Comp. Studio

I survived the first rounds of Studio, now it was time to tackle Comprehensive Studio. This was the one that every architecture student fears. Comp. Studio combines everything we've learned up to this point and throws in some pretty intensive focus on details just for an added sense of torture. On the plus side, projects were worked on in pairs - so at least I had some help. The final project included drawings, details, a scale model and slice model (a detailed portion of the project).

The project for Comp. Studio was a community library. The site for our project was East Colfax which is Denver's highest traffic corridor but has sections which are not considered pedestrian-friendly. A city initiative, the East Colfax Plan, describes plans to improve the mixed-use development all along this strip. One area to check out is the new Tattered Covered location which is in a remodeled movie theater, along with Twist n Shout next door.

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The approach to our design featured the duplexity of the project. We focused on the urban nature of the front of the library and the residential access from the neighborhood behind Colfax. Combining the technology associated with urbanization and the ecology of the Colorado environment, the project featured two sections - an organic community area composed of natural stone and a high-tech area consisting of glass and steel.

Technology has made a big impact in architecture over the last decade. I suppose the same could be said about any profession, but architecture relied on sketching, hand-drawing, and hand-crafted model building. Now, of course, computer programs allow plans and details to be created in a few days what used to take months. This was a major factor in my decision to pursue architecture when I wanted to change careers. Before, architecture wasn't really something I considered because to be honest I can't really draw well. But after years in graphic design, I have become comfortable with most computer software so a few years ago, I decided perhaps architecture was something I could study.

My logic was really put to the test when the first few semesters of school, most projects required hand-drafting. By this time, everything in studio was on the computer. There is even a laser cutter, which allows users to program a machine to cut materials for model assembly. We decided not to use the laser cutter and build our slice model (1/2 in. = 1 ft. scale - it's big) by hand. The last week before the final jury was quite a scramble - but at least we got the model finished.

Year of Eastwood #7

Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Starring: Eastwood, Meryl Streep
Directed by Eastwood

Clint smiles! Clint doesn’t throw a single punch and there isn’t a gun to be seen in the entire movie. Clint seems to be the natural choice to play the rugged, worldly photographer in Bridges of Madison County - but the role is quite a departure from the usual Clintesque performance. Bridges is a romance from beginning to end and the one thing Clint carries with him wherever he goes, he’s got a way with the ladies.

The film is based on a novel that was quite a phenomenon in the 1990’s … Oprah did shows about it and critics dismissed the book as cheesy fluff. I’ve never read the book, but Clint does a good job of capturing the distinct feeling of Iowa. The muggy summer days, the isolation of life on a farm, the bugs - yet somehow it‘s a beautiful place. Clint travels to Iowa on an assignment to photograph the covered bridges for National Geographic. After getting lost on the endless dirt roads in rural Iowa, Clint stops by Meryl’s farm to ask for directions - a brief, intense love affair soon follows.

Growing up in Iowa, there isn’t a whole lot that we’re known for. The Iowa caucuses, the pigs that outnumber the people, and the covered bridges of Madison County near Winterset, Iowa. The wooden bridges were built in the late 1800’s and have stood as a symbol of simpler times when hard work and dedication were admirable traits of our country. The Cedar Covered Bridge, which is featured in the film, is a 76 ft long wood bridge covered by a truss roof system to protect the flooring timbers from the deterioration of being exposed to the harsh seasons in Iowa. Unfortunately, wood burns and that’s exactly what happened to the Cedar Bridge after arsons destroyed the bridge shortly after this movie was made.

Clint directs, acts, and I’m sure had his hand in the music but the movie really belongs to Meryl. She definitely has to be considered the greatest living actress performing today. Her performance begins in the frustration of an immigrant from Italy seduced by the dream of living in America, now lost in the reality that is Iowa. When Clint shows up, Meryl discovers the passion for life that she lost in the years and years of caring for her family. Meryl’s career is full of roles that she so completely transforms herself that she is unrecognizable. I’ve discussed before (see White Hunter, Black Heart) that actors are often trapped by their persona in each role they portray. Meryl is the opposite of that. She has portrayed a wide range of characters (from an uber-control freak magazine editor to a concentration camp survivor and many, many different accents) with such conviction that she makes each performance unique.

