Architecture Addiction, The Official Blog of

Okay, now take a look at this: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7429337/

I just received this…

Dear Friends:

This is a project that will demolish one of of Lloyd Wright’s most distinct homes and replace it with a repulsive example of TacoBellitecture. The existing home is of course one of the best homes ever built in Southern California. The proposed replacement a elephantine eyesore.

Please take the time to write or call this RPV official and comment that the project alternative does not consider the retention of rare exquisite,valuable historic, cultural and architectural resources, along with perhaps not failing to mention the obvious that the property owner is a Butt Head for even thinking of such a thing…….

NOTICE OF COMPLETION AND AVAILABILITY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT
TO: All Interested Agencies, Parties, Organizations, and Persons
FROM: City of Palos Verdes Estates, California
SUBJECT: Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Report

PROJECT TITLE: 504 Paseo Del Mar Project

PROJECT APPLICANT: Mr. Mark C. Paullin

PUBLIC REVIEW PERIOD: October 27, 2010 to December 10, 2010

PROJECT LOCATION: The Project Site is located at 504 Paseo Del Mar in the City of Palos Verdes Estates. The Assessor Parcel Number (APN) for the Project Site is 7540-006-002.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Project proposes the replacement of an existing 3,376 square-foot single-family home, constructed in 1959, with a new single-family home approximately 5,935 square feet in size. The new structure would not exceed the existing structure’s ridge height. Parking would be provided in an approximately 700 square-foot attached parking garage. The existing building on the Project site would be removed.

SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: The existing single-family home has been determined to be eligible for listing as a historic resource. The project proposes the demolition of the existing single-family home, which, if approved, would result in a significant and unavoidable environmental impact.

DOCUMENT REVIEW AND COMMENT: An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been prepared by the City of Palos Verdes Estates, serving as the lead agency pursuant to CEQA. The Planning Department welcomes all comments regarding environmental impacts of the Proposed Project. The Draft EIR will be made available for a 45-day public review period beginning on October 27, 2010 and ending on December 10, 2010.

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: During the 45-day review period the Draft EIR will be available at the following locations: 1. On the City’s website at: http://www.pvestates.org/2. At City Hall: 340 Palos Verdes Dr. West, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274. Hardcopies of the EIR will be available in the City’s Planning Department to review during normal business hours (Mon-Fri 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM). 3. At the Malaga Cove Library located at 2400 Via Campesina, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274. Operating Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

WRITTEN COMMMENTS: Written comments on the Draft EIR must be submitted to the City of Palos Verdes Estates Planning Department office by no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 10, 2010.

Please direct your comments to:

Stacey Kinsella, Associate Planner
Department of City Planning
340 Palos Verdes Drive West
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274

Email: skinsella@pvestates.org
Fax: (310)378-7820
Phone: (310) 378-0383

I just got this. I thought of you.

I know you are interested in the cool stuff going on in architecture and I thought you might be interested in Potomac Valley Brick. They created an International Design competition called “BrickStainable.” The challenge is to design a sustainable building using clay masonry units (brick) as the primary material. This net-zero design competition already has teams from 45 different countries registered, with the registration deadline being three weeks away. The entries from last year are very innovative and if you were interested in taking a look at them, they are posted on BrickStainable’s website at www.brickstainable.com. Since brick is intrinsically sustainable and often overlooked, it’s a great competition, trying to push brick to the forefront of energy efficient design in this green era. Winners get prizes, the top winner receives a $10,000 cash award. Just thought you would enjoy hearing about this competition that brings together designers from all over the country!

Hi, I suffer also of architecture addiction, love the name of your blog.In fact many people think am boring speaking all day about architecture.

I would like to ask you about grad school. I am in the process of applying to top Ivy league schools in the us: Harvard, Columbia and Yale. I am Colombian (South America) with an American father, so I am also American but the reality is I’m Colombian and I did my BA of architecture in Colombia. I’ve always wanted interesting programs in Chile and Spain, countries that have an architto graduate from a school like the ones I mentioned you before, but now I’m very confused and terrified with the idea of starting my professional life with such a huge debt and not knowing if its worth it. I’ve seen other programs in Chile and Spain, countries that have an architecture I deeply admire and the programs are quite cheap, but again I have the idea ivys and top schools in the US are so much better. What do you think about this? about putting on my back a debt I don’t know how I’m going to pay or for how long I’m going to pay it. Should I struggle and try to get into that schools and pay the many millions is worth wearing the “ivy hoodie” ha ha or should I spend the money traveling, buying books and attending programs that cost 1/10 of Harvard? It may sound as if have set up my mind, but when I see the programs, the great professors, the facilities, the prestige I get son confused. Can you help with your opinion? I know its a decision I have to take, that depends on many variables (getting in) etc but I would love to hear an insight from someone who knows more about education in this top schools!

