79

Como Espresso

Castellani Breakfast

 

SOMEBODY HAS TO DO THIS

NOTICE!  YOU HAVE A DEFICIENCY!

EUROPE 2014
We are not amateur travelers. But recently we have been renting apartments in lieu of hotels.  I have been to Paris about 20 times (a week at a time).  We carry a small amount of gear as we know some places don't accommodate such in the kitchen.  But there are some basics that are required for us travelers. We need a table (with lighting) to do our daily planning. The coffee maker will always be a different kind, sometimes not even an espresso maker. The following notes are merely to give you what we call “Feed-back” to help the next traveler, we hope.
FIRENZI- This kitchen was really surreal, One plug for all, had to keep the coffee pot in hall on a chair. Largest cabinet had most utensils stored in it, but you had to access them by lifting up top, ergo, nothing can be stored on the counter. We did take out the flatware & leave it on next little counter. Had micro-wave but it was 4" short of the plug. But a wonderful outdoor deck was way down the hall at other end of unit. (We dried laundry out there on a portable rack.) There were no screens for the mosquitos on doors (probably a Europe thing).  but really swell windows had shutters, insulation, inside shutter + a pull down screen.  Sink had dry rack above but behind doors. Lighting? One small bulb on ceiling, one on stove didn't work. There was only one bath for us five but the lock was broken.
 GARDA – Very Moderne house. Kitchen: Didn’t have much light. Great DeLonghi Espresso maker.!  Dishes kept in Living Room, we cleared a shelf above work area for glasses & cups , at least. Good DW & oven . we used DW to dry dishes from sink. Had a bar thingie with shelves under, at least. Dining room table  handily located.  Frig was  over by the stairs, faced in wrong direction & door but they had it turned so the back wouldn’t show at stair. Jeez!  Not much enough plugs , had to keep rotating them for appliances (all 3). Wi-Fi went out but owner did fix it in a few hours. Fantastic swimming pool next to the beach.
  LYON – Lets not even discuss the fact that the apartment was on the 4th floor, when we had asked for ground floor units. (One 85 year old, one woman with sprained ankle, one with recent operation on ankle) . Lamp out @ hood stove.  Closets are in Living Room, not very handy.  No bidet! What?  But I thought we were in France!  Flush light @ fireplace ceiling  is  out.   Glass table – legs! Glass table legs are a menace. First off, our person with sprained ankle stubbed her toe on it. Poor choice!  Kitchen wall  light needs baffle, I had to tape up a paper one .  Fix drywall hole  @ hall heater.  Entry lock fix is a mess. Looks like someone was breaking in.  Change small tank Water heater for an on-demand unit. Much more efficient & unlimited hot water.   Mark the light switches , I usually put yellow stickys on all of them..
  PARIS --  Fix THE coffee pot! This same pot was broken since last year. Useable but hard to do and just a drip maker. Mark light switches. (See above).  Sconce @ ext. wall out? Worked once.  How to turn on cooktop light? & fan?  How to Open Micro Oven? Very hard & dangerous for my old hands .!  Fix patio table, edges have broken off, Pretty tacky.   Upper bath faucet loose. Show drain plugged with hair, had to clean it out, ugh.  I believe the wicker chair leg still has a nail scratching the 100 year old wood flooring from last year.   Kitchen faucet loose, needs both hands to work.
LOCAL DEFICIENCIES
SEATTLE         
First off, give us a map of the drop off/office   + map of parking access + plan of towers. We couldn't even  find the concierge first off. When he  gave us keys, he didn't say the lock to the tower lobby was the chip, blue, that you just pass over sensor. Isn't with the unit key. Parking was  confused as we didn't know where to park for the NW tower. Lots of  one way streets in Seattle. stop, unload at office first? From garage take the tenant elevator, not public one. etc.  some vertical blinds are broken. Dining table is too high by about 2”.  Deck door needs new rollers, Herculian task to operate. Toilet paper, move to front of cabinet where one could reach it. Toaster is broken on right side

PORTLANDIA
How about a few clothes hangers?  6 would be fine for 5 people.  BR lamp switch off or not working,  Kitchen microwave hood light nonfunctional .  Blinds too heavy to operate. No chair on deck.   Disposal is missing rubber baffles. toilet seat is loose. Location of toilet paper holder is very hard to use. How about on wall next to door in front of toilet?
Dining table is too high, 36", high chairs same.24" Use normal heights for both and get a new “Decorator”.And by the way, a carpet under a dining table is a nuisance.
GOOD POINTS  -  The wood & steel LR tables of rough wood are great design.


