Summering in Paris

If you were in Paris this summer and you wanted to see the famed Mona Lisa painting, this is what you would be up against. So if you are reading this at the economical beach house that you are sharing with only 8 others, smile!

via Sebastian Puig :c-monster.net

We've Succumbed

Yeah, yeah, we're just as crass and celebrity oriented as any Michael Jackson gang on earth. But, with good reason. Let us explain. Someone put up a site, inviting anyone to post a video of themselves moonwalking. Thousands have responded and continue to respond from all over the world.

Here's what we liked about it, besides the lovely humanity and the hilarious fun with the moonwalk: there are SO MANY ENVIRONMENTS. It's wild. The spectrum of design and architecture is as endless as its video makers. Take a look at the "Eternal Moonwalk."

Sound Bytes of Life.

Have you listened to your street lately? What lively or subtle sounds emanate around and within the surrounding architecture? Giles Turnbull a British chap who lives in the English countryside, aimed his microphone at London spaces to see what he could hear. This page at the Morning News reveals the results. The recordings represent an archeology of sound.

Wouldn't it be astonishing to be able to hear the sounds of the market, waterways, street life of ancient worlds? We would listen with deep attention. These short snips of sound remind us that we tend to tune-out the details of sound. Turnbull's project encourages us to recall that we can isolate and focus on this realm whenever we please. This simple exercise can heighten the experience of our world.

Happy Birthday David Hockney!

Pearlblossom Hwy. - 1986

"Most photographers think that the rules of perspective are built into the very nature of photography, that it is not possible to change it at all. For me, it was a long process realizing that this does not have to be the case." "When making his two photocollages of Pearblossom Highway, David Hockney positioned himself closer to or more distant from his subjects, choosing which elements in the scene should be large and which should be small. By reassembling views from multiple perspectives, he applied ideas borrowed from Cubist painting to produce a rich, compound image that he considers "a panoramic assault on Renaissance one-point perspective." Hockney made this work as a preparatory study for the final version, Pearblossom Hwy., 11 - 18th April 1986, #2, which measures approximately six-and-a-half by nine feet. Aside from scale, the principal differences between the two versions are the distortion of the stop sign in the foreground and the left and right edges of the composition."

Getty Museum

Shanghai Sensation

A thirteen-story building FELL OVER in Shanghai!

Improper construction methods are believed to be the reason the building collapsed in Shanghai, according to a report from the investigation team. The investigation team's report said that workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while on the other side earth was heaped up to 10 meters high, which was apparently an error in construction, according to a report on eastday.com, Shanghai's official news website. (Italics added)

Here's a link to terrific hi-res photo series with additional details. Below are the cheerfully pink graphics explaining the event.

Managing Design Abundance / A new slant

The funny thing about waste is that it's all relative to your sense of scarcity.

Illustration: Rodrigo Corral

Chris Anderson's outside the box Wired editorial "Tech Is Too Cheap to Meter: It's Time to Manage for Abundance, Not Scarcity"puts a whole new slant on our thinking.

A few months ago it was time for my kids to choose how to spend the two hours of "screen time" they're allowed on weekends. I suggested Star Wars and gave them a choice: They could watch any of the six movies in hi-def on a huge projection screen with surround sound audio and popcorn. Or they could go on YouTube and watch stop-motion Lego animations of Star Wars scenes created by 9-year-olds. It was no contest--they raced for the computer.

It turns out that my kids, and many like them, aren't really that interested in Star Wars as created by George Lucas. They're more interested in Star Wars as created by their peers, never mind the shaky cameras and fingers in the frame. When I was growing up, there were many clever products designed to extend the Star Wars franchise to kids, from toys to lunch boxes, but as far as I know nobody thought of stop-motion Lego animation created by children.

We think this represents a disinterest in a reality that is packaged and processed, and a return to a yearning for a very modern kind of authenticity. It is such an interesting contrast, because both exist today in a hyper form.

4th of July Salute from Solar Thermal

A picture was worth 24,000 mirrors when eSolar, a company based in Pasadena, Calif., that specializes in solar thermal power, transformed a vast field of heliostats at its Southern California solar farm into a Fourth of July tableau of the American flag and the Statue of Liberty. The New York Times reports.