Bye, sorry for all this confused thoughts and my Latino English!

[Name Withheld Upon Request]

Thank you for writing. I wish back in 2007 when I was applying to grad school I had asked somebody exactly what you asked me.

Third: I have mixed feelings about having gone to Harvard. First, I should say that I was awarded a grant for about half of the tuition and expenses. Even with that grant, I gained an additional almost $30,000 in debt for the year I was at Harvard. That would’ve been almost $60,000!!! if I had not received the grant. I was very disappointed with the education I received at Harvard. I attended the University of Idaho for my undergraduate degree, which, at the time I left, cost me less than $3,000 for one year, no grants. In other words, I could have attended the U of I for 10 years for the same price of Harvard (with the grant) or for 20 years (without the grant).

Aside from the expense, I felt the quality of the education was very poor. I had better professors at Idaho.

Two good things came out of my going to Harvard. One: my fellow students were some of the most amazing, talented, creative people I’ve ever met. I am glad to know them. Two: if I hadn’t been so disappointed with Harvard, I probably would never have founded VERB. I wish I could tell you to just apply to VERB, but it doesn’t exist yet. It is a radical departure from traditional architecture schools. Whereas at most schools you graduate with a piece of paper and a mountain of debt, at VERB you graduate with a business, a network of building and design professionals, and three years designing and building experience, AND NO DEBT. I am in the process of getting funding so that we can open out doors and let students like yourself in.

So what advice do I have for you? Let’s begin with the end in mind. What is it you hope to accomplish as an architect? I didn’t know this when I was applying to grad school, but I discovered that, since all I wanted to do was residential architecture, I didn’t actually need to be licensed in some states! I wish I had known that before I got another $30,000 in debt!

If you too just want to design houses, and you intend to practice architecture in a place that doesn’t require a license for that, I suggest that you get to know architects and builders in that area. Find one or two you like and offer to work for them for cheap, or free, so that you can learn from them. Travel as much as you can so that you can learn more
about the buildings, the places, the spaces that really move your soul. Draw as much as you can. In this process, you’re not only becoming an architect in the true sense of the word, but you’re also refining your personal and professional interests. You are refining yourself.

Let’s say that you want to design much larger buildings, things that would require a license. I would say, find your heroes. Find the living architects who are doing exactly what you want to do. Chances are they also teach. Go to those schools. If they don’t teach, apply to the same schools they attended.

I’ve come to realize that the Ivy League brand name only really means something to all those people who have never been there. It’s a marketing gimmick that sounds good on your CV, and a very expensive one at that. Buy the hoodie used off ebay. They’re $80 at the student store!

Please keep in touch,
All the best,
Katy

[UPDATE]

Hi I received your answer to the doubts I expressed to you about going to grad school and all its’ financial implications vs. its’ benefits. Thank you so much, It was so kind of you to answer in such a responsible way! Again thanks a lot for your advice, it’s great to know the opinions of people who attended this type of schools.

[Name Withheld Upon Request]

With undergrad, grad school, internship, and testing, it takes architecture students an average of EIGHTEEN YEARS to become a licensed architect. In the process, they accrue HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS in DEBT!

What if there was a way to be a design/builder with a viable business, a network of professionals, and years of actual hands-on experience in only three years and for only $36,000?

http://verbschool.com

I know, not the greatest video.

Wanna make me a better one? If rap’s not your thing, I’d also be up for iambic pentameter. Or interpretative dance. Or anything, really.

I just read this article in the LA Times by Susan Carpenter that I thought you might like to read.

She invested in a gray water system, solar panels, rain barrels, earth works, a water wall, edible landscaping, a composting toilet, and chickens.

Read about the things that worked well…and the ones that didn’t.