My VACATION  this year was based on four items;(1). Visit my son, Zaidi, a builder in Eugene, (2) Visit the scene of the crime; my Alma Mater, The University of Washington in Seattle, where I graduated from Architectural School 65 years ago. I wanted to verify that they had received two of my publications;; 'HILLSIDE HOMES & THE EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT;'. I had never been able to get thru to a person or on a website to verify this.(3)Visit Western Wood Structures, who will be fabricating a 72'  dome for a project of mine  in Wisconsin, (ISHA or The Institute for the development of Human Awareness).(4) I forgot.
My four books


WESTERN WOOD STRUCTURES
  Meeting the owner, Steve, and the structural Engineer Paul for the first time as we have been conversing for over a year by e-mail, I toured their facility which was pretty impressive as they have erected some very incredible works such as the 500' diameter Tacoma Dome, the recently finished Cathedral in Oakland and other projects around the world (China, etc.). Once they get a job , they source out the materials; Timber & Glu-Lam beams from various fabricators, Steel suppliers who make up the very complex connectors for the domes & such, then cut, drill all members using some unusual equipment, such as a drill press that drills beams from two side at once, assuring a straight bolt hole. Large bandsaw that is on wheels in order to move around really big members too large to move around.  Plus a heavy duty forklift that picks up material from the side (the first I've seen) in order to move long timbers around. Once all is cut, drilled it all gets trucked to the site along with a Foreman & crew to assemble the structure.  Their VARAX Dome stands for Variable Angle . This dome is structurally made of moment  frames instead of axial connections like a Fuller Dome, thereby making it much stronger when loaded un-symmetrically (like snow or wind).  I was assured that while there are 12 sides to the base, only 6 sides need to be shear panels, and an occasional  double door in these would be no problem.     Once  Paul has done the structural calculations, the fabrication should take about 8 weeks, then allow a week for truck delivery to Wisconsin.

Similar Dome

 

78

                   

FACTORY ON THE ROAD

 FARM HOUSING - FABRICASA                 

MOBILE FACTORY

Years go by while everyone talks about what to do about hoUsing farm workers.  It's been about 25 yeas since I designed a portable manufacturing plant for farm housing for the State of California and noticed that it was immediately shelved as soon as we finished the project. The concept was that a minimum of 25 units would be produced whenever the plant was set up. These would all be of the same design and size, some for small families, and some for dormitories for men and women.  It would seem that these units would be financed by the Growers. I don't think anyone went any further into just how they would actually be financed, as no grower would be able to handle such a large amount . Also, each grower might only need two or three units for his operation. The big problem is the seasonal workers, who  come in to harvest the grapes for a few weeks. What do you do with these units for the rest of the year? Naturally there is a need for a few family units as the foremen and a few all year round workers need a place to stay. Now they could rent these for a reduced rate that would be commensurate with their income.

  I won the contract to design the factory due to my previous experience of designing about three modular manufacturing plants in California, the initial one being with Ford Motor Co., being involved with them during their brief sojourn into manufactured housing. My mobile plant took inspiration from observing circus workers cleverly packing of their various rides on truck trailers. My plant was based on about four trailers that unfolded into the various aspects of the plant line, jigs and such. Everything was set up in a large tent (Big Top!) and various components and materials would feed into the main assembly line from the sides. These would be sourced from local suppliers and tradesmen.  When operational, output would easily be one finished unit per day.

LOVE LOCKS   

Built in 1804, this most beautiful bridge of Paris has fallen into the deadly hands of Lovers’ Cadenas d’amour (locks of love).  It all began by some idiot American tourist who was so removed from love, she clamped a lock to the baluster in order to keep her super idiot boyfriend happy. The mob still riles. Note the proliferation of "Love Locks”  in various spots of Paris. But probably will infect the entire world. The human cattle & sheep swarmed over it until the

Behavior of Stupidity loaded the bridge with so many locks that it was in danger of collapsing. Do the math. There were 800 locks per lineal meter, adding about 300 kilos per meter or 205,207 pounds total to the bridge. It was designed for pedestrians (Artists & lovers). Now the Paris authorities are having to remove them all which is no easy task, they will probably have to install new guardrails (Make them spiked, with razor wire if you asked me!). Last time I visited the supposed site in Verona of Romeoa and Juliets’ balcony, it too, was clothed in steel locks.