Mr. Gross, the founder of the tech-incubator Idealab, contends that eSolar can deliver electricity cheaper than natural gas, repeat, cheaper than natural gas, by using sophisticated algorithms to control inexpensive and lightweight mirrors called heliostats. The heliostats create steam that runs turbine engines, that generate electricity. Simple, but true.

hat tip to @pingpants

Sony Walkman - 30th Anniversary

When thinking about electronics design, the Sony Walkman was the leading edge of a technological revolution. Just for fun, the BBC gave a Walkman to a 13-year old and asked him to use it for a week and report back. Here's the article about the investigation. Don't miss the comments, where Walkman users wax nostalgic. One of our favorite lines from the reviewer, 13-year old Scott Campbell:

Personally, I'm relieved I live in the digital age, with bigger choice, more functions and smaller devices. I'm relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born, as I can't imagine having to use such basic equipment every day.

Those Walkman years were tough!

One wonders how the iPod will stand up to its 30th Anniversary. We imagine Steve Jobs will still here, completely rebuilt.

Charles and Ray Eames Get Spacey

People mostly know the superstar couple Charles and Ray Eames for the amazing furniture they designed. Actually they were true multi-disciplinarians, as proven by this film they made in 1977, entitled ‘Powers of Ten’ for IBM. Elmer Bernstein wrote the sci-fi score. It opens with a picnic in a park, before taking the viewer on a journey out to the edge of the universe, and then back to a carbon atom inside the hand of the man.

It serves to put things into perspective.

As a point of earthly reference, in the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine's "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and hand-constructed within a matter of days entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

Lamenting Lost Marbles.

Flickr Slide show of the new Acropolis Museum.

Twelves years in the planning and execution, the Acropolis Museum officially opened 20 June 2009. Crouching 300 yards from the Parthenon's slender bones like a skewed stack of glass boxes, the $180 million museum provides a setting for some of the best surviving works of classical sculpture that once adorned the Acropolis. With about 150,000 square feet of exhibition space, it holds more than 4,000 ancient works, many of them never displayed before due to lack of space in the cramped old museum that sat atop the Acropolis hill.

The larger issue that was fueled by the opening of the Acropolis Museum, is of "the Marbles." Only about half of the original marble panels from the famous frieze that used to encircle the Parthenon are on view. The remainder famously, or infamously, line the walls of the Duveen gallery in London’s British Museum, to which they were transported in the early 19th century by the Scottish aristocrat Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, hence called, "The Elgin Marbles." A cogent point of view on the whole issue of the "looted" marbles is nicely articulated by Greek blogger Pinelope.

If you enjoy reading well written architectural descriptions, we think Nicolai Ouroussoff, the New York Times architecture and design critic, provides some of the very best. He's description of the Acropolis Museum reflects the beauty and imagery of great architectural writing. Here's a snip from his review of the building designed by Swiss-born architect, Bernard Tschumi:

The genius lies in how the room snaps disparate sculptural and architectural fragments into their proper context. You first enter the south side of the gallery, where the museum’s friezes and metopes will be seen against the chalky backdrop of the rooftops of Athens. As you turn a corner, the Parthenon comes into full view; the ancient temple hovers through huge windows to your right. The eastern facade of the Parthenon and the sculptures that once adorned it unite in your imagination, allowing you to picture the temple as it was in Periclean Athens. Eventually you descend through a sequence of smaller galleries, where the glories of the High Classical period gradually give way to Roman copies of Greek antiquities. The Parthenon fades from view.

Reviews of this building, generally, conclude that the design of it reveals the importance of the return of the Marbles to their rightful country. I'm sure this debate will continue for some time.

Out with the Old in with the New?

New York City: Old Pennsylvania Station

New York City: New Penn Station

The Infrastructurist blog provides a look at eleven historic buildings that met the wrecking ball and what replaced them. Try not to cry. Better, yet, cry.

No joke.

Those of us who appreciate the history, legend and design of Moleskine notebooks, will understand the ire that knock-offs generate. The notebook on the left is a real Moleskine, made in Milan, Italy, where it should be made. The notebook on the right is made in Germany, where it shouldn't.

An organization, aptly named, Plagiarius has taken on the (heroic) work of identifying companies that copy and market other's design ideas. Plariarius hands-out public awards to these dubious companies who prefer to hide in the shadows. Surprisingly, they are not all Chinese, although companies in Guangdong, PR China show up a few too many time through the years. Here is the 2008 roster of those who choose to copy rather than innovate.