Clint’s straightforward directing style is perfect for this effort in storytelling. Most of the scenes are between Clint and Meryl as their four day relationship transforms from awkward desire, to realized passion, and the inevitable heartbreak. The scene toward the end of the film where Meryl, back with her husband, pulls up at a stop light behind Clint’s truck and she is torn between running off with Clint or remaining in the life she has always known is truly moving cinema.

Hey, I made it thru the whole thing and didn’t even use the term chick flick.

Meadow Creek Tennis Champs

I am excited to announce that I - along with my partner Christian - have won the 2007 Meadow Creek 3.0 Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament. Christian and I were able to grind out a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the finals on Saturday. As you can see in the photo, I like to wear a wig and headband when I play - I just feel that it elevates my game a level or two. I'm pretty excited because it's the first tennis tournament I have ever won ... so I can cross that one off my list. Next up, a date with Uma. or Oprah. Uma, Oprah. Oprah, Uma.

Ross-Broadway Library

The Ross-Broadway Library is a hidden treasure in the urban bustle of Denver. Opened in the early 1950's, this branch library was designed by Victor Hornbein in the Prairie Home style developed by Frank Lloyd Wright (see the Price Tower). Hornbein was an accomplished Denver architect who was also involved in the Botanic Gardens and other notable Denver projects.

Although the Prairie style has its origins in natural, organic design, the Ross-Broadway Library seems right at home in this urban environment. The flat cantilevered roofs reach out over the building indicating the importance of the intersection of Bayaud and Lincoln.

The library is located in the neighborhood where I live and I've visited this location many times over the years. It functions perfectly as a branch library, meaning that it serves a local population but because of its size doesn't contain the large volume of books and materials that are located at the central library. Libraries today serve as a sort of video store/internet cafe in many respects. Online reservations allow visitors to swing by the branch library to pick up DVDs or CDs or perhaps to use the internet connection at the computer terminals.

Every time I visit this library, I take a moment to enjoy the design and craftsmanship. The large open space is covered with natural daylight that enters the space through the string of banded windows above the book shelves. Nestled in this high traffic area, the Ross-Brodway library empasizes the need for distinctive design in the congested city.

Royale wit Cheese

One of my hobbies has been to find the best burger joint in Denver. There really isn't any criteria other than which place had the burger I liked the most. This list is still ongoing because I'm sure there's many burgers still out there to eat...

1. Crown Royal

2. Cherry Cricket

3. Denver Diner

4. My Brother's Bar

5. the Bent Fork

Special Note: A couple of years ago I saw a documentary about the best burgers in America. It was actually quite interesting and covered burger joints all over the country. Not only did I learn that true connoisseurs never put ketchup on their burgers, but that's also where I first heard about a place in the Ozarks that serves the world-famous guberburger - a beef patty with peanut butter on top. Last year during some travels thru the Midwest, I stopped by the Wheel Inn to give it a try. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Unfortunately, I just found out recently that the Wheel Inn is closing down (to make more room for traffic) ... so no more guberburgers.

Year of Eastwood #6

Play Misty for Me (1971)

Starring: Eastwood, Jessica Walter
Directed by Eastwood

Clint is a happening dude. He’s a popular DJ at a jazz radio station, he drives a sporty little Jaguar, he’s got a swinging bachelor pad, and the ladies - well, Clint has no problem with the ladies. That is until he picks up a foxy chick at the bar one night and she turns out to be his biggest fan, calling his radio show every night with the same request … play Misty for me.

Clint gives her a ride home and she provides him with a proper thank you. The next morning, Clint says adios and off he goes to comb his hair or something. But Jessica shows up at his place with a bag full of groceries. What guy wouldn't enjoy a lady that drops by with a couple of steaks, so that is followed by another night of thanking. The next morning Clint tells her he’ll call her, but she tracks him down at the bar once again. Enough is enough and Clint is like "Whoah babe, you're really starting to cramp my style." Jessica doesn't give up easy so her plan to impress him is to stab his housekeeper a few dozen times and give his girlfriend a nice new haircut. Clint gives her one last thank you, right off a cliff.

