The Illusionist

Sylvain Chomet who was also the creative drive behind the Triplets of Belleville is back again, this time setting the story of a has-been magician in mid-century Scotland. The film is called The Illusionist.

You may be asking yourself 'What does this have to do with Architecture'?

Well, If you remember last summer, which feels like ages ago now, I had a lot of posts relating to Scotland and the castles/churches/houses/woodenboatfestivals one might find there.

When I saw this clip from The Illusionist it all came flowing back to me. Like seeing a high-school crush at the supermarket. You really don't have anything to say to each other, but your awkwardness is overwhelmed solely by your affection.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/190924/movie-trailers-the-illusionist---clip---edinburgh

It got me thinking about the interpretation of architecture. When you can make the buildings look like anything (without ADA, Budget, Client Desires) what do you choose to do?

Especially in animated films, the scenery becomes another character; one who can react to, invest in and create drama along with any of the other characters. While Architecture does not have any speaking roles, it can often be the most vocal part of a film as it reflects the values of the viewer. ( I know it sounds a little Alain De Botton, but it's true.)

Some good examples of this can be found in:

Marie Antoinette, 2006

Brazil, 1985
Metropolis, 1927

For more great architecture in animated movies, see the links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Fy8O-C1xQ&feature=related

(The Princess and the Frog)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmoWUdzHISM

(The Triplets of Belleville)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idTt48RCbAc

(Spirited Away)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r9jjqzJJk

(Howl's Moving Castle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZfEQ_pMdg

(An American Tail)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fSICs-zPeY

A great joke, but any architect worth their salt will tell you that the idea of an interior flying buttress is just...just rediculous.

Love Letters to Dead Architects: Without You, Summer is like Winter and Winter Is Even Worse.

Dear Francesco Borromini,

I hope you know it’s not as bad as it seems. Sure, you’re a frumpy, whiney, smelly, poor kid, but you’ve got something that Bernini will never have: CHARACTER. Bernini is like that guy in high-school who never had to go through an awkward phase and therefore all of his friends are dicks and he has, like, no personality.

But you Mini, (its ok if I call you Mini right? I’m just going to do it anyway) you understand things that Bernini never will, things like how advanced geometry is more organic than simplistic Vitruvian forms and have a greater capacity for light and shape. Or that Vatican Hill is structurally unsound and can’t support ridiculously large bell-towers. You don’t need those phonies; you’re not part of their system because you’re your own man. Bernini will get his; he’s been stealing your ideas for years and claiming them as their own. First there was the Baldachino which was so unfair and don’t get me started on San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal. I mean that was just blatant.

Remember that I believe in you. You can change the world. That is, if you can get over this obsession you have with Bernini. Just let him go, you’re better than that. And whatever you do, DO NOT impale yourself on a sword to prove a point. You did that when you were 14 with that pencil, it didn’t work then and it won’t work now.

I love you,

Retly Corm.

My Dear Kenzo Tange,

A valiant attempt. Yes, it was I who took out Team X and you, understandably so, sought me out for revenge. You almost had it too, but I’m afraid the sushi restaurant was just a red herring. Which as it turns out, they serve there too.

It’s time for me to hide somewhere sunny and remote. Don’t try and follow me, there will come a time when I’m sure we will meet again, but you’re not ready. Not yet anyway.

In the mean time, discover your country and yourself through a new kind of architecture. You have a tragic and unique opportunity to become the phoenix that rises from the ashes. Embrace those elements of the architectural character that defined your nation and forget the rest. Put your mind away from retribution and put it towards evolution. I know you have the skill, heart, discipline and determination to do this. Trust me, you belong in Japan.

Never forget your past, but don’t dwell on that you cannot change. Team X is gone, but you can make something better, something meta.

Kiss with a fist,

Retly Corm

Dear Henry Van De Velde,

I understand why you had to go, but why didn’t you take me with you? I would have gone, if you had asked.

You may not have thought so, but you did belong here, at the Deutche Werkbund. The only person who cared about you not being German was you.

If it weren’t for you, none of the work could have been possible. You, who would stand up to Hermann Muthesius when no one else could. You, who got the designers and engineers to get over themselves and collaborate. You, who fought for the importance of individual input in mass production as opposed to collective anonymity, you were everything to them…and to me.

I never told you, I should have, I know that now.

Maybe you will read this and feel the same way about me. Maybe you’ll remember our late nights and early mornings in the studio. Maybe someday you’ll return.

However, if you do, you will find me like the Werkbund, ever the same and irretrievably changed.

Yours, in this moment, forever,

Retly Corm

My Dear Mnesicles,

We can never undo what has happened. However, I know, that while the war that inspired your work will effect your friends, enemies, family, etc. etc. forever, no one will remember that.

They will remember your arch at the Acropolis.

Oh my love, the things it will see and the things that will see it. Your creations is like a life itself, perfect in conception, always looking to please, loved and abused by humanity and nature, bitter, forgiving, tired, democratic, exclusive and better for the experience.

Its heart will beat like a hammer when all that’s left of man are myths and names in sand that was once concrete.

Be mnine,

Retly Corm

Dear Frank Lloyd Wright,

This has got to stop. I can’t be around you. Not now. Not Ever.
Admit it, we’re basically ‘enemies with benefits’.
I hate talking to you, you hate listening to me and we can’t get enough of each other.
It doesn’t make sense and it can’t last.

