The Fountainhead

or how I learned to push past conventional thinking...

He pulls up a chair next to mine. I take my hand of the mouse and begin to ask how I would go about framing the windows I designed for my home. He leans back in his chair and folds his arms across his chest. I can tell by the look on his face what he is about to say. I've already heard him give this speech to another student. Its a speech about how this class is really set up to provide students with a conventional understanding of construction. He says things like contractors don't like change or that custom building is too expensive. That employers are going to want to see that students understand the basic framework of construction. So what happens is our portfolios get loaded with track homes which to me is not very interesting to look at. While I understand his argument, I don't necessarily agree. I want to show a future employer that not only do I understand the fundamentals but I can also design something original. I figure I'll have plenty of time for conventional building practices once I get into the industry. Right now I am a student and this is my fountainhead. I want my portfolio to reflect what I am capable of doing.

An Evening with Bon Iver

This was probably my favorite part of the whole night.

So Serene

or how i learned to deal with the banjo and just fish for trout...


This past weekend two of my old roommates from college flew in from Texas and Missouri to do a little backpacking in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Jay got in around 3 PM from Texas after a long layover in Albuquerque.  He met me at work and we spent the afternoon running some errands and preparing for our trip. That evening we grabbed a drink with one of his old coworkers at the Bare Bones Bar. All the while we were waiting to hear if Richard was going to make his connecting flight out of Las Vegas. It wasn't until 12:45 AM that Richard's plane touched down in Portland.

So the next morning was a little bit of a slower start than originally planned. I made a nice breakfast scramble and we finalized our packing. We hopped in the car and followed the Clackamas River for about two hours to the Shellrock Lake trailhead. From there is was about a five mile hike to our destination.

We spent two nights at Serene Lake and I'm pretty sure we had the sweetest spot there. The water was surprisingly warm. Well... lets just say cooler than I expected, and incredibly clear. We fished for trout with no luck but enough teasers to keep us out on the water. Someone (and don't ask me how) hiked in a canoe and had left it for others to use. Richard and I took it out so we could fish in deeper water. We ate like kings on this trip. Brats, chili, biscuits and gravy, chicken fajitas with all the fixin's. We also packed in twelve cans of beer. We were pretty motivated to shed that weight for the hike back.  The wilderness was gorgeous and busier than I anticipated. We shared the lake with a group of about 12 teens from a youth corp. program. Never in my life would I have expected to hear someone play Radiohead on a banjo in the middle of the forest. I guess there are worst things that could have happened.

I had a blast catching up with my friends. I hadn't spent a significant time with Richard in several years, and Jay and I have always talked of backpacking more. I am grateful to these guys for taking the time to get over to Portland.

The roomies

Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!

The beer cooler

Our nice little view

Explosions

or how i learned to steal music at the corner of 6th and yamhill...


I was given a last minute task to run an errand downtown. Not a problem. I hopped on my bike and peddled down Salmon, crossed the Hawthorne bridge, and was to my destination in 15 minutes. As I'm locking my bike up around a street sign I hear music coming from down the block. I completely forgot about the Northwest Music Fest. After I frantically finish my errand I hurry over to the source of the music. Pioneer Square is fenced off for the event but I manage to find a spot at the corner of 6th and Yamhill that gave me a decent view of the stage. So I'm leaning against a light post, the crowd within the fenced area begins to cheer. I hear a voice say, "how are you Portland, Oregon? We are Explosions in the Sky and we're from Texas." More cheering. Then music. For the next hour or so I soaked in the wonderful, ambient tunes coming over the fence at Pioneer Square. It was amazing, and totally free. It reminded me of the time my friend Brent stole jazz in Amsterdam. 

I'm Back!!!

After five fairly quick weeks I'm standing outside the Pen Air gate at the Anchorage airport. I reach into my backpack, take out my cell phone and turn it on for the first time. 8 New messages. That's amazing considering last season I had zero. In a few hours I will be heading home to Portland. I can't wait to see my wife.

