We dissect why you might want to rethink being an architect, the world’s largest chimney, and would you want to live over a freeway?

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Show Notes

Site News

• New Facebook Fans
  • Steve Jones
  • Carlos De Haro
  • Jeannette Senn
  • Ryan Fetters

Cal Poly News

• “Deconstructing Japanese Architecture”
  • Lecture by Prof. Don Choi
  • Thursday, November 4th, 2010 11:00 to 12:noon
  • Bldg. 186, Room C-103.
  • Don’s lecture is part of the Asian Studies Lecture Series presented by the Asian Studies Minor.
  • Don is currently writing a book that addresses major themes of architecture in modern Japan form 1850 to the present.
• Hearst Lecture: Jason K. Johnson and Nataly Gattegno, Future-Cities-Lab
  • 4-5pm in the rotunda
  • Grasshopper Workshop with Future-Cities-Lab
  • Saturday, November 6th, 2010, 10:00am – 4pm, Berg Gallery, Room 05-105
• AIAS Cal Poly Presents: Pecha Kucha Night
  • See 6 Current 3rd year professor present information about their studios in the unique format of 20 slides for 20 seconds each for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
  • Monday, November 8 · 6:00pm – 9:30pm
  • The Fishtank (Courtyard Gallery, 21-105A)
  • http://www.pecha-kucha.org/
• Vellum Competition winners
  • http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/exhibitions/vellum/vellum-10.html
  • Congratulations!

Pop Culture Feature

• “So You Want To Be An Architect? Think Twice”
  • http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/9543

General News

• More on the USGBC Class action lawsuit
  • http://www.glassguides.com/index.php/archives/1706
• Church implodes buildings to make way for $115 million project
  • http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5832/53/
  • http://www.5gstudio.com/newsletter/2010/november/implosion.html

• Exactly how many architects in the U.S. are unemployed?
  • http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/2010/10/101025real_employment.asp
  • NCARB’s 2010 Survey of Registered Architects-there are 105,312 of them
  • We already talked about this, but it popped up again and wasn’t sure if it would relate to anything we talk about tonight. If anything is serves as good reference for the previous article.
  • http://blog.aia.org/nac/2010/10/ncarbs_2010_survey_of_register_1.html
• Foreign work keeps Denver firms flying
  • http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_16504428
  • Colorado claims employment among architects in the state was down 25 percent last year, leading some to work overseas.
• Tallest structure proposed
  • http://architect-media.com/portal/wts/cemc6Fa9iBibaAnseezbyxa-jQFF2c
  • Planning is underway for a $700 million “solar chimney tower” that would be more than twice as tall as the Empire State Building. David Zax reports that EnviroMission hopes to get its concept going after receiving a contract for green power from the Southern California Public Power Authority. “The tower represents a hybrid of solar and wind technology,” Zax writes. “The bright surface at the bottom of the artist’s rendering is an expansive glass-covered greenhouse that bakes in the sun, heating air that pours into the 1,000-meter-high chimney, churning 35 electricity-generating turbines.”
• Freeway views
  • http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/roadside-attraction/
  • Architect Ronnie Self has built himself the ultimate Houston home, with skyline views and a freeway at his front door. William Middleton reports that the architect built his house in Houston’s Third Ward for its artsy vibe and inexpensive real estate. And the location next to 20 lanes of highway protects his views from Houston’s notoriously lax zoning rules. “It seemed that it was pretty much a guarantee that no one was going to block your view,” Self says.

Multi Story Building with Curves! Ciudad Real, Spain

There are a number of typical things being done in this building.   As is the case with most Spanish multi-story buildings, a series of concrete columns and beams are spanned with concrete joists and brick units to create the structure for concrete floor decks.

Also typical are the crane on site during the entire construction process as well as the safety netting around the building.

I like this picture because it shows how flexible this system can be.  Unlike the building I showed earlier the upper floors introduce some curves.