Plagiarius announces their negative award, during a press conference, at the annual “Ambiente” household consumables trade fair, held in Frankfurt, Germany. The award is conferred on those companies that the jury has found guilty of making "the most flagrant" design imitations. As his award icon, Rido Busse, the founder of Plagiarius, chose a gnome, which he painted black with a gold nose to signify the “illicit earnings from product imitation."

Our favorite award was entitled, "Special Award for Falsification of a Vacuum-Pump." In nothing sacred?!

Some Facts & Numbers from Plagiarius
> 10% of world-wide commerce are fakes and plagiarisms > Annual world-wide economic loss: EUR 200-300 billion > Annual world-wide loss of jobs: 200.000 > Dramatically rising numbers of confiscations through customs > Increase of unauthorized/unfounded product liability claims on part of the creatives

Hat tip to PAW

Berliners Brainstorm

Recently Tempelhof Airport, in the center of Berlin, was closed . The city of Berlin challenged citizens to come up with some ideas for the 300 hectare site. Normally, architecture prevails, the bigger the better: gigantic hotels in fancy shapes, sky-high office towers, hovering philharmonic temples, dramatic sports arenas. Architect, Jakob Tigges, proposed an amazing idea: build a 1,071 meter high mountain.

Tigges, Tempelhof Mountain would be constructed of rubble. The German construction industry produces 280 million tons of rubble in a year, for starters. We think it is a wondrous idea. The creation of a new "natural" structure would add both a visual and emotional anchor to the community that few buildings achieve.

It seems that all involved understand that the idea would be difficult to pull off. There are many supporters trying to figure out the ecological impact of moving 280 million tons of rubble, for example. Getting the mountain developed has some difficulties. It may not happen, but, what the idea serves to do is create a "holding space' for the site. This pause allows some creative space to consider an ingenious solution, one that has inspired people to think differently about the use of space. We really like that.

Jakob Tigges Facebook page

Turn, Turn, Turn

"The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind." The wind power industry is seeking trained technicians. Community colleges and technical institutes are creating wind turbine technician programs as fast as they can. One of the first classes is at Cerro Coso Community College in Kern County, California. When the class was announced in February, the course fee was $1,000. The demand for the class has been so high that the course fee has since doubled! America is mobilizing the green industry.

If you can climb to 300 feet and can face the possibility of, ahem...dismemberment, you will make $15 to $20 an hour. Crack technicians will make in the six figures. These are permanent jobs that will be necessary as long as there are wind turbines. Prediction: 250,000 jobs. Let's hope.

Vertical Gardens!

Kevin Smith, founder of Smith Built is a prolific designer. Although Smith is primarily a builder, his vertical gardens are triumphant. They are an inspiring delight. We like them.

The one below, installed at the Bardessono Hotel in Napa Valley, in collaboration with the brilliant Flora Grubb of Flora Grubb Gardens, is a magical, show stopper.

Poisoning of the Cities

Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times architecture and design critic is not happy. In his critique of the new Brooklyn Nets Arena, Ouroussoff describes the design:

A colossal, spiritless box, it would fit more comfortably in a cornfield than at one of the busiest intersections of a vibrant metropolis. Its low-budget, no-frills design embodies the crass, bottom-line mentality that puts personal profit above the public good. If it is ever built, it will create a black hole in the heart of a vital neighborhood.

Whew! He goes on:

But what’s most offensive about the design is the message it sends to New Yorkers. Architecture, we are being told, is something decorative and expendable, a luxury we can afford only in good times, or if we happen to be very rich. What’s most important is to build, no matter how thoughtless or dehumanizing the results. It is the kind of logic that kills cities — and that has been poisoning this one for decades.

For the complete review, click here.

Invasive Species War : Ecological Meltdown

Tiny Macquarie Island, in the South Ocean,
somewhere between Antartica and Australia

This science story in the Los Angeles Times blew us away. When seal hunting sailors arrived at the Macquarie Island around 1810, rats and mice casually debarked onto the island. These rats and mice attacked the local food stores. So on the next trips sailors brought cats, to stop the proliferation of mice. Next, a common tradition, they brought rabbits to provide stranded sailors with food. The cats, brought to catch the mice and rats, swiftly killed thousands of rabbits and totally exterminated the islands birds. Uncontained, the remaining rabbits slowly stripped the island of vegetation causing perilous erosion.