Yes, your attention to detail is second to none and by designing via additive form instead of a solid whole, you have revolutionized the field. Not to mention rejecting exclusively euro-centric design concepts could not be hotter. BUT! Could you be more obnoxious about it? I submit not.

My biggest problem is that you keep putting women up on this (#1) ridiculous #2) unfair) pedestal. The world does not revolve around you Frank, and maybe, just maybe women don’t actually want to serve/service you 24 hours a day. I know it sounds absurd, but maybe they want to be somewhere that’s not a kitchen or, my favorite, chained to a desk.

That’s right; I’m talking straight up Johnson Wax Building. What was that? Seriously.

You’re a genius. I get it. That doesn’t mean you can be a total schlong.

I’m leaving and I’m not going to miss you. Don’t pretend to be hurt, I know you can’t stand me either.

Never Really Yours,

Retly Corm

Words From Far Away a Long TIme Ago

The Muppets Take Monticello

So imagine if you will that Fozzie Bear, Kermit the Frog and Sam Eagle are on a road-trip to Charlottesville, VA. That would be desperately close to what my past weekend was. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS.

But all joking aside, this past weekend I got to go to Monticello, the foremer home of Thomas Jefferson. Ahh Tommy J, author, diplomat, governer, president, Lousianna Purchaser and most importantly (at least in my opinion), Architect. As much as I admire Thomas Jefferson, I was almost expecting, though hoping against it, that this house would be another quasi-paladian schlock-fest, the kind we have come to expect from other American houses at the time, like Mount Vernon (George Washington's home in Alexandira, VA)

But I was proven completely wrong. While Monticello is riddled with Paladian references, they're not direct, there is a degree of interpretation that gives a very clear window into the early creation of our nation and what one of our most influential founding fathers hoped it would be.

Designing Monticello was an ever evolving process for Jefferson, his early creation of the house was extremely different from what stands there today. Originally the house was square and closed off, however when Jefferson returned from France he had almost 3/4 of the house torn down so he could start again. Jefferson was extremely influenced by French designs, which themselves were derived from Italian designs. However, during his stay in Paris as the embassador for the United States, Jefferson studied some of the greatest architecture the western world had to offer and his keepsakes from these escursions would be his memory.

However, in comparison to Versailles, (which is where Jefferson stayed while in France) Monticello becomes as much a criticism of French Design as it is a monument to it.

Versailles is about grandure and decadence with Nature as a means to that end (note the floral designs) while Monticello defines itself as the understanding of nature through the study and persuit of it (not the antlers brought back by Lewis and Clark). Jefferson wanted the United States, and indeed Americans themselves, to be every bit as educated as Europeans but through their own self-improvement and not as a reward for having been born to rich parents. But that's enough on the History, lets talk buildings, yo.

If James Bond had lived in the 18th c. he would have lived at Monticello. Why? Because everything in this house doubles as something else. Like a pen that serves as a phone or a hairbrush that will cause you to die a terrible death.

Example 1: The triple-hung window.

A window that doubles as a Door. you just push all the panes all the way up and walk out onto your terrace.

Example 2: Dumb-waiter Fireplace

When leaving the party is just NOT an option. You can send this baby down to your private wine cellar.

Example 3: Beds in between the walls and open air summer storage

So, you don't want your stuff to get moldy, you want to get at it quickly and you HATE beds crowding up your room? Problem solved. Just hollow out the wall and BAM! done.
However there was a little wierdness as facing one of the beds was being watched byt this bust of John Adams.

creeper.

The most important thing about Monticello is how well all of these spaces work together and with the surrounding enviornement. This house is the product of a technically minded-man who saw himself, above all things, as a farmer. So therefore all the land is visible from the walkway which overlooks the University of Virginia (another project which Jefferson oversaw the construction on). Through this walkway the house connects to the landscape as well as the herb-gardens by means of the slaves quarters, which appropriately form the foundation. Its the real tradgedy about this house; a wonderous place brought about by one of the ugliest things one human being can do to another.

That being said, I'm going to state something that may be considered, blasphemous: Monticello is a way better house than FallingWater.

Don't freak out.

FallingWater is, of course, one of the greatest examples of Architecture we have, but it is not a better house. The kitchen at FallingWater is atrocious and the spaces are overly specific and maybe a little self-righteous. This is not to say the rooms in Monticello are any better, but where Frank Lloyd Wright shoves his ethos in your face, demanding your allegiance, Thomas Jefferson sits back and grimaces while you make a fool out of yourself. FallingWater is a work of art that is too pretty to live with everyday, as admirable as it is unpractical. Monticello is a sweater, something that you could loaf around in but still go to the store.

The End.

Love Letters to Dead Architects: The Lost Letters

I thought I had lost these letters when my hard-drive crashed last year, but while going through the wreckage that was "my documents". You know, as a hobby this is pretty high up the dork scale, but if you're counting we're up to 68 LLTDA. I'm thinking I'll stop at 200. Just because I can't think of any more than that.

well, enjoy, and feel free to take breaks.

Dear Benjamin Henry LaTrobe,

I saw your portrait by Charles Wilson Peale on Facebook, and I hope this doesn’t weird you out but ME-OW. I mean, I knew you were a great architect, but I never knew how good-looking you really were. Where you been hiding? (And don’t say a Moravian Colony nobody really knows what that is)

I know you’re English, but when our young nation needed someone to pretend we were ancient Greece, you were ex-patriotically there for us. When people said “You can’t put a dome and turrets with a hexastyle portico” you were ready to push the envelope. You were there, to design banks in Philadelphia, to build cathedrals in Baltimore, to revive the hell out of the Gothic Style in houses and to fight in the Prussian army for some reason.