Chalet Factory, Azuqueca de Henares, Spain

The above photo was a very common site during my time in Spain.  The townhouse, or Chalet, was becoming very poplar and the construction industry was responding by building hundreds of these units.  These structure use load bearing brick walls as opposed to the concrete column and beam structures of the 3+ story buildings.

This last picture is a close up of the entry stair construction at another development.

Typical exterior stair construction, Azuqueca de Henares, Spain

I think we see a couple of interesting in this picture.

Firstly, the stair.  The structure for the stair is a simple concrete ramp.  The concrete is poured without forming any treads.  The reads and risers are created from hollow bricks and mortared together.  The stairs will be finished with tiles.

Secondly, we see the windows and doors in various phases of installation.  Because the entire structure is concrete and masonry there is no counter flashing for the windows and doors.  The exterior finishes are installed and then the windows are set in place.  This is very different from the complex system of flashing and counter-flashing used in framed construction here in the United States.

The formwork has been removed from the 1st floor columns and the forms are being set up for the second floor. It was only a couple days since the first floor columns were poured but they won't be supporting any load for a few more. Metal jacks are setup steel joists and wood formwork are laid out.

With the wood forms in place concrete joists are laid down and hollow brick units are laid down on top of them. In a little over a day the entire floor is laid out. The joists and bricks are simply laid in place are not anchored in any way.

Following adding perimeter formwork, rebar, and welded wire mesh, the first floor is poured. The crane is used to transfer the concrete from the truck to the workers. All of the beams and columns are vibrated and then the floor is leveled. The finish is left rather rough as the entire floor surface will eventually be tiled.

Here is a better shot of the floor beam rebar and formwork. No formwork is setup against the two adjacent buildings. A one inch piece of foam will be set against the building before the floor is poured. An edge form is set up around the elevator shaft and the building perimeter.

A finished floor slab.

One month after finishing the foundation the formwork is nearly finished for the 4th and final floor of the building. All of the steel jacks are still in place for the entire building. The neighbors will soon loose the views out of their bathroom windows.

The hopper make another trip up to the fourth floor. This floor feature a larger cantilever on the corner and has more rebar than the other floors.

Within 5 days the floor has cured and the final columns have been formed, poured, and had their formwork removed.

The roof is formed the same way as the floors. The columns were poured at varying heights and the rebar will tie into the roof beams. The same system of concrete joists and hollow bricks will be used.

The roof is poured in place.

With all of the structural work complete the crew begins to clean up the site. The jacks are removed from the bottom floors and the concrete beams bear the weight of the building for the first time.

I unfortunately moved away from Guadalajara on August 14th so I missed the application of the building finishes, however I did return to take a photo of the completed building about 8 months later. If this building were typical, which I believe it is, the walls were made of a lightweight hollow brick, plaster would be applied to the interior face and a decorative brick veneer to the exterior. The roof tiles are applied directly to the concrete roof deck.

Persian blinds are standard in Spain and are something I missed coming back to the States. They are so convenient and do a great job with light control. Notice the temporary brick wall on the first floor this will eventually be replaced with ground floor retail.

I lived for 9 months in Guadalajara, the capitol city of the province of Guadalajara, located about 37 miles ENE of Madrid.  Although some of the structures in the city date back to the 8th century most the city is relatively new, constructed in the last 60 years.  With the addition of the AVE (high speed train) stop in 2003 the city has seen an explosion of growth.

I lived in Guadalajara in the pre-AVE days on the 7th floor of the 10 story building in center of the photo below.  6 months after arriving I awoke on May 27th, 2000 to see that the small house directly across the street was being demolished.  I whipped out my camera and shot construction progress photos for the next 3 months.  The building is located on the  North East corner of Avenida de Castilla and Calle Alvargomez de Ciudad Real, one block West of Calle de Toledo.

Birdseye View of Finished Building in center of photo, via Live Maps on 5/21/09.

The following photos chronicle the construction of the structural shell of the building.  I have added my thoughts on the methods of construction that were the norm for my time in Spain.  I pulled these pictures from my photo album and the notes I made 9 years ago are unfortunately glued to the pictures.

