakes and the surrounding areas. It gets everywhere including in the food chain. How can we put a cost on that.

Your Local Capitalist

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:51:00 PDT

Our community just started a paper called "Your Local Capitalist." We need to put the LOCAL back in in capitalism. Saving and investing is exported our blood sweat and tears out of the community via "Big" banks and the stock market.

"Buying Local" or even "Buying American" charges our economy. Main Street is going to save your local job not Wall Street. It is a more sustainable to buy products within 50 miles of your home. The farmer's market gives you fresher produce. Community banks and Credit Unions invest in the local community. Which in turn grows the local economy.

Capitalism is a local hands on experience. All Americans need to have first hand experience and benefit from it. Each and everytime a community bank makes a small business loan to a local start up and new home is built in the neighborhood it is a sucess for the whole community. It is a "Cool Town" and vital to community growth.

Banks forget, America suffers.

noreply@blogger.com (Erik Ost) — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:00:00 PDT

The banking industry is falling short of their obligation to the American people. The same people who bailed the bankers out the troubled industry. Now that the banks are making record profits, they have forgotten the help they received. One of the conditions of the bail out was to restoring lending to revive the economy. The banks have returned to the risky derivative trading and have access to cheap loans through the sweet deal from government treasury. There are very little loans being made for new construction. See Nation's Building News Online for May 3, 2010 for the current and future outlook on construction loans.

So were is the money going? That is the question. We do know that the fat bonus have returned. Not based on the amount of loans that have been made mind you. It is more self centered, or we should say bank centered. Banks are acting in their private interest and not returning the public obligation they owe.

At this point the banking industry is feeding off the public dole. They are getting immensely rich. We are not getting the results we bought and paid for. Bankers have had their dog and pony show in front of Congress to whitewash their ugly actions. We need to press the banking industry to open the lending spigots. Going forward only banks able to demonstrate how they are paying back their public obligation should be part of the favorable government lending programs. This payback criteria will remove the pigs from the trough and only banks of value to our economy are part of the solution.