There and back again - more adventures with Retly Corm

So about a month ago I returned from Hawaii and Thailand. First things first: beautiful. Glorious. 

Second things second: a terrible person with weird reasoning blew up a temple that we stayed down the street from about a week after we left. 

As an architect you may forget that buildings are secure but people can be the worst. For about a week I was in that weird place between grateful to be alive, angry the terrorism went down and freaked out in general. 

I mean, we had just been there. Eating street satays outside of Wat Pho, walking by high-end malls and doing the typical things a tourist does in Bangkok. It just is strange when your passive enjoyment of a facsinating and beautiful city is seen as a political act. 

But on a happier note: here's the recap. 

Bang Pa In Summer Palace, a former residence of Thai kings, set around a lavish ornamental pond. If this beautiful palace reminds you a bit of 'The King and I', that's probably because it's the former home of Mong-Kut, King of Siam. There is a precision, tension and allusion everywhere, a palace that acts as the architectural translation of a monarch deciding how much he should alude to western power and cotton to Eastern Rivals. Don't watch the movie. It's simplisitc. Anna is condescending and lame. Though I do have a sore-spot for this part:

But I think that's a Yul Brenner thing. Oof. 

Ayuthaya, this ancient city show the ruins of a past empire and bring up the many contradictions of Thailand. It is a culture of both peace and war, power and politeness. Growing up in DC, I know that feeling well. The red-stone ruins seem almost endless. 

Erawan National Park, "So there I was, having just fallen the wrong way down a waterfall and was getting patched up by our trans tourguide..." For the record. That is how I would like every story I ever tell to start.Dude. Waterfalls. Waterfalls that are so beautiful they look fake. But when your twin brother goats you into going down one, remember 1. Avoid the rocks and 2. He has a camera. 

Kanchanaburi and the Bridge on the River Kwai This was the part of the trip that got emotionally difficult. I was unaware of just how horrific the Death Railway of World War II had been. I mean, when you call something the "Death Railway" you know there will not be a picnic, but good God, it was crippling. At one point, walking through the Hellfire pass I just had to take my headphones off and just be sad. For more on this story, I recommend 'The Railway Man'

We then returned to Bangkok and I got a chance to go to Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok. Jim Thompson was one of those East Coast rich kids who wanted more. He became a foreign intellegence officer and fell in love with Thailand. After the war he established a silk company, built a gorgeous house across from his textile manfacturing plant, and then, in his 60's went for a walk in the woods and dissappeared. A strange man who led a fanastical life. 

Team Rocket Blasting Off Again

So over the past few months, I have been figuring out what was next in store for old Retly. 

Part of it was personal, most of it was professional. 

The short version is: I had been offered a PhD position back in England that would start this year, but not enough to funding to take it, and so declined/deferred. As much as I wanted to do it, it just couldn't happen financially. It would be a lifetime of debt with no support. At times like this you think: Man, where are those lottery winnings when you need them. 

I keep telling myself it was the smart choice, as I already have a job I actually like, but since then I've been wrestling with whether it was the right move. A discussion took place over coffee with an old professor (Jo Feb will know him - It was Dr. B.) while he was in town and he advised that while an architect can be both a practitioner and a theorist, it's not a common route, so I had to expect some bumps along the way. Maybe the lack of money was one of the bumps.

So since another round of funding submissions are months away, I figured, screw it. Let's buckle down and get on this registration thing taken care of. But first. Let's do what I always do when confronted with disappointment: run away.

This summer has been a bit of traveling, with more in store. 3 weddings, 2 baby showers and a couple of birthdays in between. Meaning this is the first weekend I've had to do nothing in months. It is glorious.

But all of that was in preparation for the next two weeks, which will consist of the following:

1) Flying to Hawaii to visit my twin brother

2) Learning to play the Ukulele on a beach while he goes to work

3) Taking a week with said brother to fly to Bangkok for food

4) Hiring out a tuktuk for an adventure up the river Kwai

5) Hanging out with Tigers, snakes

6) Begin the return home, with a brief stop in India along the way

Will keep this blog posted on adventures, observations and off-tune notes. 

Recent Thoughts on Continuing Education

My yesterday was spent trolling the halls of the state capitol with my architect peers as we promoted such notions as mandated continuing education, more quickly renewed building codes, student loan debt forgiveness, among other things.  I hadn't given our shtick much thought prior to the day or even during the day as we ushered into representatives offices with our pamphlets, relying heavily on my cohorts to execute the delivery (my brain has been very inaccessible lately, I think coming off 2 years of chronic insomnia has finally caught up with me).