This fishing season was weird. There is really no other way to explain it. The projections for the amount of fish running up the rivers this year jumped from last year. We where all gearing up for a painful yet profitable season. We came ready to fish but the fish never came. It was weird. We ended up catching about half of what we did last year. Thankfully the price per pound stayed strong so we didn't lose out there. 

But despite it being a slower fishing season we tried to make the best of the time we had. There where trips to old abandoned canneries, long walks on the beach with the bears at Brooks Lodge, BBQ bonfires, and consuming large quantities of smoked salmon from a smoker that only took an afternoon to construct. 

The beach at Brooks Lodge. That bear wants our skiff.

Getting ready for an excursion. 

The Pit Crew

A view of Naknek Lake

Are we there yet?

Nothing like cooking up a king salmon on the beach. 

Gone Fishin'

or how I learned to sink in mud and still gaff a fish

I leave tonight for another summer in the Last Frontier.  I will miss you but I'll see you in 5 weeks.

cafe racer

or not quite a mid-life crisis but more a mid-minute crisis...

A while back I saw a motorcycle cruise by my work, and I remember thinking that I really liked the style of that particular bike. I remember thinking that if I had to ride one that that would be the one I could ride. Then it got me thinking, "what's stopping me from getting a motorcycle?" I've always just thought that I would never have one. That it was just some intangible thing. Something out of my league. But I never really thought about why. So what IS stopping me? I could save up. I'm a grown man. I can make decisions on my own. What's stopping me? And then for no more than a minute more I thought through what is stopping me. Money. A wet climate. A worried wife. Money. They are dangerous. Money. So I quickly realized why I probably don't own a motorcycle.

But fun fact, I saw this kind of bike again and the owner of said bike happened to be a Peet's customer. So I asked him about his ride. Turns out they are called cafe racers which got their start in Britain in the 1960s where young rebellious rockers would modify their motorcycles for speed so they could race from one cafe to the next. I'm a barista so this is perfect. So some day. Maybe.

Bono vs. Seattle

or how i learned to pay for parking and gas and still have the perfect weekend.

It's Friday evening. Sunny and in the 70's. We are outside under a red umbrella. Mish is enjoying a pinot gris. I get caught starring at the rising bubbles in my pilsner. We both are feeling relaxed. Its happy hour at a little cafe down the street from our apartment. Our drinks are soon complimented with a frito misto, spinach lasagna, fried oysters, and a house salad. The waiter tells us to "just relax and enjoy." I think we will.

Saturday morning: I run out to Happy Sparrow for kolaches, make some tea, and spend time reading out on the porch. The sun is rising and I can feel its warmth on my back. Mish remarks that she is enjoying the slow-paced morning. Me too. Around noon we make some sandwiches for lunch and finish packing our bag. In an hour or so we will be off to Seattle.

When I got back from a month of fishing in Alaska last year Mish handed me 3 envelopes labeled "Date #1" "Date #2" and "Date #3". When I opened the envelope marked Date #3 I pulled out two tickets to see U2 in Seattle. What the freak! That was almost a year ago.

So now we are in Seattle doing laps around Qwest Field. Weaving in and out of cars and people. I have $11 in my wallet. Well, $10 plus some change I found on the top of my dresser. I am prepared to spend $11 on parking. I see a man in a bright yellow vest waving an orange baton. My eyes go from him to the A-frame sign propped up next to him. It reads, "EVENT PARKING $40". Shut up! Are you kidding me. $40! That is more than we spent on one of the concert tickets. Mish and I refuse to pay that. We even tell one of the parking attendant guys we'd give him $20. He smiled and politely told us the price is still $40. Oh well. After some prayers and about an hour of dodging cars and concert-goers, we happen upon a somewhat discreet parking garage less than a half mile away from the stadium. The price is fixed and not influenced by events so we park and happily pay the $7.35. (I would be willing to share the location of this garage for a small fee of... $40! Ha!)