MINI-HOUSING                                         

MY MINI HOUSING IN COTATI, 1975

the media is making noise again about how the mini house will save the day and eliminate the homeless folks. They even went so far as to show a rendering of several such tiny house on a large lot on a nice flat area. Someone doesn't understand the process of any kind of housing as the site cost and lot can be even more than the cost of the little house.  Think about it, a tiny house for one person will pay the same amount for the sewer hook-ups and rates as a large family in a large house. The same thing goes for the rest of the utilities to a lesser degree (Power, Water, Gas, Cable, etc). Someone better add in the costs of the streets, storm drains, sidewalks, etc. as you don't think the authorities will be able to just put in dirt roads do you?

Maybe we should approach the problem from a different direction, like from the earning capacity of an individual.  Lets see how far $15 an hour gets us. 15x 10 hrs  = $150 a day x 6 days  = $900 A WEEK X 4 weeks=$3600 12 months= $43,200 A YEAR.  That would be OK if no taxes were taken out & no Health But then, you won’t be able to deduct anything from ins. and  Day Care was free.      Consider 1/3rd of that for rent =  $14000/12/3= $1200/mo. for rent is possible.

So what is the official poverty level these4 days? Last time I looked, it was about $10,000 a year, and that seemed fair to me.

But if both parents work, that puts them in a category where they have to have deductions taken out of both earners as they would be out of the Poverty Level Syndrome. . Can the State or Feds pay for operating Day Care centers in order to allow the parents to work?  What is the threshold where a person is called “Poverty” and doesn’t pay deductions? Is it against the law to allow our kids to work , like mow your lawn?

. However, $40,000 is what I gross as an Architect, after four years of college plus four years of apprenticeship plus a zillion years of expertise in the field. I’ve noticed that the Mexican laborers here in Graton are getting $15 an hour, so that means all other wage earners will have to get an additional $5 on top of their earnings. I know Day Care sounds like a Socialist scheme but lets’ face it, we are there already. The Federal & State l Government owns 80% of the West and is still buying up land for parks and such. If we had a Day Care  the kids parents could work and actually pay enough for rent.

     

77

                          

REMINESCING;  A CRUISE ON THE CANAL D’EST 2008

Swing Bridge, manual

Met our friends the Dodsons, who picked us up in a Hertz car, Bill drove out of Paris (An insane thing to do!) To a small town, Bains-le-Baines, a couple of hundred kilometers away  to prep for our week long boat cruise on the Canal d’Est:

On the way , we stopped off To check out Corbu’s iconic chapel,  at Ronchamp, built after the original church was destroyed during WW2.  I could never reconcile Corbu’s change of style but it seemed to be well wrought. There was a Sunday service going on so we went in and pretended to be Catholics for a few minutes. More surprisingly, a small school that was attached to it was really interesting;  rough concrete, sod roof and a few bright painted surfaces around. I don’t remember ever seeing any photos of it.

Notice the scale!

PHOTO OF BELFORT LION    

After that, we stopped at Belfort to see the giant stone sculpture by the artist, Bertoldi, who designed and built the Statue of Liberty. A couple of years later, we saw his fountain in Lyon depicting Madame France (Bare breasts, of course) reining in four  horses, representing the great rivers of France.

  We stayed overnight at the Hotel de la Poste,  Next day Bill & I went foraging for supplies for a our upcoming  week on the boat. Contrary to all rumors about Europe, we found the biggest super market we’ve ever been in. It even took us a while to figure out how to get in the damn place. There was nothing more we could have desired, even large selections of sliced bacons. We then returned the car to Hertz, got a taxi back to the boat to unload our stash.  We set off for our adventure (Our fourth) down the canal on our $100,000  42' cruiser, three staterooms and a bow thruster, (this little gismo makes boat handling really simple).

