Prost

If the Contrarian could begin anew, it would be advertising, not plastics...

WYSIWYG 2

If you wish the train to go in one direction, I think you can. If you wish the train to go in the opposite direction, I think you can also. Milne wrote..."I wanted to change my shirt, but I changed my mind instead..."

WYSIWYG

I remember the first architect I apprenticed with in California (Jim had stature in the profession) showing him some publication of probably a Richard Meier project and his reaction was one of complete disinterest, "It really does nothing for me..." Man, how could that be? Not long after he had me hunting down redwood gutters which even back then, they had discontinued milling. Now, he was neither religious to "The Seven Lamps of Architecture" or a luddite, but he was comfortable exploring his personal regional understanding of Architecture. This at the time when panels and glass were still breaking away from concrete, Johnson was proposing the furniture skyscraper and Grave's birthday cakes were being baked. How was Jim comfortable to know not to notice?

What has this to do with a Dove conscience promotion? Well, its another variation on perception and reality. I think the Dove piece is explaining the social over focus of personal beauty as self esteem and how it manipulates our own self being or worth. In my profession, communities over focus on architectural characteristics (or design review) become methods developers and architects manipulate the tone of community character. The problems lie in that the self esteem of architects and developers sell... well... sound better than their worth and the public receives "what you see is what you get"... Jim taught me that.

Move over Venturi

This remodel is one of the more intriguing solutions I have witnessed in a long while. I would bike by and never take much notice as the contractors worked on this modest suburban ranch home... Then they left. But again, I never noticed their exit as there seemed more work to finish. But I was wrong. Its stands as the picture shows, there is not even a deck on that wonderful space in between. As an architect I can tell you that to create a design such as our friend above is painfully difficult to fathom and that is precisely what makes this piece so frustratingly interesting.