The demolition began around 8am on May 27th, 2000. Piso is Spanish for floor, or apartment. These pictures were all taken from my bedroom window.

It was a shame to see all of this Spanish tile be destroyed like this. Authentic Spanish tile is something we pay high prices for in the United States.

Demolition goes quickly. I found it interesting that this demolished building was constructed with the same materials that the new building will be built with. This building would use solid bricks where the new building would be constructed with hollow lightweight brick units.

After about 6 hours of work, remember the two hour 'medio dia' or 'siesta' break, the house was gone including all of the foundation.

The lot stood for over a week in this state. The old building appears as a ghost like silhouette.

I knew the knew building was to be bigger than the original for a number of reasons. For one, the foundation excavations are much more significant, also, the footprint of the building consumes the entire lot, not a portion as the old structure did. Note on this side of the street the large concrete blocks placed in the street for the crane.

The crane was offloaded from the truck and erected on site. It will stay on site throughout the entire construction process. Rebar cages were placed in the excavations and the footings are poured in place. No form work was used.

All of the foundations are spread footings and grade beams. I found it interesting that they pouted the perimeter spread footings then excavated the grade beams and footings.

One week after the footings were poured they began to form the first floor columns. With every pour they conducted a slump test and poured concrete cylinders for strength testing. They always did the tests near the crane so I had a good view. Note that the first floor walls are already being laid. It's hard to see in this photo but the bricks are hollow. The mason never used a saw but simply used his trowel to chop the bricks to size.

Tomorrow I will post the photos of the remainder of the construction.

The Gherkin, old vs. new

Yesterday’s British press was rife with stories about the Prince and his architecture views, it was as if he had committed a great sin against humanity just by threatening to again express his views on architecture.  Yet, for Architects, the Prince really has committed an unforgivable crime.  In 1984, he was invited to present the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture to the Indian architect Charles Correa, instead of giving a simple toast and presenting Correa with his medal he lambasted the state of current British architecture.  All of this occurred at the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).  So, now with the news that the prince was again to speak at the RIBA, and the release to the media of portions of his speech, he has reignited the flames.  What the prince doesn’t realize is that Architects more than anything hate to be critiqued, especially by those not in the profession.  In Architecture “everyone is an expert”, and that’s one thing Architects can’t stand.

Is Prince Charles really a living Ellsworth Toohey?  Is his mission to stamp out the original, level the playing field, discourage innovation, risk taking and profit?  Does he believe in designing only for the public good and keeping the architecture profession in the glory days of porticoes and Georgian design?  His speeches, books, and Architecture Institute give that impression, but the results have been much different.

Since Charles’ speech 25 years ago Britain has become renowned for some of the most modern structures in the world and architects like Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Daniel Libeskind, and Frank Gehry have all left their mark on the British soil.  Iconic structures like the Gherkin, National Space Centre, Selfridges in Birmingham, the Lloyd’s Building,  and the Millenium Dome stand in resolute defiance to the Prince.

Selfridges in Birmingham

The actual speech made by the Prince last night didn’t live up to the hype.  There were no attacks on famous Architectural icons but rather he gave a conciliatory, softer toned encouragement to British architects to embrace harmony and nature instead of modernity and technology with a focus on the effects architecture has on climate change.  The result?  Most likely a truce for now.

What are we to make of a Prince who is, it seems, at war with Architectural modernity?  Architectural beauty, like all beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  Everyone will have their own interpretation of what is good and bad, and no one can tell another person what they should like.  The Prince is no different, and as long as he is not imposing a strict architectural style on the nation I think he has all the right in the world to call Architects out on what he sees is poor work.  I find the planning commission member and the city staff planner a much scarier and bigger hindrance to architectural creativity then Prince Charles.  However, the character Ellsworth Toohey never made any policy, never signed any laws, yet through the power of public opinion he had great sway over the architectural designs of his day.  That is where I would issue a warning to the Prince.  You can have your opinions, but remember that they are yours and there is a good change you are wrong; then again, there is a good chance the rest of us are wrong as well.