I’ve been getting some really great letters from you. You write to me about your school. About applying to school. About what your studio is like. About your hopes and dreams and disappointments, and your hopes in spite of your disappointments.

And I want to share that with the world.

Your studio critics might make you feel like shit about yourself, but I want you to know that you are powerful indeed. You have a voice. And I want to share what you have to say with the world.

When I get a really good letter, I write back and ask if it’s okay to share it here on the blog.

New policy.

When you write to me, it’s with the understanding that it’s okay with you if I publish your letter.

If you don’t want me to, that’s okay. Just tell me and I won’t. But I hope you’ll take this opportunity to share your message with our worldwide readership.

SUNDAY

Lynne Twist shared the message of FOUR YEARS. GO.

Here’s how you can stay in touch.

AND GUESS WHO WE SAW NEXT?!

Jane Goodall!!

Libby Roderick repeats Caroline Casey’s Aramaic translation of Jesus’ words.

Libby Roderick’s Closing Song

After lunch of a fig and maca smoothie, I went to Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the New Economy with Adam Davis, Michelle McGeoy, and Greg Hoffman.

For the second afternoon session, I went to Wake Up! Making & Disseminating Transformational Cinema with John Raatz, Louis Schwartzberg, and Louis Fox. Louis Fox is the guy who did the film for The Story of Stuff, Grocery Store Wars

and The Meatrix

THANK YOU BIONEERS FOR A FANTASTIC WEEKEND!!

SATURDAY

We had a PSA from a couple of sperm…

They told us how birth rates in polluted areas are down because toxins reduce sperm counts.

Also during the Plenary session, we heard Mary Gonzales’ talk, Environment & its Relationship to Equity & the Economy. Mary is a stick of dynamite! She told us the story of being a poor mother in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. She felt alienated from her community, and worse, alienated from herself. She felt that she wasn’t smart enough, and that she had nothing to offer. But her priest kept pushing her to get involved in some social justice issues. Eventually she relented, and she found her voice. She found her strength, and she found her purpose in life. Now she is truly a force to be reckoned with! What a powerful woman!

Next, Bioneers awarded the LaCrosse DoubleCross Sovereignty Award to the Iroquois LaCrosse team. I found a video to show you the story…

We also got to hear John Warner’s talk on Intellectual Ecology: Green Chemistry & Biomimicry. John was a boy wonder chemist with hundreds of patents under his belt early in his career. And when his two-year-old son died from a birth defect, John lay awake wondering if it was something that he touched that caused his son’s birth defect. He told us how in four years of undergraduate and three and a half years of graduate courses, he never once was made to take a course on toxicology. In fact, he said, you could look up the course requirements of any chemistry program at any university in the nation, and you will not find one required toxicology class. Why do chemist make molecules that cause cancer? Because they were never taught what makes one molecule toxic, and another molecule safe. In chemistry [I myself have a minor in chemistry], the way you create new molecules is you apply outrageously high temperatures, or exceptional pressures. Why not, John posits, make new molecules the way nature does, by allowing molecules to come together naturally as they have evolved to do naturally?

Then it was time for lunch.

This bird is made of trash that washed up from the ocean.

After lunch I went to Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart with Nina Simons, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Anneke Campbell, Anna Lappe, and Gloria Feldt.

Then I went to Permaculture for Humanity with Louie Hena and Larry Santoyo.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t know what permaculture was. I thought it was just super hard core gardening. I was wrong. It’s super hard core EVERYTHING.

That’s Larry Santoyo on the left and Louie Hena on the right.

“People say to us, we can’t do it because we don’t have land, and then I say, well then why don’t you just die, but then I remember I’m a nice spiritual person, so I backtrack a little and say that the mother-approved, time-tested method is to get a job, save money, and buy some land.” -Larry Santoyo, Bioneers Conference, 5:38pm, 10-16-2010

“Stop worrying and go do something. Go learn something. I should say that first. Learn something and then go do something.” -Larry Santoyo, Bioneers Conference, 5:52pm, 10-16-2010

DAY THREE!

FRIDAY

I told this guy about my day so far. It was a short conversation. Because it was still morning. Then I asked him about his day, but he let me know that he was more in a listening kind of mood.

The Cliff booth had a swarm of people around it the whole three days.