However, now that I am on the verge of slumber, my mind has finally awoken (side note, why is it that I can go an entire day half asleep and then by the time 10:00pm rolls around I am suddenly wide awake?  This happens all too often.).  I am stuck on a thought a new coworker of mine has placed in my cranium earlier this afternoon.  He is licensed in two states other than mine own, both of which require their own versions of continuing education.  He mentioned how he earns his credits via free webinars online, etc. and he casually noted how many continuing education programs are merely a 15 minute powerpoint followed by 40 minutes of product promotion.  There is no way for the jurisdiction to oversee all the continuing education programs, so we rely on the provider's dedication and honesty in providing these credits sans proprietary influence.  Of the 10 or so credits I have observed in the past 6 months, I can think of maybe one that I would feel comfortable not flagging.  Most recently, I noted a "1-hour" continuing education presentation that lasted 15 minutes. "Looks like we have some time, mind if I tell you about our latest products?"

My point with this is I am wondering if passing a bill for continuing education in Pennsylvania is useful at all.  It seems like I would rather spend my time conducting my own research, as many architects must do in advancing their projects, than sitting through some product rep's spiel, which may not contain any useful or even accurate information!

Is there some other way we can enforce continuing education besides tabulating widely diverse credit hours?  My mind turns to the governing body that mandates the licensing process for us in the first place... NCARB.  Perhaps NCARB should be the sole provider of continuing education.  They already have a pretty good library of monographs with quizzes that qualify for continuing education credits.  I don't know how regularly they are updated, though.

I'll have to ponder this more at a later time.

Adventures in Office Sitting

As my contract was drawing to a close, I was starting to get nervous. Not that I hadn't saved enough to be alright financially, more like "what am I going to do once this job is over?". I could go to Hawaii (where my brother lives) until something else crops up. Or back to Europe to, as is the parlance of our times, "dick around". Or I could stay in New York and go back to writing full time. In the end, none of these were selected.

I'm pleased to say I have a full time job as an Associate Architect at an international firm. Which is nice, because for a while, it was a little like that scene in "The Princess Bride" where Wesley describes his life on the pirate ship. 

"Good night. Good work. I'll most likely kill you in the morning"

Now with that load off my shoulders. I can begin phase 2 of my plan which is, of course, to become the Dread Pirate Roberts. 

You might even like being together, and if you don't, it won't be forever

So as the course of true-love never did run smooth: the position I'm in now is a contract, and as with all contracts, eventually it has to end. Will this mean I return to the world of architectural theory full time, or stick with my 50/50 relationship with a continuation? Only time will tell. However, I feel like I should take this time to bring up two completely unrelated things that have been swirling around in my brain as of late.

#1) The reason why I think Architectural Theory is important:

For years I've been told "Architectural Theory isn't real architecture". Which, I understand as a statement, but don't really get. Like, alright, Theory has nothing to do with line weights (unless you are writing the most esoteric thesis ever) or construction schedules (unless you count Violet Le-Duc). But what it does, what is really does is allow people to have a conversation about design which doesn't put the past on a pedestal. It takes architecture out of the feeling one might have towards a museum piece: to be viewed with appreciation and nothing else. Theory allows for educated, legitimate rejection of selfish work. A conversation.

Dadaism's form of modernism has made it so "ugly" isn't a credible argument against architecture. What Theory does is create a language which can allow for a nuanced understanding of:

A) What architecture is

B) What architects do

Sometimes I think my personal interest in this field comes from the sake of always hating Frank Lloyd Wright's kitchens. I've ranted about his kitchens before, but I'll do so again because it illustrates my point. FLW was a genius, but he was also a dude who never cooked a day in his life. From childhood on, he either had a woman or a professional chef cooking for him. He had no clue whatsoever how much space is needed to cook a turkey and it shows. But the mythos of Wright is so strong the assumption that everything he did was flawless is almost cannon. What flaws he has are boiled down to his personal life, which, to me, is just a variation on a theme. He was bullying to women who bored him, so he made spaces that just reinforce the idea that "cool women" are only cool because they act like men.  He wanted a Jeffersonian utopia but only one where everything looked like an etch-a-sketch print-out and everyone was square-jawed with middle-class aspirations. Before theory, I don't think I would have had the chops, or the cojones to come out and say the most scandalous statement I can imagine for architects : Frank Lloyd Wright is ok.