We are way up in section 329. Lenny Kravitz just wrapped up his set. I think I used to have his best of album. Wonder where that went? The sun is dropping down beyond the coastal range now. Enough so that the stadium lights are in full effect. Lights dim, then explode back on revealing a little band from Ireland you may know as U2. The next 2+ hours are spent in sing-a-long with 70,000 others. Biggest choir I've been apart of. The singing finally comes to a close and those 70,000 dissolve back into the city. Mish and I head to Redmond for a late check-in. Turns out hotels are cheaper outside of Seattle.

Sunday morning: its another slow start. Breakfast at the hotel washed down with some cable tv. Then its off to Bellevue to hit up Seattle's famous hand-forged doughnuts. Top Pot didn't disappoint. We make a promise not to eat them until the next morning. We briefly chatted with the employee there and he recommended we check out Gasworks Park. And so we do. And I could have spent the rest of the day there watching boats go by and sea planes take off. It was an amazing view of downtown Seattle we hadn't seen before.

I'm not sure what the world was like before smart phones. We're sitting at the park and we are starting to feel a little hungry. Mish google's 'best fish-n-chips in Seattle'. Next thing you know we are walking a short half mile to the Pacific Inn Pub for a pretty dang good lunch.

We gas up and spend the afternoon driving back to Portland, and we finish off the weekend with a couple of beers and great conversation on our porch. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better a thunderstorm rolls by in the distance.

I'm sorry if it seems like I am bragging. Or that we do this all the time. But we don't. In fact. the last time I had a weekend of was over a year ago. I'm a husband, student, and barista right now. My life has been crazy the last couple of years. So that is way I am so thankful to have had an amazing weekend like I did. I feel refreshed. I am happy to have spent it all with my best friend and "soul mate". I've got a pretty cool wife. If you haven't met her yet you should.

Its seems like the last few months have been spent sitting at an old wooden drawing table, hunched over under the yellow light of a swing-arm lamp. I've just completed the presentation board for my Active/Passive Systems class. Tomorrow I'll walk my classmates through it.

There is a lot of information covered on this 18"X 24" sheet. Solar studies, passive solar gain, ventilation, site orientation, on-site water management, heating/cooling systems, building materials, design loss/performance, top-lighting, eco-roof and so on. Its the result of 11 weeks of analysis on a house I designed for another class. And I'm finally done. The only thing I am embarrassed to say is that I didn't include solar panels. Or at least I didn't include them on my board. But I'm sure I can add those in later.

i've been reading though Jeremy Till's book entitled architecture depends. it has been a nice read so far. at one point in the book he states that "all architecture is but waste in transit" meaning that despite an architects best arguments for immortality their buildings will eventually succumb to decay. while this isn't by any means the main thought and argument for his book, it definitely caught my attention. being from the UK, he references the fact that 50% of of waste in UK landfills is construction waste and that only 37% of construction waste is being recycled. till says that, "while architects may dream of their building coming into the world as fully fledged durable items with enduring value, the reality is that they always enter the social realm as transient objects, subject right from the beginning to decline in value and an inexorable slide into the status of rubbish." i don't think architects want to think about this and its easy not to, for most buildings someone creates are not likely to see decay in their designers lifetime.

but i've been thinking a lot about this sort of thing especially in regards to sustainable building practices. builders and architects are being credited more and more for incorporating reclaimed materials into newer buildings. I think this is a great practice, but what i wonder is if there are ways to make reclaiming materials easier. could walls be assembled differently so hammers and saws aren't needed to rip them apart? could we use different materials that could be recycled. i had the opportunity to visit a job site that was in the demolition phase. when the project manager was asked what happens with the used metal studs and sheetrock he somewhat shamefully said they go to the dump. there isn't a way to recycle sheetrock.

