Perot Museum: Mistake or Science Lesson?

I visited the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas with my family this week. Among the fantastic interpretive signage and exciting interactive exhibits, I naturally found time to snap some architecture pics. I thought the smooth, individually sculpted precast panels were masterful, and the prism expressing the escalators whimsical. It was precisely because I was admiring the precast that I started looking at other concrete work and noticed a problem - or was it one more science lesson?

Naïve Design

We technical designers make a sport of bemoaning the cluelessness of aesthetic designers. My colleague Louis Medcalf tweeted a common complaint, the type we make when we are frustrated: 

Chief sin of architects: designing something for looks without knowing how to detail it, and putting resp for making it work on someone else
— Louis Medcalf (@MedcalfLouis) February 19, 2013

But there are some designers who might fervently disagree, and I've started referring to their approach as naïve design. This post explores the theoretical position of naïve design and offers tips for success. Don't worry: your innocence won't be spoiled if you read on.

Anderson Todd

Perhaps I did have an inkling that Anderson Todd was important during my years at Rice.

I spent some time at my dad's house this week scanning pictures, and found this: a 1992 B.Arch. graduation-day photo of Andy and me. There were no other photos of professors. Boyfriend, friends I've lost touch with, parents, buildings, project models... and Andy.

Talking About the Spec

Talk to your specifier?

Are you communicating with your specifier during construction administration? Are you, perhaps, a little afraid to tell your specifier about something that didn’t get built according to the spec?

I will tell you, that’s exactly the kind of feedback we specifiers most need, in order to serve you better. Don’t be afraid.

Holiday Greetings

Season's greetings!

I wish you all the best for the year to come.

Ignoring the Spec

What? Ignore the spec?

I’m specifying a system that depends as much on the fabricator as it does on the materials. In this case, it’s a concrete countertop, but really, it could be any sort of artisan construction. Another designer at the same firm did the same sort of product, in a different form, about a year ago, and I wrote the spec for that, too. So I asked the first team if they’d recommend the fabricator to the second team.

I got back, essentially, “Well, they didn’t really follow the spec, but they worked hard to match the existing.”

Getting - and paying for - a problem-free slab

Think this slab might need moisture mitigation?

I joined CSI's Specifying Practice Group webinar in progress last week, because my buddies were learning so much and tweeting about it. I got there just in time to get good answers to my burning questions about how to handle slab testing and moisture mitigating membranes and how best to pay for them.