DECEMBER 30TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
More and more, we’re being asked to lecture about our design-build work, office culture and social media strategies. And while we’re no experts at lecturing, we’re really starting to enjoy it. Giving a presentation on what you love doing for a living is a ton of fun and it’s always an honor to receive invites from the organizations and institutions that host us.
In any lecture (architecture or otherwise), there are careful decisions to be made: which slides to choose and how many, what direction the narrative thread should follow, what thoughts you leave the audience with, the level of interaction in the room, and so forth. The number of dials you need to keep your hands on can be overwhelming, and a good lecture balances all of these variables with one another.
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DECEMBER 27TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
If you haven’t had the pleasure of staying at one of the four ACE Hotels around the country, we highly recommend booking your next vacation based on the hotel first and the location second. For architects, designers and well, anyone design-conscious, staying at an ACE Hotel is an exploration in fresh ideas and smart implementations. Every time you turn a corner, enter a new room, or decide to hit the gym, you are pleasantly surprised with a dose of innovative design. An important part of the design chemistry is that there’s usually clever signage that gives your day that little boost of happiness.
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DECEMBER 23RD, 2011
By BUILD LLC
We’ve had some great winter-time cheer come across our desks at the BUILD World Headquarters lately and we thought we’d share; after all, it’s the holidays.
CONSTRUCTing
Deviating from a mere competition for the best snow-person sculpture, each year in January, Breckenridge, Colorado hosts the International Snow Sculpture Competition. The event attracts ambitious artists who aren’t satisfied with making just an average snow fort. These large scale sculptures showcase the unique and ephemeral medium of high country snow and ice, producing some stellar results.
[Image Credit: flickr.com/hawbone]
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DECEMBER 20TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
[All photos by BUILD LLC]
As you know, we love modernism around here; but modernism also comes with some baggage. There’s a tendency to think that all things modern must be stark and white and free from irregularity. And while this philosophy of modernism appropriately applies to designed objects in the vein of cell phones, cars and appliances, it doesn’t quite apply to everything in the built-environment. An authentic and honest connection to architecture doesn’t necessarily imply perfection. The connection may simply be a worn leather handle of a door or the mill-scale on a steel handrail. These pretenseless and subtle details allow for a relationship to the work; they offer an understanding. Lately, we’ve been incorporating more of this into our own thinking: this idea of introducing more grit, more truth of material, and basically more nature into the work.
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DECEMBER 16TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
Along with the holidays come all of those holiday parties. And along with most any holiday party comes the potential for uneasy conversation and awkward small-talk. You’ve been there, you know you have; the only question is which side of the fence you were on. If you’re going to be in a room with one or more architects this holiday season, we recommend brushing up on some things not to say. We’ve rounded up our list of favorite taboo quotes, complete with mind-reading translations of what the architects will be thinking, should you elect to go there. Enjoy.
I always wanted to be an architect
Translation: I took an architecture course in college for about 6 minutes; you people are nuts. While you were toiling away in studio I was showing the entire Alpha Phi sorority how to make vodka Jello.
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DECEMBER 13TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
A couple of weeks ago we met up with master structural engineer, long-time mentor and good friend Gary Swenson. Both partners here at BUILD had the privilege of working for Gary at Swenson Say Fagét and we’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for him. As far as we’re concerned, he invented structural engineering in the Pacific Northwest (private caveat to our many good S.E. friends out there- we love you too, we do, but this is the Man’s moment). He recently announced his retirement after 50 years of engineering; we caught up with Gary and his lovely wife Becky over dinner and drinks. Here’s a few things you should know about this hero of ours.
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DECEMBER 9TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
Our latest round-up of inspiring links culled from our readers, friends, and in-house team.
ARCHITECTing
Check out the noteworthy work of JSa out of Mexico. Javier Sanchez has a background in both architecture and real estate. We’re happy to see a growing presence of architects in real estate development.
-thanks to Prentis
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DECEMBER 6TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
This week BUILD is heading down to sunny Phoenix Arizona to speak at the Hanley Wood Reinvention 2011 Symposium. Thursday morning we’ll be delivering a talk on design-build and later that afternoon we’ll be presenting on social media for architects and designers. We’re thrilled to be invited on stage for this event and dang honored be in the company of some stellar individuals and firms; the roster of speakers is chock-full of sharp-shooters that should be on your radar. Today’s post is a hats-off to some folks we have great admiration for; and if you’re design conscious, it’s a great primer on some top-notch architects. Enjoy
First off, a big kudos to Hanley Wood for staking out the Arizona Biltmore hotel for the symposium. The Biltmore was constructed in 1929 by brothers Albert, Charles and Warren McArthur; Frank Lloyd Wright also served as the consulting architect. It’s one of the only existing hotels in the world influenced by FLW and it’s got his masterful brushstrokes all over it. It’s Classy with a capital ‘C’ and we’re looking forward to getting our design eyes on it in person.
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DECEMBER 2ND, 2011
By BUILD LLC
[All photos by BUILD LLC]
BUILD just put the finishing touches on a Mid-Century Modern home in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood; a community filled with handsome MCM models. This project is a great example of bringing an older residence up to 21st century standards, while retaining the original charm of the home. The design and construction of an existing structure is always tricky to navigate, especially when key items are important to the home’s character. Subsequently, we rely on systems that have proved themselves over the course of numerous projects. The Guide to Updating Mid-Century Modern Homes is a good starting point and working with extraordinary clients who possess a keen sense of humor definitely helps. Today’s post breaks down the remodel into its constituent parts and calls out the specifications and links to fixtures, appliances, materials and all sorts of good stuff. Enjoy the read and let us know what you think.
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