I’m not sure that you could say Jessica Walter was always typecast as the crazy chick, but years later she went on to play the wacky matriarch of the Bluth family on the awesome TV sitcom, Arrested Development.

Play Misty is really a cautionary tale about the consequences of where you stick your jimmy. In the swinging 60s, sex was everywhere (or so I’ve heard). The Pill was readily available and gone was the one fear that was keeping everyone’s hormones in check. Play Misty brought a new stone cold drag to the scene - what do you really know about that groovy chick that you don’t even know that you’re about to bang. What if she turns out to be a psycho bitch who’s going to try to stab you? Years later, Fatal Attraction dealt with a similar topic, instead focusing on the consequences of infidelity - once again you gotta be careful of those chicks with a crazy look in her eyes.

Play Misty was the directorial debut for Clint. His technique is pretty much a straight forward approach - focusing on the story - which he has maintained for the many films he has directed since. The studio gave Clint the go ahead on the movie, but wanted Clint to use a song that was already their property, perhaps Strangers in the Night. Clint turned down their suggestion to call the movie Play Scooby Doo Be Doo for Me.

The film was an interesting choice for Clint’s first project behind the camera. Psychological thrillers in the mode of Hitchcock was quite a departure from the Westerns and Action films that audiences had come to expect, but Play Misty was a huge hit. Clint does an effective job of building the suspense but there are few scenes that seem out of place - an outdoor sequence at the Monterrey Jazz Festival, a soft-core montage to a Roberta Flack song, and a side story about Clint’s girlfriend and her revolving door situation with her roommates (oh wait, I think we all know where that one is headed…)

Studio 04

I registered for Studio 04 in the spring. I thought I was up for a challenge and I was assigned to a studio instructor who had a reputation as being challenging and thorough. The first weekend, he assigned a project to design an addition to a museum - including sketches, plans, and elevations - all due on Monday ... I dropped the class.

It probably was for the best, I had a number of core classes that I needed to complete as well and I was still working part-time 30 hrs. a week. It gave me some time to regroup and get my feet underneath me once again. In the fall, I registered for Studio 04 once again, luckily I got a different instructor.

Our project for the semester was to design low-income housing near downtown Denver. Five Points is an area with a strong history but also struggles financially. The first step was to research the area and tour the site. Traditionally a black neighborhood, Five Points was home to many jazz clubs and across the street from our site was home to the Roxy Theatre which had entertained artists such as Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Nat King Cole.

Next, the focus was an abstract piece that was inspired by our research. From there we designed a mixed-use unit that would also provide services for the neighborhood. In addition to the usual plans, sections, and elevations - a slice model was required for the class. The semester was a struggle because of the amount of work required and I really paid for it when the jury at the end of the semester rolled around. I took quite a beating but I learned from the criticism and it is one project I hope to revisit soon and further develop my concept.

Year of Eastwood #5

City Heat (1984)

Starring: Eastwood, Burt Reynolds
Directed by Richard Benjamin

In the 70s it was Clint and Burt’s world, we were just living in it. There were no two bigger stars in the world. Clint had Dirty Harry and Every Which Way But Loose. Burt had Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit. It was only natural that these two cosmic forces would some day combine forces and the results would be the greatest blockbuster ever to be captured on film … well not exactly.

First of all, City Heat wasn’t released until 1984 - so some of the shine was off the apple. Clint had some ups and downs and Burt’s career was pretty much taking a nose dive. Still the matching of these two stars received quite a bit of attention before the film was released - then it pretty much bombed.