To control the rabbits, scientists brought fleas infected with the Myxomatosis virus! As the rabbit population was reduced, the cats, with no rabbits to eat, grew hungry and began attacking a new, burrowing bird population. To stop this, the scientists shot all the cats. Once the cats were gone, the few remaining rabbits, despite the virus, began proliferating, again. With the rabbits eating vegetation to excess, the island erosion increased, causing landslides. Now, it looks like the island may slide into the sea, endangering the rare penguin population.

But, wait! To prevent the island's demise, the scientists are now going to eradicate all the rabbits, mice and rats remaining on the island, a process that could cost at least $16 million and take years. We kid you not!

Big Boats from Little Chop Sticks Grow?

Wood was the original building material for humankind’s first boats and Shuhei Ogawara, who works in the Fukushima, Japan, City Hall Forestry Department, decided to go back to basics when designing a home-made canoe.

Ogawara added an environmental twist to the concept, however, by using only discarded wooden chopsticks from the city hall cafeteria - 7,382 of them! The result is a snazzy-looking canoe 13 feet long that weighs 66 pounds. You just can't beat this for ingenuity.

Did You Know?

BUILDING ENVELOPE PERFORMANCE
Click to enlarge image

Did you know that 43% of carbon emissions in the United States originate from the operation of buildings?

11 Most Endangered Historic Places

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) has announced its list of Endangered Historic Place. NTHP president, Richard Moe, says, "These 11 sites highlight many critical issues, including the importance of preserving architectural icons of the recent past and preservation as one of the most effective forms of sustainable development. Places like these help tell all of our stories, and losing them not only erases a piece of our heritage, it also represents a threat to our planet."

This year's designated sites are:

Frank LLoyd Wright's Unity Temple, Oak Park, Ill.
Wright’s design was unprecedented in 1905, with its cubist theme and poured concrete construction. Says Moe: "A century after its completion, Frank Lloyd Wright's temple is at a critical crossroads. If the building's structural integrity and interior damage are not addressed, this Modern icon will be lost to future generations."
The Hangar for the Enola Gay, Wendover Airfield, Utah
"The National Trust for Historic Preservation's ‘most endangered' designation for the Enola Gay Hangar highlights the critical need to preserve sites associated with the Manhattan Project," says Moe. "Though they evoke a unique, emotionally charged response, the sites associated with the Manhattan Project are part of America's story, and we look forward to the day when the public can visit Wendover and the Enola Gay Hangar as part of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park."
Memorial Bridge, between Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME
Memorial Bridge is "an engineering marvel and a landmark of transportation history … the oldest operational lift bridge in the eastern United States, [it] represents a key link in the great Eastern coastal route," says Moe. "Because federal and state-funded infrastructure projects across the nation have been identified as a priority by the Obama Administration, we now have an opportunity to reshape bridge preservation practices in the United States. Memorial Bridge is the poster child for all we stand to lose by erasing these cultural and engineering landmarks."
The Human Services Center, Yankton, SD
The Human Services Center in Yankton, S.D., a prairie hospital formerly known as the South Dakota Hospital for the Insane, is the oldest public institution in the state. In1890 Dr. Leonard Mead implemented his groundbreaking idea of creating an environment that would be therapeutically beneficial for patients instead of the sterile, fear-provoking asylums of the day. Buildings were added to include neo-Classical, Art Deco, and Italianate styles. Eleven of its structures are to be torn down. "This is an unparalleled collection of buildings," says Moe. "Dr. Mead's vision of a beautiful, soul-nourishing environment doesn't have to end just because the State of South Dakota wants to dispose of the Yankton campus."
Miami Marine Stadium
Miami Marine Stadium in Virginia Key, Fla., a cantilevered, cast-concrete stadium damaged by Hurricane Andrew, deterioration, vandalism, and neglect. Miami Marine Stadium is both a South Florida landmark and an icon of Modern design. Moe explains: "There was a time—not long ago—when the ultimate Miami experience was a night at Miami Marine Stadium. This magnificent stadium is an icon of the Modern movement and an important piece of Miami heritage and history, and we can't afford to lose it."
Mount Taylor, New Mexico
Mount Taylor in New Mexico, is a sacred site for American Indian tribes whose cultural and archaeological resources are threatened by uranium mining. The mountain was originally named for President Zachary Taylor. Says Moe: "We can't allow an antiquated mining law—one that has no merit today—to forever scar a place that has tremendous historical and cultural significance to thousands of Americans."
Ames Shovel Shops, Easton, Mass.
Ames Shovel Shops, was a 19th-century industrial village in Easton, Mass. "The shovels manufactured by the Ames family powered, enriched, and defended America,” says Moe. "This is a remarkable example of a manufacturing complex that has survived intact for 150 years."
The cast-iron architecture of Galveston, Texas
Dorchester Academy, Midway, GA
Dorchester Academy in Midway, Ga., was founded in 1868 as a school for freed slaves. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and practiced portions of his "I Have a Dream" speech at Dorchester Academy. “The story of Dorchester Academy is not widely known, but it's a story that deserves to be told,” Moe says. “In addition to its highly significant role as a school for generations of African-American students, Dorchester played a seminal role in the great social movements of our nation's history."
Lana'i City, Hawaii
Lāna’i City, Hawaii, known as "Pineapple Isle," is a site of plantation homes built in the 1920s. "Lāna‘i City is a jewel, the last remaining intact plantation town in Hawaii," says Moe. "Its remote location protected the city from the intense development pressures seen in other parts of the state, and, as a result, it's been a haven for visitors anxious to experience an authentic and natural slice of paradise.”
The Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles
The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles was built in the mid-’60s and designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Center. "How is the demolition of a 40-year-old, fully functioning building environmentally responsible?" asks Moe. "In a state known for its environmental stewardship and strong focus on sustainable development, it boggles the imagination to think a developer could propose tearing down a newly renovated, thriving hotel—a landmark of Modern architecture—and replace it with new construction. Because historic preservation inherently involves the conservation of energy and natural resources, it has always been the greenest form of development."