Listen Ben, I have to tell you, there is no-one who does Federalist Neo-classicism better. I’m so glad you came to our shores, even though you may have set our own indigenous architectural style back 150 years…not important. We can move past it. Anyway. I still love you.

With all my heart,

Retly Corm


Dear Giovanni Battista Piranesi,

I have tolerated your special kind of crazy long enough to know that we are meant to be. I think for me, at least, it was love at first sketch. But I have some beef with you too, I mean you just lope around Rome with your paper and pencils and think you can do whatever you want. Sketching the classic remains and using them as a metaphor for human endeavors and I know that next time you leave (for Venice), you’re going to take my heart with you.

You can be dark. I’ve seen the Carceri designs. Seriously, you’re like the Bat-man of the Baroque. It makes you dangerous and I’ve always had a thing for bad-boys. Well, bad-boys who design prisons, like that one tv-show from 2006… except I don’t know if you have a bunch of tattoos. Though you probably do, you just seem like the type.

Maybe, if we work together, we can finally get something of yours built. I may not have the answers now, but if you and I connect the pencils to our brains we can draw our way out of the hypothetical world and into the building world.

Stay safe you nutbar.

with Love,

Retly Corm


Dear Buckminster Fuller,

You, out of all of the men I write letters to, break my heart the most. We were so close Bucky. I mean you only died two years before I was born. I know quotes in love letters are cheesy, but hey, “I’m never going to know you now, but I’m going to love you anyhow.”

I remember the first time I saw your Dymaxion house. I was like, “Hey, it looks like the Jetsons.” But no. It was the Jetsons who looked like you. That’s what I love about you, sure some of your ideas are overly-idealistic, hopelessly technical and blatantly impractical. But for every inch there is of flaw there are miles and miles of benefit.

You were the first to realize that we didn’t live up to our “modern” claims. You were the first to try and re-invent the tri-beam truss as a self-sustaining orb. You were the first to arrange a house with a garage designed to hold a small one-to-two-man airplane. Granted that last one was a little weird.

You once said, “I Seem to be a Verb.” Well, I think you’re wrong there, You seem to be nothing but adjectives. Here are just a few: fascinating, cunning, charming. However, I will agree with you, you are not a noun. You’re too cool to be a noun.

Keep the faith Tribtab

All my love,

Retly Corm


Dear Walter Gropius,

Walter, Walter, Walter. The pedigreed monster of modernist perfection, the sharply shaven prophet of doom for your fastidious forbearers I love you. I want you to be clear about that. Unlike Edward Abby, I will never refute you, (or Bucky or Soleri) I will always be with you.

For you, it’s not enough that a product can be readily made and reproduced. Terrible products do that all the time. You demanded more, not only must they be reproduced but those reproductions have to have soul, determination and clarity of vision. You did that the Fagus Factory with such precision that you gave that factory a song (and not that creepy oompa-loompa number they usually sing).

That same vision is what the Bauhaus was all about. I remember our summer in Dessau, don’t you? What a glorious time that was. Do you remember? Me, in my yellow sun-dress as the light flickered off of my chestnut brown hair streaked with blonde and You, telling me to go away because you had work to do and couldn’t be bothered by incessant chattering…ahh memories. Also, whatever Mies told you about that night we walked down by the lake is a BIG FAT LIE. I only have eyes for you darling.

Ever yours,

Retly Corm


Dear Ebenezer Howard,

I have two truths for you, Beezie. Firstly, you are great. Secondly, you look like a disapproving rabbit sometimes.

Let’s focus on the first part. You’re great because you always surprise people; I mean a Londoner shop-keeper’s son goes to Nebraska to find himself? If that’s not out of left field I don’t know what is. For you, Mr. Howard, Paris is old hat, Rome is passé, and Nebraska is the cutting edge of civilization.

What’s that you say? You want another surprise? Here’s one. While most architects selfishly claim all the glory for the rich or themselves, you hand it out for everyone to have. (Maybe this is because you’re technically not an architect.) Your humanist ideas INVENTED an entire movement aimed towards making sure people lived better, cleaner lives. And unlike the Modernists, who wanted the same things, your ideas actually worked.

Because I care for you so deeply, I won’t go into depths about the failures of the Garden cities. But you can sleep at night knowing that through your work, every kid who ever grew up bored in the suburbs can thank you for their adolescent memories.

I thank you for my adolescent memories Ebenezer Howard.

Love,

Retly Corm


Dear Frank Furness,

Oh Frank, why does everything good and evil begin with you? It’s like you have two sides, and I can’t tell you which one I like more. The Jekyll-Hyde-ness of it all...sometimes it’s almost too much.

You’re a real bad-ass. I mean, winning the Medal of Honor during the civil war as a union solider, by crossing nemy lines to retrieve ammunition…oh FRANK.

But I know you, I know you’ll never care for me the way I care for you. You’re the kind of man who will never speak unless it is to insult.

Your buildings are heavy and difficult, brooding and complicated. Unlike those overly cheerful glass boxes that persist in their need for attention, you’re buildings frown at those smiling villains with a clear contempt of their lies. You’re not afraid to mix styles, your Fisher Fine Arts library was the bastard child from a one night stand with Violette-Le-Duc and Ruskin, you don’t know who the father is, but it’s all you baby.