Fromagerie near canal

 Joy is a genius at scheduling, she had all our lunch & evening stops already planned. The canal maps we get are extremely well documented, showing where boulangeries, wine shops, etc. are located. Even notes what day the town markets take place. When we got to the end of our trip a week later, we met  Emma, CEO of the company (Hotels Afloat) we deal with to rent the boats. She’s a Brit expatriate  we have been dealing with for several years. She brought over a bottle of wine and we learned a lot about the French method of taxation and deprivation of small companies. She and Joy worked out a deal for Joy to make up schedules for various canals that boat renters could buy from her.  These boats cost about 180 Euros per couple per day, about the same as a hotel room, but you have to drive them.

THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A VOTERS’ GUIDE

 

I give thanks to  AMERICA , USA  (Researched thanks to Jon Stewarts’ ‘America’)

There’s a lot of noise regarding the next election in about a year, so let’s take a look at our mysterious Political System;

The House has two chambers, called  Congress   (Bi-cameral, which means two rooms)

House of Representatives    

   “Lower House” (The Rif-Raf)   Based on population , I think about one rep per 30,000 citizens,(Does this mean voters or plan citizens? men, women, kids, blacks)  Re-elected usually every two years.

Senate  or  Upper House  , two reps per State,  get re-elected every  six years.

Since the Lobbyists actually run this country, let’s see where the money comes from.

Lobbyists   $$ in 2004 (In millions)

Greenpeace              2 (These are the Tree Huggers)

NRA guns                   4  (This must be a phoney figure)

NAACP                      ? (I don’t know why we can’t find out this )

Labor Unions             90 !

Merck/Lilly                  26 !! (This is the Drug Cartel)

Christians                   ? ( May be irrelevant as all Republicans are rabid Christians)

Planned Parents       2.6 (Is this for or against abortion?)

Hollywood                  37 (We just think these celebrities are so wise & beautiful)

AARP                         102 ! (Let’s go, old folks!)

Legal ABA                 112 !! Wow!

ELECTORIAL COLLEGE Does anyone really understand how this works?  I keep trying to make sense of it, but just don’t get it.

435 reps? Based on population? Plus   100 for Senators?  For instance, California has about 55 Electorial College people. Who are they? Who picks them?  Sometimes they elect a Prez over the Popular Voters. (Like Busch?). It has happened a few times. If you have a even small idea of how this works, please let me know.

     So, unless you’ve got a million or so to buy your favorite Politian, you might as well vote just for the fun of it so we can say we are governed by a Republic.

VIDEO ALERT

The Ugly American with Marlin Brando.

About America’s medling in unstable countries. Kind of a Pre-Iraq story.

BOOK REPORT

Troilus & Cressida by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Since it was written in the 1380’s it needed translated to our current English. I’m re-visiting Chaucer since High School and am enjoying him immensely.  Shake sphere probably got the story of Romeo & Juliet from this and Chaucer had gotten it from someone previous to him. It’s the old story of a young couple of Troy who were desperately in love, the ultimate betrayal and all that. This was probably about the first great English novel (in kind of poem form) it is a joy to find  phrases that Chaucer invented that are common usage today, as well as his use of talking about himself (The author) during some chapters.

GREEK GODS & HEROES

The Graton Post Office is kind of a library as we all use it for a book exchange. Joy & I were married in Greece (See my essay” Getting married the hard way”) and have trod the very stones that Socrates & Plato trod.  Therefore I picked up a small tome describing all the Greek Gods and brushed up on my crazy story syndrome. Who thunk this stuff up? These Gods where a bunch of rollicking, adultery minded group, always sloshed on wine and killing and lusting around.  My first daughter was named after Io, supposedly the mother of most of the rest of that crew.  But what was most fun, was finding stories that were the basis for many of the Christian bible stories (Old & New). The difference may be the early Greeks & Romans didn’t really believe all that stuff.  The old Gods didn’t have to perform miracles, as they could change you into a cow or anything for fun.

76

                                           

GOODBYE, CRUEL WORLD.-  or – THERE IS LIFE AFTER FACEBOOK

I don’t know how I got sucked into Facebook in the first place, but Joy is assisting me to extricate myself out of this mess. I don’t have time or the interest  to know what everyone is doing!  However, I will stay in touch with the cyber-world via e-Mail. No, I do not Text either!  I have let go of FAXing, unless my scanner is down.

