PROTO-ARCHITECTURE

The last time I was in Denver I drove around and explored a lot of the new infill projects that have cropped up in the Five Points region of the city, just northeast of downtown.  The 24th Street Townhomes is a fine little project that at the corner of 24th Street and Glenarm Place, and from what I can tell, consists of eleven 3 story units arranged around a central parking court, with the back units overlooking a small green space. Read the rest of this entry →

On May 13th, the Rowlett Community Center played host to one of the most amazingly bizarre spectacles I’ve seen in my 12 years in architecture.  A developer, Community Retirement Center of Rowlett, LLP, has chosen a location in Rowlett, TX (a sleepy little bedroom community, just outside of Dallas) in which to locate a TDHCA tax credit senior living development.  Now, to be clear, this is not managed care or a nursing home, these are apartments that are intended to cater to low income seniors (55+ yrs old).  You cannot get into the development unless you are at least 55 (or as young as 45 if the spouse of a someone 55+).

The developer started out with an adequate, if graphically underwhelming powerpoint that explained the TDHCA tax credit process, how Rowlett was rated by that organization as a 5 out of 6 on an internal scale of ‘need’ for this sort of facility, and about the requirements of the residents.  The age restrictions are noted above, and if I remember correctly the income levels for the 16 low-income units were +/-$14,000 for a single person, +/-$19,000 per year for a couple. Read the rest of this entry →

I think there is a turning point for most college students when the clouds part and they fully start to realize how much their education has transformed their way of thinking.

For me, my moment came when I started seeing common threads between different disciplines.  Normally, one would think architecture has very little to do with poetry, or that philosophy has nothing in common with mathematics.  It was when the barriers between these dropped for me that my learning became really fun. Read the rest of this entry →