MIT's Building 20, the Plywood that Could

Here's a question: when designing facilities for research, what can we learn from a famous, "temporary" plywood building at MIT that wasn't really designed at all? Building 20's long and illustrious history of innovation contains much insight into how occupants and user culture shape space and vice versa.

Read about it here and here.

In Progress...NESAD Redesign for Contract II Studio

The four-hour rendering:

Reception Area -- hand rendering and Photoshop

In which I realize Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the Coolest Lady Alive...

The SCOTUS justice has this (or a variant thereof) hanging in her office:

Josef Albers "Homage to the Square"

Also there's that thing where she fought for equal protection for women under the law for most of her adult life and graduated first in her class from Columbia Law while raising small children. I don't think this woman could possibly be any more awesome. Leslie Knope and I are starting a fan club.

Post Offices on the Market

The NYT reports that these glorious examples of civic architecture are for sale or being considered for sale. Hopefully historic preservationists will be able to do their thing. These buildings could be amazing adaptive reuse projects.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/New York Times

Habitat '67 Apt Seen in Dwell

I die and die again over Moshe Safdie's Habitat '67, an amazing building in one of my favorite cities in the world. And these photos from Dwell, of a gorgeous mod-yet-warm residence there, are feeding this obsession.

Photo: Dwell Magazine

Please wake me when it's time to retire and move to Quebec.