I guess what I’m trying to tell you is: you and your buildings don’t care if anybody likes them and that willful independence is too sexy. I hate you Frank. I hate that you don’t care what I think.

Let’s run away together. We can be in Mexico by nightfall.

Love, Hate, MARRY ME,

Sincerely,

Retly Corm



Dear Standford White,

I think you’re pretty great. Do you want to go to formal with me? I have a car so you wouldn’t need a ride. On the way there, you can tell me about the principles of the American Renaissance. Oh and fill me in on what Henry Hobson Richardson is like in person. Is he fat? I bet he’s fat.

Hopefully yours,

Retly Corm

Dear William Rutherford Mead,

Thanks for everything last night! I know I can always count on you as a shoulder to cry on. After Stan left with the tramp, I cried in the bathroom for, like, twenty minuets. But there you were, ready to hear about what a jerk he was. I couldn’t have asked for a better bench in the cafet-orium. You’re such a good friend. I’m glad we’ll always be great just friends. See you in engineering class next week!

Love (J.K.! :P)

Retly Corm

P.S. Can I borrow your notes?

Dear Charles Follen McKim,

DO YOU LIKE ME?

YES NO

P.S. Did you REALLY go to the Ecole de Beaux arts? I hear it’s awesome.

<3>Ludwig Mies van de Rohe,

I do not oppose us, but I oppose the of “us” as a goal
I’m only saying this because my heart has been broken many times before. By you.

When we focus on being a couple we forget to actually “be a couple”.
We try too hard on making sure we act the part, communicating, talking about our days,
Then in all that chit-chat we forget to talk about our lives. There is a difference and you know it.

Only intensity of passion can breed passion.
Every When is carried by a Now
The un-informed is not worse than the over-informed.
The former in nothing, the latter is cliché
Real passion drives real love
And something that lacks real love will never inspire real passion.

Here lies the criterion.

I need you to be real. I need you to feel free. Don’t be in this relationship for its own sake.

I left Walter for you because you had a mystery that he never had. Maybe that’s why we have to try so hard now, because now the mystery is gone and when I look over the table at you I see a slightly heavy-set German yearning to breathe free that just plain refuses to.

That’s why I think the letter is so essential.
You, for me, have become the decisive factor.
You know why you need to just be yourself.

I know you pretend to be aloof and uninterested because you’ve been hurt in the past too. But I will never hurt you, just stop smothering me. Why not just let love lead the way?
Must we not just leave everything to our own hearts?

To quote you, “not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form”,

Retly Corm

Dear Eugene Emannuel Viollet-LeDuc,

You are a thief sir, and I don’t mean when you steal Gothic themes and expropriate them for new technologies, I mean you have stolen my heart. “How”, you may ask, did you come to be the reluctant rouge of my affection? Dearest, it was through that strange murky crispness, like ironed silk, that you stole it. That same organic precision you used when you stripped away the pompous neo-classical shlock of Napoleon from “Our Lady”.

There is only one issue that troubles me, it is this “honesty in architecture” how can it be, my love, that you wish for honesty but only if that honesty holds within itself cartoon-ish historical depiction (you know like that castle you worked on). But on this fault you cannot be blamed, you are an architect, not a historian and after all it is in steel you truly find your voice. Unlike the archaic John Ruskin you do not cling to the past as a life preserver or parachute, claiming that irrelevance is the thing that will save our clearly decaying society. Instead you embrace the new with both arms going in for that French-two-cheek-kiss-thing that you do. Teach me Eugene, teach me with spindle-legs and strong convictions, what steel can do.

With love,

Retly Corm.

Dear Aldo Van Eyck,

By the time you read this I will have escaped out the window, don’t think you can follow me, I’ve made sure that YOUR escape is out of the question. Do you know how long I have been tracking down and systematically eliminating the members of Team X?

Are you surprised? You should have known the CIAM does not stand for dissent. To answer the question I’m sure is on your mind, I am not aligned with them per-se, I just do what needs to be done. Though I have to hand it to your comrades, Bakema, Candilis, De Carlo, Woods and the Smithsons, not a one of them betrayed your location. That accidental rendezvous in Amsterdam was more accident than my other jobs usually are.

I’m sorry Al. If it’s worth anything, I did mean all those things I said to you on the ship. You were right, the Modernists are blinded by their own self-importance; they have lost the soul of everything they sought to bring to fruition. In creating “machines for living” they invented just that, “architecture for machines.” Their beliefs are for the impossible ideal, people will never be perfect and the idea of returning architecture to the human scale is the way of the future. I hope you can forgive me, I know I don’t deserve it.

Always your love,

Retly Corm

Dear El Lissitzky,

It’s finished. Team X is no more. I could not stay to watch, I am ashamed to admit that I let my heart got to my head this time. You warned me that Aldo would be the most difficult; he was a charmer, yes.

At first I was ready to dismiss him, but once he began speaking about the Orphanage I could feel my heart melting. I wish only that I could have had the passionate and reserved strength of your graphic work. What is it all for? When will this schism end? Does it really matter if they disagree? Is not there room for architecture to be both epic in scale and personal in experience? Think of the old synagogues or churches. Now I know you European modernists try and avoid those kinds of associations on principle, but I feel like if anyone could understand, it would be you.