The movie starts out promising - Clint is a by-the-book police lieutenant, Burt is a wise-cracking private eye. They both worked on the force together, but now tensions run high between them. The film begins in a diner where Clint is enjoying a cup of joe and Burt struts in and is soon confronted by a couple of goons. Punches are thrown, Burt gets out a couple of one-liners, Clint calmly takes another sip. And then somebody spills his coffee. Now it’s time for Clint to kick some ass. Turns out that during filming Burt was injured in the fight scene and had his jaw wired shut for the rest of the shoot.

The rest of the movie is pretty under whelming. Even though the movie only runs about an hour and a half, it was pretty boring. The film tries to walk that fine line of mixing violent action and comedy (or a “vomedy” if you will). Obviously this can be done successfully (most notably Pulp Fiction) but City Heat kinda plods along with Burt involved in some plot dealing with gangsters and bookkeeping - Clint just pops in from time to time to shoot somebody. Interestingly, Clint got top billing in the movie.

So how do the two megastars measure up? Both started out in TV Westerns (advantage: draw). Burt often teamed up with Dom DeLuise - Clint never really teamed up with anybody (advantage: Clint). Burt was linked romantically with Sally Field and Lonnie Anderson - Clint was involved with Sondra Locke (advantage: Burt). Clint had his trademark sneer - Burt was rockin the ‘stache (advantage: Burt). Clint went on to serve in local politics - Burt was tabloid fodder during his break up with Lonnie (advantage: Clint).

So the deciding factor is their film careers after City Heat. Clint went on to be an Oscar-winning director - Burt pretty much couldn’t get a job at his own dinner theatre in Florida. Advantage Clint - except for a little film call Boogie Nights. Burt gives a fantastic performance as the adult film producer who serves as a father-figure to a ragamuffin group of pornsters. Burt was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his performance. He lost (to Robin Williams no less) which I consider one of the two most outrageous errors in Academy Awards history. It just so happens that the other Oscar f*ck up happens to involve a different Clint-directed film - but more on that later…

the Price Tower

The tree that escaped the crowded forest ...

Frank Lloyd Wright stands as an American icon of architecture, but despite his notoriety his only built example of a skyscraper stands in - of all places - the open prairies of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Toward the end of his career, FLW had a resurgence of popularity that secured his place in history. In the early 1900s, accomplishments with Louis Sullivan in Chicago and the prairie-home style - were followed by years and years when FLW’s designs had fallen out of favor. The Modern movement focused more on the advances of technology and scoffed at the era of hand-crafted ornamentation. It wasn’t until FLW reluctantly incorporated the Modern style with his own that he rose from obscurity to once again design amazing works such as Fallingwater in Pennsylvania and the Guggenheim Museum in NYC.

In the 1950’s, the Price Oil Company selected FLW to design their office headquarters on the recommendation of Bruce Goff (see Boston Ave. Church). FLW was excited by the challenge of combining his organic system of geometry with the open space of the prairie to form a relationship in a skyscraper.

Many of FLW’s designs have a reliance on grids and squares. By rotating these squares around an axis, FLW created a symmetry of the diagonal forces that he developed into the pinwheel geometry that is the footprint of the Price Tower. His interest in organic design led him to design a central core that grows out of the ground as the support for the cantilevered floors - rotated 30 degrees - that branch out from the core. By focusing the structure away from the building envelope, the exterior curtain wall consists of windows and exterior copper cladding that allows for unobstructed views from every floor.

FLW had been working on many designs for multi-use skyscrapers in urban environments. The plans for the Price Tower look very similar to designs he created in the 1930s for a series of residential buildings in NYC that were never built. He also designed a massive building with soaring spires for Chicago that was never realized as well. In a way, his designs were transplanted from the congested cityscape to the open prairies where it could thrive on its own.

The floor plan of the Price Tower is divided into quadrants with three office spaces and a two-storied apartment on each level with the elevators contained in the core. FLW was definitely a control freak and designed all aspects of his projects including furniture, fireplaces, sidewalks, door handles, mailboxes, and etc. Definitely admirable, but the angular furniture designed for the confined spaces were impractical and generally disliked by most of the employees in the building.


