Architecture and Society

I remember something that one of my favorite college professors said during my very first class. The teacher was Larry Speck – didn’t know who he was at the time but is definitely someone I am glad was part of my formative architectural years. He taught a class titled “Architecture and Society” and he told us that he chose this name because the “and society” part gave him free reign to talk about whatever he wanted.

My site, Life of an Architect, was intentionally titled along those same lines – despite any evidence that I have or have not strayed too far from the architect part. Today’s post is a little more on the life side of who I am, what I do day to day, and how it makes me feel. Usually I am pretty upbeat but like all people, I have my moments of being cranky and I try to remember what my wife has told me on several occasions (usually when I am ripping on someone for being an “idiot). She tells me that everyone is entitled to a bad day and all people  should be allowed to recover from their mistakes. She is a genius and far greater than I deserve because I truly do believe I am a better person for knowing her and for being her husband.

I am not  sure how this week is going to go for me – I am a little excited and a little nervous. On Monday, I have a fire chief coming into the office for a visit/ interview. The firm I work for mostly does residential projects but we started doing fire stations about 4 years ago and but only decided to actively pursue them a little more than a year ago, right when the economy was really starting to suck – hard. We haven’t received any new commissions and there have been few opportunities to even submit our qualifications to cities for consideration. The work just hasn’t been there for the new kids on the block. I met the chief coming in during a conference a few months and this is a big deal to us – particularly me since I am trying to become the firms rainmaker. I got my fingers crossed that this will eventually lead somewhere.

My mother-in-law is coming to town on Tuesday (I think it’s Tuesday…MICHELLE!!!) She’s awesome and my daughter will love getting to spend time with Grandma. The reason she is coming in to visit is because Michelle and I are flying out to San Francisco on Thursday morning to help celebrate my brother-in-law’s 50th birthday. He is a huge wine aficionado and he has put together two days of super-insider vineyard tours and tastings. He has been buying wine (the good stuff, not the box stuff you mix with fruit) for years in $$ quantities that people who sell wine like to have come visit – and bring along 12 of their closest wine drinking buddies. My brother-on-law is a real interesting guy, I like him quite a bit. He is a know-it-all in the truest sense of the word; but because he actually does know-it-all, I enjoy talking to him. Going with him on this trip – to his world – is going to be really awesome. He sent me a list of some of the places we are going, which include:

• Peter Michael
• Seven Stones
• Larkmead
• Outpost
• Hartwell
• Alpha Omega
• Pride

And if going this this ‘A’ list of vineyards is already a scoreboard moment, the birthday dinner will be at ‘Press’ in St. Helena.

Needless to say, I will need to do some recon work so I can at least pretend to participate and appreciate what’s happening while I’m still in the moment. I should also thank my sister because without  her general awesomeness, this trip would not have been entirely possible for Michelle and I.

On Friday, I have the preliminary judging of the entries for the Dallas Chapter AIA, Young Architects Forum CASA Parade of Playhouses design competition. I am not going to be available for the initial review since I will be in Napa Valley getting snockered. This is an important event for me because I care about the cause and I genuinely care for the success of the people who have dedicated their lives to helping these children. As a result, I am going to have to do some juggling to make my presence known during this initial design review phase. I will see about putting together a post one day of the entries, it should be a lot of fun.

Mixed in between all these scheduled activities are all the unscheduled activities that are so routine they are basically scheduled – thing like driving and picking my daughter up from school, bath nights, taking out the trash, stuff that everyone has to do. Packing will have to figure in at some point – oh, and I need to read my Robert Parker books on wine and these vineyards.

Finally, since I have gone to primarily writing my posts for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I will need to pre-write Friday and next Monday’s post prior to leaving – either that or commit to writing from the road. Not sure that I want to be dragging my computer around looking for WiFi connections. I was thinking about getting  a friend of mine to write  a post but not sure how much time he has to commit. He runs a really interesting business here in town – Snappy Salads. It’s a great concept, his execution is to be admired and he was on-board with the whole earth friendly, small carbon footprint – potato flake utensils before anyone. I am going to be pestering him the next few days, fingers crossed.

That’s how my week is planned so far, I bet I make it at least until later today before something goes wrong.

Cheers.

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