You are different from the rest of CIAM representatives; you’re not one of the Corbusier sheep. When I first saw the Proun Rooms, I saw what they really were, an allegorical landscape and a direct representation of the modern human experience. That duality gives me hope. I don’t mean to be blasphemous, but what if we simply made that interpretation less abstract? Give the understanding back to the common man? Wasn’t that how it all got started anyway, educating and improving the life of the man on the street? Look around you, Modernism: it’s just a bauble for the rich patron and badge for the morally-superior academic. I’m finally tired of the game. Join me. I will wait two hours, you know where.

Don’t try anything stupid, I would hate to see you go the same way as Aldo.

Ever yours,

Retly Corm

Dear Alvar Aalto,

I must say that your reputation precedes you and you did not disappoint. I’ll be honest; I wanted to call you an over-hyped illusion, a kitschy northern mistake. In good conscience though, I can’t.

You INVENTED an indigenous style. No one can argue with that, believe me I’ve tried. The people of Finland will always be in your debt, your curving plank roof not only is an acoustical dream, it captures the imagination and the soul. . I was also ready to call you a one-trick pony. How many different ways are there to do trees? I was certain that your obsession with wood would be your coffin…Then I saw your glass vase.

You unbelievable jerk, I was wrong again. Well, like my mother always said “if you can’t beat them, join them.” I have officially decided we can be friends. I hope you will accept my love, admiration and respect. I have also decided we are going to the movies tomorrow. I’ll see you there at four. You bring the pop-corn money.

Your friend,

Retly Corm


Dear Le Corbusier,

OR SHOULD I SAY CHARLES-EDOUARD-JEANNERET-GRIS!!

Was it all a lie? Like “The Styles”? What about the weekends in Paris, the jetting off to India, the conveniently being Swiss whenever a World War breaks out, did it ever mean anything? But why should I be surprised, I mean whenever you decide that architecture is going to be the embodiment of technology that’s when you spit it all back and say “nope, never mind. Now everything is going to be rough and” …ugh, what is that stupid word you use? Oh. “Primitive”

You are a complete schmuck Corb.

Look at you, pumping out self-congratulating books, one right after the other. Then why do I still care about you? I guess it’s because you don’t settle for anything. Flying which ever way you want, and somehow everybody follows you, oh raven-like one. I guess you’re like a less handsome, bespectacled Ferris Buller. Oh I can’t stay mad at you. What with your bastardization of the Vitruvian man, I mean really? Isn’t it a little convenient that the perfect proportions of the Modular man are your measurements? Scrawny and a little on the short side? I know you cannot possibly belong to me forever, but we’ll always have Paris, well outside of Paris. Poissy-Sur-Seine. We’re always have there.

Love,

Retly Corm


My Dearest, Loveliest, Sweetest Jane Jacobs,

Where to start? Should I tell you how you came into my suburban life and swept me away into a world of non-compartmentalized urbanist bliss? Should I mention your connections between biospheres and the booms of cities? No, that will never be enough for me to express my love.

Oh Jane, Jane, Jane. After all that we’ve been through, why all of the sudden are you throwing this all away to be negative? I mean I know it’s trendy to predict doom, but seriously Jane, Dark Age Ahead. A little grim don’t you think? Listen, Random House Publishing is no place for you to grouch about those damn kids and their music. I know you hate that they get on your lawn and leave their Frisbees on your roof. That they have no respect and that they topple the five pillars of society upon which we stand. (The nuclear family, education, science, representational government and taxes, and corporate and professional accountability). But you’re being a real drama queen. Oh my love, can’t we go back to how things were? You and I going antiquing in the Village, blaming the “Ozzie and Harriet” lifestyle for all the problems in the world and just sitting for hours just gazing into each others eyes?

I miss you Jane, I miss us, please come back,
Retly Corm



Salve Publius Aelius Hadrianus,

As your beard, I’m very concerned about you. I mean your behavior has become increasingly erratic. Now, I love how experimental you are, what with stealing other culture’s ideas then infusing them with your own squash-oriented thoughts and all. I don’t even mind the “stoic” moping or the almost excessive traveling, but it’s the killing honey, the killing is getting ridiculous. Could you please stop murdering people? I’m tired of taking cartfuls of so-called incompetent staff to dump in the Tiber.

Everyone in Rome has to drink that water baby and I don’t think the lead in our pipes is going to get rid of all the diseases. I know you don’t really care because you can just pop over to the villa in Tivoli, which I will admit is totally sweet, but please try and be more considerate? I don’t say these things to nag, but I want us to work. I want us to keep restoring and enhancing important structures, to order northern walls be built and, Gods willing, be buried in a monolith castle together. None of these things will happen unless we happen.

I love being with you Hadrian. When I’m with you, things are thrilling and new, even though I’ve seen them all before. You have so much spirit, but I’m not going to be mowed down and be your servant, I mean, mostly because you haven’t ordered my death, but still. Let’s be partners. We can be powerful and evil. Together. Let me walk on the rope bridge to your heart.

Love,

Retly Corm


Professor Carlo Scarpa,


What was I supposed to do? How could I fight you? I tried, I tried so hard not to be where I am now. I’ve had my heart broken so many times and I’ve done terrible things, awful things to other hearts.

I just want what you do to concrete for you to do to me. You take something naturally formless, stubborn and hard and make it sing with elegance. I spend so much time running, trying to forget, dying to remember, but when I see your work, I know you are the kind of man I could grow old with.
More so than anyone else you think about the full life of your structures. I see you, never forgetting the past but beating relentlessly and determinately to the future. I want so badly to be part of that future. Your future

I love you and all your infinite possibilities.