Be rebellious. Hate something dexterously. Read Theory.

#2) The Secret Legacy of C.B.J. Snyder 

Speaking of old white dudes, C.B.J Snyder is highly underrated. He oversaw the construction of over 400 schools in New York City with most of his buildings still standing, many now classified as NYC landmarks. He made revolutionary strides in children's welfare in school space, HVAC and promoting public education. Charismatic and likable, he was elected to the school board by an almost unanimous vote. 

There's a care to his buildings, a uniformity which was clearly created with the best of intentions. High ceilings, classrooms that are usually 28' by 22', clerestory windows into the hallways and lovely entrances. Further, he arranged that the air conditioning would be adjacent, if not directly through the closets, which meant by the time the children had to go home, their (often) wool coats would be dry. 

There are some things that are bizarre in his work though. For instance, in some of the high-schools there are "boy's gyms" and "girl's gyms", but only locker rooms/showers for the boys. Presumably this is because girls weren't going to get physical enough to work up a sweat? Or some belief that women are shocked by nakedness, even among each other? Or maybe there was something there about clothing for women being more difficult to take off. Who knows, could be any or all of those reasons.

In either case, check out his work. As it stands, I may write a blog post soon about the history of public school buildings. There's an interesting history there, one that is influenced deeply by politics, even today.  

That's it from New York - over to you Pennsylvania!

It's Beginning to look a lot like...something

"You're going to love New York at Christmas!"

This was the refrain I heard over and over again in taking the contract I have now. And for a long time I was kind of 'meh' on that aspect. The city looked nice enough, sure, but nothing spectacular. 

That is until today when I went to the Frick Reference Library for research and then walked down Lexington Ave to exchange a sweater. (Side note: Banana Republic, your stuff this season boxy and huge. I'm not an XS in this or any other universe).

As I meandered down the street, new purchase in hand, the snow was falling, the still-up holidays lights were twinkling, and the displays were both elaborate and delicate. Capitalism was on its best behavior AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. 

Department store displays are a thing this time of the year. Here and everywhere. Though this kind of tradition seems to fit well with New York Architecture. The clean lines and almost endlessness of, especially Mid-town, brings the eye naturally to this level. (Because god-forbid you make eye contact with someone on the street). Eitherway, it seems plate glass essentially invented window shopping, and by the 1860s New York had caught the fever. 

By 1900, window displays were the most beautiful bare-knuckle boxing match you could get walking down the street. Each one had to outdo the other. The best part, from a design point of view, is that there is absolutely no pressure to be timeless. They can be saccharine or gimmicky, abstract or obscure. Indeed the ones I saw barely had any merchandise on display at all. It's an event, a public one, one that brings people to the store which is 90% of the work. 

One could follow the tradition globally, from Selfridges, to the affect of display on Bon Marche to what it looks like in places like India or China. In either case, holiday window displays are a crafted, paper-leather art that is, if nothing else, attractive. Even if it promotes, not really avarice, but a light kind of wanting.

Walking around today also reminded me that New York, as a city, is changing rapidly. 

I was recently heartbroken over the loss of the Five Pointz street art in Queens. It was an exterior gallery the likes of which had never been before. But it's been torn down in favor of two milquetoast condo towers. It would seem this is the kind of display which does not last. One that doesn't own anything. Buying property in New York is "a good investment" again. Which means the dirtier, grittier, and frankly more interesting places are going the way of the pee-soaked dodo. 

Right now I'm living on the Lower East Side, which encourages me to have a complicated relationship with gentrification. I can deride it's social impacts, selfish neo-liberal agenda, and subsequent racial homogeneity all day long, don't get me started. However there's that a part of me that also really likes fancy donut shops, artisanal cocktails, nice woodwork at a brunch table and antropologie. It's a conundrum. 

So really it boils down to this: at some point New York had to make a choice. Was it going to be the city of Storefronts or Display Windows? 

One option offers the blaring neon that shoots out into the dark street like a prayer to an unfeeling god. The hymn humming "Sadie's Discount Liquors". The other is bright, confident and staged. Heralding the kind of place that would never accept someone like Sadie or her wholesale booze. 

I like Sadie. But more and more it seems the moneyed of New York don't. It's not unreasonable, it's just disappointing.