Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Leads

Home show is paying early dividends from meeting new people, getting my name out there, and a great vibe. Launching my website, again, new facebook fan page, that will announce when I land projects, etc. I want to get these things started now so that there is a track record, showing how I have grown as an architect, businessman, etc. Linked in connections are getting bigger and better. Next is getting my BNI chapter to grow to get more leads. More pix to come for the website, blog, and portfolio.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Website Relaunch

Exciting news! hand-architect is relaunched! Uniting all of my web based content with facebook, blogger, linked-in, and hand-architect. Once all of these are connected and at the same level, it should be more of maintenance, not creating so much text and unifying the styles. I am aggressive about this web presence and sure that it will return on the investment quickly and have enduring use.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Home Show Follow Up

I had a chance meeting with a potential employer at the Home Show. This was a great chance to network and feel out how they see the market and growth in the future. Heard many positives from them and was also surprised at the small number of architects in attendance. Plenty of good leads coming. More to come.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Home show Update

Today was an unexpected pleasure, the Valley Forge Home Show. Similar to the Lancaster show from a month or so ago, I met with many builders and have some great contacts for future work. I can't stress enough how important networking is and having a successful business is just getting out to press the flesh. I hope to report back soon about work that has been shaken free!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Weekend Update

A nice drive to the Baltimore area renewed my enthusiasm for the Chester County farmhouse as I drove from central to southwestern Chesco. The land undulates and is dotted with great examples of farmhouses and barns.

I am still working on getting out and meeting more builders and potential clients. My only beef is the lack of communication from the AIA to regional architects about events. The last two home shows in King of Prussia have been totally under the radar and unpublished. Nonetheless, I will attend tomorrow and hope for the best.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Township Approval

Reviewing pix of the Upper Uwchlan buildings on the historic register or are over 100 years old, one revelation happened to many in the audience of the Village Concept Committee, Porches are great on houses! I have been preaching this for years, I hope that this enthusiasm for porches continues when we move forward with more concepts and builders in the years to come. I certainly hope that many of the other virtues of vernacular architecture are understood and appreciated to create a dynamic and vibrant village!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Buildings talk to me!

I hope that most architects can hear the words of buildings around them. Yesterday, while driving in some nice spring weather, with the kids yelling in the backseats and my wife trying to quiet them, I thought, "at least buildings don't talk." But that statement is false. Buildings talk, their volume can be loud and quiet, interesting discussions or boring, etc. Nonetheless, this is a way in which architecture is like music, physically, perceived by our senses, even before we begin to digest it or comprehend the art of the building. Sometimes the sarcasm that occurs makes you think about an everyday occurrence in a different manner. Don't stop looking for parallels in other facets of daily life.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Exton Region Chamber of Commerce

Met with and had lunch at the Exton Chamber and are now a member and linked on facebook, LinkedIn, and have a profile on the ercc.net website. Just great to meet new people and chat.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Outpost Transmission!

Word from a builder that my mother uses in McKean/Potter County needs some work. It is work! Remote, but who cares. Beautiful country and green. With the Marcellus shale gas extrusion occurring, maybe some more money might make it into the poorest region of Pennsylvania.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Multiplicity

People, technology, and architecture are becoming more multi-faceted in their uses and abilities. Small technological devices have more and more uses under one umbrella. The iPhone and the like have the ability to surf the web, play music, call people, take pictures, send and receive email, schedule events, play games, the list goes on and on. People have become more flexible and multifaceted due to the increase of technology and openness in the world. People are parents, coaches, spouses, and the like, but what made me think about how people are trying to expand their world view is the word I heard, "hetero-flexible." A last wall of formality that we have as sexual beings has been challenged to be operating in another dimension. These two previous examples of people and technology must be applied to architecture to ensure that buildings are less formal and do more with the space we occupy on this planet. Smaller homes, being more utilitarian, but flexible to adapt to the uses of everyday life with aberrations along the way. This is not to say that being overly wishy-washy is the way to go either. Most of us have a lifestyle of home, but occasionally the need of the home to be something else occurs. We should not plan only for the formal needs, but have a certain amount of ambiguity built into each space.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Music and Architecture

This relates a bit to my article about architecture and music. Recently, I had another mini-epiphany, music is like architecture in that it can surround us. Thinking of each art form as only the way in which we perceive the world through our five senses. Music can be heard, architecture can be seen. Both can be felt, through the beats of drums or the shrill of a piccolo, similarly to the texture of glass or stone. We can ignore each similarly because we are inundated with both at times and they overwhelm our sense of hearing or vision. The clarity or fidelity is ruined in the jumble of mixed messages at a loud night club or a busy suburban strip mall, or even downtown where all of our senses are abused. As an art form the two can have similar rhythms, proportions, and scales, but before we as humans learn to appreciate these tones or masses by educated listening or looking, we hear or see with an untrained sensory system that functions by instinct.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Comfort Zone

I have the opportunity to work on a project a bit out of my comfort zone. I am excited at the possibility to grow myself as an architect and meeting new people that are working on great projects and looking for young talent. More to come as the project gets the green light and terms are agreed.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Eagle growth

After meeting the township Village concept committee, I think I have a kernel of what we can focus the spirit of the village to represent. I would like to focus on the positives of American and/or green merchants and professions. This can be a counter point to the excesses of the areas surrounding us with only chains of restaurants and stores that are everywhere on the American sprawl-burban landscape. This is a concept that I would like to explore further and discuss it with other members of the boards. If we can focus on this message, then we would have a market that would become a great resource.

Monday, March 8, 2010

House Link

This is an interesting proposition and I think there might be a chance to follow this lead and work towards modular/modern wrapped in a traditional form and details.
www.builderconcepthome2010.com
Yes, you can win the house, so might be a good opportunity, but there are concepts here to explore.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunshine

Today, being busy now makes me realize that you must make hay while the sun shines! Using any available time to further your network and grow your business with content. So, here is to more work!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Well, I have new cards and a new website is in the works! But I have also been chasing my tail with clients, networking, trade shows, and of course, more snow! I regret not being diligent the last week about the blog, it is critical to show progress and highlight each day with events. Over the weekend I did attend a trade show in Lancaster that led to a possible project in the city of Lancaster and a chance to get into some more re-use work. Drafting, painting the house, meeting with my graphic designer to get my cards, soccer games, and sketching have been a great way to keep busy. More in the next day or so, I do have two ideas that can be fleshed out into articles, just need an hour to write. I did take some time to watch a movie or the Olympics recently. The Queen was a great movie in the style of a play. More to come soon!