Charlie Rose Interviews Frank Gehry + Renzo Piano

The show is a full hour, and very interesting. Each man emphasizes the seriousness of architecture's purpose and the importance of an engaged client. These two "starchitects" seem more humbled by the process than we have given them credit for. At one point, in discussing the NYT team for the new NYT building design, Gehry explains why he walked away from the job: the body language and attitude of the NYT team scared him. He makes this comment in a way that does not connote arrogance, but, rather, a longing for the playful process he has come to revere as the essence of creativity. Renzo Piano was awarded the job.

Renzo Piano discusses, among other ideas, the aesthetic of sustainability, which he believes is the inspiration driving the 21st Century. Simplified, he describes a sustainable building as one that "talks and breathes with nature." We liked his thoughts that architecture is the art of building emotion and that the idea of beauty is changing with the idea of sustainability. This beauty, he feels is the one thing that can compete successfully against the ethos of power and money. Piano is from a long line of builders. When his father learned that Renzo was going to study architecture he said to his son, "Why become and architect, when you could be a builder?" We guess this is a global contention of practices that will never end.

As each man discusses his life and work, the mind gratefully returns to contemplate some of the bigger issues of the practice of architecture.

Art Deco | The Roots of Modernism

The New York Public Library has the largest Art and Architecture collection in the country. It is free and accessible to the public. To celebrate it, the library posted a lovely, short video at ArtBabble featuring some of the material in the Art Deco collection. For Deco fans, there is a quick look at the works created through the pochoir technique and the work of a true renaissance woman, Sonia Delaunay.

Curator of the Arts and Architecture Collection, Paula Baxter, provides the commentary. Here's the link.

Considering the billions going toward new highways in the stimulus package, one must seriously wonder how we are going to resolve mass transit and land use issues. The brave at MIT march on.

MIT researchers are designing a futuristic bus stop called the EyeStop. A collaboration between architects and engineers in the SENSEable City Lab. From MIT News:

Riders can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, surf the Web, monitor their real-time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. They can also post ads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board at the bus stop, enhancing the EyeStop's functionality as a community gathering space.

The EyeStop could change the whole experience of urban travel," said Carlo Ratti, Head of the SENSEable City Lab at MIT. "At the touch of a finger, passengers can get the shortest bus route to their destination or the position of all the buses in the city. The EyeStop will also glow at different levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus."

In addition to displaying information, the bus stop also acts as an active environmental sensing node, powering itself through sunlight and collecting real-time information about the surrounding environment.

EyeStop is like an 'info-tape' that snakes through the city," said project leader Giovanni de Niederhousern. It senses information about the environment and distributes it in a form accessible to all citizens.

Still, we are putting BILLIONS into new highways!

New Urbanism - John Paget Video

John Paget is the award winning Producer and Director of this video for the Congress of New Urbanism . (At the moment CNU's website is off line for maintenance). The film also won a CNU award. This video stands in contrast to the more staid and corporate video from Kansas City, below. However, each plays a role in the process of reeducating all of us about the urgency's and solutions of the day.

