Working with Your Local Building Department
In the early 1930′s, architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a building for the Johnson Wax Company based on a radical structural system. Building officials (they’re not too hard to identify in the...
View ArticleWest Coast Green 2009
If you live in the northern California area and you are interested in sustainable design and building, this is the conference for you. Held in the Bay area every year, this three day event features...
View ArticleBook Autopsies
Brian Dettmer is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. Here is an excerpt from a 2007 interview with the artist, including more examples of his work: Brian utilizes existing books, cassette...
View ArticleAre You a Hypermiler?
If you own a Hybrid car, chances are you have changed your driving habits at least a little bit to see how high you can get that miles-per-gallon average. Well now several car companies are taking this...
View ArticlePlan B 3.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization
If you could read only one book on climate change and how to survive the next 100 years, this should be it. Lester Brown has clearly laid out each of the many challenges our planet faces now and in...
View ArticleLast Child in The Woods
Everyone who has children needs to read this book. As parents we have become afraid to allow nature to remain a refuge for our children to play without constant supervison. Developers, architects and...
View ArticleSoft Toilet Paper is Rough on Forests
It seems as though toilet paper is no longer flying beneath the environmental radar. It cannot be denied that America has a love for soft tissue… But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees...
View ArticleAmerica’s Top Architecture Schools
…at least according to Design Intelligence. We don’t have the results yet for 2009, but we have to admit to a bit of inter-office grumbling over last year’s results. Why did Cornell fall to #2 and...
View ArticlePaper Works
Peter Callesen is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the...
View ArticleI wish I was a Hollywood Architect, Part 1
There are architects, and then there are architects as portrayed in the movies. Although the celluloid architect is often an outrageously inaccurate caricature, sometimes Hollywood actually gets it...
View ArticleThe Language of School Design
In our opinion, this book should be required reading for each and every architect who designs schools. It attempts to answer the questions, “why do schools look the way they do? Why is there a chasm...
View ArticleLand Art
Andy Goldsworthy is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. “I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and “found” tools–a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities...
View ArticleThe Art of Creating Creatures
This fascinating video was discovered by one of our own designers, Josh. Is it art or is it science? You will have to decide for youself, but as you watch try to imagine the possible applications for...
View ArticleThe Prefabricated Home
Architects have long been fascinated with the idea of designing prefabricated housing. The question remains, however, as to why they haven’t experienced as much success as might be expected. This...
View ArticleIs Nuclear Fusion Finally (almost) Here?
When it comes to research into new energy sources, this may just be “The Next Really Cool Thing”: If you hang around the renewable-energy business for long, you’ll hear a lot of tall tales. You’ll hear...
View ArticleWhat Timeless Really Means
From its opening on April 22, 1939 in Racine, Wisconsin, the SC Johnson Wax Administration Building by Frank Lloyd Wright was destined to become one of the finest examples of 20th century American...
View ArticleI wish I was a Hollywood Architect, Part 2
This scene from the 2001 movie Life as a House features an encounter with a building inspector that is completely unbelievable. However, we include it under the category of “wishful thinking”, because...
View ArticleThe Perfect $100,000 House
This book is a very personal look into how a very small segment of home building is slowly evolving toward prefabrication, while at the same time the construction industry as a whole remains as the...
View ArticleInspiration Revisited
If you are an architect and you are not inspired by this building by the twentieth century architectural icon Louis Kahn, then you need to change professions. The Exeter Library, with Kahn’s typically...
View ArticleA Flash of Genius
Competing in a 1981 national competition against 1,420 other entries, an unknown undergraduate at Yale University named Maya Ying Lin was selected as the winner for her design for the Vietnam Memorial....
View ArticleA Different Kind of Developer
The words “daring and creative” are rarely heard when decribing today’s housing developers. When confronted, it is not unusual to hear the almost automatic response, “I’m only building what the...
View ArticleDragon Day 2009
As an alumnus of Cornell University’s School of Architecture, I am always reminded at this time of year of an annual tradition at our school called “Dragon Day”. It’s difficult to explain how freshman...
View ArticleThe World is Flat
This is not a new book – in fact, it was published to great acclaim back in 2005 – but it’s worth featuring again as the best-selling author has just released his newest book Hot, Flat and Crowded....
View ArticleA Satisfying Map of the Journey
Bryan Tedrick is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. Northern California has some wonderful artists, and Bryan Tedrick certainly fits into this category. “While I may have a general idea in...
View ArticleAll That Glitters is Not Green
Here is a brief excerpt from my conference talk: These days it seems as though “Green” is everywhere we turn. Environmentally friendly living ideas have finally made it to mainstream America, or at...
View ArticleAn Extreme Staircase
This year is 2007. I am a fifth year architecture student at Montana State University, and my assignment is to design a staircase. I decide to use this as an opportunity to explore the artistic...
View ArticleFinding Treasure
Celeste White is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. As we’ve said before, Northern California has some wonderful artists, and Celeste is another great example. “In my work, I have two main...
View ArticleIntensely Wood
Ben Butler is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. We find his sculptures of patterned wood especially appealing. “The spirit of science, of discovery and illumination, is central to my art....
View ArticleArt of The Brick
Nathan Sawaya is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. In fact, we enjoy Nathan’s art so much TRILOGY is one of the sponsors of his exhibit, “The Art of the Brick” at the Turtle Bay...
View ArticleStone by Design
Lew French is our staff’s pick for Today’s Featured Artist. He moved to Martha’s Vineyard over twenty years ago and has worked on his own stone designs exclusively since. His work has been featured...
View ArticleDesigning for the world “In Between.”
[av_video src='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCDJf8Wfovw' format='16-9' width='16' height='9'] We're thrilled to share James' TEDxRedding talk, which is a great distillation of the theory behind our...
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