Retly Corm


Dear Pier Luigi Nervi,

I’m not as elegant with words as I would like to be and I’d rather just skip the part that’s going to be hard for me to say.

If you know what I would have written (if I had the skill to write accurately), you should leave Italy, which I know you don’t like to do and come see me. If you don’t know, we can pretend this never happened.

Why did you have to go and be you? Reinforcing what, structurally, is sand and make into anything you wanted it to be. Just like that you took my malleable heart and turning it hard and gritty and under your control. Reinforced concrete, what a novelty you bring.
Oh the stadiums we could build together! That pie crust you put together is just the beginning. With your engineering skills and my…whatever it is I bring to this deal, we could do great and beautiful things. No one knows sharps and curves better than you, Pier.

Just let me know if I have a chance, anyone at all,

Retly Corm


Dear Appolodorus of Damascas,

You need to stop this, you’re getting dangerously over-confident. Now, it is brilliant that you discovered the world’s first snapshot, recording people, their ages, their flaws, the tools they use, all in a relief on a monumental column and I don’t need to tell you it’s brilliant. But that’s no excuse; you can’t just insult a scrappy kid who may one day be your boss. Your work may be eternal, but your actions are short-sighted.

You think it will make him stronger, better. That he should forget about architecture and focus on something less difficult, like ruling an empire. Listen, I’ve been watching the young Hadrian and I think it’s a mistake to mock him. He doesn’t take shaming well
Right now, you think that Trajan won’t ever let anything happen to you, you are his favorite, why would he? But the sun will rise tomorrow and the day after and rain will fall, seasons will come and go and eventually Trajan will die. He may have brought peace, but it won’t last, not for the empire, and not for you.

I don’t want to see you suffer at the hands of Hubris.

Remember you can always hate someone secretly; it need not be the color of your hair. Stay safe,

Retly Corm


Dear Victor Horta,

Well I hope you’ve got good insurance because I’ve got whiplash from your whiplash style. I wasn’t prepared for it you know. When you invited me over, I expected you to live in a typical, insufferably clean modern home. I should have known that behind those boxy forms was something giddier and infinitely more interesting.

You’re never afraid to be yourself, even if you’re not in vogue. I think that’s why people like you so much, that cheerful indifference is one that is agonizingly appealing. It must also be why you like people, you’re not selfish about your style, it’s accessible to everyone, and physically so in your Maison de Peuple. If must drive your wife crazy. What you have is an aesthetic revolution done in color and angel hair.

My lawyer will be in touch,

Sincerely,

Retly Corm


Dear Shah Jahan,

Please accept my deepest, deepest sorrows for your loss. I know nothing I could ever say could ever capture the loneliness you must feel at the death of Mumtaz Muhal. Having briefly known her in life, I can tell you honestly that her devotion to you was utterly earnest. True loyalty like that is more precious than any jewel.

To get over your grief, I suggest you find a way to be as devoted to her in death as she was to you in life. Your gardens show that you know proportion, scale, detail all of those things, but you have not had a chance to interweave them.

Take the opportunity now to make permanent a love that was unparalleled.

Enjoy the casserole,

Retly Corm



Dear John Nash,

I’m sorry to do this to you this way, but I can’t see you anymore, not in London, not in Brighton, not now, not ever. It’s been fun, but you know that any serious design between the two of us must be put to a stop immediately.

It’s not that haven’t loved your designs, each one is completely unique, the shapes and forms are considered not only of their own sense as objects, but how those objects will interact with the people who will see them everyday. However I what I loved most about them was that they were appropriate to their time and place.

It is for the love of your other works that I cannot stand by your latest. The Royal Pavilion , yes the materiality is beautiful and the structure is interesting. But MY GOD MAN, I could tolerate your regency, but not your blatant stealing. It’s just a ridiculous cartoon of architecture and you know it.

I can’t bare a man who is too easily influenced and I see now that you’ve been overtaken by the Prince Regent. It’s been said before, and I will repeat, George IV is too big an idiot to be king. Sure he’s got the best booze and hot chicks around all the time, but so do highwaymen. Being able to throw great parties is not enough to be ruler of a nation, no wonder the colonies have made a mockery of him.

Goodbye John,

Retly Corm

Let's Review...

The CEU from Architectural Record.

I swear, every time I think I have this figured out, I realize there is another step to it.

Step One - Take Quiz
Read CEU article from Architectural Record and take the quiz online.

Step Two - Download Certificate

Submit your quiz results for scoring. Save Completion Certificate (preferably as an image file, as you will need to upload it as such later).

Step Three - Self-Report

Log into AIA website and find your way to the "Self-Reported Activities" page. Here you will add each article, and upload the corresponding Completion Certificate. Click "Add New" to begin.

Step Four - Download Transcript & Submit to NCARB

Once your Self-Reported Activity is approved, it will be added to your AIA transcript. Now you must download your AIA transcript, and log into NCARB's e-EVR. Click on "My Supplementary Education" to begin. Here you, again, add each article/course one by one, this time uploading your AIA transcript as an attachment. (I personally download the entire range of courses on my AIA transcript and upload that same single file for each article.) Now you wait for NCARB to approve.

What's odd is, I don't remember submitting my Certificate of Completion to AIA/Oklahoma for the April 2010 article, and yet the course completion appeared on my transcript. So weird. I have been waiting and waiting for AIA/OK to approve my other articles, until I reread some things about self-reported activities and realized this was the actual process for doing so.

