US Embassy in Athens by Walter Gropius

Another reason why I'd die and die again to work at Ann Beha...they are shortlisted for a refurb of the US Embassy in Athens. My husband and I actually stayed very close to it when we went there in 2010. It's pretty cool...

Spaulding Rehab Hospital -- Perkins + Will

Great piece in the Globe about the careful attention paid to the new Spaulding Rehab Hospital by Perkins + Will.

Photo: Pat Greenhouse / Boston Globe

Updated Lecture Hall Rendering in Podium

I can't get directional lights to work in Podium...not sure if they are buggy, or what. I had to optical engineer some directional lights by making my own concave reflectors. Optics for the win!

I Clearly Need This Book

How Buildings Learn, by Stewart Brand.

And the BPL has it. Yes.

MIT's Building 20, the Plywood that Could

Here's a question: when designing facilities for research, what can we learn from a famous, "temporary" plywood building at MIT that wasn't really designed at all? Building 20's long and illustrious history of innovation contains much insight into how occupants and user culture shape space and vice versa.

Read about it here and here.

In Progress...NESAD Redesign for Contract II Studio

The four-hour rendering:

Reception Area -- hand rendering and Photoshop

In which I realize Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the Coolest Lady Alive...

The SCOTUS justice has this (or a variant thereof) hanging in her office:

Josef Albers "Homage to the Square"

Also there's that thing where she fought for equal protection for women under the law for most of her adult life and graduated first in her class from Columbia Law while raising small children. I don't think this woman could possibly be any more awesome. Leslie Knope and I are starting a fan club.

Post Offices on the Market

The NYT reports that these glorious examples of civic architecture are for sale or being considered for sale. Hopefully historic preservationists will be able to do their thing. These buildings could be amazing adaptive reuse projects.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/New York Times

Habitat '67 Apt Seen in Dwell

I die and die again over Moshe Safdie's Habitat '67, an amazing building in one of my favorite cities in the world. And these photos from Dwell, of a gorgeous mod-yet-warm residence there, are feeding this obsession.

Photo: Dwell Magazine

Please wake me when it's time to retire and move to Quebec.

MUJI and Mindful Consumption

Last fall, I attended a talk by Masaaki Kanai, the president of MUJI. I am now writing about MUJI in the first chapter of my thesis as an precedent for the promotion of mindful behavior. At the talk last fall, Mr. Kanai spoke of one of MUJI's guiding principles: "Muji tries to attract not the customer who says 'This is what I want,' but rather the one who says, rationally, 'this will do.'" 

For a retail entity to think this way is rather mind-blowing and seemingly contradictory. I encourage you to check out the full video of Masaaki Kanai's talk at MIT.

Masaaki Kanai  -- http://stinterni.mondadori.com

Snowstorms, Cars, Stockholm Syndrome

So, Boston got a little snow today. After over 12 years in Boston, this is the first winter where I haven't relied on my car for day-to-day transportation. I can take the bus to the subway to get to school, and even yoga. We also live 1/2 mile from two grocery stores. So this morning I woke up and realized that while yes, my husband and I would clear our cars off and clear our driveway, my existence does not depend on these things right now. That's a pretty good feeling.

Our cars, after the snowstorm

In between shoveling spells, I'm furthering my thesis research, and reading about mindful city planning. I encountered a great blog, Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth. The author notes the following:

"The American love affair with the car...it's an awful lot like Stockholm Syndrome."

It occurs to me today how true that is. People tend to think of cars as their liberation, but on a day like today, it seems that not needing to rely on a car is true freedom. The car and the lack of urban planning that necessitates it is a captive force, not a liberating one. Don't believe what Chevy et. al. might tell you.

Steelcase on the Flexible Office and Worker Happiness

I think this piece actually identifies why I found my first 9-5 job so stifling compared with the Cornell campus. The idea that you are at a desk (or in my case in the lab or at a desk, so I had it better than most) for a straight 8 hours is sort of a shock to the system. I missed the ability to structure my day more organically, choosing to do some reading at a coffee shop for 2 hours, then meet up with friends to tackle a problem set, then hole up in a library somewhere... One of my favorite parts of being a student again is that freedom of place. NESAD has 5 PC computer labs, plus rooms with drafting boards, plus its little library. Then I also have my home office as an option. It's not quite the Cornell campus, but the idea is the same.