Love Letters to Dead Architects: Convivial and Conniving

My Sovereign Majesty, Queen Cleopatra,

Greetings from the future. I have sent this letter to the afterlife with great difficulty, as postage through the valley of suffering is ridiculous, but it is worth it for you. It might do you well to know that your beauty is still revered ages after you have shed your mortal coil. However, you and I know that you were actually not too much to look at, but de-tagging yourself in all those vasebook pictures really paid off.

However, while I would love to go on about your posterity, I must get to my goal of discussing your cleverness at the Edfu Temple of Horus. I’m speaking of course about the design you took to make sure that no-one stole your precious artifacts (how are those working out by the way? I saw the solid-gold spinning wheel, very nice). By making your private temple, open to the public, it allowed perpetual security and unlike Imhotep, who created (through the Pyramids of Giza) a fossil; easy to covet and even easier to steal, you created a perpetual maiden. Your palace sits, celestial in her orb, and untouchable by unclean hands but democratic to the faithful. How like you; mind of the killer, hide in plain sight.

May your wicked deeds by lighter than a feather when you finally reach Osiris.

Eternally yours,
Retly Corm

Dear Charles,

Don’t trust your Brother, he only made you move to California because he knows about the gold in them there hills. OUR gold. He may have claimed that he was weary of the stuffy Victorian rules for houses: the more layers the better, why not add more decoration when the shapes themselves lack substance, pastels, pastels pastels, etc... He said he yearned to be in a place devoid of these prescriptions and that your parents had conveniently found a quaint little town to escape to. He keeps telling you that the clean lines are the future, but then he muddies them with unnecessary structural backing. You know as well as I that those stone planters will hold. Now, I’m no mathematician, but the actions and the numbers: they don’t add up.
I stole the map from under his pillow, we could leave tonight. I know the way. Meet me by the Stained Glass Tree at midnight.

Yours,
R. C.

Dear Henry,

I’m writing you this to alert you to a terrible plot being forged by those closest to you, in particular your brother. He claims to have followed you here only as a means of architectural expression, but he knows about the treasure of Casa Verde and will stop at nothing to possess it. You know when he has independent means he will return to the unhealthy obsessions of fantasy. Gravity will never allow those pylons to stand, just look at those planters out-front, absurd. He refuses to think through his actions and I’m afraid you will be the one to suffer for it.
We have to move tonight. I saw him searching your room, so I took the map for safe keeping. Meet me by the tree-inspired Carpet tonight at midnight.

Yours,
R.C.

Dear Messers. Greene and Greene,

I can’t say I’m entirely surprised; people who speak to loudly of their allegiances at dinner parties are always the quickest to mistrust. Yes, you both grew quite accustomed to your laid-back lifestyle in the land of wake and honey. Not I, no, not I. Though my skin has become sun-kissed and my hair blonder, my heart is still as sharp, steely and eastern as it was when I left New York. You may wonder what I will do with the treasure of Casa Verde, never you mind, my Dewey-eyed companions. Oh, and don’t try the car, I removed the crank-shaft, by the time you get to town, I will be in Hawaii, or Alaska, or Peru.

Cheers,
Retly Corm

Dear Charles and Ray Eames,

The answer is YES! I would love to stay the weekend. I look forward to bringing PJ and riding our separate bicycles built for 2 (would this make them bicycles built for 4?, I hope so!). I have truly enjoyed our time together. It’s so nice to be part of a couple’s circle, after being alone for so long. I am also truly enamored of your home/studio (does it make it a “some” or a “hudio”?). That place is so like the two of you, a partnership of program, open and comfortable, yet ever-changing, ever-evolving, ever-in-style (or should I say ever DeStyle?).
Ray, you must show me your charming designs for a chair, I was quite taken with Corby’s model a few years ago, but as I sit in mine and pen this letter I can’t help but think “my god this is uncomfortable”. And so dreary.
Charles, PJ says he intends to DESTROY you at tennis.

With Love,
Retly Corm

Dear C n’ R,
Sorry for last night. I think it was the liquor talking. Can we still be friends?

Retly Corm.
P.S. Don’t worry about hurting PJ’s feelings, he doesn’t have any.

Shanty Musings

First allow me to address the fact that I am typing this as I sit isolated in the "shanty." Since my laptop battery died last summer, I have been reluctant to attempt any computer activities out here, as such activities now mean hoisting & hauling extension cords into position. While this is not itself an entirely time-consuming activity, it does act as a sort of buzz kill for the spur of the moment initiatives I previously quenched with a spontaneous jaunt out to the shanty.

I write to you now to update you on my current book, A Place of My Own. I've only made it through the first chapter and a handful of pages of the second chapter, but I can assure you, it's a good read. Maybe more so for me, as I have also created a place of my own. In fact, as I was reading this book moments ago out in the sun, it got me pumped to head out to the shanty. And that brings me to here typing this.

And I just realized I am able to pick up the internet out here - this wasn't so last summer, which may actually have been a good thing, since it's a sort of solitude out here.

Anyway, this second chapter describes site selection - a process often overlooked in American development, but so critical and crucial to a building's inception. As I think about my current residence, it was vastly under-contemplated, regarding sun orientation. Its only apparent orientation is to the street. I've often regretted the layout of our house, with regard to daylighting and glare.

At PhilaU, it always seemed such a simple concept, orient your building to coalesce with the sun's arc... yet some folks always seemed to fight the sun, purposely defying its existence. While in the real world, as I can now attribute over a year's worth of experience, neither is the case. Developers aren't interested in coalescing with or defying the sun. They just want to cram a load of stuff into a small space with a hefty price tag. How did we come to think this way, as humans? Valuing short term price over long term value?

I feel as though I have become distracted from my original idea for this entry... which was perhaps just to note that I am enjoying my book and I reaffirm its recommendation to readers elsewhere.

Cormy, you may even find some personal delight in it, especially after your 50-some "hideouts."

Oooopdates

So I turned in my cocktail napkin sketch to the arch record competition- I would have posted them as well, but my scanner wasn't working and it seemed unethical to use my work's scanner. Though the thing that I found interesting was that the competition parameteres did'nt specify as to whether or not the sketch had too be based off of your idea, or of a famous building. I figured I would my bases and turned in 3 based off of buildings and 3 based off of my own design. The buildings I based my sketches off of are as followed:

A Place of My Own, by Michael Pollan

First, allow me to acknowledge my absence of late. The weather has been too gorgeous for me to mull about in blog entries. However, I would like to plug some nuggets your way in the future, especially with the coming of our first annual architectural road trip!

Today's nugget is a book recommendation. As you may recall, last summer I designed and constructed a small studio space for myself in my parents' backyard. It is made of modest materials, save the corrugated transparent roof to the North. It not only provides me glorious atmospheric conditions for painting, but also some privacy and resolve from the day to day. The reason I am reminiscing about my structure is because this book is about someone who did something very similar to what I did, and for similar reasons. While I have only yet read part of the preface, I did scan it briefly and I expect that it will be an excellent read. I would also like to note that a gentleman at work recommended it to me after I shared with him some memorable photos of the "shanty" during the snowstorm in February.

I just received my "used" copy from Amazon today and I am quite excited to begin reading it. Looks like I paid $7.40 for it (including shipping), which is not half bad for an essentially brand new book.

Take a peek at its reviews online and let me know what you think! I'll keep you updated if I can make it through this summer... I've been spending a lot of time volleyballing, though, so we'll see!