So those things that look like painted plastic bottles? They’re filled with sand, so you can walk by and give it a good shake and it makes a nice loud shaka-shaka sound as it reverberates.

This Lydia’s Lovin’ Foods is where I had lunch all three days. Day One was a kale salad and a fig & maca smoothie. Day Two was a red cabbage salad and a raw kale & avocado & lemon juice soup. Day Three was the fig & maca smoothie again and a piece of their raw chocolate, which has three ingredients: cocao + coconut oil + agave.

In the afternoon, I attended The Cutting-Edge of Earth Systems Science: Re-Wiring the Brain with Geo-Visualization.

Day Two!

I’m Jay. I just graduated from Virginia Tech’s architecture school and now live in San Francisco.

I agree with you about the state of architectural education (at least, that it is not as valuable as it once was). “Learning by doing” is an important tenet upheld by many architecture schools that emphasize craft over…well… being educated. It’s better to learn how to be a student than to, let’s say, teach how to be a teacher.

That being said (though I’m not quite sure I understand it myself), I have been getting rather tired of admonitions to “educate the public!", especially concerning matters of developing a sustainable culture.

So–hang on!–I’m trying to get to the question. I’m seeing a problem with the concept of an educational institution in a world where knowledge can freely be exchanged through the internet. Such institutions exist because they provide a sense of value. And this value exists because of a scarcity. So what happens when knowledge is made freely available? Like with Wikipedia or the free online coursework of MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.

So my real question: if a school existed in order to give a free education to anybody willing to learn, what do you think it would look like?

If it’s a school about lectures, this is already being done (like the TED Talks). If learning is by rote memorization, Wikipedia works perfectly. As for a design environment, the old apprenticeship model seems to be the best approach–as long is it includes a broad (perhaps “liberal") approach towards learning. Why should we even have schools of architecture? What value do they add?

I ask this partly because I’m pathetically unemployable, and partly because I spent many years designing buildings while in Middle School and High School, completely on my own. Getting into college, I realized that I had taught myself more in those years than most students were learning over the course of their college years.

So…that was a long question. Any thoughts?

Jay

Hi Jay!

First: thank you for writing!

Second: I like to publish select emails to my blog. May I publish yours?

Third: You have an excellent question. My team and I are still searching deep into our souls to figure out what VERB will look like, who it will serve, how it will work, and how it can be useful to the people who most need what it will have to offer.

I want to clarify my idea that the school be free. Cooper Union is free. If you can get in. So is VERB something wonderful and free for just a few people? Maybe. Maybe not.

Or do I open it up and make what some of VERB has to offer online so that anyone from NY to Timbuktu can learn a few things?

Right now I’m looking more at the middle ground. I believe that students will gain the greatest benefit if they are on-site. Not in a classroom, not the web site, but on the physical dirt site. And maybe some of the preliminary “education” can be web-based. So we’ll probably do a combination of the two. We also want this to be an option for recent grads who need a faster way to get their IDP credits. On the average, it takes people 12-15 years to get their 3 years of IDP credits. Which is totally unacceptable! And of course, I’d also like to get accredited for people who’d like to come for their M.Arch, so that will play a part in shaping what VERB looks like.

Fourth: I too spent a lot of years designing buildings in Junior High and High School. The biggest difference between designing on my own and designing at Harvard? Well, the experience was infinitely more joyful when I did it on my own, and fraught with misery when done for the academics.

Fifth: I welcome your input on what you think VERB should be. Have you taken my survey? If you haven’t please do. I take this kind of feedback seriously. It will shape VERB in a very real way.
http://blog.architectureaddiction.com/index.php/a/2010/08/07/take_the_perfect_architecture_school_sur?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Sixth: I want to stay in touch with people who share my frustrations with the current architectural education. Please become a fan of Architecture Addiction on facebook - I update that with news more frequently with a blog. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Architecture-Addiction/105104166195161

All the best
Katy

Curtis B. Wayne, host of Burning Down the House, sent me this
Congress of Residential Architecture Position Paper.

Let the manifestos begin!

I strongly encourage you to read more. MANY architects have responded to this paper. Some wholeheartedly agree with it. And some think it will create enemies among the other building professions.

Curtis B Wayne, host of Burning Down the House on the Heritage Radio Network, has had a letter published in the most recent issue of The Architect’s Newspaper.

Read Licensed to Learn.