Design . Build . Learn . Repeat

Hurricane Gustav August 27, 2008

Posted by Vincent in Life.
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It developed a couple of days ago and now everyone’s talking about Hurricane Gustav! The storm is still in the Caribbean, where it has killed at least 22 people, but if it continues on its current course it could land pretty directly on New Orleans and/or the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a Category 3 or higher storm.

We should know by Saturday or Sunday whether we need to leave. Hands On has a fairly well-developed evacuation plan and if they evacuate I’ll go with them to a shelter near Jackson. Since Tropical Storm Fay barely affected us, this would be the first evacuation since I’ve been here, so we’ll see how it develops.

In other news, our team won Trivia Night last night at the Grocery! It was my first time playing and I don’t mind saying we did very well. Among the questions we got right:

Who was the first man to appear on the cover of Playboy?
What are rats unable to do, making them especially vulnerable to poison?
Which US state has the world’s largest naval base?

Answers: Peter Sellers, vomit, and of course, Virginia!

Looking back: A Blitz Build for Ruth August 21, 2008

Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.
Tags: 617 Roy
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Ruth has been a resident of East Biloxi all her life. Hurricane Katrina brought 8 feet of water into her home and shifted it off its foundation. Returning after the hurricane, Ruth stayed in the flooded home until she received a trailer from the First Presbyterian Church.

Over two years later, her house was finally ready to build. Through the collaboration of volunteer organizations including Hope Force, Hands On Gulf Coast, and the East Biloxi Coordination Center, the house was blitz-built in approximately one week. The new house is handicap-accessible and features two bedrooms, an open living and dining room, a modest kitchen and a small back porch. I drew the plans based on a design by Jason (Cora’s house), with minor modifications.

The blitz took place during the first week of April, 2008. I didn’t participate, since I was busy doing other work at Patty’s, but I got plenty of photos from Hope Force. Here’s a selection:

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Fans mob BBC’s Parry thinking he is Phelps August 19, 2008

Posted by Vincent in Entertainment, Random.
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This is great. Steve handles it really well. [BBC]

A House for Carmen August 18, 2008

Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.
Tags: 273 Magnolia
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Carmen’s house is a complex solution to a complex situation, and it’s been my primary house project over the past couple of months; new projects have been slow to come in, so I’ve had the opportunity to develop this one in detail, working in partnership with Jessie.

Carmen’s husband, Clarence, has been living on this property since the 1960s, and he seems to have been tirelessly at work during that time; at its pre-Katrina peak, the property accommodated a house at the front (since torn down), a second, two-story house (torn down to the concrete foundation visible below), a rear two-story guest cottage, and a large garage with a balcony on the roof (right).

These buildings were not only packed together but also interconnected. The photo below, taken from the opposite rear corner of the property, shows an upper-floor walkway linking the house, left, and the guest cottage, at right. The whole complex may have been a nightmare for the Planning Department, but I think it’s also a great example of design ingenuity and do-it-yourself spirit. Unfortunately, Carmen doesn’t have any pre-storm photographs to show what it looked like at its best (and wildest).

It shouldn’t have surprised me, given the complexity of the site, that getting approval to rebuild Carmen’s house wouldn’t be a straightforward process. The site plan went through extensive review by the Planning Department, and at various times it looked like we’d need to request a zoning variance from the Planning Commission or face other obstacles. However, we made a number of compromises that satisfied the city as to our desire to improve the condition of the lot: we demolished an offending shed and removed some surplus plumbing, for instance. Frustrating though this long process was, it was ultimately successful and certainly taught me a lot about the planning review process.

On to the design. Having failed to learn anything about the virtues of simplicity, Jessie and I developed a plan featuring the following:

Two stories, in keeping with what was there before; the first two-story house we’ve attempted.
A handicap-accessible first floor, including a decorative, zig-zagging entry ramp and stair.
A partially cantilevered second floor, maintaining the exterior walkway below.

A covered second-story porch.
A low-slope roof with a high ceiling and window above the entry and stair.

A partial open-riser interior stair (not quite as depicted) allowing a view through a rear window.
A compact corridor kitchen with a back door near the garage.

A framed opening between the kitchen and dining room.
A higher ceiling in the living room.

I’ve worked out most of the details, and it’s certainly much more complex than one of our standard houses. But in a way, nothing else would be fitting for this site and client. I’m hoping to get involved in the coordination and construction of this house, both to make sure it gets built right and to learn more about turning drawings into reality. Look forward to more updates about this one as it moves along.

What Is Going On August 15, 2008

Posted by Vincent in Life.
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Now that you are about to have read this, you will have been knowing what has or has not been going on!

The Olympics are great! As a long-time swimmer, in heart if not always in fact (I started swimming at around 6, did varsity in high school, and took a break in the first few years at UVA before getting into club swimming for about a year and a half), that’s the event that I’m mainly following. I don’t follow swimming much outside of the Olympics, except of course for that of my two younger brothers (at RIT and George Mason), but the Olympics always get me pumped up. And Michael Phelps and the rest of the American team are delivering an amazing performance.

Olympic Judo is also cool; it’s not televised, but NBC is doing a great thing by putting full videos of the competitions for most sports up on its website at www.nbcolympics.com. If your local cable company doesn’t have a deal with NBC, you might have to fudge your zip code and cable company.

Speaking of judo, my judo buddy and all-around good friend Will, who has been working with Hands On for the past couple of years, made the surprise announcement that he has accepted a job with the Coordination Center and will be staying in Biloxi for another half-year or so, rather than moving back home this weekend to Boston as planned. Great news! It’ll definitely keep me motivated for judo. Not only that, but Will will be moving into our house to replace my roommate Phil, who’s left for Oregon. The future of bad movie night and Scrabble is therefore assured.

While Will is staying, there are a number of people in the volunteer circle here who have left recently or will be leaving — Phil, Ian, Doug, Andy, Katharine, Chris, and more. I expect that the beginning of fall will bring a new wave of folks moving in, but for now it’s a little quiet around here.

Work is going well, although that’s another post. And the evenings and weekends always seem to produce some interesting events. I’d like to take some road trips, but money’s pretty tight, so that’s on hold until I get my long-lost-uncle-or-aunt-inheritance. I need to start swimming and lifting more — the Olympics are certainly motivating me for that.

Well, that’s more or less it. How’s everyone else’s summer going?