In Which I Attempt to Conquer PODIUM...

I took a timeout last Friday with a friend from school to sit down and try to master Podium, the rendering engine for SketchUp (well, one of several).

I have a masters in Engineering Physics and worked for 12 years as an optical engineer. And...I'm finding that only marginally helpful. I guess what makes these software programs tricky is the 7 to 15 minute rendering time each time you tweak a light or a setting means that overall progress towards optimizing your rendering is rather slow. But the results are starting to be pretty amazing. For comparison, see the SketchUp/Photoshop versions from this post.

I'm still working on a couple of these. I blatantly cheated at getting more light into the second perspective by making the ceiling transparent, which makes the shadows not rigorously correct, for example. And I'd like to increase the brightness and contrast in the entrance perspective (which may just be a Photoshop job).

Anyway, for this former Optical Engineer, one thing is certain: Messing with light rendering engines is pretty addictive and it was hard to pull myself away to work on other things! I could easily do this all day. It's a really fun fusion of my former and future careers.

Furniture and Detailing Studio

This semester I am taking Furniture and Detailing Studio with the excellent Debra Folz.

Here's some drawings!

Retail Project

Some perspectives from my couture space for (hypothetically) designer Roland Mouret:

Amazing Folded Paper Art by Polly Verity

Here.

Design for Department of Workforce Development "Rework" Office

Phillips DayWave Suspended LED

So beautiful. Here.

Entryway with Office Built-In

Paper Countertops On Apt Therapy

Cool! My comment on our Richlite countertops is in a little comment summary in Apt Therapy's countertop guide.

I do continue to love the stuff. I hate setting glassware down on stone and prefer the warmer, softer feel of the paper. But it is definitely not for fussy people. You have to be someone who can live with a surface that picks up a patina over time. I find it very visually calming, also. No glare, no crazy granite speckle.

Edge Lighting Scope LED

I am completely obsessed by these Scope LED track heads by Edge Lighting. They have an adjustable beam angle, so they can be used for accenting objects or washing a wall, or flooding a space. Three finishes available. 9.3W power usage, but equivalent to a 42W or 30W halogen, depending on the beam angle. 

FLOR is coming to Boston

Yes! We'll soon be able to buy sustainably manufactured and super cool FLOR carpet tiles in Boston, on Clarendon Street. I have this stuff playing various roles in 5 rooms of our house, plus the stairs. You could say I'm a fan. Plus, they are a great company and have pledged to get their environmental effect to net zero by 2020.

"Sidewalk Science" from Slate

"Piano Stairs" in Nanjing, China -- Yeah, I think these might violate US building codes

Slate has a great four part series about walking. Part two is especially fascinating and relevant to interior design and urban planning. There is discussion of individual and group dynamics on sidewalks, stairs, and escalators, and several related books are mentioned, including John Templer's The Staircase.

Lyonel Feininger at the Harvard Art Museum

Untitled (Night View of Trees and Streetlamp, Burgkühnauer Allee, Dessau), 1928, Lyonel Feininger

I will be checking out this show of his photos, for sure! Runs until June 2nd at the Sackler Museum.