These videos represent attempts to realign our thinking on the use of space and our sense of place. It is a good start. It is going to take a long time to educate people. The fact that Europe is well on its way to dealing with the ideas and issues of New Urbanism is a hopeful sign. And then there is something bouncing abot called "New Pedestrianism." Another idea coming to your neighborhood, soon. Things are cooking.

Envisioning Transportation Solutions

is wonderfully conceived and executed.

Architecture of Authority

A California prison's communal room is among Richard Ross's empty spaces. (By Richard Ross)

We have posted on this amazing book, "Architecture of Authority," by Richard Ross, last year. It is a sometimes shocking book. It provides images of spaces most of us would never see. Also, Ross questions the complicity of architects in designing some of these "dehumanizing" environments. Pictured are institutional spaces, interrogation rooms, holding cells and isolation booths , as well as high schools, DMV waiting rooms, hospitals. The breadth of images provides a compelling insight into how we "warehouse" people who must be controlled.

The reason we are posting about this book again is that an exhibition of 44 of these large format images from the book are on display at the National Building Museum in DC. Ross's images are "captured with a spare geometric beauty that is as compelling as it is disturbing," says the Washington Post architectural critic, Phillip Kennicott, in his vivid, challenging and excellent review of the images in this exhibition.

Henry David Thoreau's JournaL: May 18, 1857

Yellow Birch
Photo: Lorianne DiSabato

"There is a very grand and picturesque old yellow birch in the old cellar northwest the yellow birch swamp. Though this stands out in open land, it does not shed its pollen yet, and its catkins are not much more than half elongated, but it is very beautiful as it is, with its dark-yellowish tassels variegated with brown. Yet in the swamp westerly the yellow birches are in full bloom, and many catkins strew the ground. They are four or five inches long when in bloom. They begin to shed their pollen at the base of the catkins, as, I think, other birches do."

What have you noticed in the natural world today? Take a look.

Flaming Architecture

We have just read of a fire at Guangzhou Opera House. The project, designed by Zaha Hadid with a web-like exoskeleton, includes an 1,800-seat theater as well as a multipurpose hall and support facilities. The building was set to open this fall.

A Chinese media outlet reports that the blaze has been extinguished but that the extent of the damage has not been determined. A project architect is currently on site and a statement from Hadid’s office is expected shortly.

Following the recent fire of Rem Koolhass and Ole Scheeren's 522-foot OMA-designed Chinese, TVCC tower, the event represents the second construction blaze at a building site in China by an internationally known architect.

What are they doing over there?

The Top 50...and then some.

Architect Weekly / Hanley Wood announces its picks for the top 50 architecture firms in the United States based on profitability, commitment to sustainability, and caliber of design. A good read.

They, additionally, named 50 honored firms. Among them are two Baltimore firms that are not like those big, old, design mega-firms that usually eat everyone's lunch. The two firms that made the list are #74 Cho Benn Holback + Associates and #76 Design Collective. Congratulations! Thanks for the inspiration.

Urban Woodsman

Chris Holmgren, Seneca Creek Joinery
Photo: David Sharpe

Nothing is wasted. If a log has heart-rot or termites, Chris Holmgren dries it out and makes it into a bowl.

Holmgren is one of our eco-heroes right here in Montgomery County, Maryland. He was recently featured in the Washington Post. Once, as a contractor, he learned from the U.S. Forest Service that over 3.8 million board feet of timber are tossed or destroyed each year. He decided that was too much waste. Burned out on the remodeling business, he started the Seneca Creek Joinery and never looked back. He now collects every manner of salvaged tree or log. From them, he makes elegant Windsor Chairs, floor boards, tables and custom milled pieces.

Through his Wood Recovery Project he partners with local communities and tree companies to gather the wood that would normally be lost. Holmgren wants no tree to be wasted.

I envision six or eight processing centers like mine around the Beltway. Two hundred million board feet of lumber goes to waste each year inside the Beltway alone. What makes up that figure? Tree trimming, hazard trees and diseased trees. And there's always somebody saying, "Well, we don't like to take a tree down, but that one's so messy."

We lose 10 to 15 acres of woodland a day in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to land-clearing for development and growing corn for ethanol. That's not an economic disaster, but it's going to be an ecological disaster.

Holmgren makes the argument for thinking, buying and planning locally understandable and urgent.

Hit Tip to Paul Bowman