so can buildings be constructed to last but at the same time, if cultural trends insist, be disassembled and parts reused? are there ways to create building materials that can be recycled without losing their integrity? a lot of energy and talk are focused on the a buildings performance once it is created. but what about before they building goes up? i guess what i am wondering is that in creating sustainable buildings are we also encouraging more sustainable and healthy was of creating materials?

juxtaposition...

cozied up in the oversized chair i'm sipping on some darjeeling tea while thumbing through the most recent issue of dwell magazine. but prefab eye-candy and articles on the pros and cons of twenty or so designer chairs aren't enough to divert my attention from the video streaming from the computer. mish had pulled up CNN. we watch houses, planes and cars spin in whirlpools like the aftermath of a child's bath time. waves rushing over places waves where never suppose to go. i can't even begin to fathom what the people in Japan are dealing with right now. events like this cause me to look at things through a different lense. it makes me question what exactly i'm striving for. what i want to be about. how i really want to spend my short amount of time on this crazy, shaking rock.

I have always thought of carving a turkey as sort of a rite of passage to head of the household. A ceremonious and sacred tradition that every man must take responsibility for. This past weekend i felt like i stepped into that honored role. Friday night we had not one, but two, thirty pound turkeys cooking simultaneously in our oven. Once the correct temperature was reached and the turkeys removed from the oven, I then proceeded to carve these birds without any formal training. But using the knowledge I had gleaned from past Thanksgivings watching my father or my friends father carve, I cut as much meat off the bones as I could. I have to be honest, I am quite proud of the way things turned out, and I feel as though i've been clothed in a new layer of confidence.

sam elliot called me sir...

today this tall, lanky cowboy walks up to my register and with a low, gravely voice orders a cappacino. he hands me a five and i hand him back his change. "thank you, sir." he says. i ask him if i can i get his name for the order. he says, "sam".

Click To Play

Every year Portland puts on a little 18 mile bike ride in the thick of the winter season called "The Worst Day of the Year Ride". There are stops around town hot cocoa, beer, and tasty treats. Yesterday just happened to be the day of the ride, and ironically could have been one of the best days of the winter season. I wasn't able to participate due to my work schedule, however i had the opportunity to ride to class today in what I would consider to be the ABSOLUTE WORST DAY OF THE YEAR!!! Yesterday = pleasant, overcast, cool. Today = stinging rain, cold, wind that could blow you into the next lane, water gushing up from the earth. I could barely keep my eyes open to see where i was going. And I decided to ride the 10 miles to school.

i'm drawing inspiration from a couple architecture groups right now. the first is the bjarke ingels group based in denmark.




they have a very unique way of incorporating and blending the landscape into the built form. right now they are working on building a power plant that will also provide downhill skiing or snowboarding.

i also really like herzog and de meuron. i actually had a chance to see one of their buildings while i was in madrid spain last spring. I didn't know who they were or anything about the building, but while walking the streets of madrid with my family we passed by this first building.



What I liked about it was how well i felt it blended old and new architecture styles. maybe blended isn't the right would since there are obvious lines separating material and styles, but somehow they are able to compliment each other.



it wasn't unitl i saw this image that i was able to find out more about the first building and the architects behind it.

i can't believe my first post of the year is going to be an archive of the books i read last year. sorry. not sure i've got any favs. but here is the list:

Four Fish: Paul Greenberg
A Little History of the World: E.H. Gombrich
A Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde
Paris to the Moon: Adam Gopnik
Body Piercing Saved My Life: Andrew Beaujon
A Moveable Feast: Ernest Hemingway
Here and Now: Henri Nouwen
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler: Italo Calvino
Running with the Hounds: Charles Gillies
Classic Cracker Florida's Wood Frame Vernacular Architecture: Ronald Haase
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: Steve Solomon
The Historian: Elizabeth Kostova


i'm still working on East of Eden. I'm hoping to be done with that one soon.