The exterior louvers were designed with different treatments for the office spaces and the apartments. After installation the copper was patinated with acid to create the green effect that usually takes place over time. Speculation is that FLW demanded this treatment so he could witness the final product before his death. Indeed, he died in 1959, three years after the building’s dedication.

Experiencing this building in person is once again something difficult to express in words. The level of detail - which I’ve tried to capture in these pictures - is just amazing. The exterior cladding, which has a feel of Oriental ornamentation to it, changes from every view point. Finally, the cramped spaces were awkward and inspiring at the same time. While I was there I learned that FLW was actually quite a small man in stature and he had a tendency to design to his own proportions (nobody ever said his ego was small).

Buckingham

under the skin
Lindsey Buckingham

Everybody loves the Mac. One of the first bands I saw in concert was Fleetwood Mac back in the Rumors heyday. Years later when I was in college, I saw them in concert again in the late 80’s (sans Buckingham) and then I was lucky enough to see them again a couple of years ago for their reunion tour. It really amazed me how Buckingham could be up there on stage busting his ass on a guitar solo and the crowd seems bored but then that Stevie Nicks comes out does a couple of twirls and bangs that tambourine and the crowd goes wild. The guy just can’t catch a break.

Buckingham has released a few solo albums over the years, but they don’t seem to get much notice. Buckingham is a genius at crafting a catchy pop song and he is truly amazing on the guitar. Some may describe his style as somewhat manic (which I’m sure is a result of those years of his cocaine habit) and sometimes he tends to overproduce. His latest release, Under the Skin, is a great collection of layered, acoustic songs, with standout tracks being Shut Us Down, Down on Rodeo, and Show You How. It’s a great headphones album.

Year of Eastwood #4

White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)

Starring: Eastwood
Directed by Eastwood

You want to see Eastwood act? I mean beyond the swagger of his usual roles. Then check out White Hunter, Black Heart because this movie features Clint stretching outside of his usual comfort zone. From the very first scene, it hits you like a bag of marbles. Ok, so he’s still playing a macho character, he just plays it with an accent and the enthusiasm turned up a notch. It’s actually quite disarming. It’s hard to not be distracted at least for the first few scenes. I found myself thinking about it quite a bit while watching the movie. Most of the big movie stars have a persona we expect from each of their roles - Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson - when they veer from that character, the film usually suffers.

The film is a somewhat factual recount of the great American director John Huston’s obsession with hunting an African elephant - oh yea, he also just happened to be on location filming one of the all-time classics of cinema … The African Queen. Sure, the names have all been changed but we know what’s going on - we know who Kate is, we know who Humphrey is. I was disappointed that the film didn’t provide more insight into the making of the film, instead the whole production is merely a subplot. Kate and Humphrey are reduced to caricatures throwing out one liners. And there’s only occasional mention of the struggles that went into making the movie.

Instead the film is about Huston’s personal version of Moby Dick. His obsession with shooting an ivory-tusked whale. He sacrifices his friends, his career, his legacy to track down those pesky elephants. Clint bulls his way thru scene after scene, determined to conquer the one obstacle (or beast) that seems to be the ultimate prize. As is the case in these films, in the end he learns a valuable lesson - but at what cost? I'd say ... just about nothing. He still went on to direct a great film, made lots more money, and probably bought some fancy car to make up for the elephant he didn't shoot.

Studio 03

Well, I made it thru the first year of studio. In the fall, Studio 03 involved a mid-sized, community library. It was also the last studio that revolved strictly around hand drafting. But what a way to go out. Once we received the program for the library, it was a series of sketches and plans and then some more sketches and plans. The final project included a scale model of the design.


The site for our project was in a neighborhood in south Denver known as Highlands. Directly north of the site runs Interstate 25 and the building would be visible to drivers from the interstate. For my design, the library symbolized an introduction to the neighborhood from the downtown area, which is located on the other side of the interstate. Another feature is to introduce daylight into the building. Denver enjoys over 300 days of blah, blah, blah. The angle of the roof deflected natural light into the library space which not only provides energy savings but also improves learnin'.