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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...

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West 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...

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Book 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...

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Are 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...

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Plan 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...

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Last 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...

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Soft 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...

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America’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...

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Paper 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...

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I 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...

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The 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...

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Land 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...

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The 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...

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The 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...

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Is 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...

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What 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...

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I 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...

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The 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...

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Inspiration 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...

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A 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....

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A 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...

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Dragon 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...

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The 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....

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A 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...

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All 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...

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An 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...

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Finding 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...

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Intensely 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....

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Art 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...

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Stone 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...

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Designing 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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