So as far as I know, this process should work. I just completed Step Three for 11 articles that I had read throughout the year. Hopefully they will be approved in time before my AIA membership runs out! (unless, of course my employers opt to renew my membership for me)

Love Letters to Dead Architects: You Might Remember Me From Such Buildings As...

Dear Bruce Goff,

I guess the obvious thing to say is “just keep trying”, but I’ve always felt that was terrible advice.

Maybe you’ve just got too much going on in your head. Eastern References, Western, Northern, Southern, elements of your personal past, your hopes for the future and everything in between. People are going tell you you’re getting to old for this kind of idealism, that it ruined Frank and Louis, that it will ruin you. It will, but don’t stop. I’m not strong enough to stay ridged against the pressure, but you are.

Architecture just keeps getting uglier, and I’m going with it. I’m tired and I need something to rely on, so I need you to stay inconveniently noble, inconveniently true, inconveniently yourself.

One day, organic and client-specific buildings will be popular again, when they are, remember me. I and my ilk will be without a friend.

Always your reluctant International Style loving former friend,

Retly Corm

Dear Eero Saarinen,

I retrieved your name from the Eames, they said if anyone could get me out of a jam, it’s you. I’m afraid to write of the situation, we will have to meet in person. Just know that if I falter, I will be eaten alive. Of course, you would know all about that wouldn’t you?

Office of Secret Service, designing layouts for the Presidential situation room, creating the gateway to the great western wilds with a daring and deliberate arch, danger just comes naturally to you.

The thin-shell structures you make, the expressionist angles, you like to live on the edge, but I can’t. I just have too much to lose. I am leaving from Dulles International tomorrow at noon. Be there at 11:00, I will explain everything. My very life may be in your hands.

Sincerely,

Retly Corm

My Dear Paul Rudolph,

I’m so sorry. Sorry for dismissing you as unimportant. Sorry for not realizing soon enough that you were the best thing that ever happened to me. Sorry for everything. I was so wrapped up in it all, the glamour, the glitz, the shining perfection of modernism that I missed you completely. The realization now is brutal. Or should I say Brutalist.

Instead of clinging to an idea where you fight nature to reach some sort of apollonian perfection (which, by the way, is a butt and a half to keep clean), you use nature as an ally. Green before there was green. I also heard about them tearing down Riverview High-School. Maybe they, like me, just never noticed how wonderful it and you are.

Now you’ve gone east, old-man, I fear we may never meet again. But every time I see a concave roof, I shall think of you and what we could have had, if I had not been so blind.

May the sun shine bright on your old Kentucky heart,

Retly Corm

Dear Gottfried Semper,

You almost had me fooled, really you did. In my modern closed mindedness, in my postmodern cynicism, in my sustainability self-righteousness I almost overlooked you.
You, who was at the heart of an architectural scandal- and of course you were right. The Greek and Roman buildings were painted garishly, the clean, white color that for so long symbolized the ancient structures was no more imagined than the irrational reverence of them. You, who designed at all different scales, boats, opera-houses, redesigning Vienna, you name it, you were there. Don’t think I’ve forgotten your book either. The four elements for architecture may be the heath, roof, enclosure and mound, but my for elements for love are Gott, Fried, Sem and Per. I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize.

Semper,

Retly Corm.

Dear John Lautner,

What happened to you? To us? It seems over the past few months, you’ve gone from home-grown Michigan boy to go-go LA man of nights and nightmares. I mean the space-age references are one thing John, but it seems like everything you’ve designed seems sleek and beautiful and perfect, and, well, too good for me. You’ve outgrown me haven’t you?

I knew this would happen.

When we met at Taliesen, I remember you being amazed by the conversations, but now, everything is “so last year” or “passé”. Even the materials, Frank Lloyd always was in love with wood, and now I barely see any in your buildings.

I’m not going to hold you back, but don’t forget when you’re surrounded by people like Leonard Malin, or James Bond, or any one of those lithe, beautiful women, over looking the skyline in your steel and glass perched palace, impervious to earthquakes, that I put you there. Yes, I put you there and I can just as easily take you back down here with me.

Until we meet again,

Retly Corm

A SIDE NOTE ON JOHN LAUTNER

Man, John Lautner is the most famous architect you have never heard of.

For example Troy McClure's house on The Simpsons is a reference to The Chemosphere.

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There is also a pretty well known scene from Diamonds are Forever where James Bond faces "Bambi" and "Thumper".

Jackie Treehorn's Pad from the classic The Big Lebowski could also be called The Sheats-Goldstein Residence.

It’s Hard to Be Soft, Tough to be Tender When Your Heart is Beating like a Hammer.

While I never like to talk about work via blog post, I thought about sharing some practical knowledge gained in my first year of post-graduate employement.

I’m not going to lie, when I was still an undergraduate student I would make fun of Business Students…a lot. Most of their work seemed “dull” and “pedantic”, I would say this from a detail drawing of a window sash, so guess who’s the winner there.

What I never took into account were the critical life-skills that Business school taught that Architecture school did not. Below are the lessons I’ve learned after graduating that I wish my Professional Management Class had taught me.

A Cheat-sheet on Project Management

1. 1- Establish roles early, “I am in charge of.., so you’ll be covering…, She is going to oversee…”


2. 2- Save every email somewhere. It’s tempting to delete it, don’t.


3. 3- End every meeting with what everyone is expected to do next, as well as when and how to submit it


4. 4- If a project feels like it’s out of control, re-establish the hierarchy and goals with a status meeting. Lead this meeting and control the conversation.