LES HALLES                                               

 Or better known as ”Le Catastrophe!”. An area in central Paris where all fresh food was handled that consisted of several huge, steel structures that were built in early 1800’s. How such a great project was built in the first place is a miracle in itself, but the destruction of it in the 1970.s is even a greater enigma.   Understandably, by the early 1900’s it was too much activity to contain it so it was moved to another outer place in Paris. The food scene was taken care of elsewhere but then the Parisians didn’t know what to do with these huge Le  Halles. So they demolished them. But not before an American businessman was able to buy one and have it moved to another area in Paris.  Now, as everyone looks back, they concur that  “Golley, these would make really cool market area for all kinds of shops, etc.” I would like to see some of the controversy, pros and cons, regarding the destruction of them. This is a good lesson for all of us. But let’s not get hung up on saving structures that are only old, but not great. 

YOU’VE HEARD OF THE SANDANISTAS?

AUGUSTO SANDINO  1895-1934  Now here was a real revolutionary kind of guy. He declared war on the United States when his army probably consisted of no more than about 600 malcontents. To Castro, Che, and other later leaders, he was a real role model.  He led a rebellion in Nicaragua against the U.S occupation  until 1933, when General Samoza  seized power in a coup d’etat.  Samoza killed Sandino then  ruled as a dictatorship for 40 years, with the help of the United States (Why do we always do that?).  Sandino is still a national hero in Nicaragua. I guess the U.S. doesn’t really think of him in that light. The Sandinistas (FSLN) overthrew the Samoza regime in 1979. Other South American rebels still use the term “Sandinista”.

 

TIME FOR FUN                               

   In my early days of architecting in California, I frequented the first Coffeehouse in the West, Portofino in Malibu. This was in  the ‘60’s and a coffeehouse was a far cry from Starbucks as it was a funky building where the customers generally provided the entertainment . Poetry, (Ginsburg was there), reading of  plays by the  Avant Guarde & Shakespeare, etc. Then, as I have done for all my professional days, I traded part of my fee for food & drink. The owners wanted to add an outdoor area with a stage and some protection from the elements. I came up with a tensile structure that was efficient, minimal and inexpensive. It was never built and I have lost the drawings.

  Although I’ve renovated several small auditoriums (The Cinnabar Theatre being one, Polly Klass Theater also) only recently have I had the opportunity to design a major auditorium , and this one for several thousand people.  Instead of doing the project for food & Drink, I am trading for a few points in a future lifetime. (This is taking the long view).

Anyway, the program is fairly involved as the first phase will be designed  for about a thousand seats, while a second phase will add another 1500 seats, and with an ultimate build-out of about 7000 seats, the later to be on sloped lawns with a canvas cover to ward off the rain and sun of the Wisconsin summers.   I began with a floor plan of a 90 degree angle with the apex at the speakers small platform, but soon realized that expanding the arc to 120 degrees we could add another one fourth of audience (Several thousand). Of course, the problem becomes that some people will be 250 to 300 feet from the speaker, (That’s the length of a football field) so Auditory and Visual augmentation will have to be installed every 50 feet or so. I built a crude model as the roof was getting a little complex You will notice the red roof is the roof of the building, while the tent structures are the tan color. 

There are other smaller aspects of this project (for ISHA, The Institute for Human Awareness),  and one is a small domed structure for about 400 seat auditorium. I initially began with a Lamella type structure but it developed into a modified Fuller Type of roof, using wood timbers and steel connectors . This dome will be fabricated in Portland, Oregon, and delivered to our site in central Wisconsin for final assembly.  This dome project is about a million dollar project, while the cost of the  large auditorium will be around  three million dollars, built in stages.  Currently, I’m looking at various roof framing systems (Steel, Glu-Lam, etc.) I’m using fold-up walls for moveable walls similar to airplane hanger doors due to 40 foot spans..

Of course, there are other aspects of such a project that we have to consider such as: Dining Halls & kitchen, toilet pavilions, parking and maybe some housing.

        Thus endeth todays’ talk on Architecture.