The first proper solution architecture project I worked on ended badly. Not catastrophically the software shipped, the client accepted the deliverable, nobody got fired. But six months later, the system couldn’t handle the load it was actually receiving, the database architecture had locked us into decisions that cost six figures to reverse, and the team … Read more
I have not purchased floor cleaner in about three years after doing some rough calculations. On how much money I had been spending, about $8 per bottle that needs replacement every few weeks. When all it is mostly is water. A basic DIY floor cleaning solution is inexpensive to make if one knows the ratio. … Read more
The fire pit I constructed on a Saturday afternoon from $180 of supplies. And without any knowledge of masonry has survived four winters of freeze-thaw weathering unharmed, without cracking a single stone. This is precisely why this project is appealing. This is one of the few landscaping improvements that is inexpensive, quick, and that does … Read more
A friend of mine repainted her living room sage green two summers ago, added blush pink cushions a month later. And hated the result within a week. It looked like a nursery, she said. Six months after that, she tried again same two colors, completely different room. That gap between attempt one and attempt two … Read more
Type “landscape architect near me” into Google and you’ll get a wall of directory listings. Star ratings, and firms that all claim to be award-winning. None of that tells you who’s actually qualified to design your project. Or whether you even need a landscape architect instead of a landscape designer a distinction most homeowners have … Read more
Walk into most architecture firms and there’s a name partner whose taste, whose ego a little, shapes the whole office. Not TAC. The Architects Collaborative got founded in Cambridge in 1945 by Walter Gropius and seven architects barely out of Harvard, and they ran the place with no single principal in charge. Decisions moved through … Read more
How do you add a convention center the size of a small stadium to a city without bulldozing a neighborhood? Seattle just answered that question. LMN Architects, the Seattle convention center architect behind the Summit Building. Stacked the whole program vertically instead of spreading it across a parking lot. And the result gets called the … Read more
A door seems like the last thing worth overthinking during a renovation. Until you’re standing in a hardware store aisle facing forty options with no idea what actually separates them. I learned this the hard way replacing a front door that looked great in photos. And swelled shut every humid August afterward. Material is just … Read more
Ten golfers, ask them why they love a course, and maybe one mentions the architect by name. That’s a shame, honestly. Architects’ golf course design is the actual reason a hole feels fair, or brutal or genuinely brilliant. The routing. The bunkering. How a green complex punishes a lazy approach shot but rewards a precise … Read more
I found a nest under my back porch eave two summers ago, about the size of a grapefruit. And my first instinct was to march right up and spray it mid-afternoon. Bad idea. Got chased halfway across the yard for my trouble. Turns out timing and distance matter almost as much as the spray itself. … Read more