5. 5- Even if the problem you are facing is completely someone’s fault. Never throw them under the bus, its poor leadership. They did it under your supervision; therefore your mistake, not theirs.


6. 6- Eventually you will make a mistake. It’s not a problem if you do, it’s a problem if you don’t fix it.


7. 7- Fear no one. (Remember every single adult has had diarrhea, at least once)


8. 8- Show everyone respect. (you can be casual with someone, but remember “Thanks” and “I appreciate it”)


9. 9- Perception is a tool everyone should learn. Unfortunately it can only be mastered by experience; however the first step is dressing appropriately. Imagine that each day you are going to be caught at the last minute by the last person you want to see.*


10. 10- Opinions are always numerous, but they are not entirely unhelpful. Asking someone’s opinion will do 2 things. A. They will feel important and listened to. B. They might give insight that would otherwise be lost in translation.


11. 11- If you have no idea what they are talking about, the word “specifically” is currency. For example:“When you say they need to access everything at night, what specifically do you mean?”“Specifically what did the engineer say?”

A side note on listening to people. Even if it does not solve the problem, someone feeling like you are listening can buy you time, sympathy and alliances.

*Also, live every week like it’s ‘Shark Week’

Presentation Techniques for Clients and Coworkers

1. 1- Whatever is your current conversation, be engaged. If it’s something that you really don’t care about, or feel they are going on forever. “Oh, I just remembered something, will you excuse me, I just have to send it out” It’s a dismissal that works, literally every time.


2. 2- Hold eye-contact for 3-5 seconds, any less they will feel you are disinterested, any more and you are a creep-factory


3. 3- When addressing a group of people, make eye-contact with each person


4. 4- When addressing a large group, look towards each section of the room


5. 5- Stand with your legs hip-with apart


6. 6- Hand-gestures should be between the neck and navel. Gesturing too low will seem unsure, gesturing to high will make you seem crazy


7. 7- Present to your strengths, if you’re not a bad-ass, don’t try to be a bad-ass. If you’re not upbeat, don’t pretend to be upbeat. Your audience will be able to tell immediately


8. 8- What they won’t be able to tell immediately is your confidence and knowledge of the subject. If you think you are unsure, never:a. Show it b. Say it


9. 9- That being said, Research your material


10. 10- It is only awkward if you make it awkward. If you feel uncomfortable about an unavoidable situation, just ignore it. This may be easier for some people than others. Confidence is the ultimate form of lying. You merely have to act convincingly, until the lie becomes the truth. Until your confidence becomes inherent.


11. 11- Introduce your ideas in the beginning, reinforce your ideas at the end


12. 12- Don’t speak any faster than you would typically type. Most people can process 120 words per minuet, they shouldn't have to.

Answering Questions

1. 1. Answer the question to the entire room not just the person who asked


2. 2. Never say “that’s a good question” it makes everyone who didn’t ask that question feel dumb


3. 3. Avoid saying “Um” or “err..” or “uhh”, instead just pause your speech.


4. 4. If you need to check notes, pause. Look down at your notes. Pause. Look at the crowd. Begin speaking. Don’t talk to the paper.


5. 5. Never say “Does that answer your question?” You don’t care if it did or not. You gave them an answer, just move on.


6. 6. Don’t lose your temper at obnoxiousness, impertinence, etc. anger makes you stupid. That’s science.


7. 7. Give them an outlet they can send questions to afterwards, most people are terrified of public speaking.


8. 8. Quit while you’re ahead, sometimes too much information is a bigger enemy than not enough.

I'm sure they'res much more, but as a sophomore playbook, not too bad.

IDP 2.0 Phase... Three?

I am not sure how many phases there have been - I think 3 - for the IDP "upgrade" that began in 2005(ish?). However, the next phase will be upon us in 2011. It appears the core competency categories are being reorganized, to more align with current common practices. (I believe IDP has done this several times in the past, so it's nothing new. However, I think in the past they didn't make such a big deal out of it?)

Anyway, a great chart illustrating how this "transition" will work can be found at NCARB's website:

IDP 2.0 Transition

As it stands, this phase will be implemented sometime in the fall (apparently it was originally scheduled for January 2011). Come to think of it, I may have read a bit about this some last summer. However, at the time I was probably thinking, "oh I'll be done with this IDP bullsh by then!" As it stands now... I am more than halfway complete the training requirements! I have logged 2,808 with 2,792 more to go! I am a little off-course from my long-term plans, however, given the "economic state," I think I'm still par for the course.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this, because I was kind of shocked about it! I guess I got so many emails about the 6-month rule going into effect that I was surprised to have not yet received any emails about this seemingly more impacting alteration. (Then again, maybe I'm just a nerd who likes to submit to NCARB every 8 weeks, which is why the 6-month rule was no skin off my nose.)

I think we may try to open this blog up to more people, because I feel like we have some sweet information, just no real audience for it. Hrrrmmmm....

THE Skyscraper

I just read Architectural Record's August issue's CEU, "Beyond Limits." It was a compelling article about the newest tallest skyscraper in the world, which by the way, is only about a HALF MILE TALL!! Pretty intense! Not to mention, it's in a desert. How crazy is that? Anyway, it an incredibly intriguing article, so I thought I'd plug it here. Also this graphic is helpful in recognizing this impressive feat.



Burj Khalifa
designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

P.S. I wanted to be the first post in the new month!